Rescued By The Warrior Lord

by Roxie Ray

  “Baz-terds almost got me,” Nion coughed as Kloran and I dropped to our knees at his side. When Nion tried to turn over to face us, he groaned in agony. “Ha. Or maybe…maybe not almost.”

  Kloran and I shared a concerned glance. My fingertips brushed against Nion’s side, where a pair of Rutharian horns were buried deep in his flesh. The head of the Rutharian who had wounded Nion had been all but severed for the berserker’s efforts. Nion had taken the man’s life, and the lives of more than two dozen others beneath him, but he had not done so unscathed.

  “He needs medical attention. And quickly. Ronan!” Kloran barked over his shoulder. “You can pray later—you must go inside the palace and summon Bria now.”

  As Ronan rushed off to follow Kloran’s order, I took Nion’s hand in my own. His skin was clammy, cold as the ice of the northern oceans. His face was pale, his brow pearled with sweat that turned his dark green hair nearly to black at his dampened temples.

  “It is not a good battle without at least one casualty, eh?” Nion’s laugh broke into more coughing. Incredible. He was still joking, right to the end—even as he coughed up a mouthful of his own blood. “You will have to take care of Sawyer for me, General. I know I would have been her first choice, if you had not come in and swept her off her feet—”

  “Do not talk like that, Nion.” I squeezed his hand and forced a smile. “About my mate—or about yourself, either. This will not be your last battle. Far from it, in fact, I think.”

  But as Nion’s grip on my hand weakened, I was not so sure my words would prove true. Several long minutes passed before I heard Bria’s voice cut across the courtyard. She raced to him as fast as her little legs would carry—but as soon as she saw the wounds on his side, her face grew grim.

  “We need to act fast.” She shifted a medical bag off of her shoulder and shuffled through it for gauze and disinfectant. “As soon as I pull these horns out of him, we’re going to be fighting against blood loss and time.”

  “Kaliope?” Kloran asked her.

  “With Sawyer and the servant women in the palace.” Bria scowled. Her lips pulled back to bare her teeth, not so sharp as a Lunarian’s, but no less dangerous-looking when coupled with her glare. “We will need new guards. Ours abandoned us the moment the siren sounded.”

  “Blood,” Kloran swore. He looked to me with urgency. “Go to them, Haelian. I will send Gallix to find Healer Adskow. Until he arrives, Bria and I will handle things from here.”

  “Are you planning to save my…my life again, Bria?” Nion’s voice was distant and faint. I feared that we would lose him there on the ground of the courtyard. It pained me to pull away.

  But Bria’s own voice was confident. Stubborn and strong. “I am, you big dummy. Even if it kills ya.”

  “Ha—oh.” Nion winced through his own smile. “Do not make me laugh right now, little human. Hurts too much.”

  I rose slowly, stepping over bloodied chests and horns and limbs as I backed away from the scene. There was little else I could do for Nion there—and Kloran was right; someone needed to check on Sawyer, Kaliope and the servants. Bria had more medical training than Kloran and I combined. For the time being, I knew, Nion was at least in good hands.

  I ascended the palace steps with the fire of battle still burning in my chest, blood on my hands…

  And something thrumming away in my heart. Not bloodlust, I thought, but something greater, stronger, more holy and more powerful.

  My mate was safe. The palace was defended. And in her name, the battle had been won.

  23

  Sawyer

  I cradled Kaliope in my arms as I glanced around the little room we were sheltered in. The servant women, of more species than I could even count, looked anxious—but still, as soon as they had arrived, they’d placed themselves between Kaliope and the door. Our guards had abandoned us. We’d had no way of knowing how the battle outside was going. But it touched my heart to know that regardless of species, no one had hesitated to put themselves between the entrance to our safe room and the baby. I knew then that they’d fight to keep her safe, just like the Lunarian men were doing outside.

  And I knew that Bria and I would have done the same. It hadn’t even struck me that I should try to protect myself. If the battle had spilled over into our little safe room, I would have thrown myself at any Rutharian who even so much as looked at Kaliope.

