Page 39

Tanin

T he next two days, Tanin and Garnet didn’t emerge from the inn. They were in no great hurry to get back to the Humility. Sure, the repair station they were going to next would have an inn as well and they could hole up there, but he didn’t want to end this right now.

They fucked often, of course. He couldn’t keep his hands off his new mate. She showed him the human style strip tease. Which she demonstrated by having him sit on the end of the bed while she danced around and on him, slowly and tantalizingly pulling off the new, sexy undergarments she had bought while they were in the station. The beautiful, lacy red thing had been purchased specifically for the purpose of removal.

Otherwise, they remained naked. Even when they weren’t fucking. Tanin would cover himself with a sheet when he got the food he ordered from the door, but he would quickly drop it again. He wanted nothing between their skin as he held her and fed her from his hands.

Halfway through the third day, Alred messaged to tell them that the subspace generators on the Humility had finished recharging and they were ready to go. Garnet’s pout when he read it out loud to him made him chuckle.

“I don’t want to leave yet,” she whined in that sweet way she did while he held her close after they finished making love. That needy, adorable way that made him want to never let go.

“We’ve only paid docking fees up to tomorrow. We have to leave by then.”

“One more night then?” She asked, squeezing him tight.

One more night didn’t sound like nearly enough, but he supposed it would do. When they got back, they could continue this in his room.

Their room now, he supposed, as there was no way that he was letting her go back to sleeping with her sister. Goldie would always be in their lives, and he accepted that without question. But he was going to keep his female to himself at night.

They made love again, and again, before falling asleep in each other’s arms – Tanin spooned around Garnet from behind. Holding her tight as they passed into sweet dreams.

Though, really, Tanin didn’t notice a difference, because all his dreams were of her. He couldn’t escape her in the waking or sleeping world, and he didn’t want to either.

He was having a great dream of Garnet holding their sling – a precious little girl – to her breast to feed as she sat in his chair on the bridge. She was saying something, but it was all nonsense to him, because Tanin could only focus on that wonderful image. His mate. His daughter. His future.

His treasures.

Shattered by the sound of heavy boots stomping through the door. Angry voices calling out. Garnet screaming. He was already up, striking with a wide swing of his fist for whoever had come rushing into their room.

Only to roar in agony as sharp, electric pain assaulted him from all sides. Physical blows accompanied by debilitating shocks that drove him to his knees again.

Garnet was still screaming, but she sounded less afraid now. More infuriated.

Tanin couldn’t see her. He was being forced to the ground, a knee on his upper back keeping him there, as his wrists were yanked harshly back. In his field of view, he could only see white. A loud group of males surrounding him, yelling at the same time.

Peacekeepers.

“What are you doing?! Let him go!” Garnet was shrieking, and he heard something being struck.

For a horrible moment, he thought it was her and he roared, jerking against his captors, but there were too many of them all on him at once. And the manacles were already tight around his wrists, binding him in place.

“Easy, female,” someone said gently as he heard that continued beating sound. He realized it was Garnet. She was the one striking at their armor. He wished she wouldn’t. She’d hurt her hands. “We are here to help you.”

“You can help me by letting him go! What the hell are you doing?!”

“You’re safe now. He can’t hurt you anymore.”

Garnet let out a roar of fury, but the beating sound stopped. The pressure eased off his back and Tanin was yanked harshly to his feet. Someone was trying to offer Garnet the sheet from the bed to cover up with, which she took with a snarled growl. She twisted it around herself like a basic dress, all the while keeping up her demands for them to release him.

“Cover him up,” someone ordered in a much harsher tone. “I don’t want to see his cock bouncing as we take him back to the station.”

“You’re not taking him anywhere! Let him go now!” Garnet was yelling, rushing for the two males that were holding his arms.

“Calm down,” Tanin told her, keeping his voice low to not agitate her further.

She came to a reluctant halt, breathing hard. “But you… And they…”

“It’s alright. Just stay calm.” He looked past her to the keepers that were all glaring at him like he was threatening to harm her. “I believe you were taking us somewhere?”

That somewhere was the peacekeeper station on the fourth level of Tin-Fallow. Most stations had quarters for the peacekeepers. Since space stations fell under their jurisdiction and policing them was their responsibility, they needed a base from which to live and work.

They let him step back into his jumpsuit, but that was all. They paraded him, bare chest, barefoot, and manacled, through Tin-Fallow. At least they allowed Garnet time to get dressed back in her clothes. She had brought her human overalls with her in her overnight bag. She stomped behind them, flanked by keepers who weren’t being rough with her.

