Choosing Riley: Sarafin Warriors Book 1 (6 page)

Fred must be mistaken,
she thought as
she looked over at where Vox, Lodar, and Tor were swinging the
strange shaped curved pick axes.

All three had muscles out the yin-yang and
their bodies glistened with sweat as they worked to clear another
section of the cave. They didn’t talk while they worked. Bob was
working on another section and appeared to be having problems
holding the ax correctly because his pile of rocks was miniscule
compared to the others. The Antrox guards were stationed at the
different exits leading into the area they had been brought to and
were ignoring them.

She turned back to study all three men
carefully for a moment as they worked. Each had a different pattern
of spots on their upper body that ran down their chest and backs
before disappearing under the low waist of their pants. She felt a
shiver of apprehension run through her as she remembered their
eyes. All three had similar eyes but what caught her attention the
most was their pupils were slits instead of round like a human. A
bad feeling began to sink in as she noticed other differences. They
had no problems seeing in the dim corridors. She would have walked
into a wall or tripped a dozen times if it hadn’t been for Vox as
they were marched deeper into the mine. They moved lightly on their
feet just like the old cat she had when she was a kid. Half the
time she couldn’t even hear them walking. And Vox had roared like a
wounded cat when she sprayed him with the pepper spray. He sounded
a lot like that lion that came on before a movie from MGM studios.
Other details came back as well. She remembered the way his chest
rumbled when he was kissing her, as if he was purring.

“Shit!” She said as her eyes widened as the
pieces fell into place.

Fred looked at her puzzled. “You have need
for the cleansing room? I can ask a guard to escort you if you have
a need,” his left head said looking at her in concern.

Riley looked down with dazed eyes at Fred.
“Can they…. Can they change into a cat?” She asked in a hushed
whisper.

Fred looked at her before turning one head to
look at the three warriors working steadily. “Of course not,” he
said, not understanding Riley’s sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness for that,” Riley murmured
before Fred finished his sentence.

“The shock collars prevent them from
shifting. But, if they were to be removed they can,” he finished
with a twist of envy coloring his voice.

Riley’s sigh of relief turned to a gasp of
horror.
She was stuck in a freaking Science Fiction, shifter,
romance novel nightmare!

*.*.*

Vox frowned as his mate moved her plate of
food away from his and went to sit down between Bob and Fred. For
the past couple of days, she had done everything she could to avoid
him. She spent most of her time dancing around the huge Gelatian or
keeping the small Tiliqua between her and him. Hell, she had even
used Tor and Lodar as a shield but only when the other two couldn’t
get away from her. Both of his men had noticed how skittish she had
been around them after the first day in the mine. It had grown
worse after they had finished their first work shift. They had been
escorted to the eating room shortly after their shift ended. The
skittish distance had turned into a frigid ice block by the time
they were done.

On the third day Vox discovered he, Lodar,
and Tor were not the only Sarafin warriors held prisoner. His best
friend and cousin Titus, a member of the lead council who had
disappeared over a month before, was among the prisoners, as well
as his younger brother Banu. There was also one Curizan warrior and
one Valdier warrior that Vox recognized. Both of them had been
working undercover to bring down Raffvin and Ben’qumain’s rule.
Titus explained he had found some damning evidence of his own
against several of those inside the Sarafin palace who were working
with Raffvin. They were the ones behind his and his brother’s
kidnapping and subsequent imprisonment.

“Who are they?” Vox growled out in a low
voice.

“Two are females who share your bed,” Titus
said quietly. “Eldora and Pursia. They were relating information to
Bragnar, a male who works in the kitchens.”

Vox turned to look at Riley when she sniffed
loudly. He frowned when she gave him a deadly stare before turning
to look the other way and focus on what Bob and Fred were saying.
He had reached to touch her hand but she jerked it away from him
before he could even get close to it.

“Who is the female?” Titus asked curiously,
watching their interaction with interest. “She is much more
pleasing to the eye than the one who selected me,” he said with a
dismissive nod toward the slender purple figure sitting on the
other side of him.

