Her Mate’s Secret Baby(22)
The doctor closed the flap and wrapped me in a quick hug, girl to girl, and I really needed it. “Tell me everything’s going to be fine, even if you have to lie.”
The doctor pulled back and smiled. “Everything’s going to be fine. And I’m not lying. Councilor Roark wouldn’t have sent you here otherwise.” She released me, pointed to the transport platform. “But I’m also cautious.”
“What do you mean?”
She pointed. “Get up there. I’m going to get the transport codes ready, just in case.”
“Just in case?” I knew what she was saying, but I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t want to leave Roark behind.
“Your mate asked me to protect you and this is what I’m doing.” She was a doctor and seemed to remain cool under pressure, but I could see her eyes were slightly wild, her hands quick. “This is the only way out of here with the Drovers everywhere.”
“Where are you going to send me?”
“It takes a couple minutes to power up, then a few more to enter new coordinates. Right now, this thing is still set to Earth.” She waved at me again, but didn’t look up from what she was doing at the transport controls. I felt like I was on a Star Trek episode waiting to say, “Beam me up, Scotty.”
I stood and wiped the sand off my skin. I was covered, the fine grains coating my arms and chest and clinging like glitter to the soft fabric of my dress. It fell, spreading in a random mess all over the transport pad.
“Hurry. Hurry.” The doctor muttered under her breath and I stopped with my hands on my thighs, rubbing at the sand. A loud clattering of metal, of sword striking sword, sounded from the entrance of the tent. The doctor cursed in her native tongue and I jumped, screaming as one of our guards flew backward through the entrance, a knife sticking out of his left eye socket.
“Go! Now!” Our remaining guard roared the order as he backed into the entrance. He fought three men that I could see. These Drovers were smaller than he, but fast and vicious. They were covered, head to toe in a dark brown robe and scarves that reminded me of desert nomads I’d seen on National Geographic. Their smaller swords flashing through the air so quickly I had trouble tracking the battle with my eyes.
“No!” I screamed. “What about Roark? Where’s Roark?”
The doctor shook her head, shouting even as she worked the controls. “He’s dead. I’m sorry. If they’re here, he’s already dead. I have to get you away from here.”
“Dead? No!”
No. He couldn’t be dead.
No. No. No.
The doctor yelled at me but I could no longer hear her. The floor vibrated beneath my feet. A bright blue light erupted from previously unseen lines. The brightness made me squint in pain as it formed a strange grid pattern on the transport pad. I tried to move off the pad, but I was trapped by the energy rising to choke me in a cloud of power and I could not breathe. The guard I’d barely met fell to his knees and one Drover slit his throat as another plunged a dagger into his side. I tried to reach out to them, to scream, but I couldn’t do anything. I could only watch and do nothing.
Behind the doctor, the third Drover raced to her and plunged a dagger into her back. She screamed, I saw her mouth open as she sank to her knees, but I heard nothing now, nothing but the hum of the transport. One Drover plunged his knife into our guard’s chest, over and over as I stood, frozen, watching with growing horror as the other attacker rushed toward me.
He lunged through the bright blue light, his gnarled and calloused hand grasping at me.
His fist tightened in my dress, tugging me mercilessly, relentlessly forward. I braced my feet and struck his arm with the dagger I still held. The gold blade struck his arm. Blood splattered on my dress, but he did not release me. Terrified, I pulled away from him with every ounce of strength I possessed. I felt the seam of my dress pop along my back as the dress ripped in two. The Drover fell back with a yell when the garment fell away from me, the seam in back exploding with a tearing sound that rattled my teeth.
Naked but for my sandals and the chains hanging from my breasts, I screamed at him, enraged that he’d killed the doctor, stabbed her in the back. Cold blooded. They’d also taken my mate from me. This was to be my fate on this stupid planet. The man I’d just begun to love, who had officially claimed me, was dead?
The hum surrounding me changed to a roar so loud I feared my skull would explode. I could not even scream as everything went black.
Chapter Eight
Roark
The chains around my wrists had worn through flesh to bone and a fever raged in my blood. My restraints were affixed to a heavy wooden post that ran the length of the Drovers’ tent. I’d been beaten and starved, tortured for four long days, and still the Drovers had not revealed the reason for their attack, nor what they wanted from me.