“My heras, we were…”
“Can you save the love spat for later?” Emma frowned. “If the Heronas have us in their sights, why haven’t they made their move yet? Why haven’t they smoked out the place and carried us all away?”
Lans stared at Emma. “Your mind works in violent ways.”
“It’s a gift,” she said in a flat voice.
Lans’s lips twitched.
Tiegan sighed heavily. “They don’t want to kill us. They need our blood. They want our offspring.”
“Is anyone pregnant?” Lilliana asked, her eyes darting back and forth. “Because now would be a good time to share.”
Sara narrowed her eyes, ignoring Lilliana’s outburst. “If they haven’t attacked yet that means they came for something else.”
Korben met her eyes and admitted, “Chozo.”
Simone straightened. “What?”
“Zar was approached by Ziag’s brother, Dizid. He claimed he had snipers aiming bombs at our hideout.” Korben’s gaze swung to her. “Dizid threatened to kill Zar’s mate if he did not hand the expeh over.”
Simone’s breath got caught in her throat as the truth was revealed. The puzzle pieces were fitting together, and they painted a very different picture than what she’d imagined.
Lans shook his head. “Zar knew how much the Heronas meant to you so he pushed his feelings aside and came to us to make a plan. That’s what we were doing until now.”
“That’s why you didn’t come to bed,” Kia said, turning to Pin.
Her mate nodded.
Lans planted his hands on his waist and his muscles bulged in the light. “We think Chozo overheard us. When I went to collect him from the kitchen, he was gone.”
Simone felt sick. That’s why Chozo had sought her out in the middle of the night.
“He ran away,” she said.
Every head swung her way.
“That’s what Chozo was trying to tell me. That he was leaving.”
“Yes. We think he ran,” Korben said.
“Korben, Zar and I left to inform our mates about the mission.” Pin tapped his chest and scoffed. “We were going to rescue a Heronas. It didn’t sit well with any of us, but Zar insisted that he wouldn’t leave Chozo to die. He’d thought about it, but he said you would never forgive him if he ignored the brood.”
Regret crashed into Simone. Despite losing his father because of the Heronas, Zar had set out to rescue one for her sake. He had come to the room to tell her about it all and she’d snapped at him because of her own insecurity.
She’d chosen fear over love.
She’d chosen doubt over her mate.
And now, she’d driven Zar into a blood lust that he might not come home from. As the realizations rattled through her, Zar’s emotions merged with hers and the pain slowly faded in her head.
But the pain in her heart?
It bloomed and bloomed until she felt like she’d been shot.
Simone wrapped her arms around herself. What have I done?
Thirty-One
Zar
The wind grabbed his hair by the fistfuls and threw it into his face as he rode towards the rising sun. The purple skies were clear, but he did not need to see the Heronas hovercraft to know where they were going.
I’m done, Zar!
Si-Moon’s words flogged his heras. Fear consumed him and he did not want to let it fester. Neh. His affection made him weak.
He was Zar, the ender of the Heronas.
And today, he would end every Heronas in sight.
Steering his zapten with one hand, Zar tapped to the navigation dash on his interface. Keeping one eye on the horizon and the other on the hologram, he increased his speed.
It was dangerous to ride while distracted. It was one of the first lessons a father gave his son when teaching them how to ride a zapten.
But Zar did not particularly care about his own safety today. Nor did he care to follow these rules. Adrenaline made him fearless and his hatred made him feel like the most powerful Plutonian in the world.
He needed nothing else.
You need Si-Moon.
He pushed that thought out of his mind because thinking of Si-Moon would make him falter. It made him soft. For the first time in his life, he had spared a Heronas from death and the outcome had cost him everything.
The Heronas are dying out and when they’re all gone, what will you have left?
Zar roared. His mate’s tortured emotions filled his mind. Sorrow. Regret. They weighed heavily on his shoulders and it took all his energy to embrace them so he could focus on the ride ahead.
Glancing up, Zar saw a tall tree in his path. Moving on instinct, he yanked on the handles and turned the zapten sideways. The near collision made his heras jump even faster and his hate burn even brighter.
The comms connected.
Lans’s face appeared in a holo projection.
Zar spoke while keeping his gaze on the horizon. “Lans, get the females out of the dwelling.”
“Do you know…” Lans’s voice crackled and the holo dipped out of sight. When it flickered back in, Lans was in the middle of a scolding. “Where in denizi are you?”
“Si-Moon…”
“She’s worried about you, Zar. She—”
“Get her out of there.”
“What? Why?”
Zar tapped the comms and ended the call.
His gut told him that Dizid had been bluffing when he threatened to bomb their hideout. Someone so desperate to save his species would do anything. Zar knew. His desperation to avenge his father was what shaped him into the warrior that he was.
But, if there was even a small chance that Dizid did hold such weapons, Zar wanted his mate far away from the blast.
His life meant nothing. He could die today.
Maybe he would.
But Zar would never be able to rest if he brought along the demise of the woman he had sworn to protect.
This was not about Si-Moon.
