Choosing Riley

Chapter 6-2

Riley froze as she was putting her hair back up into its messy ponytail when the whole room erupted into echoes of low rumbling purrs. She turned, startled baby blue eyes on the three huge cat-shifting males who had their eyes glued to her. Three pairs of eyes—one a golden brown, one a very reddened greenish color, and the other a dark, tawny color—all stared at her breasts as they thrust upward while she wound the scrunchie around the mass of curls she was holding.

She rolled her eyes. “You have got to be kidding me!” she muttered. “I swear to God all guys who aren’t gay have a one-track mind!”

She quickly finished putting her hair up, trying not to turn as pink as the scrunchie as she watched their eyes follow her breasts as they bounced up and down. She didn’t care how much support the manufacture promised; when you were as big as she was there was still going to be some bounce. She lowered her eyes, refusing to give into the desire to cross her arms protectively in front of her. The only thing that did was push up the watermelons she carried around. Instead, she clapped her hands loudly.

“Hello?” she snapped, shooting an evil eye at Lodar and Tor. “It’s rude to stare!”

Lodar cleared his throat as Vox turned to glare at his two friends. “Yes, well… I… We… They are beautiful,” he finally choked out with a sheepish grin. “And very difficult to miss.”

“I wonder if they contain milk.” Tor asked, unaware he asked the question out loud. “I would love to drink from them if they did,” he sighed.

Riley’s mouth dropped open as what Tor said sank in. “Oh. My. God. You did not just say that,” she sputtered before bursting into uncontrollable laughter. “Do they… Oh my god, that is priceless.” She continued to giggle, wiping the tears from the corner of her eyes with the end of her shirt, totally unaware the movement pulled the cloth up, exposing her creamy flesh again.

Vox’s loud roar ricocheted throughout the small room as he tackled Tor. The force of his shoulder hitting his chief engineer’s chest knocked both of them backward through the air several feet before they hit the hard floor and slid almost to the far wall. Vox’s sharp teeth gripped Tor’s throat in a stranglehold while his claws dug into Tor’s shoulders, pinning him to the floor.

“Bad kitty!” Riley shrieked out from behind him. “Let him go! You are a very, very bad kitty. You let go of him, or I’ll neuter your ass. Vox, release him this instant. If you don’t, I swear I’ll go to the guards and tell them I need to borrow their stun gun thingy. I mean it. I’m out the door in three, two, one…”

Vox released Tor with a jerk and swung around to face Riley so fast she stumbled backward. Her heel caught on the uneven flooring, and she lost her balance, falling to the floor heavily with a sharp cry. She rolled over into a ball as excruciating pain exploded through her wrist as she tried to break her fall. She landed on it hard. Riley bit her lip as she pulled her left arm up against her, cradling it to her chest as she sobbed in pain.

“Riley?” Vox asked hesitantly as he moved to kneel next to her curled-up figure. “Riley, I would never hurt you,” he said gently as he tried to get her to look at him.

Another soft, pain-filled sob escaped Riley. “My wrist,” she whispered. “It hurts so bad.”

Vox turned his head, looking over his shoulder. “Lodar,” he commanded hoarsely as worry engulfed him.

Lodar nodded as he stood up from where he was checking the puncture wounds on Tor’s neck and shoulders. They would heal. They’d gotten worse when they were training or just wrestling with each other. If Vox had been serious about killing Tor, he would have ripped his throat out. The marks were just a warning to Tor to be careful expressing his thoughts out loud. It was obvious from the smell of Riley’s fear when she saw what had happened that she didn’t realize that. Now, the smell of her pain was overwhelming to the three warriors. It was a dark, musky scent that brought out a protectiveness and need to care in all of them.

“Riley, let me look at your wrist,” Lodar said gently as he knelt down next to her.

Riley bit her lip and shook her head even as she looked at him with her big blue eyes swimming in tears of pain. “I don’t want you to touch it. You might make it hurt worse,” she whispered as her bottom lip trembled and a lone tear coursed down her pale cheek, breaking his heart.

“Guall’s balls, Lodar, help her,” Vox demanded fiercely, unable to handle the thought of his beautiful, stubborn mate being in pain.

Lodar’s lips tightened as he heard the desperate growl in his leader’s voice. “Riley, I need to see how bad it is,” Lodar insisted when he reached down and gently rolled her over onto her back.

Fred hurried over with the pillow from the bed and carefully lifted Riley’s head so he could slide it under her. The little two-headed Tiliqua sat down next to her on the floor and tenderly brushed her hair back from her forehead, ignoring Vox’s low growl of warning. His right head turned and he glared defiantly at Vox.

“You hurt our mate,” Fred growled back. “You scared her!”

Vox flushed a dark red but he lowered his eyes to Riley’s pale, tear-stained face. “I didn’t mean to frighten you, Riley,” Vox murmured softly as he reached out one of his big fingers so tenderly to wipe the tears that ran down from the corner of her eye.

Riley’s lips trembled as Lodar carefully lifted her arm. “You were hurting Tor,” she whispered as fresh tears filled her eyes as she stared up at him.

“He wasn’t really hurting me,” Tor said, leaning over Vox’s shoulder, oblivious to the blood covering his neck and shoulders. “We do this all the time, Riley. He didn’t mean anything by it. The Sarafin often use their claws and teeth. If he was really going to hurt me, he would have ripped out my throat.”

Riley’s hiccupping wail filled the small room at Tor’s words. “You are not making her feel better,” Bob said, pulling Tor away as he moved closer to Riley. “Go clean the blood off you.”

