Claimed (10 page)

“Bavric,” Sorvar demanded.

Bavric gripped the back of the chair in front of the console, his claws scraping across the metal, leaving deep gouges. “I believe from the rumours I heard from the other medics, the king sent your mate to the dungeon. She has been there since the ship landed.”

Sorvar growled. He could feel it. This time, he welcomed the rage and surge of whatever was inside him with relish. The same feeling that had filled him right before his world had shattered on the ship surged inside him.

He would find his mate, then he would show his father exactly what mating with a human had done to him.

* * * *

What else could go wrong?

She’d thought that before they’d shoved her in this hell hole and left her alone. If only she’d known. Tina shuddered on the cold floor and scraped her claws across the rough stone. Anything to break up the silence and remind herself she was alive. Anything to stop the memories from bombarding her. Old memories, and now new memories.

Doctor Tragesh had said her transformation was complete, but he was wrong. So very wrong. Sorvar’s second bite seemed to have triggered something in her. Or maybe it was the third or fourth time he’d bitten her. The thing she’d felt coiled in her belly had taken her over and created her anew.

The Coalition database held no records of what happened to the mates of the Morgath once they received the second bite. It didn’t happen until they were long gone and on their way to their new home.

Tina shifted position and hissed out a breath as pain scored down her back. She would be eternally grateful to Doctor Tragesh for sedating her through most of the first stage of her transformation, but the pain of her body’s changes wasn’t her only problem. Tina was pretty certain the wounds on her arm had become infected. Stupid medic. She’d told him humans were susceptible to infection—apparently she was still human enough to get an infection.

Without the sound of her own breathing, time in her little black hell hole stretched interminably, punctuated only by pain so agonising it ripped screams from her. The light stayed the same. A small sliver shone through the slit in the thick wood door. It did little to light the tiny square room they’d dumped her in, but it was enough to keep the worst of her memories and some of the fear at bay.

Calling it a room was a little like calling a hut a palace. They’d put her in a cell. A cell with no bed, no toilet or sink, not even straw for the floor. She had nothing but a bucket for her to do her business in, and nobody had emptied it since the male her two guards had passed her to had thrown her in.

She felt like a little girl all over again. She felt like the child her father had locked in the cupboard to punish, to forget, to abuse and torture. Tina was grateful when the agony became unbearable. She couldn’t scream and writhe and remember at the same time, and the pain forced away her fear, at least for a while.

If their intention was to starve her, they were doing a good job of it. Only twice had she received a piece of some kind of hard dry meat and a cup of water. The water had been bitter, and she’d passed out not long after drinking it. It didn’t take a genius to work out the male had drugged her. Perhaps he was sick of listening to her screams.

The scent of her blood permeated the cell, strong enough to drown out the stench that lingered. Only the faintest hint of metal remained, the green smell Tina scented on the ship now stronger. Her blood smelled like a forest, rich and damp, with hints of sweetness.

She curled into a ball as shudders of cold sent twinges of pain through still developing muscles. The weight between her shoulders pressed her down. Even if she wanted to stand up, she would probably end up flat on her face.

She’d had a lot of time to think while locked in, lots of time to analyse her feelings. She had come to the conclusion that she wasn’t responsible for what happened to Sorvar. She had nothing to feel guilty for. He was the one who had bitten her and claimed her, he was the one who had started all of this. The more she thought about it, the more she realised she was still angry with him for what he’d done, and she intended to give him a right serve for it, but she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the surge of heavy warmth she’d felt from him before the attack and what it could have meant. The answers she came up with sent warmth surging through her and left her with a tight breathless feeling in her chest, and at the same time completely terrified her.

For the first time in her life, though, she wanted a relationship to work, to see what they could have together long term. The idea of being together long term sent butterflies into her stomach, but she wanted to try. Tina didn’t love Sorvar yet, but she liked him and the way he’d treated her before the attack. Things would never be boring with Sorvar around.