The same couldn’t be said for him, however. Their grips on his arms were tight and he felt the end of a shock stick shoved right against the base of his spine. It wasn’t on, so it was only pressure, but the threat was clear.

The keeper station was as stark white and blank as their uniforms. All hard edges with nothing to distract from the harsh fact that you were now in custody.

Tanin fully expected to be separated from Garnet, so he was surprised when they were led into the same interrogation room. He was shoved inside and slammed into a chair, the mag cuffs locking to it at the base behind his back, keeping him stuck there. Garnet was allowed to walk in – which she did, glaring at them hard enough to set them on fire.

She had her own chair, but she ignored it in favor of sitting on his lap, her arms around his neck, still staring them down like she might be playing his personal shield. So fierce and protective. He adored that about her.

Two of the keepers remained, standing in the corners behind his chair to keep watch over him. The others all filed out. However, the door didn’t even get a chance to close. Right after the last male left, Captain Ikvar came storming inside, and he looked fit to kill. Tail whipping, three eyes burning, claws flexing like he was resisting the urge to tear into them.

“I trusted you,” he hissed, slamming his hand on the table without taking a seat. “I gave you a chance. At her insistence. And you have done nothing but prove yourself as the station scum I knew you were!”

Garnet was vibrating with rage on Tanin’s lap. He wished he could hold her, stroke her back to calmness, to sweet softness. But he couldn’t, so he remained focused on the captain as he replied in an even tone-

“I’m sure at some point you’re going to tell me what this is about.”

“Don’t play the fool with me! Rik-Vane trash!”

“Hey!” Garnet snapped, her grip tightening.

But Ikvar ignored her. “I ought to send you back that void cursed place and let you die there. It’s no less than you deserve for what you’ve done.”

“Which I’m sure you’ll tell me at some point.”

Ikvar slammed his fist down again, denting the metal table. “You say this to me when you come in here reeking of sex! You fucked the human females!”

Garnet gasped, affronted. Tanin popped a brow. “One of them.”

“You as their sponsor were supposed to protect and guide them. Not take advantage of the fact that they were helpless and dependent on you!”

“One, not they.”

“You think that makes it better?! You admit to what you’ve done?”

“Fuck my female? Yes. I’m sure you do the same.”

Ikvar snarled, shaking as his claws twitched, like he was resisting the urge to bury them in Tanin’s throat. He probably was.

“She is not yours-”

“She is.”

“-and now you have broken a high crime! You will pay dearly for this. You will wish I sent you back to Rik-Vane when I’m done with-”

“Hey!” Garnet’s shout cut him off as she leaned away from Tanin so she could glare more directly at the irate captain. “Don’t you think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself? You haven’t even asked me if I wanted him to or not!”

Ikvar’s expression softened as he looked at her. “It’s alright, Garnet. I know you think you had no choice, but-”

“There you go again!” She shouted over him. “I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but I . Was. Not. Forced! I chose this! I let him dance for me. I danced for him! We mated and that is completely our choice. We don’t need your permission!”

That, finally, seemed to snap Ikvar out of his furious mission. “Mated?”

“Yes! Mated! We were actually having a great time until your stupid males came running into our room and ruined it! You ruined my mating! How dare you?!”

Ikvar seemed at a loss. “We got a tip-”

“That what?! I was getting my back blown out?! I was screaming too loud?! Yes, I was, and it was great ! Again, until you ruined it! And I will never get that moment back!”

“You got a tip?” Tanin asked, focusing on that as Garnet wiped angrily at her watering eyes. He hated that he couldn’t hold her at this moment.

“We did,” Ikvar agreed, looking between them, as if he was just seeing for the first time where Garnet had chosen to sit. Clearly not having been forced to do so. “We were told that you were taking advantage of the human females placed under your care. That you were exploiting them. And when I found out you had dragged her to the inn, it seemed to be confirmation.”

Garnet was growling – that cute, ineffective human growl. But Tanin remained on topic.

“And who exactly gave you that tip?”

“It was anonymous.”

“I see. And that didn’t strike you as odd?”

“Most of the tips we get are anonymous.” Ikvar crossed his arms. “And I waited until I saw proof of what I heard. You dragged her, physically, to that inn.”

“That was excitement from him, not reluctance from me!” Garnet snapped.