“She is my mate,” Vox said, perplexed at his
mate’s sudden quiet behavior.

“As in she chose you or as in you chose her?”
Titus asked. “Because if I had to guess, she doesn’t look any
happier with you than mine is with me.”

“Both,” Vox said grumpily. “She chose the
five of us but I knew the moment I heard her voice she was my
mate.”

“What species is she? I don’t think I have
ever seen one like her before,” Titus said, picking at the items on
his plate in disgust.

“I don’t know,” Vox admitted reluctantly. “I
forgot to ask her. We need to get off this asteroid as soon as
possible,” he said changing the subject. “I have a Valdier royal to
kill.”

“You and me both,” Titus said, throwing down
the few pieces of his food that was left. “Supply ships arrive
every seven days. One came today,” Titus murmured quickly before
standing up as an Antrox guard came over to order him and his mate
back to their quarters.

Vox nodded before turning his attention to
the other warriors sitting across from them. They each nodded in
return before rising as a guard called out to them to stand. He
returned their nod. They would be off this rock in seven days if he
had his way which he always did when he put his mind to it. His
eyes turned to the stiff, defiant figure of his mate sitting next
to him.

Yes
, he thought with a small smile at
the frozen face of his mate.
I always get my way when I want
something.

*.*.*

Now, he wondered how he was going to be able
to fulfill his promise. Over the past six days all five of them
plus Titus, his brother, and the other two warriors had zero luck
in getting their hands on any type of tool that would work to
remove the collars around their neck. Something was telling him
that they didn’t have much time left either. He paced the room.
They would be escorted to their evening meal soon. Tomorrow another
supply ship would arrive and Vox’s gut was telling him it would be
their only chance of escape. He growled out in frustration as he
paced back and forth in the narrow room.

“Those damn insects are organized, suspicious
bastards,” Tor said with a sigh. “They make sure there are no tools
available that might work on removing these damn collars,” he added
with a wince as he received another small shock when he ran his
fingers around the edge of it.

“I’ve got burn marks almost all the way
around my neck from the damn thing,” Lodar complained, touching his
tender throat.

“Do you need some medicine for it?” Riley
asked from where she was laying on the bed, reading on her iPad.
“I’ve got all kinds of stuff.”

“You wouldn’t happen to have a tool kit
available, would you?” Tor joked.

“Of course,” Riley said without looking up.
“Pliers, scissors, flathead screwdrivers, Philips head, you name it
I’ve probably got it. What do you need?”

She finally looked up when no one replied.
All five men were looking at her in disbelief. She frowned, looking
from one to the other puzzled. She didn’t know what the big deal
was, lots of women carried basic tools with them. You never knew
when you might need one and it wasn’t like she had a guy around
with a tool bag fixing things for her.

“What?” She asked innocently.

Vox took a step toward the bed, looking down
at her in disbelief. “You have tools with you and you didn’t tell
us?”

Riley shrugged, looking up at him with a
raised eyebrow. “No one asked.”

“No one asked,” Vox muttered looking at Tor
and Lodar in disbelief. “We have been looking for tools for the
past week! Haven’t you heard us talking about it?” He asked her in
aggravation.

“Well yes, now that you mentioned it but I
figured when you said ‘she’s a female, why would she need tools’,”
Riley said dropping her voice to a deeper tone to imitate Vox’s
voice, “that it was like a guy asking for directions! I decided if
you really needed them, you could ask me,” she said before turning
her attention back to the story she was reading.

Vox bit back a curse. “Can we see the tools
you have?” He asked through gritted teeth.

Riley rolled her eyes but shut off the iPad.
She sat up and reached for her huge handbag at the end of the bed.
After a few minutes of digging around in it, she began pulling out
all the tools she had stashed in the different compartments. She
pulled out her large Leatherman, then her small Leatherman micro, a
folding set of Allen wrenches, a small plastic container with
various sizes of screwdrivers and Philips head, a pair of scissors,
her manicure set, and a pair of wire snips.

