However, Beks, Cecelia, Taylor, Lainey—and even Kate—all claimed that they’d feltsomethingwhen they’d first seen their ‘fated mates.’ A connection, they’d claimed. A indescribable one.
Crystal felt momentary relief. Erin seemed to only feel irritation and dread from being capturedagain, not moonstruck. Perhaps she wasn’t this Luxirian’s fated mate after all.
“In,” their captor grunted, jerking his head to something that resembled a hovercraft. A very run-down, patched up one that didn’t even look capable of flying.
“And if we don’t?” Erin asked, her voice still quiet. “What will you do?”
Their captor stiffened. He took a step closer to Erin and growled, “You do not wish to know, female.In.Now.”
“Erin,” Crystal said softly when the brunette wrinkled her nose, about to respond to his threat. The male made her nervous and she didn’t want to see what would happen if he was angered. “Let’s go.”
Erin cut her a look, but then seemed to remember their predicament. The brunette nodded and Crystal climbed onto the hovercraft, though she struggled with bound hands. Erin followed behind her and the Luxirian came up last before walking over to the control panel. The hovercraft hummed to life…but then died.
Her relief was short lived. The male tinkered with something underneath the control panel and the engine sputtered to life once more. Before both women even had time to brace themselves, the hovercraft shot off along the black sand, hurtling away from the Luxirian city.
Crystal and Erin hurriedly gripped anything they could to keep from falling off. It wasn’t a hovercraft at all, she realized shortly. It didn’t fly. Instead, it bounced and glided and skimmed off the black sand, making them lurch and bounce wildly with every mounded hill. It was like a boat, bouncing on waves of sand at high speeds.
With a nervous glance at the mountain, she realized they were already far away. Soon, it would fade into the landscape and they might be lost in it forever, at the mercy of the unpredictable male who’d taken them.
Erin pressed her lips into Crystal’s ear and said over the wind, “We might not have another chance. His back is turned.”
Crystal looked at her wide-eyed. What was she saying? She wanted tojump? Or try and get a jump onhim?
Erin jerked her head at their captor, manning the controls, answering her unspoken question.
Was shecrazy? He was easily twice their size, four times their strength, and not to mention a little unhinged.
“We have to try,” Erin said, her jaw clenching when she pulled back.
Crystal blew out a breath. With another look at the mountain, she saw it was even further. It was now or never and Erin was right. They had to try.
They both unfurled from their crouched positions along the side of the hovercraft. Erin jerked her head to a pile of supplies close to them. There was a large sack that they could probably swing at their captor.
Crystal grabbed at it with both of her hands. The sack had to weigh at least fifty pounds and felt like it was filled with sand. They would have to try and swing it at him together.
Quickly, before he turned around to check on them, they both clenched the sides of the sack and hefted it up between them. They crept closer and then on Erin’s nod, with a swift swinging motion, they heaved the sack back and then using the momentum it gained, swung it forward with a solid blow aimed at the captor’s head.
It hit.
Except their captor was too tall, so the sack only made contact with his upper back. Even then, he barely flinched, despite its heavy weight. He was built like a boulder.
What he did do, however, was slowly turn around. When he took his hands off the controls, the hovercraft slowed to a stop. The sudden quiet from the lack of wind felt strange and eerie. But Crystal knew it was their chance, perhaps their last one before they ventured too far from the capitol.
She looked at Erin…and then theyboltedbefore the Luxirian could react. Quickly, they jumped off the back of the hovercraft...
But what they didn’t realize was how deep and soft the sand truly was. They both fell flat on their faces and scrambled with their bound hands to get back up again. There was sand everywhere. In their tunics, in their mouths, in their hair, in their nostrils.
Breaths heaving, Crystal kicked up wildly, Erin doing the same, and they managed to get a few feet from the hovercraft when their captor jumped down, sand billowing out from his impressive form.
Even though Crystal was lagging behind Erin, the Luxirian went after Erin first. With dread, Crystal watched as he heaved a struggling Erin over his shoulder as if she weighed nothing at all, her bare ass on display when her tunic rid up the back of her thighs.
“Crystal, run!” Erin yelled, still struggling and wiggling in his hold, kicking and punching, obviously trying to slow him down for Crystal’s benefit.
But Crystal hesitated. Her instinct told her to run, but at the same time, she wouldn’t leave Erin behind, just like Crystal wouldn’t leave her own sister behind. It just wasn’t an option.
That moment of hesitation cost her and before she knew it, the captor was upon her. Lunging for her with surprising grace, he grabbed her bound wrists and forcefully tugged her into place beside him, Erin still thrashing and yelling her frustrations over his shoulder. The expression on his face almost seemed like he was bored, only mildly irritated by their terribly executed escape plan.
He brought them both back to the sandcraft. Without saying a single word, with Erin still wiggling on his shoulder, he hooked Crystal’s bound wrists into a slot that jutted from the side of the hulking piece of junk, tugging on her restraints tighter to make sure they stayed in place.
