Freeing the Prisoner_Kindred Tales_Brides of the Kindred Read online

  Are you someplace safe though? an uncertain little voice whispered in her head. Off your own world for the first time, run away with a strange male—is that safe?

  Ky’s not a strange male—he’s Ky, she argued with herself. But it was still hard to get used to seeing him up and around and free. Somehow it had felt so much safer when he was manacled in the cell. He was so big and strong and they were all alone together…

  “Hey, little girl—what’s wrong?” His deep voice was soft and concerned. Dani looked up and saw he was looking at her intently. “What is it?” he asked. “Why are you afraid all of a sudden?”

  “You…how did you know?” Dani whispered. “Know that I’m afraid?”

  “You don’t have much of a poker-face.” He shook his head at her look of incomprehension. “Never mind—it’s an Earth game of chance and bluffing. I’ll teach you sometime. What I’m trying to say is, I can read your face like a book and right now what I’m reading is fear and maybe a hefty dose of regret.”

  “Regret?” Dani said sharply. “Regret that I ran away from that disgusting Councilor Tornk? That filthy old bray-bray can kiss my creamy brown behind!”

  Ky laughed softly and his pale green eyes went half-lidded.

  “Actually, he might like that. I know I would.”

  “You…what do you mean?” Dani felt her cheeks get hot at the way he was looking at her.

  Suddenly she remembered that not so long ago she’d climbed on his lap and attempted to force his thick shaft right into her sacred channel. What must he think of her? Did he expect they were going to complete the act now? Did he still intend to change the color of her eyes? Did she want him to?

  She found she didn’t know.

  “You…” she had to stop to lick her lips which were suddenly dry. “Are you going to…going to change the color of my eyes now, Kyron?”

  He raised an eyebrow at her. “Do you want me to?”

  “I…” Dani heard her voice shaking nervously but she couldn’t seem to stop it. “I—I don’t know,” she confessed.

  “Then no, I’m not. I want you, little girl, but not until I’m completely sure you want me,” Ky said seriously. “I don’t want to change the color of your eyes just so you never have to worry about that old bastard Tornk anymore. I want to change them—want to give you the Deep Touch—because you want me to. Because you want me as much as I want you.”

  Dani felt a soft touch—his whisper fingers stroking across her heated cheek.

  “All…all right,” she stammered at last.

  “I do, however, want to heal that cut on your back and shoulder,” he said. The whisper fingers stroked her cheek again, then trailed down her throat tenderly. “You healed my back for me when I was wounded—let me do the same for you.”

  Dani felt herself melting under his tender assault and somehow she found herself nodding ascent.

  “You can try to treat it,” she told him. “But a pain-spear is made to cause nerve-damage. Honestly, it may be impossible to heal.”

  “We’ll see about that.” The big Kindred seemed undeterred by her pessimism. “Come in the back and let’s see what we can do about it.”

  With a gesture, he led Dani from the cock-pit area to the back which was made up, as he had said, as a living quarters.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “This is a long range ship so I have a food prep area, a living area, a bed chamber, and a fresher,” Ky explained, nodding at the various small but neatly furnished rooms as he talked.

  The living area was basically just a small couch to sit on and the food prep area consisted of a sink, a cabinet full of meal cubes, and re-hydrator about the same size and shape as the Earth appliance called a microwave.

  All he had to do was put a meal cube inside the small appliance to have a piping hot plate of food in a few minutes. He wondered if Dani would like the Kindred and Earth food varieties the cubes came in and hoped so. But before he fed her, he had to get the wound cleaned out.

  “Would you like a quick shower?” he asked, nodding at the fresher which had a waste disposal unit, a tiny sink, and a small shower stall in one corner.

  An eager look came over her lovely face.

  “I would love one. But…” She looked down at her ripped and dirty dress with distaste. “I have nothing clean to put on after.”

  “I’ll loan you something,” Ky promised. “You’re so tiny you can probably wear one of my uniform shirts as a dress.”

  Of course putting her into one of his shirts would mean losing the amazing view of her nearly naked body through the transparent gown she was wearing but a male couldn’t have everything. Besides, she couldn’t wear her native Goshan dress to the Mother Ship—it was completely obscene by both Earth and Kindred standards.

  “Well, I guess that would be all right,” Dani said. “Since I didn’t think to bring any proper garments with me.”

  “You didn’t plan to run away with some guy you just met a few days ago and I didn’t plan on bringing a beautiful princess back home with me,” Ky pointed out. “But here we are.” He shrugged and smiled at her. Dani returned his smile with a tentative one of her own. Ky could tell she was still getting used to the new status quo so he didn’t push it.

  Instead, he showed her how to work the shower, gave her towels and a synthi-sponge which generated bubbles spontaneously, and handed her one of his silky dark blue uniform shirts to wear when she got out. He got some fresh clothes for himself but he wasn’t about to put them on yet. He wanted a shower too when she was finished—he’d been stuck in that damn cell for days—he was way overdue for one.

  As the water rushed in the fresher and Dani showered, he sent out a wide-range probe, looking for the Hive’s original dwelling place and boosted the signal to the Mother Ship. A notation popped up on his screen, letting him know that even with a boosted signal it would take some time to get through to the ship.

  Ky blew out a breath in frustration. Well, they should be all right. The silver ship was pretty well hidden among the gray rocks and besides, he doubted any Goshan craft would dare to come after them. They didn’t seem advanced enough to have space folding technology.

  He hoped, anyway.

  “Just relax,” he muttered to himself. “Take it easy for a little while. You’re free and safely away. Everything is going to be fine.”

  The self-pep talk was all well and good but Ky knew he wouldn’t be completely at ease until he was back aboard the Mother Ship with Dani where he was certain her kinsmen weren’t going to pop up and try to take her back.

  I’ll kill them if they try, Ky thought, a possessive growl rising in his throat. She’s mine—mine and I’m never letting her go!

  Then he reminded himself that he didn’t have any actual rights to Dani and that things might have changed between them now that they were off her home planet and away from the males who had threatened her. He cautioned himself to take it easy—not to push her. But he couldn’t help the possessive feelings he had for the little Goshan princess. He’d never felt so drawn to a female before—never wanted to claim one and give her the Deep Touch so badly in his life.

  The Deep Touch—the Touch Kindred way of claiming a female—meant he would be touching her with his whisper fingers and whisper lips as he penetrated her pussy with his shaft. It was essentially touching her with his body and mind at the same time and it was this that formed a life-bond between a Touch Kindred and his mate.

  Take it easy, he told himself again. You’ve got a long way to go before she wants the Deep Touch from you. And even if she wanted it right this minute, you couldn’t give it to her.

  He thought back to how she’d tried to press his shaft into her tight little entrance and a shiver of erotic desire went through him. Gods, she’d looked so incredibly hot, straddling him with her legs spread and her dress hiked up, letting him watch as she rubbed herself against him.

  But hot or not, it was clear he wasn’t going to fit inside her without some help. Back