“Oh, I didn’t know I had those in there,” she
murmured. “I think I have another pair of needle nose pliers
somewhere in here,” her muffled voice said as she stuck her head
further into the large bag.

“How in the names of all the Gods can she
have so much in there?” Lodar asked amazed as she began pulling
more and more things out and laying them on the bed next to
her.

“What about this wire? Do you think it
connects to the explosive pack or to the detonation switch?” Vox
was asking Tor.

All five men were gathered around a partially
dismantled collar. Or should she say, four of the men were gathered
around one of the partially dismantled collars on Fred. Poor Fred
was a shivering nervous wreck as Vox, Tor, and Lodar examined the
collar while Bob leaned over their shoulders watching from a
distance. They had been at it ever since they had returned from the
dining area.

“I’m not sure yet,” Tor murmured under his
breath. “There are three sets of wires. If I cut the wrong one it
could explode. I don’t know enough about the Antrox to know how
they do their wiring configurations.”

“Please,” Fred’s right head said in a
trembling voice. His left head was sitting perfectly still with his
eyes tightly closed. “Please, c…. ca…. can’t you do this to someone
else?”

“Oh for heaven’s sake,” Riley muttered
getting up from where she had been trying to read on the bed. “How
difficult can this be?”

She tossed her iPad down to the side. It was
impossible to concentrate on what she was reading anyway with
everyone in the room. Besides, she was tired of listening to Fred’s
soft whimpers. She walked over to where the group of men was
kneeling around the small, trembling body of the Tiliqua and picked
up the pair of wire snips. She studied the wires for a moment
before reaching over Tor’s shoulder and snipping the reddish color
wire. The moment she did, the glowing light showing it was active
went out.

“Problem solved,” she said, dropping the
pliers into Tor’s open hand and returning to the bed.

Both sets of Fred’s eyes rolled back in his
head as he fainted. Lodar and Tor grabbed him and lowered him down
to the hard floor before turning to stare at her in disbelief.
Riley picked up her manicure kit, pulled out her nail file and
began shaping the chipped edges; working in the mine had made a
mess of them. She finally looked up when the silence stretched into
several long minutes.

Four pairs of eyes, including one blazing
set, were staring at her in disbelief. “What?” She asked, looking
at them in exasperation. “You guys were taking too long to make up
your minds. It’s not like it was that difficult of a choice and I
was tired of listening to Fred whining.”

“How did you know which wire to clip?” Tor
finally asked curiously.

Riley shrugged, looking at the nail she had
been working on. “Everyone knows it’s the red wire you cut,” she
replied, working on the next nail.

“But, how did you know?” Vox asked
suspiciously.

He wanted to know if perhaps he had been
mistaken this whole time about the female he knew to be his mate.
Things were suddenly not as clear as he first thought. What better
way to knock him and his men off guard than to find an unfamiliar
female species they had no experience with? The fact that she was
his mate turned out to be a bonus. He suddenly had questions he
wanted answers to! Like why was she allowed to claim five mates
when all other females only had one? Why did she have tools on her?
How did she know which wire to cut? Was there more to her than what
he originally thought?

Vox stood up and stalked toward her
menacingly. It would not make a difference that she was his mate.
He would do what he had to do to protect his people, even if it
meant…. Even if it meant killing the one woman he knew was meant
for him.

“How did you know which wire to cut?” He
growled out in a low, menacing voice.

Riley stopped filing her nails and looked at
him with a raised eyebrow. “I know you are not talking to me in
that tone of voice,” she said, staring at him through narrowed
eyes.

He stopped in front of the bed and knelt down
in front of her. Reaching out, he gripped her wrists in a firm but
unbreakable hold. He stared deeply into her eyes, determined to
know the truth even as his mind, body and cat rebelled against the
idea that she could betray them.

“How did you know?” He asked again
softly.