  I’d never thought that I was the type to have the strongest maternal instinct before, but being here on Lunaria…it had changed something in me. I’d always wanted kids, sure. But back on Earth, that had seemed like a far-distant future. A big, fat maybe someday.

  Now, though…I didn’t just want to protect Bria and Kloran’s baby.

  I wanted one of my own, too.

  When the four-armed Lunarian who’d been there when Haelian and Nion had rescued me from the Rutharian ship arrived in the doorway, calling for Bria, I knew that whatever had happened outside, we must have won. Kloran wouldn’t have summoned Bria from the safe room if it wasn’t safe outside, too.

  What worried me then was why Bria had been summoned…but not me. I knew that Bria had been a nurse back on Earth. Which must have meant that there were injured men to take care of. The question was…who? Kloran? Nion?

  Haelian?

  A slick wave of nausea churned inside my belly at the thought. I wasn’t married to Haelian like Bria was to Kloran. We’d only shared a few nights together. But he’d told me that he loved me. He’d made me feel safe.

  And I believed it. I knew he’d give anything to keep me from harm.

  I loved him, too.

  All I could do was hold Kaliope tight to my chest and hope that he’d managed to keep himself safe, too.

  “Sawyer!” My name echoed down the steep stairwell as a dim light appeared at the top of it.

  I knew the voice that called out to me.

  I knew it now almost better than I knew my own.

  “Here.” A green-skinned servant woman with kind-looking, yellow eyes held out her arms for Kaliope. “I will take her.”

  “You don’t mind?” Already, I could hear Haelian’s footsteps pounding down the stairs.

  The woman smiled. “Go to him. I will keep her safe.”

  Gently, I passed Kaliope into the woman’s arms. The rest of the servants parted to make way for me as I rose. I rushed to the foot of the stairs, reaching it just as Haelian came to the base of the steps himself.

  He smelled like smoke and iron. He was splattered with black Rutharian blood.

  But as I threw myself into his arms, I could tell that even though his chest still rose and fell heavy with exhaustion, he was unharmed.

  “Sawyer.” He repeated my name like it was some kind of prayer as he smoothed my hair down over the back of my head. “My love. My only.”

  “Haelian.” I didn’t have words just then. Only his name. A prayer of my own.

  He held me tight to his chest for a moment. A lifetime ago, I might have balked at the way he was covered in blood. But now, the thought of pulling away didn’t even enter my mind.

  I needed to be close to him. Needed to be held.

  I could have spent a lifetime there in his arms.

  Haelian was the first to pull back. Even then, it was only to scan the faces of the servant women gathered behind me.

  “You are all unharmed?” he asked me.

  “Bria brought me down here as soon as we realized there was a ship coming. The servants all trickled in not long after. Kaliope is safe too.” I reached up to cradle his cheek in my hand. “No one got in. Thanks to you.”

  “And no thanks to the guards.” Haelian’s eyes flashed red for a moment, but his anger slipped away as he focused his gaze on mine. “But that, I will deal with later.”

  I let out a little gasp as Haelian swept me off my feet. Literally. It never failed to stun me how easily he was able to do it, either. Like I weighed nothing at all.

  “Haelian…shouldn’t we go out and c
heck on the others?” I wrapped my arms around his neck, clinging to him. “When Bria left, I knew someone must have been hurt…”

  “Nion,” Haelian confirmed for me. Already, he was carrying me up the steps. “He is injured. Badly, I think. If you wish for me to take you to him…”

  I placed my cheek against Haelian’s chest and considered it. Nion had been kind to me. Always. Even on my worst days since I’d been captured, he’d found little ways to be friendly to me and make me laugh.

  He was my friend. The sick feeling in my stomach intensified as I imagined the worse. If he died, I didn’t think there was any way I could forgive myself.

  If he died, he died keeping me safe.

  “Is there anything I can do?” I asked. I didn’t have Bria’s medical knowledge. I didn’t even know how Lunarian biology worked. But if he needed my help…

  “No, my love, I fear there is not.” Haelian’s voice was grim. It brought tears to my eyes, the hot, searing kind that threatened to turn into sobbing. “Bria is doing what she can, and Healer Adskow will do the rest.”

