Chapter 16
Ontarii had never felt more helpless in his life. The captain walked away from him with her robots behind her like there was nothing to be concerned with. She didn’t understand how little help her robots would be against the Hareema.
And here he was, trapped in the airlock, unable to do anything to protect the fragile human female. The need to protect her surged inside of him and thoughts of ripping the door off the airlock in order to go after her rolled over him. If only he were that strong.
Captain Brooklyn was not the first Earthling female he’d encountered, but she was the only one that had ever attracted him. Sylvia, the regent’s mate, was a human, but he’d never given her a second thought, nor had he considered any other human female in anything other than a dispassionate, objective manner.
But he couldn’t be dispassionate about the captain. Since the first moment he’d met her, she’d set his blood on fire. At first he’d blamed the reaction on the situation, on the anger he’d felt at her refusal to follow his orders, but then he’d come to respect her backbone. It was only one of the qualities he admired in the woman.
There were several more, but her fantastic little body hit the top of the list as well. She had curves in places Zantharian females did not, igniting a lust in him so deep that he’d kissed her, unable to restrain himself. It rankled, the fact that he’d been in a life-or-death situation and had succumbed to heady desire. He simply couldn’t help himself.
Now he couldn’t help her, thanks to her being highly defensive and untrusting. She was smart to take the actions she had, but it burned his pride nevertheless.
She turned the corner and was out of sight and Ontarii wanted to howl his frustration to the stars.
He took a deep breath and set about inspecting every inch of the airlock, looking for a way out of his trap instead.
There was no way out except for the door that was securely locked behind him, and the hatch that, if opened, would kill him quicker than a gnarshark’s bite.
Ontarii felt along the seams of the window, wondering if there was a way to claw it open and reach through it to the control panel on the other side. The window was firmly in place. He knocked against it exploratorily. The material it was made of was hard, which meant that it wouldn’t break easily like glass.
Taking a deep breath, Ontarii slammed his elbow into the window’s surface as hard as he could. The window was unhurt, but his elbow was on fire.
He banged against the window, again and again, until blood began to flow from his battered skin. When his elbow could take no more punishment, he switched arms.
Ontarii beat against the window, over and over. When his second elbow was a bloody mess, he resorted to his fists.
She’s been gone for twenty minutes at least.She could be dead by now.
The thought filled him with a mixture of terror and rage, driving him to increase the power and speed of his blows. Still the window remained undamaged.
He was almost mindless with physical agony, but his mental duress was far worse. Ontarii was relentless, lost in his drive to escape and rescue the human female.
Visions of the captain meeting a horrible end kept flashing before his eyes. He groaned, both fists broken up, the window streaked with blood but without even a tiny crack in its surface. He was getting nowhere, and each second he stood here trapped was a second the Hareema could use to torture the human, or worse.
Suddenly a noise broke through the haze of his impotent fury. Using his palm to wipe at the smear of blood on the airlock window, Ontarii peered out into the corridor.
A figure was coming toward him, hard to distinguish through the marks left by his blood.
Captain Brooklyn stood before him, eyes wide, and a small cut on her left cheek. Her hand was shaking when she reached for the airlock button.
"Wait," Ontarii said, his voice hoarse, panic kicking him in the chest. "Don't!"
He held his breath, waiting for the sound of the external hatch to open. It didn't come.
Instead, the door lock clicked off and the human opened the door in front of him.
Quickly stepping through, he stared down at the female in front of him. He wanted to say so many things.Why did you lock me up in there? What did you find?And most pressingly,Are you okay? Who hurt you?
He settled on a simple "Thank you”.
The captain nodded her head. "No problem."
"What changed your mind?" he asked, barely keeping his anger locked in.
"Changed my mind?" She turned from him, her eyes scanning the corridor.
"Yeah," he said, a tendril of confusion climbing his insides. "You were ready to eject me out of the airlock a few minutes ago."
