Deep, Hard, and Rough (8 page)

The room she was in was unfamiliar, but then again
why wouldn’t it be? Clearly she had been discovered, but why wasn’t she dead,
or at the very least bound and gagged? Why were there bandages covering her
body, as if someone was trying to heal her wounds, like they wanted her to be
well? A stowaway wasn’t something that was taken lightly. Tightening her hold
on the blanket, she continued examining the room.

There was door to her left, closed, a small chest,
and a basin with a mirror above it, and another small bathing chamber to her
right. Aside from those things and the bed she sat on the room was barren. Twisting
slightly on the bed had pain lancing up one whole side of her body. Looking
down, she saw a small square patch in the crook of her arm with a thin tube
attached to it. Following the tube she saw it attached to a small bag filled
with some type of clear substance.
That
was going into her body? A wave of dizziness assaulted her even more. After a
moment the feeling passed, and she sighed.

Why would the owner of the ship be mending a
stowaway? At least she thought she was still on the ship. She certainly wasn’t
at one of the rundown shacks back on the red dust planet, and she knew enough
about technology that even if she was on a spacecraft she wouldn’t have been
able to tell. The ride would have been as smooth and flawless as if she were
standing on solid ground back home.
Home.
No, she
shouldn’t even think of that planet as such. Heart beating double time, the
image of her on the slave auction block slammed into her mind. What if that was
where they were taking her to? It would certainly explain why they were nursing
her back to health so they could sell her to a wealthy buyer, but then logic
crept in. She wasn’t restrained as she would assume a piece of property would
have been. There were just too many things slamming into her mind over and over
again for her to make any kind of sense. She was a viable female, and many
planets used slaves for other things than manual labor.

Oh God.
Sickness washed
over her. She had to escape. No way was she going escape being Maximo’s sexual
plaything, just to be captured and sold as another perverted male’s toy. She
braced herself and set her legs over the side of the bed. Letting the dizziness
pass, Luna stood. Her vision was still blurry, and so she took the edge of the
blanket and tried to clean off as much as she could. The blanket was wrapped
around her, but the bulkiness made her movements slow. Grabbing the
fluid-filled bag, she was tempted to rip it from her arm, but common sense told
her to just take one step at a time. She walked over to the basin and mirror. Placing
the bag in the stainless steel sink, she gripped the edge of the cold metal
tightly with one hand. Horror sufficed her when she got a look at her face.

Running a finger across the thick jelly like
substance that still covered her face partially she could see fading bruises marring
her flesh. There was still a bit of swelling, but not enough to obstruct her
vision further. How long had she been out that her wounds were all but healed?
Luna supposed it could have been a very short time if the owner of the ship had
access to state-of-the-art equipment and medical supplies. Looking down at her
arms, she saw all the cuts were nearly healed, and the same gel type substance
covered them. A thick white bandage wrapped around her forearm. Pulling at the
edges of the bandage, the material started to unravel and fall to the ground. What
was revealed was a nearly healed wound.

The sound of deep, male voices sounded just outside
her door. The language was foreign to her, and adrenalin pumped through her
body. The flight or fight response kicked in and urged her to move into action,
but as she looked around, she realized there was nowhere for her to go aside
from hiding in the bathing chamber perhaps. But before she could take one step
the door slowly dematerialized and showed her the males that held her life in
their hands.

****

The door to Luna’s room dematerialized, and the
first thing he noticed was an empty bed. Her fear thickened the air, and every
protective instinct inside of him roared out. He sensed the same change with
his brothers who stood right behind him, but he held his hand up, urging them
to rein it in. It didn’t take him more than a second to see that she was over
by the bathing chamber. Her whole body shook, and beads of perspiration dotted
her forehead. She was scared and in pain, and he felt his muscles tense over
that dual sensation coming from her. All he wanted to do was go to her and wrap
his arms around her, tell her everything would be okay, and they were the last
ones she needed to shy away from. She tightened her small
hands
 
on
the blanket wrapped around her
body. He was thankful to see her face was nearly clear of all evidence of her
abuse, as were her limbs. She had removed the bandage from the more serious of
cuts on her forearm, and although it was starting to close, it would need
several more hours of care before it was completely mended again. He had come
in to add more healing gel to her wounds, but never expected her to be up and
waking around. A quick glance over his shoulder showed his brothers were just
as surprised to see her up and moving around as well. Her eyes were the size of
moons, and her breathing was rapid.

“Shit,” Raimi said as a fresh wave of her fear
slammed into them.

Her gaze flicked over him and then to Genet and
Raimi.

“
Fallina
.”
He held
his hands out in front, hoping to appear non-threatening. He noticed the way
her throat worked as she swallowed. “You remember us from the tavern?” She
swallowed again, but did a firm, and quick nod of her head. “Good, that’s real
good,
Fallina
.”

“That’s not my name.” She took a step back. “What
does that mean?
Slave?”

Slave?

He looked back at his brothers, saw their identical
looks of confusion, and faced Luna again. Then it clicked into place that she had
initially thought they meant to keep her as a slave.
Whether
they were royalty or not, her fear had her thinking the worst.
Of course
he couldn’t blame her, not when it was clear she had been living a nightmare. “No,
no. It is just an endearment in my language. It means dearest one.”

Her brows dipped low, and she glanced at the ground.
Her mouth moved, but he couldn’t hear what she said.

“Luna?” She snapped her head up and looked at him.
Her eyes seemed so very blue compared to her too pale face and the dark circles
directly below them. He took a step closer and was thankful she didn’t move away.
“You should lie back down, and give yourself time to heal. That is all we want,
to have you whole again.”