“What happened with King Gissrn?” Tanin asked. “The one who took the females in the first place?”

“You do not have the right to information in an open investigation.”

“I do when it is in regards to my female,” Tanin countered smoothly.

Ikvar huffed, like he was annoyed, but he didn’t argue further. “Unfortunately, the crate we got from you was not tracible back to him. I have only your word that he was the one paying for the females.”

“They were in a crate he paid me to bring him.”

“And it could be argued that he didn’t know about it and that it was the fault of the crew who got them in the first place.”

“You can just scan their memories to find the truth,” Tanin snapped, finally getting angry. All this time, he thought the keepers were handling Gissrn. Yet they had done nothing?

“The females have no memory of what happened, by their own admission. I cannot scan anything from them. And I cannot just demand a king submit to such an invasive and expensive scan without some kind of evidence,” Ikvar snarled, getting angry at him in return. “I cannot force him to do it without that evidence, and only a fool would willingly let me when they know they’re guilty.”

“That still doesn’t excuse this!” Garnet snarled at him through clenched teeth. “You’ve just been waiting for Tanin to mess up somehow so you can go after him! All this time! Instead of focusing on the real bad guy here, you’ve been suspecting Tanin! When he never did anything wrong! He’s innocent!”

Ikvar scoffed at her. “Innocent? You think he’s innocent? Do you know what they called him on Rik-Vane? They called him the Bleeding Shadow. Because you don’t see him until he’s covered in your blood. I might not have proof to put charges against him, but that doesn’t mean he’s innocent.”

Tanin tightened at hearing the old name. On that station, you didn’t give your name out often. Those who gained notoriety often got nicknames from others to whisper about in fear. And once you did, people rarely used your real name. Like it might summon you from the darkness.

Ikvar stood straight, glaring down his nose at him as he recited slowly, clearly, “Tanin A’Faar the Bleeding Shadow. Eefwan the Pacifist. J’tll y Ntlm the Brute,” Ikvar continued listing them off as Garnet frowned in confusion. “Frit and Tirf the Night Stalkers. Uvmont Rutwell the Broken Slave. Kirvan the Unclean. Any of them sound familiar?” Ikvar smirked as Garnet only continued to frown. “Those are the very males you have been traveling with on that lie of a ship. The Humility? Ha! A pathetic joke. Those are the most infamous names on all of Rik-Vane. The most disturbed and haunting killers on that void damned station. A crew of mindless animals that are led by the most feared and disturbed of them all. I might not have the proof to put charges against his name, but if half the things whispered about him on Rik-Vane are true, you’ve mated a psycho so demented, even the denizens of that hovel consider him cruel.”

“So?” Garnet countered. Ending his rant with that simple, almost petulant word. She leaned against Tanin, curling into him. “Tanin has only ever been good to me. To my sister. He’s taken care of us. He’s never once hurt us. He protects us. And clearly, they don’t want to be those people anymore, because I don’t know any of them by those names. The people they were made to be on that station are not the same people that they’ve chosen to become. And that’s all I care about.”

“He will lead you to death and ruin.”

“And I shall go with a smile on my face because he’s the one walking beside me!”

Ikvar snarled, running an annoyed hand down his face. “Female-”

“I chose to mate him. No one was taken advantage of. No one was forced. You need me to fuck him in front of you to prove it?! No?! Then, let us go! You’ve got no reason to keep him here!”

“Garnet-” Ikvar started.

“No!” She cut him off, turning on Tanin’s lap again, she slammed her open palm down on the table. She didn’t leave a dent like the captain did, but the sharp slap cut through the air even more effectively. “It is so easy for you to sit on your high horse and condemn him for what he did!”

“My high what ?”

“But you weren’t in his situation! You didn’t have to survive in that place! When you have no choice, when your survival is the only thing you can fight for, how can someone who’s never had to face that situation ever condemn you? Rik-Vane made him the way he was. But he rose above it. He chose to leave that place! He chose to change who he became. They all did! You and everyone else have abandoned Rik-Vane and let it become a lawless place, but there are children born there! Tanin was born there! He never had a chance! And now that he’s out, now that they’re all out, you want to ruin them again?! You’re not saving the universe from killers; you’re only making them kill more! Because they will! Because they will do whatever they have to in order to survive! And right now, that means following the law and keeping their heads down, but if you put them in a corner, you’re going to drive them right back into being those people they’ve chosen not to be! Have they hurt anyone since they’ve been out?! Have they killed anyone?! Or have those names all died? Have those notorious killers ever raised their heads, or have Sorbet and Tebros and Sway and everyone else been living as normal, hardworking, delivery boys? Huh!?”

