He made an indistinct sound in his throat as he stepped away from me. Great. Just fucking great. Not only had I been abducted from my planet and taken who knows where, I was now stuck in a prison cell with one of the Vandar pricks who’d taken my best friend and who’d failed to save me from the Zagrath. I was going to remind him of all this when he grunted and curled his massive hands into fists.
“I’m going to get us out of here,” he growled. “Even if I have to tear this prison apart stone by stone to do it.”
I eyed the iron bars and stone walls and tiny grate too high to reach, releasing a heavy breath and sinking onto the rusty bench. “Knock yourself out, big guy.”
I rolled onto my back and closed my eyes so that I could think. If I were going to escape, I was going to have to come up with a plan. A plan that did not involve attempting to dismantle stone.
Chapter
Two
Kolt
Igaped at the female reclining on the bench. Was she truly sleeping at a time like this? I swallowed a curse, allowing only a rough sound to slip from my lips as I stalked back and forth in the small cell like a caged beast.
The Zagrath might have ambushed me and taken me captive, but they could not hold me for long. I was a battle chief of the Vandar, a trained raider who had led incursions against enemy ships and colonies. I was a trusted officer of the Qeth’rex, The Scourge, who had set terror skittering through the hearts of?—
“Do you have to do that?”
The human’s sharp question jerked me from my thoughts, and I stopped my pacing to see her eyes open and her head tilted toward me, her fiery curls spilling across the bench behind her. “Do I have to do what?”
She flapped a hand at me. “That. That stomping back and forth like you’re going to escape by wearing a path into the floor.”
My jaw dropped as she blinked at me. She was serious. I tempered my outrage enough to stammer a reply. “I…I am thinking about a way to get us out.”
“Mmmhmmm.” She did not appear impressed by my answer. “Well, I’m managing to plan an escape without all the huffing and stamping.”
My brows popped high. “You are planning an escape?”
Now her eyes narrowed, and she sat up, swinging her feet off the bench and onto the floor. “Of course, I am. Planning is one of my many strengths.”
I did not take my gaze off the slight human with her pale skin and tousled curly hair. She no longer wore the thick parka she’d had on Lexxona, so she wasn’t hiding a warrior’s build. If her thin shirt and clingy pants revealed anything, it was that her curves were soft and generous. “And you are using this talent for planning to come up with an escape?”
She folded her arms across her chest. “You have a problem with that, big guy?”
I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing at the absurdity of the situation. The gods of old were having too much enjoyment at my expense. That much was clear. If I’d thought it was bad being trapped in a cell with a human female, and one who made my pulse race, I hadn’t considered that she would also be delusional.
“You are a human,” I finally said without smirking.
“Nothing gets by you,” she said dryly, her stance remaining stiff. “You must be one of the clever Vandar. Are you the genius who came up with the strategy that got us both captured?”
I flinched at the insult. “There was nothing wrong with…” Before I could finish, she swept one arm wide as if to remind me where we were. “I did not come up with the plan to rescue you on Lexxona.”
She rolled her eyes. “I guess that’s one point in your favor. And my great crime is, what, being human?”
My face flooded with heat. I was the battle chief of a Vandar horde. I was accustomed to being respected, being trusted by the Qeth’rex. I was not accustomed to being insulted.
I braced my hands on my hips and stared her down. “Andyou are female.”
She actually grinned at this. “Another astute observation.” She took a step closer. “But before you spout off some ridiculous crap about women being weak or fragile or not ruthless enough, I should remind you I was part of an underground rebellion on Lexxona. A rebellion run entirely by women. Oh, and we were never caught. Not once. My first experience being caught was the moment you and your boys showed up.”
Boys? Outrage surged through me. “You mean the fierce raiders of the Vandar who?—?”
“I mean the aliens who stole my best friend as a ‘war bride’ and then failed when it came time to mount a rescue.” She held two fingers up on each hand and flicked them quickly when she said ‘war bride,’ giving me a clear idea of what she thought of the concept.
“Your friend is content as a war bride,” I snapped.
She choked back a laugh. “Yeah, right.”
