Cravr (The Mating Games Book 8) Page 3

  “It is a hard thing, to give up your offspring.”

  “I can’t understand that she never intended to reclaim them because of a new mate that doesn’t know about them and would not accept them if he did.” His mom sounded puzzled.

  “Don’t try to figure them out, Mom. Earth males are odd and without honor, for the most part.”

  “I know you are right. The girls are better off here, with us.”

  His mind came back to his current situation as he and Annie walked out the door, to the special armored vehicle deployed under these kinds of situations. The male was taking no chances with his mate. Those adorable little girls, Sally and Molly, needed their mother as much as Cravr needed his mate. Not only was the vehicle made of the toughest materials known, it had a protective field that would stop anything that they knew of.

  “Wow! I’ve never seen anything like this before.” Annie exclaimed.

  “It’s a one of a kind prototype. More are being built, but today we will test this one out. It has everything we should need to monitor and search out our prey.” Cravr smiled at her, but it seemed to make her nervous. “Is everything alright?”

  “You have a bloodthirsty look on your face.”

  “Sorry, the males and even some of the females of our kind love to hunt.” It was true, his beast was humming with excitement. “I will protect you with my life, Annie.”

  “I believe you.”

  “Let’s get this party started.”

  “Where did you hear that saying?”

  “Razar’s mate, Lista, loves old colorful Earth sayings. She uses them so much, the rest of the family has picked them up too.”

  “I’m familiar with that one. You used it perfectly.”

  Cravr was glad his female approved. His intention for this mission was to bond with his mate while locating the perpetrators and sending in a team to subdue them while him and Annie observed. Piece of cake which was another quaint Earth saying. Starting the engine, he put in the list of coordinates they were checking. The vehicle was self-piloting with the computer assisting with location services. It would pick which target to go to first and follow them in order based on most likely and distance, in a logical fashion.

  “The vehicle is automated so all we need to do now is look for clues.”

  “That is so cool.” Annie observed.

  Cravr agreed. He couldn’t wait to get a dozen of these out into stations all over the planet. There only real problems so far had been the sabotage. But he knew, as populations in communities all over the planet increased, trouble was sure to follow. For now, he looked at his Annie and wanted nothing more than to kiss her until she was breathless.

  A beep sounded. “That means we are close to the first location.” Cravr explained as he pulled up a screen and manipulated it to look three hundred and sixty degrees around their location. It was important to look closely because if they missed them, they would have to start all over again. “See anything? If you do, just let me know.”

  “It looks deserted out here.”

  “That’s why it’s the perfect place to hide.”

  Annie nodded, but said nothing as she continued to stare out the window. Cravr pressed a button and now the screen showed heat signatures. “What’s that?” Annie asked.

  “That’s an animal. It’s either the one Razar has as a guard dog or there are more of them.”

  “Razar has a guard dog that big?”

  “He’s not really a dog, that’s what Lista compares him to.”

  “Okay.” Annie said, but it was clear she didn’t understand.

  “We’ll visit Razar soon and you can see his pet.”

  They stayed at the location nearly an hour, checking out everything that moved, or had a heat signature, just to be sure they didn’t miss anything. It was time to move on since he felt like they’d been thorough. The next location didn’t seem all that far, even though it was out of sight of the last location. This one was at the foot of the mountains where it made a good location to hide. There were dangers here that made most people avoid the area. Demons were an exception because they were the worst predator on the planet in their beast form.

  Cravr reached in the fridge and got two bottles of water, handing one to Annie. “Maybe I should have mentioned we’ll be in here all day. Food and drinks have been stocked in here and there is a small bathroom.”

  “I’ll be fine. Which door is the bathroom?” Annie asked. Cravr pointed to it and Annie went inside. That was one of the many things that made this van perfect for surveillance.

  Annie came out and took her seat. “This reminds me of those old movies where the cops sit and watch a house.”

  “I have started watching some of those old movies. They are very funny, but did the guy always get the girl in real life?”

  “No, I’ve read that they often didn’t and sometimes they did only to get divorced later.”

  “What is divorced?”

  “It where they married or mated, and then they split up and find new mates.”

  Cravr felt horrified. “Your people do this?”

  “Not so much anymore. These days most men don’t marry at all. They just live with a female and throw her out, when they find one they want more.”

  “That is barbaric. What about love? What happens to the children?”

  “Modern Earth men don’t believe in love. Daughters go with the mother. If they have a son, the man usually stays with the mother, but if he does kick her out, the boy stays with his dad.”

  “Children need stability and love. That is sad.”

  Annie went and poured herself a cup of coffee. She took a sip. “Holy cow! What is that shit?”

  Cravr chuckled, he couldn’t help it. “That’s crue, it’s local coffee. I think we have some instant coffee more to your liking in the cupboard.”

  “That wasn’t funny.” Annie glared at him as she pulled the instant coffee down. “You should have warned me. That stuff is nasty and I think it turned my mouth inside out.”

  Cravr laughed now. Her expression was so fierce, his sweet Annie. “You are adorable.”

  “You don’t know much about women do you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Adorable I ain’t. Some of us hold a grudge.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I’d be checking all my food and drink carefully for a long time, if I were you.”

