Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Thor is already on his knees, undoing the knots I put in place when I set the snare. The fury I feel at being ignored cannot be easily described. I caught our greatest enemy, and now Thor is just going to let him fucking go because he’s pretending to help us. Obviously this is going to go terribly badly.
I back into the canopy, out of the light of the fire. I know I will blend with the forest most effectively this way. I am pissed. I almost don’t care that the woods are full of predatory things. I don’t see that much prey in this world and that, to me, indicates that there probably aren’t that many predators either.
I watch from as deep in the shadows as I dare, as Drako shakes off his bindings and stands up.
The two of them make quite an impressive pair. Drako’s thick tattoos running over biceps and chest are even more remarkable for the fact that they are in stark contrast to Thor’s clean lines.
I could think that Drako was all bad, and Thor was all good. The two of them look like two sides of a particularly sexy coin, if you don’t think about what they do, or why they do it.
I wait for Drako to immediately attack Thor. It doesn’t happen. They are talking to one another, but I can’t hear the words. That’s the problem with having put distance between us.
I creep a little closer to try to pick up the content of their conversation. Their words are low and rumbling and the actual messages are still lost.
“She’s going to be the biggest liability if she’s not brought to heel,” Drako is saying.
“I know. She was a stowaway on our ship. Crept on at selection and hid herself until we’d taken off. It’s never happened before. Captain beat her and threw her in the brig and it had absolutely no effect on her as far as I can tell.”
“That’s because you can’t beat the nature out of a thing,” Drako says. “You can bring submission out in a submissive person, obedience out of an obedient person, violence out of a violent one… but when a woman is rebellious and headstrong by nature, all punishment ever does is buy a little time. Unfortunately for her, that’s all we need to do.”
To hell with these two. I am not going to stay with them. I might trail them, but it’s obvious that the dynamic of two against one is already established and will do me no favors.
If Thor wants to consort with the enemy of our state, he’s welcome to do so. I won’t be forgetting who I am just because I’m stranded on a scary planet.
“Where did she go?” Thor looks around.
I hold my breath in an effort to ensure I do not laugh. The absolute cluelessness of these two, talking about me as if I was not there only to realize that I wasn’t. Did they think I’d stay to be discussed like an object? Ridiculous premise.
“Girl, if you don’t get out here this moment, I will drag you out of the bush and make you regret everything you’ve ever done,” Drako threatens me. He’s not looking in my direction, though. He doesn’t know where I went. He couldn’t see me leave because he was behind Thor.
I stay right where I am.
Fuck him.
Thor will kill him if he touches me. I am sure of it.
A moment or two later, Drako walks around the perimeter of the clearing. He is still not appearing to look at me directly, and I am pretty sure he does not know where I am. The light from the fire is creating a barrier of darkness in which both men stand. They cannot look out, but I can look in.
“I can smell you,” he says, looking in completely the wrong direction.
He is such a ridiculous creature. He thinks he is so above it all, so strong and so competent. But he just sat there while his entire crew got eaten, and Thor snuck me away out from under his nose. So he’s not infallible. He makes mistakes. A lot of them.
He walks into the forest, but not where I am. He’s no longer in my field of view, which makes me a little nervous. But I stay very still and I try to stop making noise of any kind. I crouch down close to the ground and I watch the shadows. I can’t hear the crackling of twigs, or the swishing of leaves. It’s like he walked into the forest and just fucking disappeared.
To say I am surprised when a hand grips me by the back of the neck, and I am dragged into the clearing kicking and squealing, is an understatement. My adrenaline is instantly pumping from the shock of being captured so swiftly.