He was never far from her mind. The emptiness almost drove her as crazy as the silence. She missed feeling him inside her—she missed his gentle amusement and the heated surge of his lust. A cold emptiness that burned through her had taken the place of the warmth in her chest.

It was just another pain to add to the list she already had, and it was growing. The searing pain in her chest pulsing with sharp ferocity made Tina blink her eyes in the semi-dark. The last time she’d felt this was... on the bridge of the ship right before Sorvar had changed.

Rage. So much rage. Oh god, he was awake! Was he coming for her? Maybe he thought she was dead already. Tina uncurled and struggled up to her knees, almost toppling over under the heavy weight on her back.

Tears burned in her eyes, but she refused to allow them to fall, blinking her eyes repeatedly, but a single tear escaped to slide down her cheek, and she wiped it away with rough fingers scratching her face with her new claws. She kept forgetting they were there. Damn it, she didn’t want Sorvar to see her cry. She didn’t want him thinking she was weak.

The rough stone floor cut into her knees as she kneeled quietly, waiting, listening for a sound, an indication that something was happening. The fiery blaze of Sorvar’s rage burned hotter and stronger in her chest as the minutes ticked by.

Her breath caught for an instant, then whispered over her dry lips. Her belly fluttered when a distant roar shook the stones under her knees.

Furious wasn’t a strong enough word to describe Sorvar. She almost felt sorry for anybody who was in his way while he tried to find her. Except for the king. She didn’t feel sorry for him at all, and would quite happily stand aside as Sorvar tore into him.

Tina shook her head. No that wasn’t right. The king was Sorvar’s father, and she knew from experience that a parent could do all sorts of horrible things to a child, and they could still love them in a twisted kind of way. The king probably loved his son, and maybe it pissed him off that Sorvar had chosen a mate that, in his eyes, made him weak. Still, did that give him the right to treat his son’s mate like shit?

She was in a freaking dungeon, for god’s sake. It was positively medieval. The Morgath were an evolved, technologically advanced species. Why the hell did they even have a dungeon?

Another roar, louder this time, shook the floor under her. Tina’s heart thumped in her chest so hard she thought it would burst out. Would he still want her when he found out how she had changed? Maybe he wouldn’t look at her with dark heat in his eyes anymore and kiss her with more passion than she’d ever felt before.

Maybe not while she smelled like a sewer, or was that an abattoir? Whatever it was she smelled like, she needed a bath, and she’d needed it days ago. Tina smoothed her hands down what remained of her top. She couldn’t do anything about the way she looked.

Thuds and growls filtered through the tiny slot in the door as Tina kneeled in the little sliver of light. Rage and... determination drove her to her hands, gasping. The weight of Sorvar’s emotions was enough to drive her to the floor. She braced herself on trembling arms, the rough stone harsh against her soft palms.

A sudden spasm in the new muscles in her back ripped a pain filled scream from her already hoarse throat. Her braid fell forward off her shoulder as she dropped her head and panted through the pain. The now much longer mass coiled on the floor beside her hand.

She could feel him coming. Oh god! The floor trembled under his heavy steps, the air thick with emotion and that ever present rage filled her to overflowing, burning like a hot coal in her chest.

“Sorvar,” she breathed, his name a soft caress on her lips.

A low growl came from the other side of the door as the brooding bulk of his body extinguished the small sliver of light. The door groaned, the sound of wood splintering and cracking ricocheted through the cell sending sparks of pain through Tina’s head.

With a furious squeal of metal hinges, Sorvar tore away the door, the crash tremendous as he threw it aside, but Tina ignored it as she stared up at her mate.

“Tina,” Sorvar growled.

Oh god! His voice was like a cool breeze on a hot summer night, fluttering across her heated skin in a gentle dance. He was huge, so freaking big he took up the entire doorway and then some.

