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Chapter 1
Cora sat huddled against the cell wall, feeling the soft vibrations of the ship travel up her spine. A heavy sigh escaped her lips as she closed her eyes, letting her head fall back and rest there, too. The hum of the engines buzzed through her skull.
Cora pressed her head back harder, as if trying to erase the thoughts that had been bouncing around her brain since she’d been captured. For a moment, it almost worked—the constant replay of her capture that had tormented her mind for hours was suddenly washed away.
It was a brief moment of respite in what was otherwise a nightmare of a day.
With another sigh, Cora allowed herself to forget where she was, imagining instead that she was back on the small planet of Egshur where she’d been vacationing just a few hours before.
The vibrations of the engine could very well have been the massage chair that each of their hotel rooms contained.
“Oh my stars, I never want to go home,” her mother had said as she sank into the chair.
Cora had laughed, and a small smile spread across her lips as she remembered it. The smile was suddenly cut short as she was transported back to reality—cold, harsh, kidnapped reality.
Her eyes flickered open again, and the hotel room, the vast beaches of Egshur, the massage chairs were all gone.
And her parents, her brother—they were gone, too.
The vibrations still pulsed at her back, but Cora’s head was upright now. She couldn’t relax in a place like this, and it wasn’t just her head that was preventing her.
The walls weren’t especially comfortable, but the cot was no better. In fact, it smelled, no doubt because the threadbare sheets hadn’t been changed since several prisoners ago, if ever. Cora had opted for the floor, and she shifted now against the wall in a futile attempt to get more comfortable. It was an impossible task, though. Jorvlens weren’t known for their hospitality at the best of times, and Cora figured that went double when it came to their kidnapping victims.
She wondered if she might use her feminine wiles to get better treatment, but she threw the thought away just as quickly as it arose.
“No way,” she muttered to herself under her breath while casting a glance outside the cell door.
The glimpse of a guard’s sickly gray face came into view as he paced along the adjacent corridor. Cora pulled back as soon as she saw him. The last thing she wanted was attention from the Jorvlens, and she shook her head again at the thought of trying to seduce one of them for her own comfort. She was smarter than that. Much smarter.
The thought had buried itself in her mind, though. Not because it was an appealing one but to remind herself of how terribly wrong such a plan might go. For a long time, she’d heard rumors of human trafficking. Just a year ago, a huge bust had taken place on the small planet of Seisi.
She remembered the news reports that had dragged on for months as hundreds of women were rescued. At the time, it seemed as though the Galactic Authority had shut down the whole operation, but she didn’t doubt some things had fallen through the cracks.
It certainly hadn’t put an end to the Jorvlens’ sordid practices, as she knew all too well from both past and present predicaments.
Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by shouting outside her cell. Despite her desire not to be noticed by the guards, she couldn’t help but strain her neck to see what was going on.
“I’m going! I’m going! Get your ugly mitts off me!” an unfamiliar voice yelled. She was no expert in Jorvlen, but her translation implant gave his voice a strange accent, implying he wasn’t a native speaker.
She wondered who it might be, but she didn’t have to wonder for long. Through the glowing cell bars, she saw two Jorvlen guards round the corner. With them, they held a prisoner—one that made Cora’s eyes widen despite herself.
He was a Lorr warrior. Cora recognized that fact immediately, thanks to his bright violet skin dappled with white patterns, almost like tattoos, as well as the black ram-like horns that curled from his forehead. The Lorr was tall and muscular, his thick arms and shoulders too big for even the Jorvlens to wrap their hands around.
He was struggling against them, but from where Cora sat, it almost appeared as if he was just playing along. She wondered what his game was.
To her surprise and delight, when they reached her cell door, they stopped.
“No funny business,” one of the guards warned, looking at the Lorr and then at her.
Cora affected a look of naive innocence, remaining huddled against her wall as they opened the cell door and threw the Lorr in with her. He landed on the floor with a loud thud but somehow seemed unfazed. He pulled himself into a sitting position as if the rough handling was nothing more than what he did as part of his morning workout.
It almost made Cora smile, but she managed to stifle the impulse. Now, more than ever, she just wanted the Jorvlens to ignore her and leave her and the Lorr alone in this cell together.
Thankfully, they did just that. With a scowl and another look of warning, the Jorvlen guards reactivated the energy bars to the cell and turned back down the hallway, leaving Cora and the Lorr to stare at each other.
Cora wanted to speak, wanted to move closer, but she knew they’d have to wait until the guards were out of earshot. Besides, the patrol guard was still walking the adjacent corridor. They’d have to be quiet.
As she waited for the guards’ footsteps to recede, she took the opportunity to get a proper look at the Lorr.
