Choosing Riley: Sarafin Warriors Book 1 (22 page)

Note to self,
she thought frantically,
never go anywhere without it.

“Just let me go,” she responded softly trying
to get him to understand that this really wasn’t a good idea. “I’m
nothing but a pain in the ass, just ask my grandma and sister. They
were forever telling me I was a headache waiting to happen. I don’t
belong on your world. I’m not queen material. Hell, I’m not even
girlfriend material!” She added with a self-depreciating smile.
“Just ask any of the guys who thought I was. Not a single one
lasted more than a week.”

Vox slowed as he came to tower over her. He
shook his head as he took in her delicately raised fists. He could
see the redness on her knuckles where she had hit him. His eyes
roamed over her face as she stared up at him with wide blue eyes.
The fierce determination on her face showed she really believed
what she was saying. His eyes paused on where she was biting her
lower lip. His body jerked in response as he remembered her soft
kisses on his face, neck and chest while he made love to her. He
could see the pulse beating rapidly in her neck, begging him to
taste her sweet blood again. As he stared at the rapidly beating
vein it dawned on him that she was terrified.

Take mate,
his cat hissed at him.
Mate fight but I want my mate.

She’s scared,
Vox murmured.
She
acts tough but she is really very scared.

We protect. We teach her to love us,
his cat snarled back, pacing.
I feel my mate. She is
close.

I know,
Vox replied carefully.
I
think that is one of the things scaring her. I will not let her
go.

Good,
his cat purred.
I need
her.

So do I, my friend, so do I,
Vox
replied.

“Riley, I won’t let you go,” he responded
quietly.

He reached for her in a move so fast it
startled her. She reacted without thinking, swinging her arm
around. Poor Fred was standing off to the side so when Vox grabbed
her one wrist she turned, knocking him upside his right head which
knocked it into his left one. He howled in pain as Riley turned
again to hit Vox in the stomach. Vox pulled her arm around behind
her back, twirling her and her fist became stuck in Bob’s rounded
belly instead.

“Now look what you’ve made me do!” She cried
out, struggling to break the hold Vox had on her arm which was
behind her back. “I’m stuck. Let me go!”

“Let her go!” Carmen’s voice rang out from
the doorway behind Bob who was trying to pull Riley’s hand out of
his stomach.

“Carmen,” Creon warned as he grabbed his mate
who was moving into a defensive stance. “Let him take care of
her.”

“She told him to let her go. This is her
decision,” Carmen snapped back at Creon before turning back toward
Vox. “She doesn’t want to go with you. She wants to return to her
family back on Earth.”

Vox glared at Carmen over his mate’s head.
“She is mine!” He snarled back. “She goes with me.”

“For the last time, I am not yours! I am
Riley St. Claire from Denver, Colorado and I am going home - alive,
in one piece, without things bursting out of me or changing me into
a zombie, or making me want to eat dead people,” Riley cried out in
frustration as Bob finally freed her hand from his stomach. “Oh
Fred baby, I’m so sorry I hit you. Vox shouldn’t have moved.”

“That’s okay, Riley,” Fred said shuffling
backwards away from where she was still trying to break free from
Vox. “It doesn’t hurt that much.”

“Riley, if you want to stay I’ll help you get
home,” Carmen said taking a step closer.

“Yes, I want ….” Riley started to say before
she found herself lifted into a pair of arms that closed around her
like steel bands.

Carmen’s outraged cry echoed with Riley’s as
Creon lifted her into his arms as well. “Get her to your shuttle
now, Vox,” Creon growled out as his own mate began to struggle.

“Creon, so help me I am going to put your ass
down for this,” Carmen snapped out as she tried to break free of
her mate’s hold.

“I am not going with him, damn it!” Riley
yelled getting one of her hands free and pulling on Vox’s short
hair as hard as she could.

“That’s it! Viper, get me some restraining
cuffs,” Vox yelled out over his shoulder at his brother who had
been watching the whole scene with disbelief.