  “You wouldn’t do anything to my food. Would you?”

  “Hmpf!”

  Cravr would never admit it, but now he was worried. It was true, he knew little about females and nothing about human ones. He only hoped Annie was teasing about her desire to get even. Maybe laughing at her wasn’t such a good idea. The male looked at Annie as she drank and obviously enjoyed, the instant coffee.

  “Is it true you rarely got coffee at your former home?”

  “Yes, prices were too high. Most of it is either exported or bought by the men.”

  “You’ll have access to it here. Lista loves it, all the mates do, and they’ve even converted my mother to drinking it.”

  “I’m sure she was happy to have something that wasn’t bitter for a change.”

  “Maybe?” Cravr wasn’t sure what to say. It was true their females didn’t enjoy the crue as much as the males did but there had been no other choice for them. Annie, normally good natured, wasn’t acting like her usual self either.

  Annie laughed, probably because Cravr was so unsure of how to handle her. Either that, or she was just laughing at him, he didn’t like that. He remembered that other Earth saying, now you know how I feel. Maybe he shouldn’t have laughed at her, he would be more careful in the future.

  “Not maybe, definitely.” Annie confirmed.

  Things were quiet between them now as they scanned the screens and looked out of the windows hoping for something to do to kill the boredom and uncomfortable silence. Cravr turned the screen slightly.

  “What was that?”

 
“What?” He asked.

  “That flash of heat.”

  “I don’t see anything.” He admitted staring at the screen. Then he saw it, a brief flash of heated air. “There it is. They must be hiding their heat signature but someone opened a door or there’s a leak.” As they watched, the puff of hot air showed up every five minutes or so. “Good job seeing that. I might have missed it.” Annie smiled at him, clearly pleased with the praise. Hopefully, she would forget she’d been angry with him.

  Since it was obvious someone was trying to hide and there was no good reason for it, Cravr called in a strike team to hit the target. They would be there in an hour, maybe less. That meant there was nothing to do, but sit and wait. Waiting was never fun and with a gorgeous female that you had to walk on eggshells with, yes, another Earth saying, it was twice as hard. Cravr found his attention constantly drawn back to Annie. He’d even caught her watching him a few times. Maybe it was time to bring this thing between them out in the open. It wasn’t like he had much time before the games to explore his attraction to her and convince her to accompany him to the Temple.

  Cravr’s thoughts were interrupted when Annie spoke. “Someone is here.”

  He looked around until he saw a hover car pulling up near them. His people would have tracking that would locate the van immediately and lead them right to it. Two males got out and walked to the door. Inkus and Illicus were brothers. Their dad had been a lordling, a minor lord somewhat like a governor, on Mazlan. He’d been unable to turn a blind eye to the cruelty and unfair treatment received by many on their home planet. When he had protested, his whole family had been sent here with him.

  Those of noble birth, had simply been banished to the planet, those of common stock had been placed in the prisons, and forced to labor. Their family, as Cravr also had, were banished to Oison, but not jailed. There lands and possessions stripped from them to enrich the emperors coffers. Their sister had also been taken, only mated females or those that were infants, were sent here.

  The door opened and the two males came inside. “Greetings, Inkus and Illicus. This is my personal assistant, Annie. She will be working with us on this case and some others.”

  Their attention turned to her, and their appreciation was obvious. Cravr didn’t like it. A low growl forced its way from his mouth. Both males immediately averted their gazes in deference to his claim. He was thankful Annie didn’t hear or if she did, understand, what had just happened.

  “Nice to meet you both. Will you be doing the takedown?”

  Both males looked at Cravr for guidance. “They will, but I was expecting more males.”

  About that time another hover car pulled up. This time four males exited it, the rest of the team had arrived. They came in filling the inside of the van to it’s limit. “This is Annie, my personal assistant. Annie, this is Coran, Silvan, Rug’n, and Mian. They are brothers and cousins, all good field officers. Now that you are here, let me show you what we have.”

  He fast forwarded the recordings on the screen from their arrival until now. The team would have no trouble seeing what they needed to with their faster reflexes and better senses. Time was of the essence. They needed to get in fast, take the enemy out, and give them no time to retreat. All of them had coms and they would keep in contact. Once they were all in position, Cravr called them. “Go, go now.”

  It occurred to him that the males were moving at superhuman speed and Annie watched, mouth open in amazement. How would he explain this? His attention was riveted on the action on the screen, other concerns left his mind. It was a spaceship, but only a small two passenger ship. He’d expected a larger group of saboteurs. It occurred to him that more than one pair of miscreants might be harbored nearby. If it was him, he would have sent in more than one team to assure success. Once these saboteurs were restrained and imprisoned, they would look for more spaceships, just to be sure.

  Rug’n and Mian came out carrying a prisoner with Incus and illicus following carrying another. The other two must have stayed with the ship that soon became visible. The shocking part came when the two other males came back to the van carrying an abused female between them.

  Cravr’s ire was clear to see and the two prisoners trembled as they looked up at him and the other Mazlans, all of who were clearly upset. Annie looked ready to cry as she dropped to her knees beside the young female speaking softly to reassure her.

