Sink (Cold Mark Book 2) Read Free Page B

“It’s not like that. They didn’t physically harm me.”
    Jax rubbed my knees with his thumbs in a soothing gesture. “Explain.”
    My cheeks instantly flamed red, and I peered directly into his eyes. “I’d rather not.”
    Jax’s dark brows furrowed deeply. He was quiet for a full minute before he shook his head of dark, curly hair. His grey eyes scanned my face repeatedly, not missing anything. His tone was quiet, as if he were talking to himself. “I heard that they don’t have a Harem, so you wouldn’t be jealous of other women.” He was too perceptive. And too close to the truth. “What is it then?”
    I sighed heavily, a vision of Jax kissing that woman flittering through my mind. “What happened to you?” My eyes narrowed into a pointed glare. “You aren’t a slave anymore, and you’re acting more like a Mian than a Human.”
    Jax bit his lower lip, peering down to the floor. But when he met my gaze once more, there was defiance in his eyes. A stubborn tilt to his chin. “The leaders of Joyal made those rules when our people first arrived there. On Earth, it was different – as you know well enough from our history lessons. Not much different than the Mian. What I’m doing, who I am, it is human nature.” His eyes never wavered from mine. “When I found the other half of my Vaq, I realized this.”
    My hands and body went cold as my mind halted of all thoughts, shivers of frigidness keeping my spine straight as Stiller placed his palm on Jax’s shoulder and left it there. Stiller even gave a light squeeze of reassurance. This…was too much.
    “Okay, I’ve had enough,” I argued, rising to my feet. Jax would have landed hard on his ass if Stiller wouldn’t have had a hand on him. I quickly stepped over my stunned best friend and jumped through their semi-circle of chairs, and turned a heated eye on all of them. “Release me now. I want the hell out of here.” I was dead serious. I couldn’t take much more of this. “And whatever you have done to my best friend, I suggest you reverse it now. He never would have acted this way before coming to this damned planet.”
    Jax was instantly on his feet, holding his hands up in supplication. “Braita, they’ve done nothing to me.” He shook his head softly as he took a tentative step toward me. “The Plumas here, they told me that you are Soul to the Plumas of the west. In a sense it is the same, me finding my other half. Your Plumas did nothing to you, just as Stiller did nothing to me.” His grey eyes were penetrating on mine, pleading me to see his case. “It just is .”
    I turned my angry glare on Stiller. “He is my best friend.”
    Stiller had the nerve to snort. “He may be your best friend…but he is mine .”
    I snarled. “The hell you say.” I charged him. My hands were still bound, but my teeth worked just fine. I could bite right into his neck and rip out his throat if I had to.
    But I slammed into a blur. The fast moving projectile was Pluma Creo.
    He lifted me straight off my feet, holding me flush against his body.
    “Braita!” Jax hollered, still holding his hands up, trying to calm me. “He is mine too. It works both ways. Stiller’s just being an ass right now.”
    “Am not,” Stiller grunted. He paused, glancing at Jax’s scowl. “Okay, maybe a little. Calm down.”
    “ Argh !” I shouted, wiggling fiercely inside my captor’s hold. “ Let me down, damn you !”
    “And there she goes talking about ‘cows’ again,” Pluma Creo muttered. He merely tossed me into the air, where I landed bent over his shoulder with my stomach smashed against it. He even whapped me on the ass when I started squirming again. “And she was doing so well there.” He paused, clasping a well-muscled arm around the back of my thighs, holding me tightly in place. “Phila, what do you think?”
    Pluma Moir replied in an amused tone, “Our old pet’s cage?”
    Pluma Creo chuckled softly. “That could be fun.”
    “Wait,”