“I think it is broken,” Lodar said in concern as he carefully examined the discoloration and growing swelling. “She needs immediate medical attention I cannot give her here. We will need to summon a guard.”

“I will go with her,” Fred said as he carefully brushed her hair to the side.

“No,” Vox snapped out, glaring at the small Tiliqua. “I will go with her.”

“You…You can’t,” Riley hiccupped. “They will see that your collar isn’t working. That goes for all of you,” she whispered. “I’ll have to go alone.”

“No,” each of the five men said stubbornly.

“I will go,” Bob said softly. “They do not look under my skin to see if I have my collar on. I am also the least likely to be considered a threat next to Fred.”

Vox’s mouth straightened into a tight line of frustration. Riley was right. They would need to reactivate his collar, and that was still no guarantee they would let him go with her. He had noticed the extra security surrounding them. Bob was the least threatening next to Fred. He stood up, growling out in frustration and anger. Closing his eyes and drawing in a deep breath, he turned to see Riley struggling to sit up.

He immediately knelt down next to her, sliding his arm around her and snarling silently at Fred who was trying to help her. He felt a moment of intense joy when she relaxed back against him before it was dashed again back down to the bottom of the mines when she turned her pain-filled eyes up to glare at him in reproach. He tried to look remorseful, but something told him she wasn’t buying it.

“Stop snarling and growling,” Riley snapped as pain racked her. “That’s what got me in the position I’m in now!”

“Riley, you need to learn not to come up on me when I’m disciplining my crew,” Vox tried to explain as he gently held her in his arms.

“I will most certainly come up on your hairy ass if you try biting one of my mates again,” Riley snapped. “Only next time, I’m going to get one of those stunning rods so I can shove it up your stubborn backside, you moron! You. Do. Not. Ever. Sink your teeth into Tor, Lodar, Fred, or Bob again, do you understand me mister?” Riley demanded stubbornly, thrusting her quivering chin out. “Do you?”

Vox stared down into her big blue eyes and felt like he was a drowning cat. He would promise her the moons, the star systems, and Tor’s pelt for a rug if she asked. His head lowered on its own as he fell into the beautiful blue oceans of her soul.

“I promise,” he whispered. “As long as he promises to never imagine drinking milk from your beautiful big breasts again. That is my fantasy.”

Riley’s eyes widened before she reacted out of pure frustration. She threw up her good arm and popped Vox right on the end of his beautifully shaped nose as hard as she could. It wasn’t until she was connecting that it dawned on her that was probably not the best decision she could have made considering he was holding her up in the air and she already had a broken wrist. Thankfully, Lodar was standing close enough to catch her as Vox howled in pain and rage. Riley’s scream of pain mixed with Vox’s as her arm was jostled in the exchange. The sound was enough to draw the attention of the guards, and their door opened just as Lodar tripped over poor Fred who was trying to get out from under everyone’s feet. Lodar hit the floor with a wailing Riley while blood poured from Vox’s nose.

157 looked down at the sobbing female who was being held in the arms of one of her Sarafin mates before jerking to the other Sarafin warrior. The Sarafin king had blood pouring down his face while the third Sarafin warrior was sitting to the side wiping blood from his throat. 157 finally looked down at the small Tiliquan who was rubbing one of his injured feet. The only one not injured was the huge Gelatian.

“I do not even want to know what is going on,” 157 muttered, shaking his head.

Lodar tucked his head so the Antrox guards couldn’t see his collar wasn’t glowing. “Our mate broke her wrist. She needs medical care,” he said, rising with Riley in his arms.

Bob moved forward quickly, putting his larger body between the warriors and the guards. He reached out and scooped Riley into his arms and turned. Moving closer to 157 and the guards, he crowded them, forcing them back toward the door.

“I will carry our mate to medical,” Bob said quietly. “The others are in no shape to do so.”

157 tried to look around the massive figure in front of him but finally decided it wasn’t worth the effort. He was tired of being called down here. He would be glad when the final payment of credits was received and he could dispose of the males once and for all. By tomorrow, he would be a very wealthy Antrox. He had contacted the trader who dealt in supplying s*x slaves for the pleasure houses on the nearby spaceport. He had been promised a large sum of credits and immediate pickup. By this time tomorrow, the males would be dead and the female gone.

157 turned to the two guards standing behind him. “Take her to medical and make sure she is completely healed. If necessary, keep her there the rest of the evening,” he ordered.

Bob ignored the three low growls that escaped the men behind him. “I will remain with our mate and make sure she is safe. She will be returned safely,” he spoke loudly enough to be heard by everyone.

“I… I need my things,” Riley cried softly. “I… I can’t leave my things. They are all I have left.”

“I will bring them to you, Riley,” Fred promised. “I won’t forget.”

Riley looked over Bob’s head and smiled a watery smile at her little friend. “Thank you, sweetheart.”

“Riley,” Vox started forward, still holding his nose, which had finally stopped bleeding.

Riley’s eyes watered, and she shook her head gently. “Go,” she whispered quietly, looking at him with sorrow in her eyes. “It is better this way,” she murmured before she laid her head tiredly on Bob’s shoulder. “Please take me to medical. I hurt.”

Vox watched as the small group left the room, the door sealing behind them. A dark emptiness filled him and his cat as both of them felt the loss of their mate. Vox’s low, animalistic roar echoed through the level as he and his cat called for their mate to return to them.

“We will not leave without her,” Tor said quietly, coming up behind his friend and placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

Vox turned dark, burning eyes on Tor and Lodar. “You bet your cat we won’t,” he vowed.