A Human Sacrifice (Star Squad Brides Book 1)

  Chapter Five

  FarSeer’s primal side was enraged. It demanded the blood and death of his enemies. Who were close. Closer than he ever imagined they could be.

  I just need to focus on my work. Lose myself in it.

  Or kill those creatures with my bare hands.

  He drew in a shaky breath, forcing his hands to uncurl. You are a medic and a researcher now. Not a soldier. Those beasts are not your concern.

  Turning his head, he stared at his screen, willing himself to forget all else but his work. Time ticked by. He slowly relaxed as he viewed the data streaming in from the new Earth brides. This is exactly why I agreed to join this crew, being Head Researcher on the first bride exchange with a new world is an opportunity I never thought I’d have.

  From light-years away, females were simultaneously injected with their new mate’s language, while their blood sample was taken. Only females capable of breeding with their males would be accepted in the exchange.

  Everything was going perfectly. Not even a slight hiccup detected so far.

  Almost the second the thought entered his mind, the computer flashed, the numbers freezing in place. His eyes widened at the sight of the latest data being streamed from their soon-to-be brides. “One of the women has Spiritus blood in her. That’s impossible.”

  He rubbed his face and stared back at his holoscreen until the numbers stopped blending together. The data was the same.

  Not quite one of us, but not quite human either.

  “That can’t be,” he murmured to himself. “In order for one of the humans to have our blood in them, she’d have to be…”

  He wasn’t certain.

  Until FarSeer had been recruited for this mission, he’d had no idea that the Council had made contact with a new planet. For the information not to be common knowledge, the agreement between the two species must have only just recently been solidified.

  Certainly not enough time for a Spiritus to breed with a human female and have a child old enough to be a bride. So, she can’t be one of us. How could this have happened?

  FarSeer truly had no idea, but what he did know was that female number 9,847 was an abnormality. A mystery. And I love mysteries. He now not only had a new species of brides to study, he had a specific female to study.

  He grinned, but then his smile faltered. Number 9,847 would be the easiest Earth female to breed with. Parsimon will want her as his bride. Which made him feel… uneasy.

  Soon he would run The Bride Initiative. It would assign each woman to their mate based on the best possible match for breeding, but also based on factors that they’d finally been able to identify on a scientific level. Their system was nearly flawless. The females would find themselves irresistibly drawn to their mates, as would the males. It was the closest science could come to identifying a formula for love.

  But when Parsimon learns of her Spiritus blood, he’ll want female number 9,847, regardless of whether or not they would make a good match

  Unfortunately for her.

  His door beeped. Only a few people have access to the private medbay that leads into my living quarters. I wonder what the person wants.

  “Enter,” he responded, leaning back with a groan.

  How long have I been staring at that damned screen?

  His best friend and captain entered FarSeer’s quarters with his usual air of confidence. Moving soundlessly past his bed, he went to the corner and poured them both a drink.

  Immediately, FarSeer tensed as the real world collided with his simpler world of numbers and formulas. Wearily, he watched as the other male came to settle in the chair across from him.

  Usually I’d be glad for his company but not after what I learned earlier today. Not after seeing my greatest enemy, the creatures who haunt my nightmares, walking the halls of this ship as guests.

  It was a terrible betrayal. And the only person responsible for it could be the male staring at him, one FarSeer had called friend for many years.

  “No greeting?” Leader’s voice held an edge of amusement as he handed the other male a drink. “I’m told you saw the Bortracks and that you were not pleased. That you have been asking many, many questions. Do you still have any left unanswered?”

  Many. Too many.

  Like how could we work with the creatures responsible for the greatest war in our history? Like how could any male see the things we did during the war and not gut any Bortrack on first sight?

  But spewing my angry, betrayed words will do no good.

  FarSeer eyed Leader, trying to remain calm. “Why are the Bortracks here?”

  “We need them.”

  His friend’s answer was not good enough. “We have never before needed the Bortracks to retrieve brides. What’s different this time?”

  Leader’s smile faltered. “Parsimon does things differently.”

  This has been sanctioned by the council? He wasn’t sure what he’d hoped was the reason for seeing the Bortracks on board, but imagining his government coming to some kind of agreement with their enemies was certainly not it. As excited as I am to be Head Researcher, I would never have joined a crew with those beasts on board.

  “The Bortracks thrive on suffering and violence. They’ve been reduced to little more than a scattering of groups that survived the war. What could Parsimon possibly have offered them to gain their help?”

  Leader shrugged.

  The muscles in FarSeer’s body tensed further. “I can only conclude that he lied to the Bortracks to gain their help. Offered them something that we would never willingly give.”

  “I don’t know what Parsimon gave them in exchange.” Leader sat back in his chair, swirling the golden contents in his glass. “I was not part of the negotiations.”

  Be calm. Think. Don’t act.

  FarSeer took a sip of his own Golden Spite, letting the beverage pop softly on his tongue before he answered. “I don’t like it.”

  This can only end badly.

  Leader’s facial markings shifted with his darkening mood. “None of us like it. But Parsimon says we need them.”

  He felt a wave of relief. At least my friend is not working with them by choice.

  FarSeer almost suggested they give up their mission and have the Council send another crew that didn’t include the Bortracks. Almost.

  I lose nothing but a chance to keep my mind busy with my work. Most of the males on this ship would be delaying claiming their mates. Including Leader. Including my other friends. It should be their choice, not mine. If the males who had paid for their brides through this voyage wanted to take this risk, it wasn’t his place to speak against it.

