Stolen: Warriors of Hir, Book 3 (19 page)

Eighteen

Summer stared. “What?”

“
Steal
you. I am taking you unlawfully from your acknowledged mate.” With a g’hir’s astonishingly quick, silent movements Ke’lar yanked the inner curtains closed, shut the balcony doors, and effortlessly placed one of the huge chairs to block them. He caught her hand, gently tugging her toward the balcony wall. “I am new to crime so you may wish to make it easy for me.”

“
You’re
going to help me? You really think I’m going to trust you again?” she demanded, ludicrously trying to get her hand out of his grip since as soon as she broke his hold his g’hir reflexes let him catch her fingers again. “Goddamn it, Ke’lar, stop that!”

“I am trying to save you the trouble of another escape,” he returned, catching a firm but gentle hold of her wrist this time. “After all, I cannot have you leaping from balcony to balcony.” His glance went over her. “Your dress is entirely unsuitable to the task.”

Joking? He was
joking
?

“You left me here!” She was so happy to see him she could throw her arms around him, so mad she could burst into tears. “You left me with Ar’ar!”

“I could not fight him,” Ke’lar said, serious now. “If I had won, my clan would insist you remain the whole moon cycle, till your Choosing Day. If I had lost, you would have to return with Ar’ar.”

“So you just took off?” she demanded with a wave toward the forest.

“I retreated so I could rescue you and return you to your homeworld.”

Summer blinked. “You have a way to get me back to Earth?”

“If you will cooperate! And if,” he growled, “we are not caught by the Betari, or my own clan, or the entire g’hir—” Ke’lar went stock-still. “His scent is on you.”

He sniffed again, more deeply this time. “His scent is all over you!” His brows rushed together. “He roused you!”

Summer’s cheeks burned. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

His face was like a thundercloud.

Hell, Jenna’s right; I am a lousy liar.

“It’s none of your business,” she mumbled, trying uselessly to pull her wrist from his grip as she decided to go on the offensive. “You’re the one that left me here with him!”

“Not my business!” he growled. “And I did not leave you at all!”

“You walked away!”

“From the dining hall! Not from you! Do you . . .” His shoulders were tense, his eyes guarded. “Do you want him?”

“No! It’s not—” She threw her free hand out in frustration. “Haven’t you ever been turned on by someone, even if you didn’t even really like them?”

“No,” he growled. His fangs bared. ”You desire him!”

“Desiring someone isn’t the same as loving them, Ke’lar!
That’s
the only thing that matters!”

His breath caught and he searched her face.

“What?” Her brow creased. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You love me?” he rumbled and his whole face softened. “You love me.”

“Hey, I didn’t say . . .” Summer trailed off because now he was grinning.

And he was right.

“Oh, goddamn it,” she muttered.

He caught her against him to brush his nose against hers then tilted his head and brought his mouth to hers for deep, slow kiss.

He cupped her chin to look into her eyes. “I love you, my sweet Summer.” He searched her gaze and his brow creased again. “You do not believe me.”

“I don’t know what to believe. I want believe you.” Summer swallowed hard. “I’ve just gotten used to not having anyone be there for me, on having to depend just on myself. And, then you were there, just when I needed you, every time I needed you.” Her eyes stung. “Until . . .”

“I never left you. I would never—could never—leave you.” He took her hand and placed it over his heart; she felt its steady, strong beat beneath her palm. “Even when we are apart, you are here. You alone and no other, for always.” He gave a faint smile. “It is in your eyes, my mate, you believe me now.”

“Man, I should never take up playing cards,” she said, ducking her head. “How did you even know I’d be here to rescue? This clanhall is huge.”

“Jenna was going to share her clothing with you,” he reminded. “Naturally she would take you to her rooms.”

“Naturally,” she echoed. Of course he would have overheard Jenna say that, even after he’d left the room. “How were you sure could get here from there?” she asked, indicating the balcony he’d jumped from.

“I grew up in this clanhall. But come, it is time to take you away from Hir.” His fangs showed for an instant. “And from Ar’ar.”

“I don’t see how we’re going to get anywhere. There are guards outside the door,” she warned. “Betari clanbrothers who won’t be happy to see you and certainly aren’t going to let me leave.”

“We are not going that way.”

“Oh, please don’t say . . .” She glanced over the balcony and her stomach clenched. It was an awfully long drop. “You want to climb down from here?”

“Of course not. We are going to climb up.”

“Up?” she squeaked, twisting her neck to look that way. “You mean back up to the balcony you jumped from?”

“No, to the roof.”

Summer wet her lips. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Hundreds of my clanbrothers await below,” he pointed out. “As do Mirak, a dozen Betari warriors, and”—here his lip curled— “Ar’ar. We cannot go that way. We would not be an hour in the forest before they caught us. No,” he said firmly. “We must go to the roof.”

“And then what?” Summer asked. “Hang out on the roof and hope no one thinks to look for us there?”

“There is a transport landing on the roof of our clanhall.” He was already eyeing the side of the building as if deciding the best way to tackle the climb. For a moment a shadow covered his features. “I hope I will not have to fight my own clanbrothers.”

“You’d . . . do that? You’d fight your own kind—your own clan—for me?”

