N'ashtar The Alien Prince Page 5

  While we waited for the gradual silence to settle in the camp, we watched each other, gazes locked. Her [COLOR] eyes were clinging to mine, and there was a mix of emotions in there. Relief, worry, fierceness, tiredness. My mate was strong, but she was also only human, and I knew they were weaker than the N’Akron were. She was definitely at the mercy of the Caterri.

  I took another taste of the air, pleased to not scent any Caterri nearby. I could still hear the faint buzz of voices, but it was gradually getting quieter. However, I could still smell the blood, and that made me inch closer to Dana and the strange metal cart she was attached to. It was making noise, a low thrumming hum that felt like it pierced my scales. I did not like it, and if Dana had not been near it, I would have never gotten that close. But it was where Dana was, and I wanted to see her more than I wanted to avoid whatever it was.

  “Finally,” Dana murmured as I got closer.

  I blinked my third eyelid at her, amusement warring with impatience. “I did not assist you as quickly as you wanted?”

  Dana snorted, her voice as low as mine. “I would’ve rather not been kidnapped in the first place, but we both know how that went.” She rolled her eyes again.

  “Let me see your wrists.” I moved slowly, making sure not to draw anyone’s attention as I shifted out of the grass and into the shadows of the loud metal beast.

  “I have to stay lying down,” Dana warned. “I don’t want them to see that I’ve moved.”

  “Of course.” I didn’t have much experience with the strange metal the Caterri favored, just that it was often immovable by normal means and required something extra. To my dismay, the circles around her wrist were of the same make. There was a chain connecting them, the chain wrapped around the purring metal beast securely enough even a sharp push of my hand against the bit it was attached to didn’t move it.

  I swore under my breath, staring blankly at the problem. How the hell was I supposed to save her now?

  “Didn’t think this through, did you?” Dana drawled, amusement in her eyes.

  “I thought of nothing but your freedom,” I admitted. I hadn’t thought about how the Caterri would be holding her, how they could use the metal they kept often in Kohta to imprison people. I had never been caught by them, nor had any of my closest friends, so I didn’t know for sure. All I knew were rumors.

  “Cute, but sort of useless against these types of handcuffs.” She yanked at the circles to demonstrate.

  “Those are handcuffs?” I asked, unfamiliar with the term.

  She blinked at me, sleepiness starting to seep into her expression. “What else would you call them?”

  I stared at them, then shrugged in a gesture I had learned from her. “Linked circles.”

  She snorted softly, although it was loud enough both of us froze, just in case it disturbed any of the nearby Caterri. Thankfully, they seemed not to notice. Either that, or they assumed it was the human doing something weird. That reminded me.

  “I smell blood.” I frowned, raking Dana over with my gaze as best I could. She was mostly tucked in her sack, and I itched to pull her out of it and look the entirety of her over, no matter how rude or weird it would be. “Have they hurt you?” My eyes flashed red and I tried to keep the anger out of my tone, but I was not successful.

  Dana rolled her eyes again. Part of me wondered if they would eventually roll out of her head with the frequency, but that was something I could ask her later. “They didn’t hurt me,” she said.

  “Then why do I smell blood?” I asked suspiciously.

  Dana sighed at me, shaking her head. “It’s not my blood,” she said finally. “Let’s talk about what we’re going to do while you’re here.”

  I stared at her for a hands-full of moments, trying to figure out if she was telling the truth. The scent was fresh, but there were so many confusing scents in the Caterri camp that maybe I was smelling someone else’s. Then her words hit me again, and I nodded, my attention turned back to the task. No matter what, rescuing her and getting her out of those circles—handcuffs—needed to be our first priority. But first…

  “Who was the one you talked to?” I asked, curiosity getting the best of me. The Caterri that had stayed with her and provided the sack and some food seemed different than the others, not leering at my mate or throwing things at her.

  “Squire?” Dana blinked. “Oh, he’s sort of looking after me.”

