Kraving Tavak (The Krave of Everton Book 4) Read online

  Kraving Tavak

  The Krave of Everton Book 4

  Zoey Draven

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Epilogue

  The Alien’s Prize

  Captive of the Horde King

  More From Zoey

  Thank You!

  About the Author

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, places, or persons are purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover Design: Aria at Resplendent Media

  Copyright © 2021 Zoey Draven

  Chapter One

  “Dammit,” Stella hissed under her breath, already panting and sweating in the sticky heat of Dumera.

  One would think she’d grown stronger during her two months on the neutral, peaceful colony, especially since she was hauling huge silver jugs of Luxirian brew back and forth from the merchant docks on a regular basis. But her arms felt like goo and the heat was making her irritable. And not much could irritate Stella, except being hot and uncomfortable.

  The muscles in her arms quivered and burned and she decided that Dumera needed a gym desperately. Like the gym on Haase’s shiny new merchant ship, with its sparring room and weights that reacted with the artificial gravity in the room. Then again, she’d used the gym once when she’d been on his ship…and never went back. She always swore she’d start again the next day but her bed was too damn comfortable after long days of cooking in the kitchens.

  Luxirians produced their brew in massive jugs that she guessed weighed close to sixty pounds each. She still had ten to unload in the back cellar of Reji’s bar. Most who frequented the establishment preferred Luxirian brew over everything else they offered, including cute little bottles of Gobbuin wine, bright purple and sparkling, which weighed almost nothing at all and only took Stella a few minutes to unpack and stock neatly along the shelves.

  She sighed, caught her breath, and then glared at the silver jugs. But Reji had given her this job because she’d assured him she could handle it. Her, a human female, who weren’t exactly known for their strength. Not against Luxirians or Laoti females at the very least.

  “A Laoti female could unload these all in one go,” Stella mumbled under her breath and felt determination shoot through her.

  And so, just like at the beginning of every week on Dumera, she wrestled and huffed and cursed as she placed all the jugs in the cellar. She looked at it like a test of her—hopefully—budding strength, not an inconvenience. She always needed to look for the silver lining, after all.

  Afterwards, the creaky old cart was empty. The dusty shelves were stocked.

  Triumphant, Stella was beaming as she strode through the doors of the back cellar, onto the empty and quiet bar floor. Her tunic was sticking to her skin so she stepped outside to a warm breeze, leaning against the wood wall of the bar as she caught her breath, surveying the main stretch of road that ran down the center of Dumera’s town.

  It was only the early afternoon, which was why the bar was empty. And if anyone was drinking right now, it was usually at the larger bar up the road, nearest to the docking bay and to where the transport from the mines let out.

  Still, Dumera was bustling in its own quiet way that afternoon. Stella watched a male, whose race she didn’t know, with his green skin and white eyes duck into a shop that sold clothing. She watched a pack of children—Laoti, mostly—run past, laughing and kicking a dusty, steel grey ball with dents on all sides of it.

  She watched a human woman, heavily pregnant, smile at a market vendor at the very end of the road, rubbing scraps of fabric between her fingertips. Her other hand was placed low on her abdomen, curling into the new growth there protectively.

  A Reku’io mother and her daughter threaded around the human woman and Stella’s eyes caught on them, taking in their lavender skin and beautiful eggplant-colored hair, glistening in the sunlight. A lump rose in Stella’s throat when she saw the mother take her daughter’s hand, only to hold it, only to assure herself that she was near.

  Stella looked away, swallowing. Her eyes caught a flash of indigo and her breath hitched.

  Her thoughts scattered and her heart began to pound in excitement as she straightened away from the wall.

  A Keriv’i male had just cut onto the wide road. Behind him, a hover cart carried five steel crates of what she assumed were firestones, Dumera’s main export these days, or so Reji had informed her shortly after he’d given her work.

  But it wasn’t the firestones she was interested in. It was the Keriv’i male leading them to the docks.

  Big and strong, with thighs like tree trunks and arms corded with muscle. From this distance, she couldn’t see his eyes but she knew they swirled with threads of gold and silver. Mesmerizing and strange and so, so beautiful, completely at odds with the constant scowl on his face and glare in his gaze.

  Stella had asked his name many times but he’d never given it to her. In the end, she’d eavesdropped on conversations at the bar, especially on those she knew worked with him at the firestones lab, and learned that others called him Tavak.

  Tavak.

  Desire burned low in her belly, making her sweat.

  Down the road, his eyes cut to her and she couldn’t help but grin, probably goofy and silly in its eagerness. Tavak glared at her and she lifted her hand and waved. He paused on the road, the hover cart stilling behind him. For a breathless moment, she wondered if he would approach her.

