A Menage Made On Madison [The Federation 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read online

  Parker wasn’t completely cuckoo about her people to know that there weren’t bad Earthlings, but in this instance, it was definitely a case of better the enemy you knew over becoming some alien’s love toy.

  She shuddered at the thought, then froze as she heard the tractor beam carrying her up make a weird noise. The sound of a vacuum being released had her closing her eyes, and when mechanical arms came to embrace the cage, she blew out a breath even as it jerked her about and slammed her into the bars. Parker felt her lashes grow moist as the cage jolted against the floor of the hold, and she knew she’d have bruises on her butt, back, and legs for a semanal, but she was alive.

  That was all that mattered.

  “Can someone get me out of this goddamn cage?” she shrieked when silence followed her abrupt entry onto a pirate ship.

  “I’m coming, I’m coming. I had to get out of the beam’s controller.”

  As the voice approached, lights bleared on, but it took hardly any time at all for her eyes to acclimate because they were no way near as bright as the tractor beam had been. She saw a barrel-shaped man approaching, around six feet, all brawn and apparently brain, too—it was notoriously difficult to control the beams. He had a scar on his face, slashing along his left cheek, but apart from that he was actually rather handsome. It was so strange to see one of her own kind that she gawked at him as he approached the cage and unfastened the bolts keeping it closed.

  When the bars retracted, she didn’t even try to leap up and run off. It wasn’t like she could go anywhere. She was on this goddamn ship for however long it took for Knox and Rafer to get her back, or for however long it took her to negotiate her own freedom.

  “Why was I taken?” she demanded instead, looking for answers in a sea of questions.

  “I’m not the Captain, little lady. No point asking me. I just do the moving ‘round here.”

  She snorted. “Seventy annals since I heard such blatant sexism and it still pisses me off. I’m not your little lady, and I want you to take me to your Captain. Now.”

  “Considering that was going to be my first point of call, little lady, I think I might just accede to your requests.”

  She glared at him as he held out a hand for her to grab. She reached for it and hauled herself up. Her butt ached, and her legs were stiffer than Rafer’s erections. Which was saying something.

  Parker groaned a little as she started to walk, and her stiffness behooved her to ask, “How long was I out?”

  The man at her side shrugged. “About six heurs.”

  “Shit. That means I’ve been gone about eight. I really need to call home.”

  The stranger came to a halt, and tugged her to a standstill as well. His voice was softer as he murmured, “You call that place home?”

  She nibbled her lip. “You don’t understand.”

  “You’re right I don’t,” he retorted fiercely, then he shocked the hell out of her. She thought he’d been getting angry at her, but he hadn’t. He reached for her hand again and squeezed it. Tenderly. “Everything’s going to be all right now, Parker. I promise you. And the Captain promises you, too.”

  Shit. How did he know her name? “I-I don’t know what you think you saved me from, but….”

  “A life of drudgery,” came the quick retort. “Look, don’t panic yourself about anything that’s going to happen onboard. Everything’s going to be just fine. You’re safe now. I’m Rand, by the way.”

  “I’d tell you my name, but it seems you already know it.”

  “You’re damn right I do. Just like everyone on board. We’ve been trying to free you for the last two annals.”

  “Two annals?” she asked, befuddled. “Are you being serious?”

  “Deadly.”

  She pulled in a breath, and reached for calm. Now her panic had dispersed once she realized she wasn’t going back to a Napalmi slave auction, she was finding herself to be more than a little perturbed by what was going on. In fact, perturbed didn’t explain a damn thing. She was fucking furious.

  What the hell had they thought they saved her from?

  A life of luxury? With her mates?

  What the fuck?

  She wanted to scratch her head, but even that faint movement sent pain exploding through her skull. Whatever they’d used to drug her was still in her system. She felt it with every weak stride of her legs.

  It probably took three times as long as it should to escape the hold, with its huge boxes containing God only knew what contraband, and they made it into a surprisingly well-kitted ship. It wasn’t rotten or half-broken like she’d have imagined a pirate space ship. But then, these guys weren’t exactly Long John Silver. She’d realized that when she’d taken a proper look at Rand, who wasn’t wearing ratty breeches and sporting a sword at his hip. Hell, he looked like something out of Star Trek.