“Here you go, brother,” Viper said looking on
as his brother lowered the voluptuous alien female down to the
floor of the docking bay. “Are you sure you want to bring her?” He
asked as he handed his brother the restraining cuffs.

Vox growled out as he straddled his mate,
holding her face down with one hand between her shoulder blades
while he used his other hand to grab at her flailing wrist. He
pulled first one than the other around and cuffed them. The thought
of taking her like this burned through him with such ferocity that
he had to close his eyes and recite another training script before
he could rise up off her.

“Bob! Fred! Do something!” Riley wailed as
she was rolled over and picked up again. “You have to help me!”

Bob put a hand out to stop Fred when he took
a step toward Riley. “He will be a good mate for you, Riley St.
Claire from Denver, Colorado. I will always be there should you
need me.”

“I need you now, you big bowl of Jell-O,”
Riley sniffed. “You have to help me get back home.”

Bob smiled gently and moved closer to where
Vox was tenderly holding her now quiet form. He reached out and
touched her cheek with a plump, green finger before stepping back
again. He looked fiercely at Vox who fought back a grin that the
huge, gentle Gelatian would think to threaten him.

“I
am
sending you home, Riley,” Bob
said, still looking at Vox. “I am sending you where you should
be.”

Riley’s face turned mutinous as she glared at
the huge green creature that she thought had been her friend. He
was just like the rest of the male species. They take what they
want and don’t give a damn about the consequences. A fat tear
rolled down her flushed cheek as she glared at Bob with a look of
betrayal.

“I thought you were my friend,” she sniffed.
“I should have known better.”

Bob looked down sadly at Riley. “I am your
friend, Lady Riley. That is exactly why I am doing what I am.”

“But….” Fred’s right head started to say
before his left head turned and hushed him.

“Bob’s right. Riley is Vox’s mate. We cannot
interfere,” Fred’s left head said sternly.

“I don’t need either one of you!” Riley said
hoarsely. “I can get away on my own. You just wait. The first
trader I find I’m going to kidnap his ass and make him take me
home. You just wait and see! I’ll be home before you know it!”

“I hate to break up this little party but
we’ve got to go! I just received a message from Adalard that they
need help. Mandra has gone in after Raffvin,” Ha’ven said grimly
coming up behind everyone.

“Vox,” Viper said drawing his older brother’s
attention back to the situation at hand. “We must go.”

Vox nodded grimly, cursing Creon’s brother
for confronting their uncle on his own. He had read the reports
sent to Creon about the destructive weapon Raffvin had that could
destroy their symbiot. If Mandra was killed, it would mean the
death of Carmen’s sister, Ariel, as well. It was foolish for him to
take such a chance but Vox knew he would have done the same thing
if given half a chance. The
Shifter
would travel beside the
Horizon
to Raffvin’s hidden base. He was determined to make
the traitorous Valdier royal pay for what he had done not only to
him, but to his friends.

Riley twisted around until she was in a
sitting position on the bed. Vox had continued to ignore her
protests as he and the other men boarded the shuttle that took them
to the other warship. Riley had been quiet when they had exited the
shuttle simply because she was too scared to say anything. There
were hundreds of tall, deadly looking men working on the huge ship.
Well, they were working until they saw Vox carrying her
possessively in his arms. If she thought Viper and some of the
other warriors were intimidating, it was nothing compared to a ship
load of dark, suspicious and intense stares. Only Lodar and Tor
were at ease, joking as one carried her huge handbag and the other
rolled her bright pink suitcase behind Vox as he carried her down
corridor after corridor. She had gotten so confused she knew it
would take her a month to figure out how to get back to the docking
bay.

He had quickly deposited her on the bed. His
fierce look and the grim tightening of his lips should have warned
her he wasn’t going to undo the restraining cuffs he had put on
her. Instead, he had attached them to a metal bar at the head of
the bed. She had called him every single name she could think of
from a hairy-ass horny toad to a grub-eating parasite. Tor and
Lodar had chuckled until she started in on them. Vox growled out
under his breath at them and the two laughing hyenas disappeared
leaving them alone.