  Of course, logically, she knew he wouldn’t. But a girl could dream, couldn’t she?

  In the end, she was right. He walked forward, breaking her gaze abruptly, and strode off the main road, the hover cart sliding along behind him. He disappeared from view, heading towards the docks, which she’d just come from earlier that morning.

  Stella sighed again and slumped back against the wall. She smiled lightly, thinking about his surly expression, and the way he’d watch her sometimes when she served him Luxirian brew, his expression cold, mistrustful, but…intense. So intense she swore she could feel his gaze like a sizzling touch, sliding and rasping across her skin.

  Stella almost shivered, thinking about that expression in the hot afternoon sun.

  He came into the bar almost every night. Mostly alo
ne. Sometimes with another Keriv’i male, whose name she didn’t know.

  And for the last two months, Stella had always watched for him, eager for his daily arrival so she could babble to him and tease him and smile at him. But nothing she did ever made him smile.

  But Stella was determined. She’d made up her mind almost the exact moment she’d seen him, scowling at her after she tripped into him at the docks, the day she’d landed on Dumera.

  She wanted a male. A mate. A lover.

  She wanted Tavak.

  She wanted to make him smile instead of glare at her. She wanted to feel his touch, feel his weight, his heat against her. She wanted to breathe him in because his scent drove her absolutely wild. She wanted to hear that husky, gravelly, dark voice murmuring in her ear, wanted to feel those strong arms curled around her so that she knew she’d always be safe and protected.

  When Tavak was around, Stella felt like she was in heat. She’d never felt anything like it before.

  Stella sighed and she went back inside the sticky, humid bar. It smelled fresh and clean, however, since she’d spent most of the morning scrubbing down the floors. A group of Laoti males had been a little raucous last night. Brew had spilled everywhere.

  It would have been irritating, the extra clean-up. Except, Stella had noticed Tavak had stayed until the group had left. As if…as if making certain they wouldn’t cause her any trouble, as drunk as they were. Or maybe she’d just made that up in her mind, wishful thinking and nothing more.

  Stella bit her lip, staring at the stool at the end of the bar slab where Tavak usually sat, long into the night. Maybe she was pathetic, lusting and longing after a male that clearly wanted nothing to do with her.

  But there were so few pleasures in this life. And Stella liked talking to him—though he rarely ever talked back. She liked looking at him, she liked feeling his presence nearby, liked feeling his eyes on her.

  Maybe she was pathetic, but Stella would take her pleasure wherever she found it. She would grasp onto it with both hands and not let go until she had to, until she had to move on.

  And that big, blue alien male who made her shiver with desire and made her grin like a loon?

  She wanted him more than she’d wanted anything in a very long time.

  Chapter Two

  “I’m leaving,” Ravu informed Tavak.

  Tavak cut a look over to his brother, who was leaning against the steel crates of packed and ready firestones, which would go out on tomorrow morning’s vessel. The firestones were heading to the First Quadrant, a long trip. But the buyer was a wealthy merchant and paid extra for a rush order.

  “I still have some inventory to do,” Tavak told him. “I’ll see you at home later.”

  After he got his nightly brew at Reji’s bar, of course.

  Ravu sighed, a trait he’d picked up living on Everton. All of them did things they’d picked up on Everton, a strange mixture of human and Keriv’i gestures and phrases. Like shoulder shrugging. Or throat clearing, when Keriv’i had no need to clear their throats.

  Lingering remnants of their time as whores for humans. Tavak wondered if they’d ever shake it.

  “I meant, I’m leaving,” Ravu said again, his voice quiet. Serious. Tavak stared down at the Nu device, where he was going over the warehouse figures unseeing. “I’m leaving Dumera. For a short time.”

  Leaving Dumera.

  Tavak’s first instinct was to deny Ravu’s words. How could they be right when the two brothers had always been together? They had never separated, not once, even when their planet was destroyed, even on Everton. They’d always lived under the same roof. They always saw one another every day.

  “What are you talking about?” Tavak growled.

  But he knew. He’d begun to sense it, hadn’t he? Ravu’s restlessness. Like an itch that hounded him, that he could never relieve. Ravu wanted more and all Tavak wanted was peace. Quiet.

  Which was a perfect thing to desire living on Dumera.

  “Khiva’s merchant,” Ravu said, his voice deepening. He was uneasy. Telling Tavak this. Uncomfortable. “The one whose Coms systems I updated at port last month, remember?”

  Tavak looked across the space to his brother. There were still a few workers milling around but most had cleared out an hour earlier, gone home to their mates or to drink or to sleep.

