“Why? You didn’t have any problem letting the men leave, or did you? Did you just dump them in space?” Horror-stricken, Raine started to get to her feet, miscalculating how close she was to the window.
“I need to dispatch my ship from Thorsen’s. We are no longer in the area I found you. If I sent you to the same area as the men, you wouldn’t even be able to speak the same language.”
Turning her head from the sight of Earth, she came face to face with Skars, whose face was filled with rage.
Raine didn’t even try to fight the darkness, sinking into its warm, welcoming embrace.
Chapter 26
Skars
Skars watched as his woman snuck inside yet another building in a futile search for food. He clenched the stone wall of the building he was hiding in. From his experience, he was safe from being spotted by Raine.
Shaking his head at her making no effort to look up toward the rooftops, he was tempted to climb down just to shake some sense into her.
Hearing a sound, Skars spun to see King Jurzed coming up behind him.
“What are you doing here?”
“I could ask the same from you.” Jurzed looked downward. “Ah … I see you’re watching your woman. I would never allow my woman to behave this way.”
“At one time, I didn’t think I would either.”
Jurzed eyed him sharply. “You love the woman?”
“Já. I didn’t want to, but I do. Reva told me she was my gift from the gods, and she is.”
The two stood in silence, watching as Raine came out of the building, only to move to the side to climb inside a window.
Jurzed gave a low laugh. “Your woman is very determined.”
“Já. Too much for her own good.”
Skars raised his ax so the sun would glint off the metal, signaling Bjorn to watch her from his viewpoint.
“Did you and Thorsen come to agreement?” Earlier in the day, his brother had messaged him that they were to meet.
“Neinn. I will keep the boy for a while longer.”
“Why?”
Curiously, Skars saw the smile on his lips.
“He amuses me. He has tried to escape seven times. The last time, he nearly succeeded.”
“Thorsen won’t be pleased if he escapes you or is harmed.”
“No one escapes me.” Jurzed would use any method to get the person he was chasing. Once he had them, they didn’t escape his custody until he was ready to release them.
Becoming worried at Raine’s prolonged time inside the building, Skars readied himself to climb down the building.
Jurzed placed a hand on his arm, halting him. “She’s coming out.”
Relaxing, Skars watched her move in another direction.
“Were any of the women I sent tru-mates?”
“Neinn. My men are losing hope.”
From the expression on Jurzed’s face, his men weren’t the only one losing hope.
Skars gave a sad nod of agreement. “Ours, too. We’ve had two more who ended their lives since Thane.”
As Thorsen’s deputy, Skars understood the weight that both Thorsen and Jurzed felt at the loss of their men.
“If we could find just one, it would give them a spark of hope,” Jurzed said musingly, his attention becoming distracted.
Skars turned his eyes in the direction that Jurzed’s was, failing to see anything. Not seeing anything, Skars turned his attention back to watching out for Raine.
“Já, all we can do is keep searching.”
Skars had missed the long talks he used to share with Jurzed. Their property had bordered his father’s. Jurzed, Thorsen, and he had snuck out many times to get drunk and torment their fathers with their misadventures. On one occasion, they had snuck onto Jurzed’s father’s ship and taken it out to visit a planet their fathers had banned them from visiting. When they had returned, Thorsen and he had walked away, leaving Jurzed to face his father’s wrath alone.
“Is she how you expected her to be?”
Jurzed’s mind must have been on the same memory.
“Neinn. Raine is too tender-hearted, terrified of heights, and believes every misconception about those coming from other planets.”
“How so?”
Skars was almost too embarrassed to tell him. “She believed we wanted to eat her.”
Jurzed shoulders shook in laughter. “One does.”
Skars laughed back, shaking his head. “I don’t mean that way. I mean she really thought we wanted to eat her.”
Their shared laughter was a respite they desperately had needed.
“I regret you will not be coming to our wedding.”
Jurzed’s expression turned serious. “I as well.”
“Thorsen won’t break his vow to the clan.”
“Nor will I break mine,” Jurzed countered.
“You fighting with Thorsen will be needless if High Archuru catches Xioarius.”
“Then we need to catch him first.”
Skars knew that was what both men were counting on, while he knew the High Archuru better than either Thorsen or Jurzed. Skars understood what they didn’t, that the High Archuru wouldn’t stop. In some ways, he was more lethal than either of them combined. With the emotionless side of his alien nature, he would stop at nothing to achieve his goal.