  A sigh forced its way out of my chest. I buried my face against Haelian’s neck so he couldn’t see the way I was scrunching my eyes up tight, trying to fight back the tears as they came.

  “Tell me he’ll recover, Haelian.” It was a plea for a promise. One that, for once, I didn’t know Haelian could grant me.

  At the top of the stairs, Haelian paused. I could feel his stare on me, like he was willing me to look up at him again.

  I blinked away my tears as I met his gaze.

  “Nion is a warrior, my love. He is strong.” Haelian’s lips dipped to my cheek. He kissed my tears away. “And so are you, Sawyer. Never forget that.”

  I didn’t know how Haelian could say that. I hadn’t done anything—just cowered in the dark like a terrified little mouse while he and his warriors had defended us. But for the moment, it didn’t matter.

  I suddenly felt tired. More tired than I had ever felt in my entire life. And now that the battle was over, I knew Haelian must have been, too.

  “Take me to bed, Haelian?”

  He nodded, then moved through the room toward the door. As he turned to take me back to my own rooms, though, I stopped him.

  “No,” I said. “Not my bed. Yours.”

  He stopped and gave me a look of tender surprise.

  “You are sure, my love? After the fear we have put you through today, I would think that you would want to rest…”

  “Yes,” I said. I thought back to the way my doors had been painted with those awful words. To how the guards had abandoned us as soon as that awful Idria woman had left the palace. To the way I’d felt in Haelian’s arms from the first moment I met him. It was the same way I felt now, cradled in his strength and his warmth. “But I want to rest somewhere safe. Somewhere…somewhere away from all of this. I want to rest with you.”

  With a rumble of something—relief, I hoped—Haelian turned to carry me out of the palace instead.

  “You will always be safe with me, precious one. Always.”

  And that, I knew, was a promise he could always keep.

  When I asked Haelian to take me back to his bed, I thought we’d end up somewhere else in the city. But leave it to Haelian—he didn’t half-ass anything. The hovercar he called for us took us out of the Lunarian capital entirely. We rode in it all night. Though I was still tired, it was hard to let myself fall asleep as I stared out the window at Lunaria’s natural landscape. We floated through forests, across rivers, over lush fields of crimson and gold and azure until we reached a white palace carved into the mountains, adorned with tall white columns that reminded me of the ancient history lessons I’d been taught back in school.

  “This is…where your family lives?” I fought back a yawn as my sleepy eyes strained to take it all in. The first lights of a new morning were peeking up over the crests of the mountain range before us. When Haelian came around the side of the car to help me out, the sunlight caught the red of his hair and turned it to a dozen different shades of flame.

  “This is where we will live, precious one.” Haelian took my hand tightly in his own and pulled me to my feet. “For as long as my father sits on the high council, my family will stay in the city. But now, with the capital likely compromised by those who would do you harm…” Haelian scowled, then shook his head. “Never mind that. If it pleases you to be here…yes, this is where I would like to live with you. Where we could raise our cubs and begin a dynasty of our own.”

  “It pleases me a lot, actually. It’s…it’s absolutely gorgeous, Haelian.” As Haelian guided me up the white marble steps, it was hard not to let my jaw drop to the ground. This was more grandiose than anything I’d ever imagined for myself. If my mother could have seen this place—if she could have known that I was alive and being given an entire palace to set up the rest of my life in—I was pretty sure she would have told me not to bother coming home at all. “But…don’t you think we’ll be a little lonely here?”

  Haelian paused at the doorway and took my hands into his own. “You will have servants here to cater to your every need, my love—and, I think soon, Bria and Kaliope as well. They will not be safe in the capital either anymore, and you are right, it would not be good to keep you here all on your own once I return to the Avant Lupinia.”

  That made my heart rise up and crash into my gut all at once.