“I have to check on the ship, meet with my
brother, and go over a few other things before I return,” Vox said
brushing her wavy hair back from her face. “I cannot take a chance
of you getting into anything.”

“The least you can do is let me go!” Riley
snorted angrily. “You can lock me in the room. You don’t have to
leave me hooked to the frigging bed!”

“I am not willing to take the chance of you
figuring out how to get out,” Vox replied. “I will not be long,” he
added brushing the back of his knuckles along her flushed
cheek.

“I don’t care how long you take! You can
just forget I’m even here. I hope you get lost. I hope you ….”

Vox cut off her words the only way he knew
how, with his lips. He held her head still between the palms of his
huge hands while he devoured her. His need for her threatening to
override his sense of responsibility to his men. He drove his
tongue deep into her mouth, dueling with her tongue as she fought
back with a ferocity that ignited his blood to boiling.

He reluctantly pulled back and pressed his
lips to her forehead. “You fire my blood, Riley. I have never felt
this way before about another female in my life,” he whispered.

Riley pulled back and gazed up into his eyes
to see if he was just saying that to make fun of her or if he
really meant it. The look in his eyes was so intense she drew in a
shocked breath. He looked like…. like…. like he loved her! It was
the same look some of the male leads had for the heroine in the
movies.

“I will return soon,” he repeated, brushing a
hard kiss over her lips and leaving her lying on the bed
stunned.

That had been one nap and several hours ago.
Riley now believed that she had been totally mistaken about the
look in his eyes. It had not been love, it had been lust. Just like
every other guy she had ever met. She worked herself into a fine
temper as she lay there. She also needed to pee! Since it didn’t
look like Vox was going to be returning anytime soon she figured it
was time to get herself out of the pickle she was currently in. It
wasn’t like this was the first time she had been in this situation.
Well, not exactly this situation but the first time she found
herself handcuffed. No, that privilege was for the idiot cop who
thought he could offer her a deal in exchange for a speeding ticket
when any fool could have told him that was an impossible task for
her little Ford. She had kneed the guy in the balls when he did a
pat down on her.

“I am so going to kidnap me a trader,” Riley
muttered. “I don’t care who it is. I’m going to head home. If I
need counseling when I get there, who cares! Everyone has a
counselor now a days. It is considered the ‘in’ thing.”

Riley worked one of her earrings off and gave
a regretful sigh that she was about to destroy it. Straightening
the long metal loop, she worked at the lock until she heard the
slight click. The cuffs fell off. Riley breathed a sigh of relief.
Thank God Tina had shown her how to pick locks. Her little sister
might have a metal bar up her ass most of the time but she was a
very avid reader. Tina had checked out a book on how to pick locks
from the library one summer. She and her little sister had spent
the rest of the summer picking every lock they could just to see if
it really worked.

Riley slid off the bed and hurried into the
bathroom. A loud sigh of relief escaped her as she relieved her
overfull bladder.
Hell hath no fury like a woman denied a
bathroom when she needed it,
she thought savagely. She would
love to tie his ornery ass up and see how he liked it!

As soon as she was finished, she marched over
to her large handbag and began rifling through it. She laid her
mini Taser and pepper spray on the bed before she unzipped her
suitcase to find something suitable to wear for her great escape.
She pulled out her black leather pants and a black T-shirt from the
bar with the slogan ‘Bikers, Boobs and Beer – I have it all at The
White Pearl’. She quickly dressed in her weekend at the bar outfit.
She even attached the spiked dog collar she had picked up for
Halloween last year. She pulled her black, stiletto ankle boots out
and pulled them on. She knew she looked hot in this outfit. Craig,
her grandma’s three hundred pound bouncer, always groaned when he
saw her dressed like this. He knew he would be ultra-busy when she
did. Last, she pulled out the jacket her sister had gotten her for
her birthday a few months ago. It was a fake, black mink jacket
complete with a fake mink head draped over the left shoulder. The
beady little glass eyes dared anyone to mess with her for fear of
taking its place around her neck. She slid the jacket on figuring
she would need it. It was the only one that really went with the
leather pants besides the one jacket Vox had already destroyed.