“For you—” His glowing eyes met hers. “And for our daughter, Emma.”

Our daughter . . .

“Oh,” Summer murmured, her throat tight.

“Are you ready?”

“Ke’lar . . . there’s no way that I’m going to be able to climb up there.”

“I know that. I will carry you.”

“Carry—!”

Before she could get the words out he’d swung her over his shoulder. And then he was leaping upward onto the balcony ledge and she was hanging down, dangling over a fifty-foot drop.

“
Ohmygod!
”

Summer squeezed her eyes shut and, finding that no better, opened them again.

“Ke’lar,” she whimpered, morbidly wondering whether she actually had time to faint during the fall.

“This is an easy climb but you must try not to distract me.” She heard the smile in his voice as his hand lovingly patted her bottom. “If that is possible.”

She could feel his muscles working as he began the climb—one-handed—finding handholds and footholds where she would have sworn none existed. He couldn’t climb with his body flush against the building either, not with her swung over his shoulder. He had to climb sideways, pitting his strength against the force of gravity and the awkwardness of the unbalanced load on his shoulder.

It was the longest, most agonizing wait of her life and she’d been in labor with Emma for thirty-six hours. She was too terrified to move and she had nothing to hold onto. She didn’t dare grab him and her nails dug into her palms as she struggled against the scream building in her throat.

Ke’lar climbed without pause up the side of the clanhall, not even pausing to catch his breath. Too afraid that he’d drop her or more likely, lose his grip and plunge them both to their deaths below, she didn’t utter another sound.

Then he was over the roof wall, and he let her go so abruptly that her knees gave out and she landed hard on her backside.

Summer’s breath was shuddering in her chest and she couldn’t have stood if she’d wanted to, not with all the blood having rushed to her head during the climb, the terror of the ascent itself.

Ke’lar had already dropped into a fighter’s stance, his brilliant eyes searching the roof in the evening light for others of his enclosure, clanbrothers he would battle to reach the transport.

After a moment he straightened. “We are alone.” 

Summer’s fingers spread wide, the clanhall’s ancient stone roof still warm under her palms from the day’s heat. She bent her head, trying not to be sick.

He crouched at her side, his eyes eerily bright in the fading light. “Are you all right?”

“I guess . . . I was wrong about,” she gasped, “being over . . . my fear of heights.”

“Darkness, heights.” He gave a quick, teasing smile. “You humans must spend a lot of time on the ground, during the day.”

“Yup,” she agreed, really very impressed with herself for not throwing up. “That’s actually how I intend to spend the rest of my life. In fact, if I ever hit the lottery, my penthouse is going to be located on the ground floor.” She shook her head—a little. “I can’t believe you did that. I can’t believe you actually got us up here. With
one
hand.”

He gave a light laugh. “My brother and I used to challenge each other to reach the top first. I won nearly every time. But it has been a long while since I made this climb. It was a game for us as children.”

Summer’s head came up, trying to gauge if he was kidding or not. “They let you do that? Let a bunch of kids climb up the side of a building?”

Ke’lar’s smile faded. “I imagine our mothers would have not have.”

He stood, taking her hands to raise her up with him. Her knees were shaking but she was able to walk under her own power as they crossed to the transport vessel.

She’d ridden in one of their transports only once before, when Ar’ar had brought her directly from the space-dock to the Betari enclosure. Capable of great speeds, these transports weren’t capable of space flight and were used exclusively for journeys inside the atmosphere.

And if it really was unoccupied . . .

Ke’lar went up the short ramp first, his posture tense and alert, but the cabin was empty. He slid into the pilot’s seat, already activating the door controls to seal the vessel and powering up the transport.

Her glance darted about the landing pad as she took the co-pilot’s seat. “Someone just happened to leave a transport vessel unattended up here?”

“This vessel should not be unattended, the roof unguarded, especially with members of an enemy clan about,” he agreed. “This is Ra’kur’s doing. That is what he meant when he said he would ‘await me at the center of the clan hall.’ He was telling me to go to the roof. It is the brag we would make to one another before we made the climb.”

She blinked. “You mean Ra’kur arranged this to help us escape?”

“As Jenna has the Betari occupied with a feast that involves much noise and the confusing comings and goings of many Erah clanbrothers to cover my return.”

Summer shook her head. “That’s what she must have wanted to tell me, that Ra’kur was going to—And I was so mad at her for not even trying to help!”

He gave her throat a meaningful glance. “Clearly she did not want to send you off empty-handed.”

Summer’s hand went to the jewels at her throat. “Well, damn it, I guess I
should
have taken the earrings when she told me to.”

“Do not worry.” He nodded to a small box left conspicuously near the control panel. “I think we will find a number of credits have been made available to us as well.” Ke’lar threw her a grin as the transport finished powering up, already using the controls to lift the vessel from the landing pad. “And I would say that we have just escaped.”

“Why would they do all this?” she asked. “Why would they think you’d even come back for me after you’d been banished?”

“Ra’kur knows me well enough that he could read in my eyes what the Betari could not—that you are my mate and I would never leave you.” He gave a huffing laugh as the trees below became a blur. “And besides, I was never the most obedient of clanbrothers.”

“Where
are
we going anyway?”