  “It would be nice to have Bria and Kaliope here…” I said softly, choosing my words with care. “But…do you really have to go again? Couldn’t you and Kloran and Bria and the baby all come here and just…stay?”

  Haelian raised my knuckles to his lips and kissed them. “I do not want to leave you, either, precious one. I would much rather marry you and live out the rest of our lives here together, until the time comes that I must take up my father’s place on the high council…but alas, there are more human females still within the Rutharians’ clutches. It would not be right, letting them suffer so that you and I may have peace.”

  “I guess you’re right.” I gave him a sad smile. It was selfish to want him to stay here with me when there were other women in danger across the galaxies—even if in my heart, I knew I never wanted him to leave my side again. “I’m just going to miss you, is all. Until Bria and Kaliope get here, it’s going to be pretty lonely.” I glanced at the hovercar over his shoulder. “When do you have to go back?”

  Haelian returned my smile with a slow, devious grin. “Do not think that I intend on leaving you anytime soon, Sawyer. It will take time to prepare for our next attack on the Rutharians. Long enough that for now, I believe we will be able to enjoy ourselves here for some time. I will stay here with you for as long as I am able. You may have my word on that.”

  That put my heart at ease a little. Any time I could have with Haelian was good enough for me…even if, all the while, I knew that no amount of time would be enough.

  If I’d had more energy, I would have asked for the grand tour of the place—but even as Haelian led me to his bedroom, I knew that there was no way I’d be able to do that. It reminded me of when I’d first arrived on the Avant Lupinia, back when my legs had barely been strong enough to hold me up. This was a different kind of tired, though. At first, I thought maybe it was just from the stress of the night we’d just been through…but as Haelian undressed me and laid me down in the soft, plush blankets of his massive four-poster bed, I didn’t feel stressed.

  If anything, I felt completely at ease. Especially once he climbed into bed next to me and curled his body up against mine. His warmth, the hardness of his muscles against the bare skin of my back, the way he placed one of his huge hands over my pelvis and stomach, lingering just over my womb…

  I didn’t know what kind of tired it was, but I didn’t mind it.

  Actually, it was probably the most delicious kind of tired I’d ever felt.

  When I awoke again, it was dark out. Next to me, the mattress shifted as Haelian slipped back beneath th
e covers.

  “Where did you go? What time is it?” I asked groggily. A yawn escaped my lips as I cuddled against Haelian’s warmth all over again.

  “You slept all day, my love.” Haelian wrapped an arm around me and drew me to his chest. “Forgive me for leaving you. I rose to bathe. Then I had to take a call from Kloran.”

  Immediately, I felt a little more awake. “Is Nion okay? Did he say anything?”

  Haelian smiled against my forehead. “Nion’s condition has stabilized. Bria was able to keep him from losing much blood until our healers could get him to surgery.”

  “Good.” I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn’t want anyone to have to die for me—least of all someone who had been such a good friend to me in my time of need. “If he had died, I would’ve killed him.”

  “I am sure you would have.” Haelian chuckled, then gave me a kiss at the top of my head. “He will need time to recover, of course, but as I told you. He is strong. Just like you.”

  “I don’t know why you keep saying that,” I muttered, snuggling against his chest. “I haven’t done anything. It’s always you big strong warriors doing the cool stuff. I just get into trouble and get carried around and attacked.”

  Haelian laughed again, then shifted down on the pillows so he could rest his forehead against mine. “You are a ridiculous creature, Sawyer. Of course you are strong. Since you left Earth, you have been kidnapped, caged, beaten, threatened and mistreated.” His hand curled around my hip possessively. “And ravished by a fearsome Lunarian warlord in the midst of it all, no less.”

  “Mm.” I wiggled my hips a little so I could settle against his touch. “Yeah, but I enjoyed that last part.”

  Haelian closed his eyes and smiled. “Yes. As did I.”

  “But none of that makes me strong. I was just…getting through what I had to get through.”

  “That is strength, you sill-ee woman.” Haelian nudged the tip of my nose with the flat of his own to turn my lips toward his. “You could have broken down at any point through all of this. Given up. And yet, here you are.”