This was about his vengeance.
All Heronas must die.
He grabbed ahold of that refrain and tucked it close, allowing it to wrap around his heras and protect him from the agony.
If he killed the species responsible for the death of his father, perhaps the world would not feel so empty and dark. Perhaps he could make a way back to the female who held his heras, to his mate, to Si-Moon.
Zar saw two hovercrafts up ahead. The light from the sun glinted against the metallic hulls. Two glass planes were at the front of the hub, allowing the drivers to steer the hovercraft.
His eyes scanned the rear of the vehicles. They were outfitted with massive canons. The position of the weapons warned Zar that those cannons were not for maximum speed.
They were for war.
A cold smirk grew on his face. The fury that he had known since he’d seen his father’s body cut up and bruised on the grassy knoll eclipsed him. Zar was most comfortable here. He was…
A sweeping emotion crashed through his mind, overwhelming him so that he almost slammed on the brakes.
Si-Moon.
Her anxiety took over everything it touched in his mind.
Zar gritted his teeth as the zapten made a ragged descent.
Si-Moon.
He forced the machine back into the air and slammed his foot on the gas.
So close.
So close.
He poised himself for the battle ahead, plotting out every move in his mind to escape from Si-Moon’s hold on him.
Zar would mount the hovercraft at the back of the flight line. He would dig his daggers into the metallic hull and tear it straight off.
He could already feel himself diving inside the hatch and grabbing the nearest Heronas by the throat. He could already smell the bitter, metallic twang of Heronas blood spilling into the air.
He would coat the tops of the trees in their green life source.
He would scatter the ground with Heronas guts, limbs, and masks.
His fingers trembled with the image of the violence and then another image overtook it. Si-Moon. Her brown skin glowing in the shadows of a dungeon. Her lips pressed tightly together. Her fingers tapping the collar the Heronas used to keep him penned.
The zapten slowed to a crawl and Zar shook his head to clear it.
Neh.
The Heronas. They were getting away.
He had to…
Another memory shocked him. Si-Moon smiling up at him as he fed her pith and gave her damas. The careful way she’d chewed as if he’d offered poison. The flash of pleasure in her dark brown eyes that told him she enjoyed the taste.
The hovercraft became a blip in the distance and yet, Zar could not give chase. He was trapped by his mate’s longing. By her emotions that swept through his mind. By the memories. So many memories.
Si-Moon charging out from behind that tree with a broken Rulari gun, intent on joining a fight she would undoubtedly lose.
Si-Moon running her fingers down his tattoos, tracing every line and curve.
Si-Moon’s body flush against his as he mated her for the first time.
“Ah!” Zar released a handle on the zapten to grab his head. “Ah!”
Too long. He’d spent far too long wrapped up in his anger. To peel it away now, to live with a feeling that was lighter and less oppressive would mean giving up everything he’d known. The warrior he’d been.
It would mean embracing something new.
Something far more powerful.
Something that scared him more than a Heronas blade ever did.
The zapten went careening toward the ground.
As his mind spun, Zar saw his folly for the first time. His rage could not fill his heras the way Si-Moon could. Fury could not give him a future. He had sacrificed everything to bring vengeance to his father, but it had brought him no closer to the peace he sought. It had only made him thirstier for Heronas blood.
Si-Moon changed everything. She rolled into his dungeon and she freed him, not only from the Heronas’s shock collar but from his own restlessness. She cut him from the chains that bound his heras and now he was choosing to go after the Heronas instead of winning back his woman.
His eyes flickered as he came back to reality and saw the ground rushing up like a monster. With a roar, Zar pulled on the handles of the zapten and leaned back to break the severity of his fall.
Garbas bounced hard. The sound of metal bending and screeching filled Zar’s ears. His heras bucking rapidly, he climbed off the zapten and caught his breath.
Had he been a second too late, he would have died without making things right with his mate. That bothered him more than the Heronas getting away, more than the crash, more than his own revenge.
Zar wanted Si-Moon.
From now on, he chose his mate over everything.
Thirty-Two
Simone
“He’s close!” She squeezed her eyes shut as the wind buffeted her thick black curls and tore at her tunic. Her fingers clamped over Korben’s strong shoulders and she sucked in a deep breath. “I can feel him.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” Her eyes popped open. “He’s there. In my mind. His emotions are getting stronger but…”
“But what?” Korben asked, turning to glance at her.
Simone didn’t answer.
Something in Zar was shifting. The rage… it… it was draining out of him. It felt like someone had pulled the plug and all the water was rushing down the sink.
But that was impossible.
Now that she knew what a mate connection was, Simone realized it had been established a long time ago. She had been able to feel Zar’s emotions and had been living with his hatred in her mind for a while. Fury had made itself at home. It felt like it was a part of her as much as it was a part of Zar.
No one could just pack up their anger and fold it away like that.
No one.
Something was wrong.
Even when Zar was mating her, the anger simmered beneath his desire. He would focus on her and, for a time, it seemed he had calmed. But the moment their pulses returned to normal, the rage would come sweeping back.
