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This is all my fault. If I hadn't run into him at the Gilded Orb, we would all be safe on Crao.
What about Qhix?
I'd seen his sivot fall after being mercilessly pummeled with blaster fire. He'd selflessly created cover with his shield to protect the Ziarian males while they exchanged fire. The cowboy had some kind of impenetrable, translucent body shield, so their efforts were in vain.
Then Drax took a searing hit to his arm, and Qhix's sivot yelled at them to retreat. The Ziarians formed a wall of horns, muscle, and fangs around us while I watched helplessly on the sidelines as Qhix's sivot charged the cowboy lizard. And when he broke through the body shield, we all cheered too soon. Before the sparks from the shield could finish raining down around them, the cowboy lizard had pulled out a different weapon and shot Qhix's sivot at point-blank range.
I screamed as the sivot fell face-first in the hard dirt like a felled tree. Qhix's beastly form was an avenging storm, relentless until he wasn't.
"Qhix..." His name is a whisper torn from my soul. I should have told him what was in my heart, now I may not ever get the chance.
A surge of regret and desperation energizes me to rise, but my limbs won't cooperate, too heavy and wobbly as I try and fail to sit up. Panic's icy fingers claw at my chest. I need to escape. To find a way back to Crao. To find my way back to Qhix. But all I can do is lie here, rendered powerless with my cheek pressed against the cold floor, my heart thundering in anguish as the cowboy lizard flies me farther and farther away from my mate.
And what of the five Ziarian's who had tried to protect us when the cowboy lizard came to claim us? Each one except for Slye was a fated mate to one the girls I shared a history of abduction with.
"Mordox?" Zoe stirs beside me, her voice thick and groggy.
"Where're we?" Darcy's hand finds mine, her grip a lifeline in this turbulent sea of dread. "You ok, Tasha?"
"Drax..." Stacy croaks.
An anguished sob escapes Romy’s throat, mirroring the agony inside me. She was keeping Bruke at arm's length, but I knew she was fighting her feelings for him, much the same as I had been for Qhix, but no longer.
"When I make it back to Crao, I'm not going to hesitate," I vow to myself.
"Hey. You all okay?" A stranger's voice slices through the haze of our despair. The one with shoulder-length brown hair inches toward us.
"Who are you?" Romy asks, in her heavy German accent.
"Name's Lena," she says. "That's Elle and Jules." Lena gestures to the others, both of whom offer us faint smiles.
"Darcy, Tasha, Zoe, Stacy, and I'm Romy."
"Do you know where he's taking us?" Stacy murmurs and pushes herself into a sitting position. The veteran abductee of our group, we had dubbed her Captain Stacy as it was her who flew us off the red planet where we had been taken to be sold like cattle at an alien meat market.
Stacy was abducted a couple of years ago, and spent most of that time in a dirty cage. Lucky for us, she had paid attention when her owner had flown her around the Universe, and she knew enough to operate his spacecraft and rescue us from a horrible fate at the hands of the piss-yellow alien who had bought us.
"Valose," Elle answers softly from her place in the corner. "It's safe there, where others are waiting for us."
"Never heard of it." I push up enough to get my elbows under me. Lena comes to my aid, helping me to sit and scoot back so I'm leaned against the wall. "Thanks."
"Sure," she gives me a hesitant smile as if she's as unsure about me as I am the lizard at the helm. "Nice dress."
I gaze down in dismay at the once-beautiful dress gifted to me by Qhix, now crumpled and torn as if I had been dragged through a war zone. The memories of our time together on the beach on Pryt linger like bitter reminders, each touch and word now a painful wound to my shattered heart.
Regret consumes me, knowing I should have told Qhix how I truly felt about him before it was too late. But if by some miracle we are reunited, I won't hesitate to pour out all the warmth and love I have for him.
Love? I sniffle. Fuck! When did I lose my heart to the smooth-talking pirate?
"Others?" Zoe pushes her cap of blonde hair out of her eyes and moves over to sit next to me. "What others?"
I'm so glad for Zoe's company. I clutch her hand in mine, a tether as I regain some control over my bubbling emotions.
"Other humans." Lena appears to be the spokesperson for their trio. "And Rex is a Lizordian."
"Rex, huh?" Darcy scoffs and glares daggers at the turquoise alien flying the ship.
"He saved us from a tusked beast with rough, green skin," Jules, who has been quiet up until now, snips at us. "You should be grateful he found you too. Rex is taking us to someplace safe."
