Terran (Breeder) (21 page)

Tara swiveled her head to gaze into the Bazaar. It bustled with vibrancy, but there was nothing here for her anymore. She nodded. “All right. Thank you.”

Chapter Nineteen

Marlix approached the Enclave infirmary, rubbed a hand over his bristled jaw, and sucked in a breath to fortify himself.
Monto. How much longer will this continue?
Duty continued to call him away from his beta’s side. But each evening, he had to force himself to enter Urazi’s room. The sight of his friend, so close to death, bore down upon him, as if he were being pressed to death under a load of stones. Each day that Urazi failed to improve added another rock. Marlix was smothering under the weight of impotence and helplessness. He was Alpha. What he commanded, happened.

He’d commanded the physicians to heal Urazi.

He’d commanded Urazi to wake.

He’d commanded nature to intervene.

His commands held no more sway than the foolish wishes of a breeder.

Breeder
. He swallowed as his stomach churned. He had let Tara go, except she had not released him—nay, her hold over him had strengthened. The specter of her face, voice, her smell—even her remembered insults—haunted him.

Marlix slipped his hand into his pocket and fingered the severed insignia ring. After ordering Tara to leave, he’d returned to deliver her to the tram, but she’d already departed. Later he’d learned she’d begged a ride with a group of Enclavists. Her ring had lain on the floor where he’d thrown it.

He rubbed the rough edge. A circle broken because he’d acted on his pain and anger. Marlix cursed, jerked his hand out of his pocket, and trudged into the room.

Anika was seated bedside and was in conversation with Urazi. Both peered up at him. His beta was conscious! Alert. Elation flooded him, and he could only stare.

“You are awake,” Marlix said, struggling to tame the excess emotion.

“I shall go.” Anika stood.

“You do not need to leave because I am here.” Marlix scanned her face. The female offspring of his sire had suffered too. She still appeared wan and lacking in vigor, but she smiled when she touched Urazi’s shoulder.

“I will come tomorrow to keep you company.”

Urazi’s pale lips twitched with humor. “I shall be here.”

Anika rounded the bed and would have swept out of the room, but Marlix grabbed her arm. The death of the male who had been responsible for her had left her without protection. Most likely for the rest of her life. The stigma of having been the breeder of a beta meant no alpha would accept her. And betas rarely sought to burden themselves with the care of a breeder, since they were forbidden to produce progeny.

How would a lone breeder survive?

Marlix regarded her with concern. “How are you faring? Is there anything you need?”

Her eyes filled with tears, and Marlix knew she remembered Jergan.
He
was what she needed.

“I am sorry,” he said.

She sniffed and scrubbed away her tears. “Do not worry. I will recover.”

“I will assume responsibility for you,” Marlix offered.

“No.” She shook her head. “I will miss Jergan. But I have decided I do not need a male to take care of me. I will do it on my own.”

“We will talk later,” he said. She was dazed by grief and could not be held accountable for her crazy words. He wrapped his arms around her, and she hugged him back.

After Anika left, Marlix took the seat she had vacated. The relief of seeing Urazi awake filled him with such buoyancy, he knew he needed to keep a firm grip on his emotions to avoid embarrassing himself. “Have you not lain about enough? How much longer do you intend to malinger?” Marlix asked brusquely.

“Commander, I apologize.” Urazi threw back the covering and struggled to sit up.

“Monto!” Marlix pressed him back against the infirmary sleeping platform. “Are you mentally deficient? I was joking.” He raked his hand through his hair.

“You are Alpha. I do not wish to disappoint you.”

The attempt to rise had whitened Urazi’s face and carved brackets of pain around his mouth. Marlix narrowed his eyes. “Did they not give you a pain alleviant?”

“I refused it as any Parseon would.”

Marlix stalked to the door and flung it open. “Physician!” he shouted.

The medical technician dashed in. “Commander, how may I assist you?”

“Allay my beta’s discomfort.”

“At once, Commander.” The physician scurried away to do his bidding.

Urazi started to protest, but Marlix silenced him with a look.

“As you wish, Alpha.” Urazi bowed his head.

“As I wish.” Relieving his beta’s pain was within his control, even if nothing else was.

The physician delivered the alleviant, and within seconds, relief colored Urazi’s face.

