not
changed and his body was held loose and relaxed. And somehow I knew
his not giving this man anything was taking away what that man most
wanted. He wanted the Dax to look angry or alert to the obvious
threat he posed.
But the Dax wasn’t giving him even that.
Still, my new husband did not like this guy.
I could sense it.
My eyes snapped back to the warrior when I
heard his bride cry out in pain. Then I froze in horror when I saw
he was pulling her up by her hair.
Unless I missed it, he didn’t give the Dax a
chin jerk or me a bow. Instead, he positioned his new bride in
front of his body, kicked her legs apart with his foot, then his
arm circled her as his other hand stayed clenched in her hair,
clearly in a painful way for both her hands had wrapped around his
wrist and her stunning face was twisted in distress. Then his torso
bent low, his hand moving from her waist, to her belly, down, over
her sex, curling in…
My eyes shot to the Dax as I heard her
whimper.
He did not look at me. His face was set to
blank and his eyes were glued to the warrior. They were up, not
down, not watching what he was doing but locked on the warrior’s
face.
Then I watched his lip curl.
But I didn’t feel the warrior move away
though I heard his woman keep whimpering.
He was still hurting her.
I couldn’t allow it. After what had
happened to me that night, to Narinda, to all those frightened
girls out there who had been claimed on rough rocks by savage
warriors, I couldn’t allow it. Not this. What we’d endured was
humiliating, this was beyond
that.
I had to do something.
“Stop him,” I whispered to the Dax but he
didn’t tear his eyes away from the warrior. “Stop him,” I repeated
but he ignored me. Hesitantly, not wanting to do it, never wanting
to touch him but spurred on by the girl’s whimpers and fresh
memories of my own nightmare, I reached out a hand and wrapped my
fingers around his wrist. “Stop him,” I implored.
At my touch, the Dax’s head turned, his dark
eyes dropped to my hand then they lifted to my face. I saw them
move over my features but he gave me nothing. I didn’t know what he
was thinking. I had no clue.
When the whimpers continued, I moved my
hand to his, curled my fingers around, shook it, leaned in and
begged, “Please, please, stop
him.”
The Dax stared at me.
God, he had no idea what I was saying.
Or worse, he didn’t care.
Then, suddenly, his head turned to the
warrior and he said something to him in a low voice that included
two words I knew, “Kah Lahnahsahna” and one that struck me,
“Dahksahna”.
“Tooyo!” was the response spit from the
warrior and that got a reaction.
The Dax’s face went hard.
Uh-oh.
My hand slid away.
He was freaking scary normally but when his
face went hard like that…
Yikes.
“Tooyo?” he asked softly.
“Tooyo!” the warrior repeated, I pulled my
eyes away from the Dax and wished I didn’t.
The warrior was working the girl with his
fingers, right there, right in front of us and for all who could
see. She was not enjoying it, not even a little bit, her face
stained with tears, her body twisting madly to get away.
The instant my eyes took it in, I didn’t
even attempt to hold it back.
I tensed and shouted, “ Stop it! ”
The warrior’s eyes sliced to me and he
smiled a cruel smile but he did… not… stop.
I jumped from my seat and screamed,
“ Stop
it! ”
“Tooyo!” he shot back at me and that was
it.
The Dax was out of his seat, the woman
ripped from his hands and thrown at me. I caught her in my arms as
the Dax moved on the warrior. The warrior shifted to deflect him
but without any apparent effort and so fast the warrior didn’t even
begin to defend himself, the Dax rammed his hand, palm first,
fingers wrapping around, into the man’s throat, lifted the huge guy
right off his feet, took two long strides and threw him down all
ten steps, the man flying through the air to land on his back at
the base of the