Stolen - Nhys Glover Page 0,45

were dressed, me in a jump suit made from the magic fabric, and working out our sleeping arrangements.

There was just one cabin aboard the small ship. It contained two single beds. Yes, they were way longer than normal—or what I would consider normal—but they were just as narrow. And the bunks were no more than three feet apart. And there was no choice of other sleeping quarters. I had to sleep across from Rian/Charsus or try to doze on one of the seats on the flight deck.

Even though the idea of sleeping so close to a relative stranger was discomforting, the alternative was unthinkable. And it wasn’t as if there was anything left for me to hide. The males had seen all of me.

It amazed me how I swung between total sexual comfort with my companions and total discomfort. It was as if there were two people sharing my body, just as there were two sharing Charsus’. One minute, I wanted to escape the fear and loneliness of my life by making love to my beautiful male companion; the next, I felt like a shy virgin terrified of any intimacies shared.

The ship was comfortable though, and I felt safe from whatever dangers lay outside. Once we’d done our nightly rituals, we took to our bunks. For a long time we lay in the darkness, lost in our separate worlds. Then, softly, Rian spoke.

“I’m sorry for overreacting. This is all new to me.”

I smiled a little sadly. Yes, and that was the problem, wasn’t it? He was so damned young; so much was new to him. Why couldn’t I have become the podmate of a more mature pod? Then I wouldn’t feel like I was trampling on a puppy every time I said the wrong thing. You grew thicker skin the older you got, after all. Life’s many knocks did that for you.

“It’s new to me, too. I truly am grateful for everything you’ve done for me. You and Charsus both.”

“No gratitude is required. Our lives are tied to yours. Or…” he paused before going on. “My brothers’ lives are tied to yours. Mine, not so much, I suppose. I wonder what would happen if you died. Would I leave Charsus’ body automatically, or would I have to ask to move on with you?”

“You think your brothers will die if I do?” That worried me.

“I know so. It’s instant. Didn’t you see the way the renegades, who had found their podmate, dropped dead when their female killed herself? Wraith told us about it.”

I didn’t like to think about that time. But to satisfy my curiosity I cast my mind back to the day we were rescued. The nine of us women were lying on our bunks, in the foul midden they called our room, when the door flew open. A wave of huge Danan warriors poured in, claws extended, fangs bared.

I almost wet myself, I was so terrified. And I know I wasn’t the only one. But after a few moments, most of them left, and the white one spoke to us. Wraith, I now knew.

He’d said he was like us. That he’d been a slave and a prisoner, stolen from his home by the renegade Danans who were holding us prisoner. He showed us his missing fangs and claws. And, bit by bit, we started to believe that they weren’t like the bad aliens who raped us.

All hell had broken loose then, as more Danans rushed in. These were the ones we knew. The bad ones. The girl who had joined us late, who seemed to be the favorite of some of them, went crazy. She’d made herself a shiv from a piece of metal from the bed and, before anyone knew what she planned to do, she slit her own throat.

The bad Danans had dropped to the floor as she did. No one touched them. It was the weirdest thing I’d ever seen. Like they were marionette puppets whose strings had been cut.

Would that happen to these young Danans if I died? Would their short lives come to an end just because Rian had claimed me?

“You shouldn’t have claimed me as your podmate. You should have talked it through with your brothers first. If the stakes were so high, they had a right to a say in it.”

Not that I’d been given a say, with either the renegades or these young Danans. But I was older. Somehow that mattered.

“I didn’t decide to claim you. It doesn’t work like that.