Free Claimed by Lee-Ann Wallace Page A

his spread wings, playing with the ringlet on the end.
    God, it was her fault that this had happened to him. Why had he picked her? Why hadn’t he picked one of the species the Morgath had already successfully mated with?
    Maybe his father was right. She slid her hand over the soft smooth skin of his shoulder. She’d given him this weak, thin, easy to damage human skin. Her gaze ran down his arm to his hand—she’d also stolen his claws, a Morgath’s first line of defence. He should hate her for what she’d done to him. Maybe when he woke he would.
    Tina stepped back so that the two medical assistants could step up to the table. She watched them bind Sorvar’s wings into position and lift him off the table.
    Following the assistants out of Medical and through the ship, she didn’t see another male until they reached the shuttle bay. She’d overheard the Commander tell Seklan the ship was too damaged to make the trip through Morgath’s atmosphere. They were using the shuttle, and she and Sorvar were in the first group to leave.
    Tina took her place inside the shuttle beside Sorvar’s prone body. She felt like a child in the seats designed for the larger bodies of the Morgath males, and the strange configuration of the chairs left her back aching by the time the shuttle had left the ship.
    The three hours of the fight between the Morgath and the Crasgich wasn’t the scariest thing she’d ever experienced. Thirty minutes in the shuttle and she would be happy to never set foot in space again. Tina clenched her teeth all the way down, biting back the whimpers that rose in her throat.
    She would not look weak in front of these males. By the time she collected herself once the shuttle landed, Seklan’s assistants were already walking down the ramp of the shuttle, leaving Tina to rush after them.
    The hot, humid air hit her like a slap in the face the minute she stepped onto the ramp of the shuttle. Heavy and oppressive, the air felt like a hot summer day right before a storm. Sweat beaded on her brow and collected between her shoulder blades, a sticky wetness that made her clothes cling. Tina trudged down the ramp after Seklan’s assistants and their precious cargo. She gritted her teeth as every step sent pain slicing through her body.
    She had spent the last ten hours trying to work out what was wrong with her, why she was in so much pain, but she didn’t have a clue. She didn’t know enough about the transformations the females went through or Morgath physiology to even take a wild guess, and she refused to ask Seklan. There was no way she wanted to appear weak in front of the medic.
    Trees surrounded the clearing the shuttle had landed in, pressing in on her with their towering trunks and thick canopies. The hot stale air barely moved in the little clearing, the smell of hot rock permeating everything. Tina sucked in a breath. She hoped like hell the palace wasn’t surrounded by jungle. It would drive her insane.
    A group of males, all unmated, stood around a floating medical transport close to the edge of the trees, all of them wearing as many weapons as the males on the ship had. Seklan and the medical assistants headed straight for them, and Tina followed at a distance on shaky legs. It was one thing to see the males in ones and twos, but there were almost a dozen of them standing around the transport.
    They were so intimidating that their mere presences felt forceful and heavy. An aura of angry menace clung to them. Tina shuddered as she walked closer.
    The nervous tension filling her kept her back ramrod straight even though it sent pain spearing down her spine. Without Sorvar to introduce her, she had no idea who was who. She didn’t even know what Sorvar’s father’s name was, or his brothers’.
    She stopped outside the ring of males and watched as the two assistants placed Sorvar on the transport with a great amount of care. They arranged his limbs and wings with care as well, confirming to her that