Grace Goodwin - His Virgin Princess

A cage in the middle of nowhere? For what? “What kind of monster keeps a place like this?” I wondered aloud.

“My great-grandfather,” was his answer and it brought my gaze back to him at once. He smiled, but there was no humor in it. “This is my cave, Dani. Ironic, is it not?”

“Not.” I grabbed the discarded jacket and wrapped it around his feet. “Definitely not. We have to get you out of here.”

He used the back of his hand to wipe his mouth. “I will ask again, what are you doing here?”

I frowned. “Saving you.”

He shook his head slowly. “You shouldn’t have. Too risky.”

“You were going to die.”

He met my gaze. The vein his temple throbbed. “I know.”

“Then—”

He lifted his hand, but it dropped back to his lap, as if he were too weak. I reached in my pack again, found some kind of protein bar in the military rations I’d taken from the storage room at the Touchstone and handed it over. “Eat slowly.”

Breaking off a piece, he put it in his mouth, chewed. I watched the simple action, the play of his throat as he swallowed. Reaching out, I took his free hand, turned it over.

There.

The mark.

I placed my palm in his, mark to mark for the first time.

I gasped at the feel of it, the all-consuming burn throughout my body. Heat and need flared to life, but now wasn’t the time. But I also felt complete. As if a part of me had been missing…forever. I had no idea how I’d gotten through life, going through the motions. Perhaps it was that I hadn’t known I wasn’t whole.

But now…now there was no going back. Gage was mine and he could yell at me until he ran out of steam and I wouldn’t care.

“Someone wants me dead.” He shoved another piece of the bar in his mouth, chewed. “I won’t have them after you.”

“I can take care of myself. And as for you dying? Not happening.”

He moved his shackled wrist, the chain rattling. “As you can see, I’m not going anywhere. I’ve had days to try to figure out how to get out of here.”

I dug through my bag again. “I picked up some things at the Touchstone that might be helpful. A communication device.” I placed the small object on the ground, but he quickly reached for it.

“Picked up?”

I gave him a quick glance, then went back to my task. I wasn’t going to tell him I stole them. My intention was to borrow, to return them when I’d rescued Gage and we returned together. Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, especially when I knew those cavemen would never have let me come along. And they wouldn’t have been able to find him, not without me. And the mark that called to me like a homing beacon.

“A comms unit? How did they not track you down within a mile of the Touchstone?” he wondered.

“It’s not turned on. Obviously. I removed the power cell. I didn’t want anyone to be able to follow me, because knowing my friends, once they got their mates involved, they would have come after me. Stopped me.”

“Who are these mates you mention?”

“Hunters at the Touchstone.”

“They should have stopped you. I will discuss this failure with them in future.”

I frowned, pursed my lips. He should be thanking me, not pissing me off, but I’d give him a little latitude, for now. Mark it up to him being delirious. And since we were in a cave…well, I guess it made sense he was acting like a caveman. “Well, I’m here. With a comms unit. And this.”

“Fuck! An ion blaster?” he cried, grabbing the weapon from me, checking the side of it. I had to assume he was looking for the safety, ensuring it was on. “You could have shot yourself.”

I huffed out a breath. “You’re not mated to an idiot. I know how to use a gun. How to shoot. How to carry one safely so I don’t shoot myself. If you haven’t caught on by now, I tracked you. I’m not a city girl, Gage.” His gaze narrowed, but he remained quiet. “No one else found you, did they?”

He exhaled, stared at me almost grudgingly, realizing I was right. I was here, saving his ass. Settling the blaster into his hold, he slowly stood, aimed the weapon at the plate on the wall above our heads where the chain was securely affixed just outside the bars.

“Get behind me.”

I moved as he wished, but his arm came about and all but shoved me farther back.

The shot echoed off the cave walls, as did the heavy clink of the chain as it hit the ground. I looked around his body, saw that he was no longer connected to the cave wall. “Another.” He aimed at his wrist, about three chain lengths above the shackle. “Wanted to test it first. See what happened. I’d like to keep from shooting my hand off.”

He fired again, one length of chain falling to the floor like a dead snake. The other was still attached to the shackle on his opposite wrist and I realized he’d been hooked up to some kind of pulley system. He put the ion blaster in his opposite hand and fired a third time. I sighed in relief when the entire length of chain clanked against the cave wall as if it were dead. At least that’s how I liked to think of it. He still had shackles around both wrists, but he was mobile. One problem at a time.

Gage turned to me, tipped up my chin. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

He put his jacket on, taking what little warmth he could from it. He moved toward the entrance and I followed. Slowly. Thinking out loud. “We can’t walk back to the Touchstone. It’s too far. There’s not enough food or water. While I can forage for both of us and hunt for meat if I have to, you’re weak. Injured. We don’t have time for that.”

“You are injured as well.” He looked down at my ankle, as if he could see that it was swollen inside my boot. In the daylight, I could see the olive tone of his skin beneath the blood, the fullness of his slightly darker lips, the play of shadows over his very ripped, very muscled chest and back. Holy hell. Hottie. Score one for me. His deep, rumbling voice made me shiver, and not with cold. “Did you bring a ReGen wand?”

I frowned. What? “I don’t know what that is.”

He sighed, then smiled at me for the first time. “That’s all right. You’ve done a good job. Thank you.”

I returned the smile with one of my own. “Now that I found you, we can call the cavemen for help.”

“Cavemen?”

“The mates of my two friends from Earth.” I pulled the comm unit from his hand and reached into my pack for tools—which consisted of a carving knife I’d stolen from the kitchen—and the battery—or whatever they called the odd lump of metal I was placing inside the unit to turn it back on.

“Your friends are mated to Hunters who live in caves? I have never heard of such Hunters. Not even in the old lore.” He slowly shook his head as he took another bite of the energy bar. “I do not believe we should summon strange cave dwellers to our aide. Someone wants me dead. If you hadn’t found me, they’d have accomplished their task.”

“Who?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I have no idea.” He looked up at the sky, closed his eyes. Breathed deep. It was as if he’d expected never to see the sun again, to feel fresh air on his skin. “We can’t trust anyone.”

“Not even your friends?” I asked. “Your family? Do you have a family?”

He reached out, stroked a finger down my cheek. “I am a member of the Seven. On Everis, this is a high-ranking position. I am known throughout the planet. My family has held the seat for thousands of years, passed from generation to generation, but I am the last of my line. I have many enemies, Danielle. Any number of people could be involved in this. I do not wish to get my father’s mate or my sister involved. It’s too dangerous. As for friends? I don’t have friends, only those who want something from me.”