Wray (3 page)

“Sire. They’ve erased their navigation
history.” Veron’s comment pulled Wray’s gaze from the female.

“What?” Wray asked.

“They initiated a purge of their navigation
history as soon as we boarded.” Veron told him.

“Can you stop it?”

“Already done
,
sire
,
but most of it is gone.”

“Why would they do that?” Wray asked,
frowning. “What else are they hiding?”

“I will have a complete scan done of all
their systems, have the males in the hold interviewed to see what
they know." Veron paused. "They also sent out a transmission to
another Ganglian ship once they realized they had been
detected.”

They both knew this was extremely unusual
behavior for Ganglians. They didn’t come to each other’s aid, not
unless they were paid in advance and even then, it was no
guarantee. The slightest breath caressing his chest reminded him
that he had something more important to see too.

“Find out what is going on
,
Veron. I’m taking her back to the Searcher.”

“Yes
,
sire.” Veron
watched his Emperor carry the small female away. He doubted she
would survive; only the strongest could when exposed to the
Ganglians, and she did not appear strong. Dismissing her, he turned
back to his assigned task.

Buttoning up his shirt, Wray’s fingers paused
when they brushed the curve of a soft, full breast. Tornian
female’s breasts weren’t this soft or large, these would fill his
hands, would be giving. Wray shook his head... He should not be
having these thoughts. Not about one that had been so severely
abused. It was likely she would never recover from the abuse, never
allow a male to touch her again. Quickly he finished his task and
secured her in her seat.

“Go.” He ordered the pilot.

Taking his seat Wray found his eyes returning
to the female. Already the black and blue of her abuse was fading,
leaving behind a grayish brown color that made him wonder if it
were her natural color. Tornians came in many colors, each a
designation of their lineage. Wray himself was a deep bronze,
representing House Vasteri. He and his brother Grim and Wray’s
first male offspring
,
Tora
,
were the only ones left to represent their House.
His youngest, Van, had died nearly five years ago in a transport
accident. He was to be Tora’s second, the future King of Luda, just
as his brother Grim was Wray’s. Van would have been the one male
Tora could always depend on. Now Tora would have no one, for after
the death of his Empress Adana, Wray had decided not to take a new
female.

Many females had approached him after Adana’s
death, for to be Empress was to be the most powerful female in the
Empire. Even Risa, not even eighteen, had approached him. He had
refused them all, something only an Emperor could do for no male
refused a female’s offer to Join, for he needed the offspring she
would provide him.

It had been the Tornian way for centuries
now. A male attracted a female by what he could provide her. In
return, she provided him with offspring, preferably female, for
that increased the male’s position and status. Male offspring only
maintained it, for they had enough males. Once she had done this,
she would look for another male, taking all that she had been
given, leaving behind her offspring.

It was the way of all Tornian females, all
except for the Empress, for she would solely be the Emperor’s,
providing offspring to only him, securing the Imperial line. Adana
had given Wray two fit and worthy males and upon her death, he had
felt others deserved the chan
c
e of
continuing their bloodlines. Now he wondered if he had done the
right thing.

Since he’d made that decision, Grim had been
deemed ‘unfit’ by the Assembly after an attack by a group of
warriors, and while none of
them
had survived, Grim had been
gravely injured, leaving scars across his face and body. Because of
that,
no Tornian female would Join with him, believing he
would be unable to protect her. Stupid females. His brother was the
strongest, fiercest warrior in the entire Empire. No female under
his protection would
ever
be harmed. Still, without one
willing to give him offspring, Grim could not maintain his
position, and there was nothing Wray could do about it.

Then Van had died...

Wray was jerked from his dark thoughts when
the shuttle suddenly lurched sideways, its lights flickering as
impact alarms sounded. “What is happening!” He demanded storming
into the cockpit.

“An unknown ship is firing upon
us
,
Majesty!” The warrior frantically
worked the damaged controls, trying to stabilize the shuttle. “The
Searcher is returning fire, but...” His words were cut off as the
shuttle took another hit, throwing Wray out of the cockpit.

Struggling to regain his footing Wray’s eyes
immediately searched for the female and found her still unconscious
and safely secured in her seat. Grabbing the overhead
supports
,
Wray muscled his way back into
the cockpit. Inside, he found the warrior dead and the shuttle
falling helplessly towards a small planet.

Sliding into the second pilot seat Wray tried
to regain control of the shuttle, but nearly every control had been
destroyed. With the planet looming large before him, he did the
only thing left for him to do. Pointing the nose of the shuttle
towards the planet, he prayed to the Goddess that he could slow it
down enough to land without killing them.

Wray leaned back against the wall and closed
his eyes. It had been two long days since they had crashed on
Pontus, an old mining planet in the Kaliszian Empire and the female
had yet to wake.

He had barely gotten them out of the shuttle
before it exploded. His original plan had been to stay close to the
wreckage making it easier for Veron to retrieve them, but a storm
had been brewing on the horizon and he had barely made it to this
cave before it hit.

At first, he had been at a loss as to how to
care for the female, never having done it before. If Adana had
needed care, she went to the Healer, not to him. Quickly realizing
he had to do something or she would perish, he had lifted her into
his lap and carefully wrapped his arms around her, sharing his
warmth. She had immediately responded to his touch by burrowing in
closer, just as she had on the Ganglian ship.