“Treat him at regular intervals,” Marlix commanded. “Do not allow him to refuse.”

“Certainly, Commander.” The physician saluted.

When they were alone, Marlix pulled the chair closer to the platform. “I do not think less of you for taking the alleviant. You nearly died,” he said, the words awkward in his mouth. One did not discuss feelings, but the depth of his sentiment refused to rest. “You are my beta, and you are like my brother.” Marlix fidgeted, could not figure out what to do with his hands. He dug his fingers into his knees. “I must apologize to you. It is my fault you were injured. I ordered you into harm’s way.”

Urazi shook his head. “You could not have foreseen Qalin’s men would appear. Had I known of the danger, I would have gone anyway.” He paused. “I am relieved Tara was unharmed.”

“I released her.” Marlix sighed. “I sent her back to—” He did not know where she’d gone. The Bazaar?

Urazi blinked. “But you had claimed her.”

“It is better this way.”

“For whom?”

“For her.” Marlix rose to his feet and moved to the window. He wondered how she was doing. He assumed she busied herself in her shop. While still in the throes of grief and anger, he had notified Dak he no longer held her in custody and then informed him he never wanted to hear her name mentioned. Dak had acceded to his wishes.

Dozens of times he’d started to contact Tara, only to retreat. Parseon perched on the brink of civil war, and he’d become a prime target of a brutal, vengeful Alpha. Tara would be better off without him.

“I did not predict the repercussions of abducting a female so unfit for our world.” Nor had he envisioned how much he would want her, how important the little things would become. He missed her pink hair, which had begun to bleed through the brown, the trail of foliage up her arm, the clop of her inappropriate footwear, her brazenness so unlike other females, whose eyes seemed to be permanently downcast. He remembered her smiles, her tears, her insults and curses. Her boldness and her submission. She’d caused him to shake with laughter and with lust. She’d wounded him—then healed him.

She’d resisted him, challenged him, fought him, and when he’d thought he had tamed her, she’d disobeyed him once again.

But he did not blame her for the deaths or his beta’s injuries. He had let his emotions get the better of him. In his worry for Urazi, his pain at Anika’s loss, his fury at Qalin, he had sought someone to blame, to punish. He done what he’d sworn he would never do—given voice to his anger.
“I do not care. I do not want you.”

“She would wreak havoc if I kept her.” She would say and do inappropriate things. He would have to discipline her. Her rounded, plump buttocks would be rosy quite often. But after each spanking, he would kiss away the pain, and then—

Monto. Here he was, thinking of possibilities again.

Outside the window, a disagreement unfolded between a male and a female. Though Marlix could not hear, he could sense the heat of their words. Then the male’s face hardened, and he straightened his posture. The female slumped into contrition. She would feel the sting of the sudon later, Marlix guessed. He sighed. “It is better for Tara that I let her go. There have been…political developments that I need to apprise you of after you have recovered, but aside from that, Tara and I would not make a good match. She is not of Parseon.”

“You knew that when you took her.”

“She would not have the freedom she is accustomed to.”

“Perhaps she does not want the freedom.”

“She is Terran. Of course she does.”

“Have you asked her?”

“No. She is female. Why would I ask?”

Urazi snorted in exasperation, and Marlix spun around.

“Which is it?” Urazi threw up his hands. He winced from the effort but continued. “If you consider her to be Terran, then give her the choice. If her femaleness is your primary consideration, then take what you are entitled to. You are Alpha.”

He wasn’t certain anymore that he was entitled to anything. He slipped his hand into his pocket and fingered her ring.
“I do not want you.”
He would carry her broken insignia and the image of her devastated expression for the rest of his life.

“She will not serve my needs,” Marlix said and halted the discussion because he did not want to delve into the truth. Tara met his needs. He could not satisfy hers, and she was better off without him.

Chapter Twenty

What a day! Business had finally tapered off, allowing Ramon to tidy the shop. But with downtime, he missed Tara. Shuttles came and went, but he had a strong hunch he would never see her again. As promised, she had promoted him to manager, granted him signing authority, and they’d hired a beta to assist in the shop.