  The ship did as well. All the latest technology motion sensors, and doors whooshing open and closed at the touch of Rand’s palm to a lock. They didn’t pass anyone else on this part of the ship. Whether that was by chance or on purpose, Parker didn’t know. In a way, now that her fear had gone and irritation had replaced it, she actually wanted to see more humans.

  The last time she’d seen Earthlings walking around freely had been pre-invasion. And she wanted to see more of her kind. She hadn’t realized how long she’d been missing her own folk.

  As they maneuvered their way down a corridor, one wall was clear and overlooked what appeared to be a kind of rec room. There were all kinds of entertainments that she remembered from Earth, machines she hadn’t seen in decades.

  She stopped, pressed a hand to the glass at the sight of a ping pong table, the arcade games she’d played as a kid, and a hoop with a shelf of basketballs beside it.

  It took her a few seconds to realize humans were in the room, and that they were gawking at her.

  Drifting her gaze over more human beings than she’d seen in close to a century, Parker felt moisture prick her eyes. The tears were stupid, pointless, but she couldn’t help it.

  The sight of blond hair and blue eyes, or chestnut hair and green eyes, redheads and brunettes was like manna from the Gods.

  As she took them all in, her eyes rested on a man. All long hair, and his ears rimmed with piercings. Frowning, she pressed her nose to the glass, and shrugged off Rand’s hand when he tried to tug her onward.

  “No! I know that guy. But how?” she mumbled to herself. “I haven’t seen another human in at least fifty years.”

  Rand sighed. “You need to speak with the Captain, Parker.”

  She peered up at him. “Why?”

  “Because it’s for him to answer your questions. Not me.”

  She clucked her tongue, but tried to force her memory into working. Staring harder at the man, she watched as he turned back to his own comm unit, and the slight gesture he made as he scrubbed a hand over his head had her freezing. The last time she’d seen him, he’d had Narcian braids at his temples.

  “He….” She licked suddenly dry lips. “He’s part of the Fleet.” Parker sucked in a breath of panicked air. “He’s a mole. He’s come to kill us all.”

  This time, when Rand grabbed her shoulder, she didn’t pull away. “He’s our mole, Parker. He’s one of us.”

  She shook her head. “He can’t be. He’s on my mate’s team…I saw him the other semanal on Madison.” She blinked, recalling what she’d overheard when Lieutenant Jyk and Rafer had been talking about when they’d thought she’d left the penthouse. Rafer believed he had a mole on his team, a man who was on leave…an officer called Henrik. But that obviously wasn’t the case, because the guy down in the Rec’ room had been working on Tisiya’s abduction.

  Rafer’s mole was deeper into his mission than her mate even realized.

  “We had to find a way to search for you,” was all Rand said.

  She blinked at him, her mouth working. “You had him infiltrate the Fleet to seek me out?”

  Rand nodded briskly then s
ighed. “Come on, Parker. I can’t answer all of your questions. But I know someone who can.” She stiffened when he reached for her arm, but she let him tug her down the hall.

  “I want you to prepare yourself, Parker,” Rand said, a brotherly tone to his voice when they eventually paused outside a silver-sheened door. This one was different to the mass of silver-sheened doors they’d crossed on their journey to the Captain’s quarters. It had gold-colored lines inscribed into the metal and the lines took the shape of Earth in all its beauty. She recognized some of the gems she’d known on Earth, sapphires and emeralds and diamonds, as they too decorated the door.

  “Why should I have to prepare myself?”

  He shook his head. “This isn’t my tale to tell.”

  With those ominous words, he opened the door and urged her forward. The doorway looked straight onto a desk, and a man was seated in a large chair, surrounded by stacks of paper. Hell, she hadn’t seen paper in decades.

  The man raised his head, and when she caught a glimpse of his face, she truly understood the phrase “knees knocking.”

  Hers almost buckled as she cried out, “Daddy?”