  But I sense that this will end badly.

  “Not to worry, my friend. You might not have a vote on politics, but you are still our First Tier Medical Specialist and Head Researcher. You’ll be tucked safely away with any females who need your level of expertise. Who need your healing mind. And, of course, with your beloved data. You won’t even be aware of the Bortracks.”

  His gut tightened. I envy you, my friend. If you can so easily forget the horrors from the war. The images of what the Bortracks did to those females. Because I can never forget. And knowing they are so close? His pulse raced, pounding in his ears. It will take everything in me not to seek out their chambers and give into the soldier within me. To crush the life from them.

  It is what they deserve. Every one of them.

  FarSeer was shaking, struggling to control his raging emotions. “I’m already aware of them. Stomping our halls like they own the place.”

  “While guarded.” The words held a slight growl.

  My friend’s inner beast rides too close to the surface. If he isn’t careful, he’ll shift on this voyage. And the last thing he wants to do is prove the rumors about his infamous temper.

  “They will be kept in their quarters as much as possible,” the other male added, as if such a fact was significant.

  FarSeer wondered if Leader really tho
ught that their physical presence was his issue with their agreement. He should know me better than that. He should know my hatred for the Bortracks runs deep. The creatures are evil at its purest form.

  The Bortracks stole or purchased their females as breeding slaves. Then mated with them continuously until they were impregnated. If they survived the mating process, the females were locked in a birthing chamber. A box where the females would hang, with metal bars encasing them, bowing them forward, leaving room only for their bellies to grow. Tubes were inserted where needed to force them to stay alive, to use all their energy in growing the monstrously large child. When it came time to birth the Bortrack baby, the females had usually become thin, almost lifeless skeletons, their bellies extending nearly to the ground. Then, the Bortracks would cut the child free and leave the mothers to bleed to death.

  During the war, most of the birthing chambers they stumbled across held nothing but bodies. But worse were the times they found the females who still lived. Their deaths were slow. All I could do was take their pain away.

  I did not become a medic to helplessly watch females die.

  In all his time as a soldier, he had saved only one female. She had survived…but barely.

  Her name was Purity. Seeing someone that brutalized, someone whose body I could heal but do nothing for her mind, still haunts me. For that reason, I sometimes wish I had never been with the medic assigned to that Alpha Squad. Even if saving the king’s niece brought me fame and fortune.

  “What are you seeing?” Leader asked.

  FarSeer jerked back into reality. Setting his drink down and rising in agitation from his seat, he paced before the wide windows of his chambers.

  “I wasn’t. I was remembering.”

  Leader’s voice held a note of fear. “So it was not a premonition?”

  FarSeer had been given his name when Power Seeker had determined his gifts on the first day of his birth. People often grew nervous when he got lost in thought. They always think I am seeing some terrible vision of the future, but how could they possibly understand that seeing is about the past just as much as the future?

  “No. I was thinking of Purity.”

  “Ah.” Leader sounded far too relieved. “I saw her at a ball not long before our departure. She looked well. You did an excellent job healing her.”

  She has gained weight once more. But although her body looks healthy, her eyes are still haunted. I wonder if she is glad she lived.

  “The same monsters who brutalized that woman are guests on our ship. I wonder at the wisdom of your choice.”

  Leader raised a brow. “It was not my choice.”

  His friend placed his drink down and crossed the room to step in front of FarSeer. He was nearly as tall and broad as FarSeer. But while Leader had traditional dark hair and eyes, FarSeer was born with unusual pale coloring that stood out among his people.

  But as highly prized as my golden hair and green eyes are among my people, it is not enough. Not having the ability to shift makes me a Second Tier male and unworthy of a female, at least since the Contagion.

  When females were plentiful, I would have had a mate of my own. And partnering with the Bortracks would never have been considered. But these males are desperate enough to do whatever they have to in order to secure their brides.

  The dark thought lingered in his mind. Even though I would never expose my female to the dangers that these males are throwing so thoughtlessly at theirs.

  Stop, he ordered himself. You slip into your mind when a situation arises that awakens your primal side. It is possible to remain present and not lose control.

  Focus on your friend. On what is happening in the real world.

  “And you believe we can control these creatures? Even for a short time?” FarSeer tried to keep the disbelief from his words, but failed miserably.

  “Trust me. The females will be safe. If the Bortracks step out of line, deal or no deal, I will dispose of them. Even if it costs me my career.”

  FarSeer knew his friend was called Leader for a reason, and it wasn’t just that he was the captain. Leader’s reassurance tugged at his thoughts, urging him to listen.

  But instead, FarSeer met the other male’s gaze. “If I have to kill those beasts to protect the newest brides, I will.”

  Leader fidgeted nervously. “I thought that your killing days were behind you, that you sought only peace now.”

  FarSeer clenched his teeth. “If you do not want me to return to the male you knew in the war, you will make certain no female is hurt at the hands of our enemies.”

  His friend squeezed his shoulder, holding his gaze. He’s afraid. Afraid of what I’m capable of. “You have my word. All will be well.”

  FarSeer looked away, that familiar feeling rising in him again. He might not be able to shift, but the primal side of him was always there, just below the surface. Driven by a violent need to protect. And since his vision of the blue-eyed female, he felt it pacing just below his surface.

  I must hope all goes well. If I unleash it, I fear that I will not be able to regain control again.

  And in many ways, that was more worrisome to him than even the Bortracks.