Tara had spent most of the week holed up at the domicile of Alpha Commander Dak. Ramon had been in communication with her, but he’d only seen her twice, once to interview clerks and then when she came to approve some final documents. Both times she looked haggard, but she did not appear to have been further mistreated.

At first he’d questioned her decision to leave Parseon, but from the little he learned, he decided Terra would be the safest place for her. She needed to return home before more than her heart got injured. In reality, Parseon was no place for a female, especially one as vulnerable as she. Oh, she pretended to be a hardass—and probably believed she was one—but she was the biggest softie he’d ever met.

He’d tried to help after she’d been kidnapped by Commander Marlix and had discovered the treaty wasn’t worth the scroll it was printed on. Security, run by Parseon, had flat-out refused to assist, saying without a positive ID of the Alpha who had
allegedly
taken her, nothing could be done. Embassy personnel had been concerned and had promised to investigate, but once Commander Dak had come into the picture, they’d become as uncooperative as Bazaar security.

Ramon had thought of Dak as the benevolent Alpha, but he hadn’t hesitated to close ranks when a peer had gotten into trouble. Now Tara was staying in
his
abode after having been held hostage by Marlix, reputed to be one of the cruelest Alphas of them all. He knew she believed she’d fallen in love with him, but Ramon was convinced she’d been brainwashed. He shuddered to contemplate what she must have endured at his hands.

He should have done more! She’d sent him an SOS, and he’d run to the embassy, but Dak or Marlix or both had quashed the investigation and sent word threatening that “further interference” would “not be tolerated.” Ramon knew what that meant. Imprisonment. Flogging. He had witnessed the public punishments in the village square. To his shame, he’d done nothing else. Out of fear for himself, he had kept his mouth shut.

It killed him every time Tara praised him and told him what a good friend he was.

Ramon would not relax until she was aboard the shuttle bound for Terra. Maybe when she was safe, he could begin to forgive himself.

He straightened the sewing notions on the wall, hanging the needles, buttons, zippers, and other packages in their proper places. From outside the booth, a din arose like chickens squawking when a predator sneaked up on the henhouse. He stared in amazement as a clamor of people stampeded past the booth.

Was the Bazaar tent on fire? Were they under attack?

He rushed to the storefront to peer into the aisle. “What’s going on?” he yelled.

A beta dashing by didn’t even slow. “Commander Qalin!”

In less than a minute, the crowd disappeared from the Bazaar, and Ramon observed that even a few vendors had vacated their booths. They hadn’t even bothered to lock up but had fled with the shoppers.

Out of the silence came a footfall. Qalin rounded the corner at the end of the row.

Ramon had never seen this particular Alpha before but recognized he was one by the arrogant roll of his gait and the menacing alpha guards who flanked him. Qalin marched with intent and purpose, and relief shuddered through Ramon that he was not a citizen of Parseon. An instinct to follow the crowd arose, but he could not leave Tara’s shop unattended. If he did nothing else, he could protect her business.

He ducked behind the counter and straightened the already tidy items on it so he would appear occupied when the Alpha strode by.

He did not pass.

Ramon’s stomach dropped when Qalin loomed in front of the store. He shifted his gaze from the Alpha to the guards and bravely raised his chin. What could they want with TEXTILES BY TARA?
Don’t assume the worst. Maybe they only want the bulletproof fabric.

Qalin entered the store, and one glimpse was enough to convince Ramon that the rumors of atrocities committed by the most notorious Alpha were true. Qalin shared the height and brawn of Marlix and Dak, but where they were handsome men with symmetrical, almost perfect features, Qalin wore his brutality in the ugliness of his face. A ridged forehead jutted over thickly ridged brows and opaque eyes, the left one drooping lower than the right. Deep grooves slashed his cheeks, and his mouth was twisted by a permanent, cruel sneer.

Ramon cleared his throat, but his voice still quavered when he asked, “Is there something I can help you with?”

“I have come for the Terran female,” Qalin said. “Where is she?”

Ramon nearly wet his pants. His mind raced for a plausible lie. He would not betray Tara. “She’s not here.”

If Qalin signaled one of his men, Ramon didn’t see, but suddenly one of the guards hoisted him by the throat, slammed him into the heavy tent post, and held him there. Choking and gasping, Ramon fought to draw air into his lungs.