  My mouth didn’t drop open, but it was a near thing. I had not been that astonished since I was a hatchling. “He’s looking after you?”

  Dana nodded. “He makes sure I have blankets, that I’m fed, that sort of thing.” There was a faint smile on her lips. “He’s nice.”

  Jealousy burned through me. I didn’t want her to speak about anyone else like that. She was mine. Mine to look after, mine to take care of. Mine to save.

  Besides, the Caterri didn’t do nice. They weren’t capable of nice. “I don’t trust him,” I said flatly. “He’s up to something.”

  “Or, he could be a nice person,” Dana countered.

  “He’s a Caterri,” I pointed out harshly. “They’re not capable of being nice.”

  Dana’s narrowed eyes told me I wasn’t going to win the war, so for now, I stopped trying. Instead, I switched topics. “What do we do then?” I asked, nodding towards her handcuffs. She knew about metal. Maybe she would have a plan.

  6

  Dana

  I stared at my would-be rescuer, trying to figure out what the hell to say. I’d never been so happy to see a snake-alien face in my life, not that there’d been many opportunities. On the other hand, it was clear he hadn’t thought through what he was doing. It’d become even more clear when he had started fussing with the cuffs and chafing my skin. Him coming to save me was a sweet enough gesture I could almost forgive him for asking to talk to a man.

  Almost.

  “You can’t get me out of these,” I reminded him, my voice low. The last thing I wanted was for any of my captors to hear us.

  “I am aware,” N’Ashtar grunted, his attention on the metal. “I am looking for a weak point.”

  I rolled my eyes. “It’s metal, there’s not really a weak point.” Well, it wasn’t just metal. There was something else in it, some type of technology that allowed the flimsy chain to be as strong as welded steel, but given how little technology his people used, I didn’t think he would understand. “Where are the others? If you clear the camp, one of the Caterri will have the key.” I spoke impatiently, because really, it was the easiest and quickest solution.

  N’Ashtar blinked at me, his tongue flicking out to taste the air. For a moment he looked almost uncertain, like he was a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar. The expression quickly faded. “It’s just me,” he said.

  I was torn between being flattered and wanting to strangle him. Of course, that got derailed when his eyes narrowed to slits and he licked the air again. I’d lied and told him the blood wasn’t mine, mostly because I didn’t know if N’Akron females got periods and I didn’t really want to go into a long explanation of what it was, because I knew N’Ashtar would demand the explanation.

  There was no time for that, but he would have asked for it anyway.

  It was sweet he’d come after me in the first place, especially after I had pushed him away so many times and been annoying. On the other hand, who the hell single-handedly came to save someone without backup?

  N’Ashtar, apparently.

  He scowled at me, the hint of his sharp teeth showing. “You do not approve?”

  His frustration made me want to laugh, because really, his life was so tragic, mine didn’t even measure up. No, being at risk of being raped or killed or tortured had nothing on his man pain about coming to rescue me without backup.

  “You did not wish to be rescued?” His eyes narrowed further, something I hadn’t thought possible, and the slits flashed dark with anger.

  “No, I did,” I said hastily, sensing his temper building up into something both of us would regret. N’Ashtar was usually as easygoing as anyone, but this was different. He was on edge, surrounded by the enemy, all of his attention on me. “But I’m human, and I’m allowed to want to smack you and thank you at the same time.”

  The anger in his eyes faded and he frowned instead. “I do not understand human ways.”

  “Even human guys don’t, babe,” I drawled.

  There was more confusion. “You call me an infant?”

  I would’ve rubbed my forehead if I could. Instead I sighed. “We’ll talk about slang once I’m safe.”

  That caught N’Ashtar’s attention. “I could attack the camp, destroy all of the Caterri.” He paused. “It would be a suitable way to demonstrate to you how worthy I am of being your mate.”