  Chapter Twenty

  “They’ve scanned this quadrant for Parker’s ID chip, and it’s nowhere to be found, Knox.”

  Even though Rafer’s own devastation was audible, Knox clung to his own despair. “Don’t tell me that, Rafer. Do not tell me that we’ve lost her.”

  “We haven’t lost her. We just can’t find her.”

  “Some lukcin difference,” he snapped. “Have you had them look at the landing ports? Maybe she went off-planet?”

  “This isn’t my first search and rescue, Knox,” Rafer bit out. “If she has left Shuzon, we don’t know how.”

  “Is this the Garda talking or the Fleet?”

  Rafer grimly stated, “Both. When the Garda lucked out, I contacted the squadron assigned to Shuzon star space.”

  “She wouldn’t do this to me, Rafer. She wouldn’t leave me like this.” Knox’s knees gave out as he uttered the forlorn statement, trying to talk himself into believing the words. Trying and failing. “I know I’ve been an olan but I’ve been one before and she’s never lukcin abandoned me.”

  “You’ve never been an olan on Shuzon before, either. She hates it here, Knox. Maybe she’s gone back home.”

  “That makes it even worse. She’s gone back to the danger we tried to spare her from.”

  Rafer murmured, “We don’t know that. It was just Jyk’s supposition.”

  Knox shook his head. “We both know the scheduled roster had Parker working at Bar Azur that notte. It was only my idea to have a dinner party that took her off duty. Plus, she was supposed to be kidnapped a few semanals ago. What’s this about if it isn’t to do with her?”

  “I’ll get in touch with the Fleet again. Have them look out for her on the passenger ships. If she’s on one of them, then we’ll be there to meet her.”

  “And what if she’s been taken? What if whoever the hell’s trying to torture us finally has her? We couldn’t even find out who was behind the pilfering at the hotel, and you said there’s a direct link between them.”

  “Jyk said. Not me.” Rafer sucked in a breath. “Knox, I don’t have any of the answers. I don’t know what the hell’s going on, and I don’t know where our mate is. None of this is my fault, and I want you to stop acting like it is. Do you hear me? My information is based on the facts we have. Facts can change when we see them in a different light. All we can do is try to plan for every eventuality.”

  Knox sank back into his armchair and nodded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t intend to make out that this was your fault. But you’re coming up with answers I don’t want to hear, and that’s why you’re getting blasted with my anger. I’m sorry. I’m shooting the messenger, as Parker likes to say.” He gritted his jaw. “I have a bad feeling about this, Rafer. A really bad feeling.”

  “I know. I do, too. I’ll get in touch with Jyk again. Hell, I’m lucky he helped out at all, it’s chaos on their end—there’s an officer gone AWOL. But there must be more strings I can pull. Griljerrd, if there’s any advantage to my rank, I’ll use them now.”

  Knox watched as Rafer stalked off, ready to deal with whomever necessary in order to get their mate back.

  It was only as he sat there, and really thought about it, that he wished Parker was the sort to run off when she was mad. Her being tucked away in a first-class cabin on a passenger star liner was a damned sight better than the alternative: Parker, abducted. Raped, tortured. Maybe even killed.

  At the thought, his fingers clawed into the armrests of his seat. He wasn’t surprised when the resilient hemp gave way and tore. If anything, the destruction soothed him. Calmed the terror backing up in his bloodstream.

  He jumped up from his seat, grabbed one of the award trophies he’d earned at tertiary college, and smashed it into one of the framed sweatshirts of the player of his once-favored jinha team. Everything that he’d outgrown, everything that Parker had rolled her eyes at, he trashed. And it was only when everything he’d once cherished lay on the ground, torn, smashed, or broken into a million pieces, that he sank to the ground, uncaring of the hii glass cutting through his pants and bloodying his legs, and cried.

  Because Parker would never leave them to worry about her for so long. Now a full deya had passed, he knew something had happened to her, and what that something might be just tore at his soul, and made him bleed from the inside out.

  * * * *

  If there was ever a time to faint, that would have been it. Spotting the man you thought had died seventy annals ago sat behind a desk, looking as hale and as hearty as he had the last she’d seen him, it was a perfect opportunity to swoon.