The echoes of the rant rang out loudly in the small room. The two males to Tanin’s back shifted their weight like they were uncomfortable. Garnet was shaking again. Not with pleasure or fear this time, but with rage. Hot and directed sharply at the domini male across the table who let out long, irritated breath.

But Ikvar did finally drop into the other chair at least. He looked at them across the table with a weary expression on his face. “Female, I am a sworn officer of the law. I cannot ignore their pasts.”

“What pasts? Sway and Vytln and Rok and the others? They don’t have records, do they? I sure hope those scary killers never show their faces again. And should they do so, I’m sure a good, law abiding peacekeeper like you will deal with it. But I’ve never seen them. Have you?”

Ikvar was silent for a long time. Looking at them without a change in expression as Garnet glared him down. The air was tense, strained, as Garnet trembled atop him. The emotions choking her. She was glorious in her righteous anger. Tanin’s wrists were sore from straining against the manacles as the urge to grab her rode him hard.

Then, Ikvar chuckled. The sound was so surprising, it made Garnet pull back. Tanin looked over her shoulder at the amused captain. He caught his eye and smirked.

“Quite a female you’ve got there, Tanin.”

“She’s fierce, isn’t she?” Tanin agreed, rubbing his nose against her neck. His arms were aching as he strained them against the cuffs. He desperately wanted to embrace her now. He supposed he’d have to settle for this.

“You sure she’s your mate?” Ikvar asked. “She’d make a good mate for a domini.”

Tanin snarled, his smile falling. “Get your own female, Ikvar.”

The captain chuckled again, looking back at Garnet. His expression was unreadable for a long moment. She, however, was unmoved. Her entire body tightened like she was prepared to fight, physically, if that’s what she had to do.

“I could arrest them, you know,” Ikvar said at last, voice low and steady, no longer heated or threatening. “I’ve proven that their identities are fake. I may not be able to get Tanin, but the others I have proof of the crimes they committed on Rik-Vane. Of the people they are.”

She tensed again. Her jaw clenched. But before she could say anything, he jerked his head at one of the keepers standing behind them.

They stepped forward and, with a click, the magcuffs were released. Immediately, Tanin embraced Garnet from behind as he had been wanting to do. She relaxed automatically, leaning back against him. She didn’t soften, but she was finally in his arms.

Ikvar stood, giving them a hard look. “Female, you make a good point. The people they killed were killers. Criminals who were no better than themselves. Most of the crimes they’ve ever committed were on Rik-Vane. And they are the first ones to ever make it out like this. So, as an apology for ruining your mating ceremony, I’ll give them this chance.”

“Huh?” Garnet blinked, surprised.

Ikvar grunted. “I want to see how far they can go. I want to see if the brutal and cruel can change. They’ve made the choice to do so. They’ve followed it this far. I want to see if they can make it to the end. If the people of Rik-Vane really can be rehabilitated.”

Garnet let out a single laugh of relief as, finally, all the tension left her body at once. She beamed, eyes sparkling. “Captain! Thank you!”

“I’ll be keeping an eye on you,” Ikvar said, speaking directly to Tanin.

“I never doubted it,” he replied evenly. “Any chance I can get my belongings back?”

“They’ll be brought to you. Now, excuse me. I need to see if we got any new information on that anonymous tip.”

“Please, do so,” Tanin agreed calmly.

The captain left and, a short time later, another keeper came in with Tanin’s clothes, Garnet’s shock stick, both of their combots, and everything else they’d been forced to leave at the inn. Her lingerie, stuffed animal, and flower bouquet were all safe in her shopping bag. His female only got off his lap then so he could get dressed.

He did so quickly before taking her hand and leading her outside.

“What’s the rush?” Garnet laughed, letting him pull back onto the streets.

Tanin wasn’t smiling any longer as he turned on his combot.

“That tip was too perfectly placed,” he said. “Whoever did it had to know it would lead to nothing.”

“What?” Garnet frowned at him. “Wait, what do you mean?”

“I mean, this was just a distraction.”

The combot came to life and immediately began flashing red. An emergency alert from Alred displayed in front of him, sent right around the time they were being dragged out of the inn. A moment when he wouldn’t be able to get to his combot

The alert was simple, and there was no follow up.

‘ Ship compromised’