She took a step back when he moved forward this
time. “We have no intentions of hurting you.”

“We only want to take care of you.” Genet stepped
beside Erak, his voice coaxing and gentle. Genet had always been the calmest out
of the three of them, whereas Raimi was the outgoing and playful one. Erak had
been called many things: ruthless, commanding, domineering, but never had he
been gentle, not like his brothers. But the longer he was in Luna’s presence he
wanted to give her everything he had.

He held his hands out further, and took one more
step closer. They were only separated a body length apart, and the saccharine
scent of
her
filled his lungs as he
inhaled deeply. “You have nothing to fear. We will not harm you.” He told her
again, hoping that if she heard it enough times maybe she would understand they
spoke the truth. But Erak didn’t blame her for the wariness she felt. She was
from that fucking rotten planet, and who knew the horrors she had seen on a
daily basis. He tried once more to soften his voice, to not be too rough in
speaking. Just the fact his mate was right in front of him, had the primal part
of him rising and wanting to go to her. He felt guilt for his physical reaction
to
her, that
his dick was harder than the steel that
surrounded them, because the state she was in should have had the fucker
inverting. “You remember what we are called?”

Her brows knitted again, and he realized asking her
too many questions right now would be draining for her. “I am Erak.” He heard
her heart beat faster, but not from being frightened but because she
remembered. Pleasure over that filled him.

“Yes, I remember.” Her voice was nothing more than a
whisper. “And you are Genet, and you Raimi.” His brothers both
shifted,
and he sensed their pleasure as well. Their mate
knew them, called them by their names, and that was one fucking heady
sensation. “What…” She licked her lips. “What do you plan on doing with me? I
won’t be sold. I’ll fight until I’m dead before that ever happens.”

“
Fallina
, I told you that is not our intent.”

Her strength and resolve were commendable, but it
didn’t stop the possessive side of him from shifting violently inside of him.
Just the thought of someone thinking they had the right to sell her, of another
male touching her, and being with her, had an animal instinct in him needing to
kill something. Thinking of another male that wasn’t one of his brothers just
being in her presence had him curling his hands into fists. He breathed out
harshly.

“You are not being sold,
Fallina
.” His words were too
harsh, because she flinched. Taking a deep breath, he spoke again, softer this
time. “I just mean we would never let anyone harm you.”

“Why? I am a stowaway on your ship, a thief.” Her
eyes grew wide again as she looked at them. Tears started to gather in her eyes,
and he cursed. He was in uncharted waters here, and he didn’t know how to proceed
and not make things worse.

 
“You’re ours,
Luna, but not in the way you I know you’re thinking. We don’t want a
slave,
do not want a robotic female to do what we say.”

Genet put his hand on his shoulder, urging him to
stop without words. Erak should have given her time to recoup, but her fear for
them had something inside of him snapping, and all he could think about was
making the declaration that she was their mate.

“Brother, you’re pushing too fast. Give her time.”

Raimi’s voice didn’t pierce the determination inside
of Erak. He shrugged off Genet’s hand and took another step forward. She still
had the wide-eyed look on her face.

“Do you understand what I’m saying, Luna?” She
didn’t respond, just stood there with the sound of her little heart beating a
frantic tattoo and filling the small space. “You’re our mate, all three of us,
and the only thing we want to do is protect you, cherish you, and make sure you
are always protected.”

He took yet another step, and another, until he was
only a foot from her. The wall was right behind her, so even if she wanted to
escape she couldn’t, but strangely enough there was only a deep rooted
confusion over the situation, and rightly so.

“This is fast, and I know very hard to accept and
understand, but even being a human you know when a male of any species finds
his mate, there is nothing that will make him leave her side.” They breathed
the same air, shared the same body heat, and stared into each other’s eyes.
Genet’s and Raimi’s presences were fierce behind him, and their worry that he
pushed her too fast and hard beat at his back, but they didn’t stop him, and
smartly so. They may be physically matched in height and strength, but they
lacked the ruthlessness that consumed Erak.

“Tell me you understand what I am saying,
Fallina
. Even
though it is hard to accept, tell me you understand that from this point on.
The three of us will never allow anyone to harm you, and if they do, blood will
bathe our bodies as we destroy them.”

She stared at him, and her expression was one of
understanding even if she didn’t respond right away. “Yes, I understand what
you’re saying.”

 
“Tell us who
hurt you.” Genet stepped beside Erak. His brother’s fists were clenched tight
at his sides.

She licked her lips, and he couldn’t help but feel
his groin tighten at the sight. “I don’t understand why you care.” She looked
at all of them, and it was apparent she was honestly surprised they wanted to
know.

“We want to know so we can make sure it never
happens again.” Genet spoke between gritted teeth.

It took her a moment to answer, but when she did her
voice was strained. “It doesn’t matter. Not anymore.” An emotion he couldn’t
place laced her voice. “I’m pretty sure I killed the male who hurt me.”

Chapter
Seven

The only thing Luna could do was
stare
at Erak. Oh, she remembered all three of them very well, but never had she felt
such intensity come from another being. Erak’s words not only held firm, but he
made them sound like what he said was law. He was royalty, the eldest and next
in line for the throne of his people, so she had no doubts he got what he
wanted when he wanted. And what he wanted was her, all three of them did. They
also wanted to know who had harmed her, but she didn’t see the point in it now.
Maximo was dead, of that she was sure. She had told them, and all three of them
just stared at her. The silence stretched on and on, and she shifted on her
feet. The last thing she remembered seeing was his blood seeping from his
throat and making a grotesque pool around his head.