Rebel: Survivor's Heart, #2

By Debbie Cassidy

When death stalks the night, the only way to survive is to become the hunter.

 

Things aren't what they seem with the guys. But when lies threaten to pull us apart, fate decides to test us.

 

Stranded on a strange planet on unfamiliar terrain, there's no choice but to work together. No choice but to trust in one another. No choice but to give in to passion.

 

But we're not alone, because something lurks in the dark. Something ancient and hungry.

 

The lights are about to go out.

 

Don't make a sound.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Debbie Cassidy
• Release date: Jan 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393630791

Book preview

1

Marick

My boots echo on the polished floor as I’m led to the inquisitor’s private chambers. My hands are shackled. My clothes are rumpled from lying on a narrow cot all night, and my head is fuzzy from lack of sleep. That bitch, Rogue. This is all that bitch’s fault.

I was so close to having the status and power I’d been working for. The right House, the ear of the most powerful Trad on Vesper V, and then she had to escape.

The guards stop outside the huge oak door to the inquisitor’s chambers, and one of them knocks sharply. There is silence, and then the door is opened by a slender Trad male with a pinched face and bulbous eyes—the record keeper.

Please enter, he says in a nasal voice. The guards practically shove me into the room, and then the opulence closes in on me, wooden shelves and books and the distinct smell of venerian leather. The inquisitor is seated behind his intimidating desk, and another man sits in an armchair to the right. He looks familiar, but the inquisitor is speaking, and I’m forced to pull my gaze away from the stranger.

This is a closed hearing, to determine the events of lunar day 6, month 8. Tradacyh year 43001.

The record keeper taps away on his tiny tablet, noting the words coming out of the inquisitor’s mouth.

Marick Vantor, you’re accused of treason to your House.

This can’t be happening. Treason? I thought this was about the discharge of weapons in the mining shaft.

Do you understand the charges?

I nod and then shake my head.

The inquisitor smiles. Let’s start at the end, shall we. You discharged your firearm in the mine shaft.

Yes, inquisitor.

And you fired at the human female?

I stand tall, my hands behind my back as I answer the inquisitor’s questions. Yes, sir. She was attempting to escape.

So, was your aim to maim or kill?

I was merely aiming to incapacitate her.

The inquisitor arches a brow. Reports say you aimed for a head shot.

Reports are incorrect.

And you’re telling me the truth?

Yes, sir.

My gaze flicks to the man sitting in the armchair. He is silent and watchful, with an aura that commands respect, but the inquisitor hasn’t introduced him, and it would be rude to ask.

Marick Vantor, you were the manager of House Ryker, and then you suddenly switched allegiance to House Zantar. But before you switched, you picked a team that was less than optimal for a fight between your soon-to-be old house and your new one. Is that correct?

He isn’t wrong, but there is no way I will admit that. I picked the team I felt would fight hardest.

The man beside the inquisitor fixes his pale blue eyes on me, and suddenly I know who he is. I have seen pictures of this man. Conrad Hummer, the head of the acquisitions department on Tradacyh, the man who pioneered the fertility program. What is he doing here?

But the inquisitor is speaking again. This looks bad for you, Marick. He sits back in his seat and drums his fingers on the desk in front of him. In fact, this looks an awful lot like you manipulated events to hurt the human female and to ensure that House Ryker would lose the match. It looks like you had a personal vendetta against the human, and her escape is on your head.

But—

I did not ask a question, he snaps. Then his thin lips curl in a smile. However, there is a way for you to avoid a prison sentence for your duplicitous actions. To avoid the consequences of treason to your House.

The closed hearing makes sense now. They want something from me, and I’ll give them whatever they need to save my neck.

Conrad leans forward in his seat and fixes those eerie eyes on me. Bring Rogue back alive.

2

Space stared back at me from beyond the dome of the observatory, and the miasma of colors soothed my nerves as I lay beneath them. This was my go-to place when I began to feel antsy. Being stuck on a spaceship with four impossibly sexy males was beginning to grate on my senses the last few days, which indicated that my heat cycle was almost upon me.

Three weeks we’d cohabitated. Three weeks of getting to know Lore and Tide—the Athion crew of the ship. Not that I’d made that much of an effort with Lore. He preferred his chemicals and his lab to anything else. What he did in there was a mystery, but Tide made the effort to join us for meals and downtime.

There was a tiny rec room with cards and two Athion board games, one that reminded me of hockey but was played on a wooden board with a hand-held beater and a puck, and the other involved getting your counters to the finish box before your opponents. Other than that, we talked.

A lot of talking.

For example, I knew Xavier was an only child, while Tide was the eldest of five boys, and Lore had an older brother. I knew now that the guys lived together when they were on Athion.

It’s just easier, Xavier had explained. We travel so much that keeping three separate homes is expensive, so we rent a house together and have someone go in once a week to dust and check up on it.

It made sense. It also illustrated how close they were. Tide and Lore even finished each other’s sentences on the odd occasion Lore deigned to join us.

I got the impression Lore didn’t like me, not that I cared.

And Vex …

Well, Vex was my kryptonite. My drug. I needed to know more about him. I needed to be close to him because the damned Trad was in my heart. But he kept his distance. Ever since the fever, he hadn’t shared a room with me. Hadn’t brought up the fact that he’d told me how much he wanted me. He acted as if there was nothing between us, but the odd time I caught him looking at me, there was more than a little carnal heat in his eyes. He reined it in, though, shutting down. I wasn’t one to chase a guy, though. If he wanted to pretend nothing had happened between us, then fine.

It still stung to be rejected, but I couldn’t force him to feel what I was feeling. Thank goodness Xavier hadn’t given me a moment’s peace to dwell on the Vex issue. The Athion spent every spare moment in my orbit. He’d become my anchor on the ship, and although there was no official training room, he’d made space in one of the large, empty cabins and turned it into a sparring room. We sparred once a day, and it helped blow off steam. It also gave us an excuse to touch each other—to press up close and tussle.

Yeah, there was a definite attraction to Xavier too, and I couldn’t even blame it on the heat cycle making its way back around, because the attraction had been there last week too, and possibly the week before that.

Things were getting emotionally complicated.

The door to the observatory opened.

I thought I’d find you here, Xavier said.

I looked up as he ambled across the room in his