Claimed by the Alien Space Pirate by Charmaine Ross

Author:Charmaine Ross [Ross, Charmaine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-06-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

She struggled, trying to reach for the burning around her neck, but she was held to the bed by hands over her body. Every muscle in her body locked, her back bowed, mouth open in a silent scream as liquid agony surged through her.

Her mind was a void, filled only by the visceral effects of the fire that coursed through her. Urgent voices floated above the pain. Someone roared, the sound vibrated through her. She held onto the sound that contained as much pain that ripped through her neck. She followed the thread, until her lungs unlocked, and she sucked in a deep breath and filled her lungs.

“Hold still, female so I can heal you.”

A flooding warmth eased through the burn. She locked onto the soothing warmth. A healing wand. She was intimately acquainted with the feeling. Her body relaxed as she drifted with the glow. She’d hoped never to feel the touch of a healing wand again, but was grateful for it nonetheless.

Her muscles eased as the pain receded, until there was nothing left but discomfort. She panted, while her heart raced, and finally, she opened her eyes. Veri, Haylea and Dehlid stood over her. Their hands were on her shoulders, arms, waist and thighs. She traced shaking fingertips over her neck. Her breath trembled as much as her hands when she felt nothing but smooth, unbarred skin.

“It… it’s off,” she whispered.

She spied the collar on the floor. The inside was coated with crimson. Thin, needle-like spikes dotted the inside of the collar at regular intervals. The ends dripped with a thick, black liquid. Those things had been in her neck. If they hadn’t got that collar off her, she’d likely be dead.

She began to shake, going cold. She’d wanted to die, and her wish had nearly come true. Staring at that black liquid, it was all too close. The events that had happened, too much. She was raw. Empty.

She thought she was tough. That she could handle anything, but when she saw the tense lines around Veri’s eyes, his clenched jaw and the gleam of compassion in his eyes, she simply unwound.

Anger, she could take. Contempt. Disregard. Those didn’t matter. They were a fact of life, but just the way Veri looked at her, she knew that… he… he cared. For her. That what had happened to her horrified him. That he would go to any lengths to save her from any of life’s harshness, from any danger, from anything that would harm her.

The knowing practically thrummed in her chest. He would do that, and more. The realization was staggering. How she knew that she knew at all, hit her right in the center of her chest. Her heart raced, and heat scoured her skin, flashing all over her body as it sank in.

Nobody had cared for her before. She was sure her parents did before they died, but she barely remembered that in light of her life after that horror had happened. It had been more like a sugar-coated dream she could never have again, so it wasn’t worth pining over.

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