Free Marauder Kain: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Mating Wars Book 5) by Aya Morningstar Page A

them says hastily. The other two elbow him, and they quickly try to scurry away.
    “Wait,” I say.
    They stop, but don’t turn around.
    “We don’t know anything!” one of them blurts out.
    “Where is she?”
    “She’s done for the day,” one says. “You can just go to her room.”
    “Go,” I say. “And you know nothing .”
    I don’t know what they know, but I’ll have to figure it out from Kara. She couldn’t have been so stupid as to tell total strangers what I was up to.
    I pass through the prisoners’ gruel hall, which is full of dozens of humans. They all look up at me curiously, though some of the women look at me with something much more than curiosity. I ignore all of them and move toward the prisoners’ sleeping quarters– to Kara.
    Just past the gruel hall is a console. I consider putting my hand on it to find out exactly where Kara is, but if Adus is actually tracking me, this would make it too easy for him. He will find out when I claim Kara, but he doesn’t need to know that I went to see her almost first thing after landing on Darkstar.
    Instead, I walk down the hallway and peer through the windows. The windows are all clear, and I can look right in and see human women in each cell. Some scowl at me, others smile and beckon to me, but I ignore them all.
    Occasionally I pass a tinted window– which means a Marauder is inside with one of the women.
    As I near the end of the hallway, my chest tightens. I still have not seen Kara or Felicia, and there are only a few rooms left.
    I reach the last two, and I see Felicia through one clear window, but the last window is tinted.
    I unlock Felicia’s door with my hand, and before I can speak, she points behind me.
    “Senka just went inside,” she says. “A few minutes ago–”
    I spin around, rush toward the tinted window, nearly kicking the door down.
    When the door slides open, I see Kara’s back against the wall, fear in her eyes. Senka is close to her. Too close.
    Rage fills me. Pure, molten-hot rage that only a Marauder raised on Darkstar can feel.
    I growl and grab Senka by the shoulders.
    He turns around and flashes a cocky grin at me. He thinks I won’t dare hit him. I notice he’s not wearing his biosuit.
    I tighten my fist and slam it into his nose.
    I feel a thunderous crack on my knuckle, and when I pull it away it’s covered in blood. Senka’s eyes roll back into his head, and he drops to the ground in a heap. He twitches violently for a second or two, then stops, dead.
    “Kara,” I say, putting my unbloodied hand on her. “Are you--?”
    “I’m fine,” she says. “He didn’t...you came in time,” she says.
    Her eyes are wide, and they look at me only briefly, then they look down past me, wide and terrified.
    “He’s...he’s…,” she points down.
    I look at Senka, and realize he’s not breathing. His face is a bloody mess, and his nose looks like a bag of loose skin.
    “Dead,” I say. “I slammed his cartilage into his brain.”
    “You killed him?” Kara asks. “Why–?”
    “I saw he wasn’t wearing a biosuit” I say, “so I killed him. This is how Marauders fight.”
    “Kain,” Kara says, putting her hands on my arm and squeezing. “I don’t care about Senka...but won’t this….” She looks at the door, which is already shut behind us. Felicia is locked back in her room, but our window is tinted now.
    “Blow my cover?” I ask. “No. This is Darkstar.”
    “What does that even mean?” Kara says, face scrunching up in frustration.
    “Senka knew I wanted to claim you, and he overstepped. This is what he gets,” I say, pointing down at his corpse.
    “So punching his nose into his brain is just some casual thing for you?” Kara asks, letting go of me and crossing her arms. “It’s who you are?”
    “I was protecting you,” I say.
    She takes in a deep breath, holds it, and then sighs, shaking her head. Her eyes are tearing up. “I don’t want to be here, Kain.”
    “And I’ll get you