  My brain played, then replayed, his words over again. He wanted me as his mate? Even after we’d spent days annoying the hell out of each other? Maybe he was a masochist. Either way, I wasn’t going to push back against it. Not right now, with my life in the hands of the Caterri. Whether it was just him or not, I wouldn’t be able to escape on my own.

  Besides, I did sort of like him. A tiny bit. He was a feisty ass, but he was my feisty ass, you know?

  “You would get your ass kicked,” I told him frankly.

  He slitted his eyes, the sclera turning red. “You doubt my prowess as a warrior?”

  I rolled my eyes, because really, men and their egos. It didn’t change no matter what planet you were on. “Do I doubt you can take out almost a dozen Caterri that are better equipped than you are, by yourself? Yes.”

  If N’Akron pouted, that was what he was doing. It was kind of adorable, if my life hadn’t been in danger.

  “If you do not think I can handle such a thing, maybe
I—”

  He never got a chance to finish his grumbled words because I gestured for him to come closer, then kissed the hell out of him. Or tried to, anyway. I pressed my lips to his, my eyes half-closed, and met what felt like a scaly brick wall. A brick wall that quickly pulled back, nearly overbalancing me, and stared at me with wide golden eyes that looked almost out of place in his scale-patterned face.

  “What was that?” N’Ashtar asked suspiciously, his voice a shade too loud for where we were. I hushed him quietly.

  “I take it you guys don’t kiss?” Now that I thought about it, had I seen Hetta kiss O’Rrin? I wasn’t certain.

  “What is a kiss?” N’Ashtar stared at my lips like they were the alien, not him.

  “You press your mouths together, maybe involve your tongues, too.” I’d never had to explain it before, and it sounded a lot less sexy than it was, but I figured I could give him a demonstration later when I was free and we were safer.

  “Humans do that?” He looked skeptical, even though his breathing had hitched and he was eyeing me with more interest. A glance below his waist confirmed a hardness there, although his pants didn’t seem built for it. Whatever his uncertainty, he wanted me. I felt a flash of guilt, because really, I was taking advantage of him at the moment, and the fact he seemed into me. There were definitely better ways to handle it, but I was desperate.

  “Yup.” I reached out and cupped his package as best I could, trying not to think too much about how big it was (because he was very well endowed). Where the hell had he been hiding that thing? Mentally, I shook my head. Later. “If you don’t go all crazy and try to take them out all by yourself, once we’re free, I’ll show you more kissing and other stuff humans do. Got it?”

  His hiss was low but not frightening. If anything, it was a hiss like he couldn’t contain it, like he was already going out of his mind. “You’re going to ruin my pants.”

  I removed my hand, which I was secretly grateful for. Not that I didn’t want to keep touching him, but given how I was chained to the hovercraft, moving my hands anywhere was a bit of a challenge. “What do you mean?” I glanced at his dick, still obviously hard behind the leather.

  “Do your males not retract?” He looked at me like I was the strange one.

  “Do they what now?” I raised an eyebrow.

  Bemusement made his strangely alien face look more human and more approachable, something that made me feel warm all over. “Because it is sensitive, it retracts into our bodies when not in use.”

  I whistled. “So you can’t be kicked in the balls and be incapacitated. Smart.”

  The look he gave me was blank. “What?”

  I shook my head, because it wasn’t relevant. I could hear the Caterri mumble to each other from near the fire, because it was time to switch watch. Crap. “I think I know what you should do.”

  He gave me a look that was skeptical at first, but after studying my face, became more serious. Then he nodded. “What do you have in mind?”

  “My favorite professor studied war, and one of the things that people did in the past was when a group was out numbered or technologically weaker, your goal is to fight smarter, not harder.” God, it was hard to take my history professor’s love of twentieth and twenty-first century warfare in South/Central America and reduce it to ‘studied war’, but I was already going to have enough trouble getting N’Ashtar to understand as it was.

  He frowned. “What is ‘wahr’?”

  I should’ve known that wouldn’t be in his vocabulary. “We can discuss that later. Basically, you should draw out a guard or two, kill them, and then hide. That way, they discover the dead guards, freak out because they’re obviously being stalked, and it’ll slow the group down and make them paranoid. Make sense?”