  “He liked my work,” Ravu told him, his shoulders straightening slightly, pride on the edges of his strained voice. “He wants me on board his vessel, to do repairs on the journey. To be…on hand.”

  “What journey?” Tavak snapped.

  “On his next stint to the Fourth Quadrant. He comes into port in a few days and I told him I’d go.”

  The Fourth Quadrant.

  Tavak felt his lungs squeeze. “Are you insane?”

  “Tavak…”

  “You want to go back? You want to go back?” Tavak asked, his voice deadly quiet. “After everything we risked getting here? You want to go back the way we came?”

  “Of course not,” Ravu hissed, getting frustrated. “We aren’t stopping at the Earth colonies. We are making a drop of firestones to Ghentu. Another neutral colony. Lots of Luxirians, apparently. Well, hybrid ones.”

  Why the vauk was he talking of hybrid Luxirians when Tavak felt panic rising within his chest like a tidal wave?

  Ravu seemed to sense something and quieted. Then he said, “It’s only for a few weeks. Then I’ll return.”

  “And then?” Tavak rasped. “And then what?”

  Ravu shrugged. Another human gesture and Tavak blew out a sharp breath. “I rest. Then I go out again. To make another drop. The credits are good. Haase pays his crew well.”

  “The credits are good here,” Tavak said quietly. They had more credits working for Khiva than they knew what to do with.

  “But I’m not.”

  Those words pulled from Ravu and Tavak felt something in his chest snap because of them.

  A bitter laugh rose from Ravu’s throat. “I’m not good here. And I should be, shouldn’t I? After Everton? I should be vauking happy anywhere, right?”

  The device was forgotten in Tavak’s hands as he stared at his brother. His blood. Well, half of his blood. Their mother’s blood.

  “You like it here. I see that,” Ravu said, meeting his gaze. They had the same eyes but Ravu’s features were wider, broader. “I like it well enough too. Especially since we are here together. Safe. But I want…I want…”

  Tavak knew what he wanted. For so long, they had been numb. On Everton. Their days had been filled with waiting. With sleep. Their nights had been filled with human females who paid to fuck them. Then the morning would come and they’d do it all over again. For years, that had been their existence. Waiting and sleeping and fucking.

  Now they were on Dumera. And Ravu felt lost. Or maybe he didn’t feel lost at all. Maybe he was trying to find his own way and he knew he wouldn’t find it here. At least not yet.

  “You’ve looked after me my whole life,” Ravu said quietly. Reaching out to clasp Tavak’s shoulder, he continued, “You’ve been my brother. But you’ve also been my father. My mother. My whole family.”

  Tavak’s jaw tightened at the mention of their mother.

  “I’m taking care of myself from now on,” Ravu said. “You don’t have to worry about me anymore. Pax?”

  Everything in Tavak still rebelled at the thought of Ravu leaving. But his brother was right. He saw the determination in him. Even still, he gruffly asked, “You are certain?”

  Ravu inclined his head. “I’ve decided. Like I said, it will only be for a few weeks.”

  “You’ll be careful?”

  Keriv’i males were still targeted by traffickers, especially in the outer Quadrants, after all.

  “There’s a Keriv’i on Haase’s vessel. He’s been working for him for a long time, says that Haase protects his own. I’ll be careful,” Ravu assured him. “But I’ll also have others watching out too. I’ll mostly be on the ship
anyways.”

  Tavak blew out a rough breath.

  “Pax?” Ravu asked, meeting his gaze.

  Tavak couldn’t stop him. He knew that. And he saw that Ravu wanted his blessing.

  And what was this thing, inside his chest? Something that felt strangely like relief? Stinging and pure and sharp? But that couldn’t be right. If it was, it would make Tavak feel shame for such a selfish emotion.

  But Tavak had long agonized that he hadn’t protected Ravu enough. He’d done what he could on Kerivu, orphaned and hungry and creditless. He’d done what he could on Jrika. But he’d failed him on Everton.

  That selfish voice inside Tavak whispered, You don’t have to worry any longer.

  Tavak clasped his brother’s shoulder, brought him in for a rough embrace. They’d only ever had each other. All their lives.

  “You better bring me back some Luxirian brew. The strong stuff. A whole vauking keg of it from Ghentu.”

  Ravu’s shoulders loosened. When his brother pulled back, his eyes were mischievous. “If I did that, brother, then what excuse would you have for visiting that awful bar every night? The human female would be so disappointed.”

  “Vauk off,” Tavak growled.

  “Gladly.”

  Tavak spent longer in the warehouse than he needed to that night and he didn’t get his work finished. His eyes had strayed and glossed over the figures of an upcoming shipment long after Ravu left for home.