“My mate.” I hissed out a breath as I was lifted onto a stretcher, their hands on my back and ribs like knife blades, and someone jolted my twisted knee.
“Careful!” Seton shouted.
“I need to find her. Where is she?” Lifting an arm, I grabbed Seton’s shirt. I could see ReGen wands passing over me as I was carried from the transport room. I didn’t even remember arriving at the transport pad in Sector Two. The foul-smelling nox, the sand, the heat. The pain. It was all a blur. A painful blur. I remembered stumbling into the tent. Seeing blood in the sand. The control panel…
His eyebrows went up. “You claimed a female?”
“An Earth female. She’s mine. Where is she?”
Seton continued, seeing I was anxious. “All I know is your parents transported to Xalia nine days ago. No other transports came here from Outpost Two until you showed up a few minutes ago, half dead. You somehow transported here, to Outpost Nine.
I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. Gods take it. I was on the Northern continent, in High Councilor Tark’s territory.
Of course Seton was here. I’d sent him to Tark two months ago to work out Drover protection schedules over trade routes in the West, a duty Tark and I shared.
“How the fark you did it with your injuries, I have no idea.” Seton looked down my body and watched as the doctor tried to work on me. We’d stopped moving but I couldn’t see around all the bodies that circled me. I had no idea where I was, exactly. I had to assume they’d carried me to the medical station.
“Get me the leader of your guards,” I said, my voice loud and commanding. “Now!”
The head guard, a commander, pushed his way between attendants, bowed to me. His uniform and insignia indicated his high rank. “I’m Commander Loris. It is good to see you alive, Councilor.” While his words were well wishes, his tone was anything but happy as he saw the extent of my wounds. “Your injuries indicated you’d been tortured.”
“Mmm,” I murmured, thinking of what the Drovers had done to me. That was nothing compared to what I felt now. Out of control. Frustrated. The pain was lessening with whatever the doctors were doing, but it wouldn’t soothe the need to search every corner of the planet for Natalie. “They did not attack as usual.”
“They kept you alive, you mean?” Commander Loris asked.
“Exactly. It is not their usual behavior. Why did they not just kill me with the others?”
Seton cleared his throat. “There have been a number of cases in the North, Councilor, where they have taken high-ranking officials and tribal leaders and demanded a ransom.”
“And did they demand a ransom for me?”
“No. It’s safe to assume they didn’t realize who you were when they took you.”
I dropped my head back onto the stretcher and closed my eyes. “They would never release a councilor.”
“Exactly.” Seton’s hand landed on my shoulder with a gentle squeeze. “You’d be too dangerous an enemy.”
If they’d touched Natalie, if they’d hurt her, they had no idea how terrible an enemy I’d become.
“Where is my mate, Seton?”
“As soon as you were cleared from the transport pad, I sent a group of guards to Outpost Two.” He looked away for a moment, then back. “It’s only been an hour, but they are reporting back complete carnage, as you know. Typical Drover actions. They have yet to find any survivors.”
“My mate was there.”
His cool demeanor slipped, his eyes widened. I watched as his jaw clenched. “What does she look like?”
“She is beautiful.” With my eyes still closed it was easy to picture her, as I’d been doing during my captivity. “Golden hair and pale eyes, like yours, but blue.” The bluest eyes, the softest smile, lush curves, pert nipples adorned with little rings, a pink pussy.
“I’ll find her.” Seton patted my shoulder as the doctor stepped forward and I opened my eyes to look at him, to judge the veracity of his vow. He meant what he said, and I nodded. He was a good man. A good friend.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but we need to get you into the ReGeneration Pod. You’re bleeding internally, sir.”
Fark.
“You’re no good to your mate, or your people, if you’re dead,” the doctor insisted.
Gods damn all doctors for stating the obvious and being asses about it.