Prideful Savage (A Warrior's Redemption #1) - Miranda Bridges Page 0,16
that I do not mean her the harm she thinks I do. Deciding on the former, I set down the female and gesture to the seat by the window.
“Strap yourself in. And tell me where this ship of yours is located.”
The female pauses and then makes her way over. “It landed about three miles east from here. You know, by that big-ass red mountain in the distance.”
A glance over my shoulder to Varyx confirms our next destination. He settles in the command chair while I speak in our native tongue to Ezarith and Kalach. The ancient Demorix language is one of the hardest in our galaxy to master, and we take great pride in our enemies being unable to decipher it. It makes their decryptions of our battle plans nearly impossible to understand.
“We will stop by this red mountain before we set off for the AoS.”
Ezarith turns from the console table, his arms crossed. “And if we fail to check in on time?”
“It will not come to that,” I say, turning to the female, and then speak in her language: “If we take you to retrieve your belongings, you will come with me? No matter what?”
“Depends.” She tightens the leather straps crisscrossing her chest. “Where will we be going?”
A grin tugs my lips. “Wherever the Galactic Court is not.”
Calling the female’s vessel a ship would be an insult to those who create and pilot them.
This pathetic contraption is the equivalent of an escape pod to my species. Not even Disgraced Ones are forced to navigate such pitiful spacecrafts. The ash-gray metal framework is rusted and bent in places, and the blinding red sun, beaming upon it, makes the vehicle look as though it’s been scorched.
To think Ella traveled in something so small, with so little resources and defenses, elicits a rage in me that boils at my surface. The indentations running across the framework tell me she was attacked on more than one occasion and by various-sized weapons. Some of them are too narrow to have come from a ship, which also reveals she was not only attacked while airborne. This raises the question of why a human female would be amid so much danger, on more than one occasion.
Once Varyx disembarks from our ship across the way, I will have him look over the spacecraft and see if he knows what could’ve caused these various gashes and dents. Meanwhile, Kalach and Ezarith are scouting the area. I want to be sure there are no Enforcers hot on our trail.
“I know it’s not much,” Ella says, kicking the door until it eventually gives way, “but it did the job before we got shot down the second time. I’m actually surprised the old girl’s still here.”
The thought of anyone attacking her fuels my anger all over again.
“Us?” I step into the vessel and search the entryway. Small, dark, and dismal. “You mean to say you were accompanied when you arrived here?”
The female follows me in as I pull open the barely intact door leading to the cockpit. There is another faint scent lingering in the air. A male one. I clench my jaw and fix her with a pointed stare. She lowers her gaze, her pulse spiking, easily deduced by the way her delicate skin on her neck flutters more rapidly.
“For a little while, yeah.”
“And this companion of yours…” I resume my inspection of the vessel to confirm that it’s safe. “Was he male?”
She crosses her arms in my peripheral. “Why does it matter? They died the moment we landed, and I’d rather not talk about it.”
Closing the compartment beside the transmission console, I incline my head and slide my gaze over the captain chair. The dark fabric is scratched and worn, the straps hardly of use anymore. I must say, the female’s mode of transportation does not please me. Nor does the evident pain in her voice when she spoke of this companion. Whoever they were, they meant a great deal to her. If I were an honorable male, I would not take solace in their death simply because they are no longer involved in her life. But I’m not honorable—I never will be—and I’ve made peace with that.
Having another male in the picture would just make things more complicated than they already are. I don’t have time for any male, other than me, staking a claim on Ella. The fact she’s alone means I have a greater chance of seducing her, and I plan on doing that regardless of