YIRI
“Most of theseships have small crews,” Qhev’in said, his long, relaxed stride easily keeping pace with mine. “They move the girls one or two at a time, and keep them in separate cells.”
Cells.I growled at the word. Nerus echoed the sentiment a step behind me. Our crash course in bride trafficking had me grinding my teeth and ready to kill someone. I wouldn’t have to wait much longer. We were forcibly boarding a ship that Qhev’in’s contacts said was transporting anywhere from six to twenty females. My cruiser was in ghost mode, untraceable and unreachable, but the last heat signature evidence of another ship docking with this one could easily have been the cruiser. We missed the unknown ship by less than an hour. I had to hope they brought her here. Qhev’in assured us that this was the only trafficking ship that his network of revolutionaries knew of in the area right now, though there were others further out in the star system and further abroad, too. It killed me, but Ihad to hopeCora was here in one of theircells. If she wasn’t… at best, Qhev’in said they could have had a specific buyer lined up on Ibaruta. He hadn’t mentioned the worst-case scenario, but there was no need. No one had to tell me that if she wasn’t here, or on Ibaruta already, she was dead.
I kept waiting for my heart to stop beating in my chest. Surely that’s what would happen if hers stopped too. No matter where she was, I would know if myAneahwas lost to me forever.I would know.
“Put these in,” Qhev’in said, passing out silencing inserts to me and the few soldiers we could cram onto this ship with Qhev’in’s contacts. “Make sure to turn them on, and don’t turn them off until I give you this signal.” He raised two fists with his thumbs extended upwards. “It’s about to get loud as fuck.”
I noticed he didn’t grab a pair for himself. “You’re not gearing up?”
He smirked, entering a security sequence to open the door. “Nobody can bark me down, Ahlon.”
Andfucking Ibarit was no lie. He walked onto that ship like he was impervious to lasers. Only two males met us at the loading bay, neither of them carrying guns. Just knives. My favorite.
The low vibration of their barks was deep enough that I felt it in my feet. An urge to stop at their command. I snarled, baring my teeth. Another, heavier rumble thundered through the bay, and one of the guys dropped his knife, eyes wide as he covered his ears.
I grabbed the other one and plunged my phase blade into his chest. The asshole dropped like a stone, and we kept moving, Nerus taking down the spare. Qhev’in passed by a glass, not glancing at the female cowering behind it. He prepared us on the way here, explaining the need to clear the vessel before we let any of the girls out. It was for their safety, but it was still impossible not to look, not to pray that it was Cora each time. We moved through the ship in less than ten minutes, taking out the pilot and two others, and I still hadn’t found her.
Qhev’in gave us his signal, and we deactivated our silencers.
“Let the females out,” I said, stepping up to the pilot’s control panel. “Open the cells.”
“Better to do it one at a time,” Qhev’in said. “They panic if you do it all at once.”
“I have to find hernow.”
“I get it, my guy,” he said, “but we’ve gotta think of all the ladies, not just yours. They’ve been through enough. We go through them one at a time. Keep your voices calm. If they freak out, I’ll use a gentle bark.”
“You willnotbark at my wife,” I snarled.
He held his hands up. “Okay, not her. But these other girls don’t have theirIbarchosen mates here to keep them chill.”
I gritted my teeth and nodded. “Let’s go.”
We moved back through the ship, letting the females out one at a time. Most of them were daernir and willing to cautiously trust that we meant them no harm. My impatient pacing and snarling didn’t help, but Qhev’in had a gentle way about him that seemed to settle the more nervous girls. He only had to bark once, and it was the softest bark I’d ever heard. The female who’d been sobbing uncontrollably drew in a shuddering breath, her shoulders easing slightly. It only made me more anxious. There was only one more door, and I knew myAneahwas not behind it. I let Qhev’in and his friend go and collect the female, retreating to the cargo bay with Nerus on my heels.
“We’ll find her, boss,” he said.
But my head was a disaster. I couldn’t think straight. When there was a plan, a direction to move, I was in control. But now I had no lead. Cora could be anywhere. I still believed I wouldknow if she was no longer living. I would feel it. I wouldknow. But she could be anywhere by now.
“Xokat could have her halfway to Muria by now,” I said, pushing my hands through my hair and pulling at the roots. “Once she’s there… How will I ever get her back?”
“She’s not halfway there,” Nerus said. “It’s been less than a day. Your mate lived her whole life onEarth, and you still found her.”
Qhev’in joined us, his features drawn. “I’m sorry,” he said, all his cocky arrogance melted away. “I wanted her to be here, too. She’s a sweet girl. Everyone in the resistance will keep looking for her.”
Heat and pain flashed through me, a red haze over my vision. With a fistful of his shirt, I slammed the Ibarutan against the bay wall. “Did D’vinda lie to me? Was this a distraction?”
He shook his head quickly. “No.No.I don’t know what history you have with her, but there is no one more dedicated to this cause than her. You know she lost her mate to this?”
“My brother? She killed him, but all I have is her word that he was trafficking females.”
Even pinned to the wall, he gave an insolent scoff. “Not him. Her firstmate. HerAneahwas taken by traffickers, and the female fought herhusband,” he spat the word out like a curse, “until he killed her.”
My chest ached with the heavy beats of my heart. “HerAneah?She died?” Before Cora, I might have felt some dull pang of sympathy. Now, I knew the gut-wrenching ache of being parted from yourIbarchosen mate. Terror haunted every thought, taunting me with the agony I would feel if Cora died.
My frame chirped in my pocket, and Nerus’s did the same.