  “Why not just kill them all at once?” N’Ashtar regarded me with a mixture of amusement, respect, and affection. Whether he took me seriously or not, he was at least listening.

  “Because there’s one of you and a lot of them, and they have better technology than your spears and knives,” I said frankly. “If you do that every couple of nights, it’ll freak them out and you’ll be able to kill the last few at once.”

  I tried not to think about Squire, the one Caterri who had been nice to me. Was it really right to kill him with the rest? But I couldn’t think about that, not now. That was for later Dana.

  “Fine, I’ll check on the human,” the Caterri I called B grumbled loudly from by the fire. I turned to look at N’Ashtar, whose eyes had narrowed again. He looked seconds away from grabbing the Caterri and slitting his throat, which would do nothing but get all of us in trouble. Inwardly, I sighed. Still, I couldn’t risk bringing any attention to him. I made a shooing motion and crawled back in my bedroll, pretending I’d been asleep.

  Bad move, because I was greeted with a harsh nudge of their weird buggy legs that was not exactly a kick, but a close cousin. “Are you still alive?” B asked.

  “Yes,” I retorted, irritated for a whole bunch of reasons now. “I don’t recommend kicking me. Your leader wouldn’t appreciate his new toy broken, would he?”

  B leaned forward, the edges of his long hair tickling my skin in a movement more creepy than anything else. “If you are dying as you claim to be, he does not care what state you are in.”

  I gulped, because in that case, I was damned if I did, damned if I didn’t. I tried to casually glance around, hoping N’Ashtar was far enough away he hadn’t heard that. The last thing I needed was him to snap and attack them anyway, because I was pretty sure they would either flee to Kohta as quickly as they could, or decide I wasn’t worth the trouble and kill me on the spot, female or no.

  “Yet we do not know if she can be saved.” Squire’s calm, quiet voice came out of nowhere.

  “You speak out of turn,” B snarled at him. The irritation he was exuding seemed to transfer to the other Caterri. “We can do what we wish to do.”

  “Yet you know he would not wish this.” Squire spoke steadily, although when I looked closer, his hands were shaking. “Askorth wishes to speak to you.”

  The name (or what I assumed was a name) sounded like someone was gargling mouthwash, but I assumed it meant one of the other Caterri. “I am busy—”

  “Askorth was not asking.”

  I had no idea how Squire managed to not even flinch, no matter how nasty B got. Then B stormed away, leaving Squire standing there next to me. It was quiet for too long, Squire studying the area around me. Thankfully, when I looked for him, N’Ashtar had disappeared and there didn’t seem to be any signs of his disappearance.

  Squire stepped closer, crouching down in front of me, even as all of his attention seemed to be focused on the others. “It seems to be a strange alien custom, talking to yourself,” he said.

  I stiffened, because shit, if he’d heard me, had any of the others?

  “You might wish to be quieter next time.” Squire held my eyes for a second and then stood, heading back towards the fire and leaving me alone with my thoughts. Jerk. Was he just paying more attention than the others, or had the others heard me? They could definitely understand me, so if they had overheard us, I was screwed. Yet, besides the change in watch, no one seemed to pay much attention to me over by the floaty machine. Strange.

  I let out a slow breath, lying back down and closing my eyes, ignoring the hint of cramps. I couldn’t change what had happened. All I could do was put my faith in N’Ashtar, and do my best to sabotage things from my side.

  My lips curled into a ghost of a smile. The Caterri would regret ever kidnapping me.

  7

  N’Ashtar

  I sat on my sleep sack, staring at the faint embers that formed what I allowed of a fire. It was cold even for a N’Akron, but I could not risk a true fire without the chance of being discovered. Even now, I was close but to too far away for my liking. I could still see the camp, but I couldn’t see Dana, couldn’t monitor her safety. It was safest that way, but I hated it.