  But Parker didn’t collapse. Her knees buckled, she’d admit that, and she’d also agree that she had staggered over to the desk and sank onto one of the chairs opposite her father like it was a life raft and she was drowning.

  “You’re alive?” she burst out after gawking at him for a good five mins. He’d let the silence linger, and the only thing that had broken that quiet was the sound of Rand disappearing to wherever he had to be.

  It was strange. She didn’t have any urge to jump to her feet, to round the desk and embrace the ever-loving bejeezus out of him. She felt nothing. Numb was a great way to describe it. And it was apparently a sentiment he shared, because he too just sat there, looking poleaxed.

  “You’ve been alive all this time? I can’t believe it. If I’d known, I’d have come for you. Searched you out.”

  His face crumpled at that. “How could you when you were that bastard’s slave?”

  She frowned. It hurt that his first words to her in seventy annals revolved around the bastard that owned her heart. “He isn’t a bastard, and I’m not a slave, never mind his slave. I’m his mate!”

  “Bullshit. I have the papers. He bought you, Parker.”

  “Yes, he did. He saved my life, Dad. For Christ’s sake, without him, I probably wouldn’t be alive. He saved me from slavery. I have the papers back home—he gave them to me the very same notte the auction took place.”

  Graham Dryden slammed a hand down against his desk. She jumped when all of his papers did. “Don’t lie to me, Parker. Nothing in the media indicated you were mated to that bastard. They made out you were his mistress—his fucking possession. You even have his name, like you’re some expensive trinket he gets out for special occasions.” Graham sucked in a deep breath, obviously seeking calm. “You don’t have to lie—you’re safe now.”

  “I’ve been safe ever since Knox and I got together, Dad. I’m not lying. I have no reason to. I’m mated to him. The Press don’t know, we’ve kept it quiet, because it’s none of their business.” And because they hadn’t technically been mated in the Shuzon way until she’d bonded with Rafer.

  Gray’s upper lip curled. “This is Stockholm Syndrome. We have an ex-psychiatrist on board. You can talk to him, baby, and he’ll set you right.�
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  She blinked—then realized she was doing a lot of that at the mins. But she thought she deserved to be a little surprised. “Daddy, you know who Knox is, right?”

  “Yeah. He owns Madison Hotel.”

  “No. We own Madison Hotel. Knox and I. Where do you think he got all the crazy ideas from? Golf—are you kidding me? Where else could that have come from, if not me?”

  “He used you and your ideas to make a fortune.”

  “No. We’re a team. Partners. Like you and Mom were.” She sucked in a breath, then shakily held her hand out. It hovered over the table, waiting for him to reach for her. When he didn’t, she pulled her fingers back, only to have them snatched and cradled between his big paws. The connection brought tears to her eyes, and she squeezed back. Needing him to know how good it was to see him, even though she had to set the record straight. “I love him, Dad. I’ve always loved him, and Knox loves me. I’m not his slave. He’s not my owner. Nobody owns me.”

  “According to the registry of bought and traded living items, this Baxx guy does own you.”

  She sighed. “You know the precariousness of our position in the galaxy. That’s my legal protection. It is until I’m legally bonded to Knox and his brother, Rafer.”

  Gray shook his head. “You mean he even brought his brother in on this? Those fucking Shuzon perverts.”

  “Dad. Listen to me. I’m mated to them. And when you take me back to Shuzon, and set me down where I was, we’ll get the legally bonding stuff out of the way. I’ll officially be removed from the registry.”

  Even as she uttered the words, she knew he wasn’t listening. That he wasn’t registering the truth in her statement.

  It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that after all these annals, he looked the same yet different. Stronger, colder, harder. Not like the man she’d once known. And hell, that made sense. They’d lived a lifetime without each other. She’d gone into one niche, and he’d gone into another…piracy. She wanted to shake her head at that, tell him that if anyone was crazed, it was him. But this was just like him, wasn’t it? A rebel. Only he had a cause now, a serious one.