Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
“And Dentron? Do you know much about it?” He does something on his wrist holo and pulls up a solar map. “It’s near us.” He sounds surprisingly pleased. “Within a half a planet rotation’s flight.”
“There’s a tribe there who aren’t technical, but they’re hostile. We’d need to avoid them. Apart from that, I don’t know much.”
“They couldn’t grow the plants on your planet?”
“No. I believe the environment wasn’t right. I don’t know much about ag, and they obviously didn’t share much with me. But from what I gleaned overhearing their conversations, that was the problem.” I try to remember every fact I committed to memory about the medicine. “But it probably wasn’t a big priority, either. Without that medicine...Khrys? I’m as good as dead.”
“Don’t talk that way.” His voice is low and fierce. “Look at me. Kailani? I’m going to get it for you.”
“But when?” I shrug my shoulders. “After you take me to your amazing planet as a slave? I don’t have that long.”
“I told you, humans have good lives there. They aren’t slaves.” His voice rises with frustration, and he pulls his hand from mine. He stands and paces.
Then he sits back down and puts both hands on my face. “Listen. Here’s how you know you can trust me. We’ll go right now to Dentron for the pollen, and seeds and plants, and whatever we need to attempt to grow it on Zandia. We have the best ag experts there, I promise. The king’s mate is human and an expert in agriculture. She’s able to cultivate crops originally grown on Earth.”
His voice is so low and persuasive. Honey and steel mixed. His eyes flash purple for a second. He sounds so sincere. “A token of my honesty, Kailani.” He pauses. “I’ll give you control of everything we collect.” He twists to grab the case of medicine and hands it to me. “It’s yours, all right? Starting now.”
I snatch it from his hands and clutch it to my chest, my heart pounding.
“All right? Do you trust me now?”
I squeeze the case so hard my fingers hurt. I don’t trust him, but he just gave me the one gift I require for survival. The thing that my Kraa masters used to control me. He gave it freely. So I nod. ”Yes.” My breath comes fast and tight.
“Good. Listen, Kailani. The doctor on Zandia, Dr. Daneth, he’s skilled. It’s possible he can reverse the damage your owners did.” He adds hastily, looking at my expression, “If you want him to try.”
“I don’t,” I snap.
No more labs. Never again. I hate doctors.
He raises a hand. “On Zandia, we’ll make you enough medicine to last your entire life.”
“And all I have to do in return is…?” I raise my eyebrows.
Is it me or does he look slightly uncomfortable?
He clears his throat. “Become a contributing member of Zandian society.”
“How? By mating a Zandian?”
His horns thicken and tilt in my direction, making my pulse pick up speed. Do they show his interest? His attraction to me? I know he wants me—I saw that thick erection tenting his leggings and tunic before.
He just shrugs and walks to the deck, staring out at the blackness. “In whatever way you choose.”
It wouldn’t matter if he were lying; I still have no other options, unless I plan to attack him once we’re on Dentron and escape alone with the ship.
I weigh the idea for a few seconds—it would surely be difficult to learn to captain this craft, but I think I could do it. Should I try once again to escape? I’d be my own master, in charge of my own destiny.
But for now, all I say is, “All right.” I look down out the ports, at the receding lights, and the advancing ones. “Deal. Let’s do this.” First, I need the pollen. I’ll figure out the rest later—once it’s in my possession.
He jogs to his console to respond to a beeping signal and a red flashing light. Once it’s resolved, he turns to me. “You need to sleep. Your body surely needs the rest.”
We both look at the silver magna cuffs lying on the floor. He picks them up and tosses them into a cabinet. “Trust, right?” He looks at me for a long second then smiles. “Now that we have a deal, we don’t need these.”
My stomach flutters with arousal: Thinking about what he did when those cuffs were on is enough to make my body fill with that tingly, amazing feeling. I want to tell him, “What if we want them?”
But exhaustion takes over, and I yawn so widely that my face hurts.
“Trust.” I yawn again. “Yes.”
He grins. I swear he’s thinking the same things I am—
“Maybe I will sleep.” I barely get the words out before every muscle goes leaden with exhaustion. I slump back onto the bench, still clutching the case to my stomach. “Wake me when…” and I’m out.