Tina’s heart squeezed. He’d come for her. He’d woken, and she’d been his first priority. She struggled with the surge of emotion that flowed through her, wanting to burst into tears and laugh at the same time, wanting to curse him and beg him never to leave her again. Deep, heavy emotional moments weren’t Tina’s forte, so she did what she always did in these situations.

“You’re a sight for sore eyes, handsome. Did you enjoy your nap?” she asked, her voice husky, her throat ruined.

Her claws scraped across the stone floor, the sound a small shriek in the cell as she balled her hands into fists.

Sorvar’s low deep chuckle sent dark amusement flowing through her. “No,
pavri,
I did not. You were not beside me, and I longed for your presence and your touch. Even while unconscious, I felt the loss of you like a blade in my gut.”

A shudder ran through Tina, the pain inconsequential compared to the warmth filling her heart.

“I missed you too, Sorvar,” she whispered.

Chapter Eight

To Tina, it seemed like such a small admission, but the welter of warmth that flowed through her from the bond she shared with Sorvar was almost enough to make her sob.

“Come, Princess, we have something to attend to, then I will take you to Medical and have Bavric perform the scans you should have received the day we arrived,” Sorvar said.

Her cell was almost entirely black inside. Very little light seeped in around Sorvar’s massive form. Could he see how she’d changed in the time she had been down here? She wasn’t the same Tina he had shared his bed with on the ship. She wasn’t the same woman he had held pressed against him and claimed over and over again.

He might not be able to accept the changes to her body when he discovered what she had become. His feelings could change.

To take her mind off
what ifs
and
maybes,
Tina asked, “How long have I been down here, Sorvar?”

It felt like a thousand years. It could have been a day. It could have been a week.

“The ship landed five days ago.
Pavri,
you must come to me—I cannot fit through the door as I am.” His tone was gentle but insistent.

Yes, she wanted to get out of here. Five days was plenty long enough in a cell to last her a lifetime. Tina braced herself for the pain and pushed up on her hands. She bit her lip as she drew a leg up to push herself to her feet. Her new teeth pierced her lip, but the small pain was nothing compared to the spikes that pierced her back.

She screamed, her teeth gritted tightly together as the muscles in her back flexed and strained. On her feet for the first time in what felt like days, Tina wobbled under the new weight on her back, barely managing to stay upright.

Her head spun as blood roared in her ears. She grunted in pain as she tried to hold her swaying body still.

“You are in pain, Tina. What has Tardic done to you?” A surge of violent rage inside her accompanied a low threatening growl.

“Nothing,” she gasped as she took one step forward.

Her body screamed in protest, but Tina took another step and another.
Come on. You can do this.
It was only a few steps to the door.

“Then why are you in so much pain?”

Tina didn’t answer. It would be better for him to see for himself than for her to try and tell him about the changes. She didn’t even know where to begin.

The floor was cold and rough under her soft soles. After the male had thrown her in the cell, she had discarded her shoes, and she’d never find them in the dark.

Two more steps and she would be able to reach for Sorvar to steady herself. Those two steps were the longest, hardest two steps Tina had ever taken in her life. When she held her hand out to him, and he enclosed hers in his strong warm one, she almost sobbed. Her entire body trembled with the effort it took to walk.

He took slow, careful steps back, helping her walk from her cell. If he heard the slight dragging sound that accompanied her trek across the stone floor, he didn’t mention it. And all she could feel from him was burning fury.

The light blinded her as he stepped back away from the door. Tina covered her eyes with her hand and continued to step towards Sorvar, supported by his strength.

She didn’t know what he saw first—her claws, the teeth she bared in a grimace of pain, or the small claws she had on her feet. Maybe it was the two wings that hung limp and useless down her back and dragged on the floor. Whatever it was, a sharp hiss escaped him.

“Gods, Tina, look at you. My beautiful
pavri,
you are stunning.”

Tina dropped her hand and looked up at her mate as his shock gave way to a heated surge of lust and something she didn’t recognise. Her eyes teared up, the light almost blinding her. A soft, gentle stroke along her cheek drew a gasping breath from her.