His face hit the steps and knocked out his front teeth, scattering like marbles.
The remaining prison guard turned to the aggressor and raised his forearms to block the incoming blow.
The wood crashed, splintering across his defensive posture.
He lashed out with his knee and caught the aggressor in the ribs.
He moved well and spun with the blow.
He swept the prison guard’s legs out from under him.
He shifted direction and was suddenly on top of him, his hands wrapped around the guard’s throat.
The guard’s eyes bulged in their sockets.
He waved his arms and snapped at the figure on top of him.
I stood to one side, immobile and frozen with fear.
Finally, the guard’s eyes rolled into the back of his head.
The aggressor gave one last deadly squeeze with his mighty hands, making the bones in his neck pop.
The prison guard went limp.
The aggressor rose to his feet, blood on his hands, panting with the exertion.
He turned to me and I shied away—but only for a moment—as Kayal ran his eyes over me with his bright golden eyes.
“Are you all right?”
He uttered the words I had been desperate to hear him say in the cell earlier.
I rushed toward him.
He opened his arms and caught me.
He smothered me with kisses.
I squeezed him so tight his breath wheezed from his lungs.
“I thought you wouldn’t come for me,” I said.
“Of course I came for you. It’s the least I could do after you crossed the galaxy for me.”
I looked up at him.
“The things you said in the cell… You didn’t mean it?”
He shook his head.
“Not a word. The guards were listening. If I said anything about us, they would have reported it to the Elders.”
“What about your social standing? Isn’t that what you did this for?”
“It’s nothing compared to you, my love. You’re the only thing I need to feel important.”
I hugged him even harder, the tears streaming down my cheeks.
The deep valley of despair that’d cleaved my heart in two flooded with hope and excitement.
“We have to be quick if we want to get out of here,” Kayal said. “It’s our turn at the mating ceremony soon. When they realize we’re not there…”
I nodded in understanding.
They would scour the Citadel looking for us.
Then there would be no chance of escape at all.
I followed Kayal’s instructions to the letter.
I walked beside him, head bowed, arms by my side.
His hand clutched the back of my neck the way all Shadow handled their captured mates.
I peered at the other fated mates, each wearing a mask of desperation and a sense of deep foreboding.
The way I had looked until just a few moments ago.
I wanted to grab them, to tell them to run, to fight as hard as they could, but I would only endanger my chances of escape.
With Kayal at my side, I wouldn’t risk that for the world.
We moved in the opposite direction to every other fated pair.
The huge arched doorway yawned with bright light.
The beacon of our salvation.
I wondered if someone would stop us from leaving and was relieved when they didn’t.
The archway led onto a launchpad.
The ships continued to transit.
Just how many fated mates had been captured by the Shadow?
If our plan was going to be scuppered, it was going to happen on the launch pad.
Each second that ticked by signaled the end of the current mating ceremony and the approach of what should have been mine.
They must have noticed something was wrong already.
I only hoped it took enough time for us to escape before they figured everything out.
“Stick with me,” Kayal whispered. “Stay by my side.”
We approached one of the engineers, who raised his earmuffs and stabbed a finger at me.
“Where do you think you’re going with her?”
“She’s defective. An entire army of Shadow seeded her but there’s no sign of pregnancy at all.”
The engineer gazed at me coldly, his lip curling into a sneer.
“Defective?” he growled. “Maybe me and some of the boys should have a go. There’s no telling with these lower lifeforms who they’ll finally connect with.”
He licked his lips.
“The Elders have already given the order. Even their seed could not find a home inside her.”
The engineer grimaced at me even harder and I tried to look browbeaten.
“You want to take her to the dumping grounds?”
Kayal nodded his head.
The dumping grounds?
“Get her out of here. The last thing we need is for the other breeders to catch whatever’s wrong with her. Take bay twelve.”
Kayal led me onto the ship.
The hatch door whirred and snapped into place.
The moment it did, Kayal took me by the hand and his demeanor melted immediately.
He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me deeply.
“We have to get out of here. Fast.”
He took me by the hand and led me down the corridor.
“Computer. Begin the launch sequence.”
“Coordinates?” Computer said.
“The dumping grounds.”
I skidded to a halt.
“The dumping grounds?”
“We won’t reach it. I’ll disable the remote access protocols and tracking systems before then.”
Kayal led me to the elevator.
It was the only place we had a moment of calm before we made our full escape.
He couldn’t keep his hands off me.
He grabbed my ass and planted his lips on mine, savoring me.
He kissed me across the cheek and down my neck.
The echoes of excitement streamed across my body, begging him to never stop, to never let go.
I stroked his horns and cupped his hardening cock through his pants.
“Later, you get me all to yourself. I want you to give me what I missed in the mating ceremony.”
He snorted like a bull on heat and buried his tongue down my throat.
We stared each other in the eye, neither of us backing down.
Our next session was going to be one for the ages.
“I guess this proves it,” I said.
“Proves what?”
“You are my white knight.”
He smiled and gently shook his head.
“Maybe not quite white. I’m your black night with a dark past. Is that close enough?”
“Yes. I think it is.”
When the elevator came to a stop, we ran onto the bridge and took our usual seats.
The ship took off, arched in a sharp angle, and