When morning had dawned, the storm still
raged and the female was still unconscious. Knowing he needed to
get nourishment into her, he’d opened the survival pack he’d
managed to grab upon leaving the shuttle and had been shocked to
discover it contained only two liquid nutrition packets. There
should have been five along with a portable repair unit. He assumed
the uni
t
was missing because they had used
it on the Ganglian ship
;
the bags were
another story. They should have been there, they were meant to
sustain a severely wounded Warrior until help arrived.

Knowing he could do nothing about it, he had
slowly tried to feed her the first packet but instead of
swallowing, the fluid had flowed out of her mouth. He growled, his
frustration and she’d responded by swallowing. He quickly
discovered that the more he talked to her the more she would allow
him to care for her.

So Wray talked... and talked... until he was
nearly hoarse. He told her about the infection that had changed his
world. About how they were searching all the known Universes for
compatible females. He told her how enraged he was at what the
Ganglians had done to her. Told her that if she had been his, it
never would have happened, she would have been protected,
cherished.

Wray was amazed at the sense of freedom he
found in telling her these things, things he had told no other
living creature, not even Grim. It mattered not that she wouldn’t
remember what he said, it only mattered that he told her. He told
her about the guilt he’d always felt knowing that every Tornian
female wanted to Join with him, all because of a chance of birth
when there were others, like his brother, that were just as worthy.
He told her how it ate at him that he hadn’t been able to give his
brother the justice he deserved after his attack. How he might
actually have to strip him of his title if no female gave him
offspring.

He admitted to her that it had been the real
reason he had refused to take another Empress. He had hoped one
would choose Grim instead. He told her how he feared he would be
unable to save his people. They were dying faster than anyone truly
knew and he worried what would happen when they found out. Would
they sacrifice their honor for survival, as the Ganglians had?
Through it all, she had remained silent
,
her only response was snuggling closer to him as the temperatures
dropped.

When Wray had given her all
the
water the pack contained he’d been forced to wrap
her in the thin survival blanket and laid her on the hard ground,
to retrieve more. Following the luciferins clinging to the walls,
he went deeper into the cave, using their light to find the water
that had to be there to support them. He was amazed when he found
not one, but two pools, one with steam gently rising from it and
one that ran clear and cool. It explained the multitude of
luciferins that flourished here.

When he returned, he found that despite the
survival blanket
,
she was curled up in a
ball, shivering and crying. Wray swept her up into his arms and she
immediately calmed.

It was then that he discovered her true
color. Her tears had left white paths running down her face. Wray
immediately carried her back to the pool of heated water and
cleansed her.

What the water revealed had shocked him. Her
skin was as pale as the petals of the Moonflower and so fragile
looking that he feared his touch would damage her. His hand had
trembled when he carefully rubbed the pool’s fine sand on her skin,
removing the dirt and grime from her soft, full breasts, where he
lingered longer than he should have, but they had been so soft.
They filled his hand as nothing ever had, her dusty nipples
tightening at his touch begging him to suckle. His head had
actual
ly
lowered before he managed to stop
himself a hair
'
s breath away from tasting
the tempting morsel. Forcing himself away, he continued to cleanse
her.

Her waist… his hands easily spanned it, his
fingers touching she was so tiny. Her thighs, healed by the repair
unit, were long and firm but still soft and giving. Adana’s had
been longer, but much firmer, there was no doubt which he found
more appealing. He wondered what it would feel like to settle
between them, to embed himself inside her. Would she be soft and
giving inside too?

He forced himself not to linger when he
cleansed her female’s nub, not allowing himself to pinch or rub it.
He wanted to just see if it would swell with need. She moved in his
arms then, as if his mere
touch
excited her, which was
impossible, no female was aroused
merely
by a male’s
touch.

He hadn’t been able to stop himself from
testing her female’s opening, though, just to find out how small
and tight she really was. He only allowed the tip of his smallest
finger to enter her, but it had been enough. She
was
soft
and warm and oh
so
small and tight. How
had she survived the Ganglians? At that thought, Wray tensed, his
rage returning and as if sensing it, she whimpered. Immediately he
regained his control.

Cleansing her hair, he watched in amazement
as the dull, lifeless brown drifted away, revealing hair the color
of living fire. Was that why the Ganglians had taken her? Because
of its color? He had never seen hair like it before. He had read
about it in the stories of the ancient ones, but he had always
believed it to be a myth.

Every known species had some trait that
revealed their species. For Tornians
,
it
was their hair color, for while their skin tone could vary, their
hair was always black. The Ganglians were always completely covered
with hair and had an offensive odor. While the Kaliszians were
similar to Tornians, they only had a thick strip of hair that ran
along the center of their heads. Their position in their society
displayed by the beads they wove into it. Was it the same for her
species, did they all have hair of flame and eyes of green or did
something else unite them?

After making sure her hair was clean, he
removed every speck of Ganglian grime. Wray had removed them from
the warm pool of water, quickly drying her and covering her again
with his shirt before he did something that would be
unforgivable.

Returning to the outer room, he sat holding
her securely in his lap and tried to ignore the throbbing of his
shaft tried to ignore his desire to Join with her, to release
inside her and have it take root.

Would it? Would she be compatible with him?
Her size said no but he discovered nothing truly different between
her and Tornian females when he cleansed her. In fact, if her
survival was any indication, she was more resilient than a Tornian
female. Could she be what saved his people or would she be what
finally broke them?

Disgusted with himself, Wray let his head
fall back, thumping it against the wall. Goddess
,
he was a selfish bastard
.
N
ot two days ago, this female was being abused by the
Ganglians and here he was wondering if she would be able Join with
one of his warriors... no… not with one of his
warriors, but
with
him
! He truly was selfish for he had offspring so
others would need her more.