It was never truly gone.
And if it was now…
“Please hurry, Korben,” Simone begged, wishing the zapten would go faster. They were flying at warp speed thanks to Korben’s tricked-out machine, but it wasn’t enough.
She imagined Zar, lying in a bush somewhere, blown to bits by the Heronas.
The image scared her so much that she almost choked.
No.
Zar had to be alive.
Then why is his anger draining out of him?
Simone knew Zar’s vendetta against the Heronas was like his lifeblood. It gave him a reason to get up in the morning and to face a new day. It gave him the strength to keep moving.
“Please, Zar…” she mumbled.
Simone saw now that she’d been wrong to judge Zar for feeding on that anger. Everyone coped in their own way. The minute her stepfather died, Simone threw herself into forgetting all about her childhood.
She spent hours and hours on end in dark rooms with nothing but a computer and a keyboard as company, losing herself in another world.
Programming became her escape.
It was a hollow life, but it kept her from thinking about the scars on her soul.
Zar did the same thing and she chewed him out for it.
He’d needed her love and she gave him her bitterness and insecurities instead.
Regret pounded through her, raging with the force of a storm. Simone wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she lost the chance to tell Zar that she was sorry. To tell him that he was the first person who made her feel protected and loved.
That she would never leave him.
Never.
“I see something!” Korben yelled, pointing the zapten down and nose-diving toward a grove of blue, leafy trees.
Simone’s heart jumped to her throat when she saw Garbas. His usually gleaming silver panels were dirty and scratched. In some places, they were completely dented in.
Zar was an excellent rider. She’d spent hours on his zapten and he’d never lost control to the point that he would crash.
Earlier, Sara had told her that all Plutonian males treasured their zaptens as they were handed down from father to son. If Zar’s zapten looked like that then Zar was probably worse off.
But where was he?
The moment Korben landed, she ran to Zar’s dented machine. Her eyes swept the trees as Simone searched desperately for her mate.
A disturbance in the bush to her right caught her attention.
A second later, Zar appeared.
He saw her and his eyes widened. “Si-Moon.”
“Zar.” The word escaped on a whisper.
He’s okay.
Her eyes ran down his long hair and dark blue skin. The violet eyes that could hold her spellbound. The straight nose. The plump lips that could suck and caress. The broad shoulders that carried the world. The tattoos. The strong legs. The tail.
He’s fine.
There wasn’t a scratch on him.
“Zar!” Simone ran to her mate, arms pumping at her sides and throat pulsing from a lump of emotions. She slammed into him, throwing her arms around his neck and hanging on tight.
Her heart was turning over with relief, turmoil and confusion. Eclipsing all those feelings was a love so fierce and bright that it shook her like a rag doll.
Simone didn’t care that Zar was an alien.
She didn’t care that his skin was blue or that he had a tail.
She didn’t care that she needed a neural implant just to understand what he was speaking to her.
She loved him.
She loved him so much that it took her breath away.
She loved him because he protected her.
Because he was the first person to get her to talk about her past.
Because he was
the first to make her feel like someone special.
Simone planted small, urgent kisses on Zar’s face. “I love you.” She pressed her lips to his cheek. “I love you, Zar.” Her heart pattered and crashed like a cymbal gone awry in a marching band. She was so overwhelmed by it. By him. By love. She could hardly contain herself. “I’m so glad you’re okay. So glad.”
“Si-Moon.” Zar wrapped his fingers around her shoulders and drew her back. He stared into her eyes and she got lost in him. So lost that she doubted she would ever find her way out again.
His joy swept through her and tangled with her own knotted emotions. They wove and dipped until they were one. Until it seemed impossible to separate them.
Zar’s big fingers cupped her cheek. “I am… sorry.”
“No. No. Don’t apologize. This is my fault. I should have never accused you without giving you an opportunity to explain yourself. I just jumped to conclusions because my feelings for you were getting too intense, and I was looking for any excuse to guard my heart. Even though it was already yours.” She placed her hand on his and stroked his knuckles. “I’m yours, Zar. I’ll always be yours.”
“Intera-won.”
“Intera-won,” she whispered, smiling like a sap. Her heart expanded and filled with so much happiness that she didn’t know what to do with herself.
Her entire life, Simone had imagined a prince swooping in to save her from her stepfather’s violence. As an adult, she’d had the secret dream of being rescued by a dashing man and whisked away from her fearful, bland existence.
But what she’d wanted wasn’t what she needed. An alien from a planet all the way across the galaxy breathed life into her stone-cold heart. He’d chased away her fears. He was the only one who could do that.
Because he was Zar.
Her mate.
Intera-won.
Zar lowered his head and, for the first time since they’d met, he kissed her gently. There was just exquisite tenderness. No heat of fury. No restlessness behind his embrace.
He moved his lips over hers like she was the most priceless treasure. Like he had all the time in the world to taste her and claim her as his own.
The Alien Warrior's Heart : A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Plutonian Warriors Book 3) Page 15