  “She agreed to come along and she knew what we wanted her for.” The stupider of the two prisoners explained.

  “The female knew you would starve and abuse her?” Annie asked.

  “Hey, we didn’t treat her bad.” The other guy insisted.

  “Did you know what would happen if you were caught here spying and sabotaging equipment?” Annie sked.

  “We aint no spies.” One of them insisted.

  “You were hidden, you were here without permission. If we check, I bet you were monitoring communications. Anyone would call that spying.” Annie pointed out. The prisoners looked beyond terrified. The young women was passed out, too tired and starved to care anymore. “Let’s get her to my house.” Annie suggested.

  “Take those two to jail. The ship needs to be safeguarded and carefully searched. Look for any bombs or safeguards that might be tripped.” Cravr added. “We need to take her to the doctor first.”

  “You have a doctor nearby? I didn’t know.” Annie admitted.

  “We’ve been getting modern necessities and even conveniences as quickly as we can. Our people and families, deserve everything other planets take for granted.”

  “Yes, of course you do. I just didn’t know.”

  Cravr just headed straight there without stopping. The young woman had been unexpected. He reflected on the desperation that must have spurred her to go along with those two males. Cowardly and disreputable, her need must have been great to accept their terms. He was sure, however, that she never thought her life would be risked. She would survive, he was sure of it, but she was in bad shape. Had they not found them, they would have let her die. He was sure of that, too.

  It made him wonder if there were any decent honorable males left on Annie’s home planet. There must be, but they had to be hiding since he’d not found a single one yet. He looked up to see the medical building come into view. The patient was still out, it was a blessing. As soon as they stopped, Annie was in motion. Cravr got out and went around to the outside to get the abused woman out. As he carried her into the building, Annie opened doors and made sure the way was clear.

  Once they were to the secretary’s desk, the female ran for the doctor. She came out to lead Cravr into a room with a bed. “You’ll have to go now. We will be removing her clothes.”

  Cravr turned blood red and nodded. “Do you want me to help?” Annie asked as he headed out the door. He didn’t hear the doctor’s answer.

  It wasn’t easy sitting there waiting, but after what seemed like a long time, Annie came back out. “Her name is Sylvia and she is from the space station Argosy, it’s near Jupiter. There’s overcrowding issues and most of them have no way off the station. She says there is a shortage of food, water, and medicine. People are dying and Earth doesn’t care. The woman was desperate or she would never have agreed to go with them, but she was already half starved when they got her.”

  “That doesn’t absolve them of their crime.”

  “Nor should it. But there are hundreds of people, mostly females, looking for a way off that station.”

  “I will inform Razar. We will send some food so they will be able to live if they choose to stay.”

  “It was what I expected from you. I just knew you would do what was right.” Their eyes met and held, emotion throbbed in the air between them. Maybe it was time to talk and explain things to her.

  Someone cleared their throat. “Sylvia is doing fine and as long as she gets fed regularly, there’s no reason she can’t leave here. She wants to go and not too many people like staying at hospitals.”

 
“I’ll take her home with me.” Annie said quickly. Another opportunity gone.

  “She’s still a little weak, she’ll need someone strong to lean on.” The doctor looked at him.

  “I would be honored to assist.” Cravr followed the doctor and listened as she gave more instructions. “Annie has children and is a nurturer. Sylvia will be taken care of.”

  Annie stood on one side of Sylvia while he was on the other, as they guided her out the door and to the van. It would have been easier to just carry her, but Sylvia wanted to walk. Once at the van, they put her in what Annie called an easy chair. It leaned back and all chairs were attached to the floor so there was no danger of the chair falling over. Cravr was touched by Annie’s kindness but he feared she was a little naïve. She knew nothing of Sylvia and just because she’d been abused, didn’t mean she might not be dangerous. Although he didn’t get that feeling from her, he didn’t want Annie to be placed in any danger.

  “As soon as she regains her strength, we will find her a place of her own and a job.”

  “Thank you.” Annie said. Cravr saw that she misunderstood his concerns, but he let her. If he expressed them, he had a feeling she would be disappointed in him.

  “It is nothing we don’t already do for many. She can find a good life here.” Her presence at Annie’s would interfere with any privacy he’d hoped to have. Wishing her to heal with speed, he might need a backup plan to get Annie alone. “What about you? How will you come to work?”

  “I guess I can’t.”

  “What if I find a teenager to stay at your house with Sylvia? Our teenagers do jobs like this often.”

  “Do you really think you could find someone?” She looked up at him with hope in her eyes. He dared to hope she would miss him if she wasn’t able to see him at work.

  “I’ll call to let you know who I find.” Cravr smiled reassuringly. A teenager would do this or he would turn loose his temper and no one wanted that.

  Cravr left because he had no excuse to stay. They had maneuvered Sylvia into the guest bedroom and Annie intended to cook a meal for her and the kids. He would pick up her girls and drop them off, possibly finding a reason to linger then. It was a plan anyway. Using the communication system in the van, he updated Razar then ask him to find a teenager to assist with Sylvia. Children were taught responsibility early and a list of possible helpers were on hand for Razar’s use.