by Cynthia Sax
As Orol approached them, they stopped talking, looking at them with suspicion.
“If you exit, there’s no re-entry,” one of the males warned.
“We’re aware of that.” Orol flapped his wings, lifting off the ground. “Only I will be exiting now.” They’d view Rhea as his slave, a being not worth mentioning. “My big friend will wait here for a few moments.”
The guards glanced at Balvan. Their eyes widened. Two of them gulped.
If the males were planning to give them a rough time, seeing the big green male changed their minds.
Orol reversed in the air and grasped Rhea, circling her waist with his arms. She fit against his body perfectly, his mate made for him.
A guard opened the gates. Orol burst through the gap, flying at his top speed.
Rhea sucked in her breath yet made no other sound, his female fearless. She immediately applied herself to her task, shooting with her trademark precision, locating the enemy through the chaos outside, picking them off one by one.
She’d downed eight males before they realized where the shots were coming from. Projectiles whizzed by them. Orol tilted his body to the left, to the right, spun, dove. His female calmly aimed and shot, aimed and shot.
Balvan had brought with him some of the top warriors from the Refuge. The modified humanoids, all different, all having unique powers but the same enhanced speed and strength, were slaughtering their human adversaries.
A projectile skimmed Orol’s arm, leaving a trail of pain. “Rhea?” Had she been hit?
“The body armor stopped it.” Her voice was breezy. His female was delicate, human. She must have felt the impact. “Concentrate.”
A warrior had hurt her. Orol roared with outrage. He would concentrate, concentrate on ripping that being apart.
He located the offending male, swooped toward him. Rhea put a projectile in the male’s forehead, blasting his brains out of his skull. Orol kicked him off the rock facing he stood upon. The corpse bounced against hard stone, hitting boulder after boulder as it fell, before it splattered over the white sand.
“He’s dead.” Rhea sounded pleased.
“Yes.” Orol grinned. Vengeance was much more enjoyable when it was shared with his mate.
They cleared the space around the exit. The gates opened. Balvan sprinted forward, his body hunched over Paloma’s. He moved faster than Orol had ever seen the green giant move.
Modified humanoids ran in tandem, surrounding Balvan and Paloma, protecting them with their forms and with their weapons. Orol flew, his arms around his female. Rhea’s jaw jutted as she shot every Humanoid Alliance warrior they saw, his female determined to safeguard her sister.
A projectile hit Balvan in the back. He grunted, didn’t stop running.
“You bastard.” Orol’s female shot the Humanoid Alliance warrior once in the forehead, a second time in the neck, and a third time in the groin. The male’s gun clattered to the rock. He fell, his arms and legs twitching.
“And if that had been me he had hurt?” Orol asked.
She shot their next target in the balls. The male shrieked, clutching his bleeding groin. There was a pause, then she shot him in the throat, another pause and she shot him in the forehead, the sequence and timing of the assaults maximizing the being’s pain.
A human male might have been appalled by Rhea’s reaction. Orol was a modified humanoid, genetically designed for killing. He chuckled, amused and pleased with his tiny female’s bloodthirsty nature. “You’re perfect for me.”
“I didn’t say I loved you.” She eliminated another threat.
“You love me.” Orol grinned.
Balvan transported Paloma into the ship. The vessel lifted off, creating eddies in the sand below it. The enemy ships fired on it. Missiles bounced off its shields.
The ship carrying Balvan and Paloma sped forward, traveling toward the Refuge, toward safety. Once they reached Kralj’s territory, the Ruler would protect them.
The Humanoid Alliance vessels chased that lead ship. The dishonorable beings, in their haste, left some of their warriors behind, dooming them to death. The locals picked the males off one by one.
The remaining two ships flown by the modified humanoids pursued the Humanoid Alliance vessels. All the warriors borrowed from the Refuge were inside those ships. They didn’t abandon their brethren.
“Shall we catch up to them?” Orol kissed the top of his mate’s head, the scent of her hair teasing his nostrils. They had completed their part of the mission.
“Can we catch up to them?”
Orol took that as a challenge. “We can try.” He held her tight to him and sliced through the hot arid air with his wings, every stroke propelling them forward faster and faster.
It was a beautiful planet rotation. The sky was clear. He had his mate in his arms and they were going home. Orol laughed, happiness lighting where the darkness once coiled inside him.
Balvan was right. He was a lucky male.
Chapter Seventeen
They never caught up to her sister’s ship.
Rhea was glad. That meant Paloma had been safely transported to the settlement.
It also gave her extra moments alone with the male she loved.
She worried it would be their last moments together. Orol’s mission was to deliver her and her sister to the Refuge. Kralj, his boss, could send him on another mission.
Or worse. The Ruler of the settlement might decide she and her sister had to die. The Humanoid Alliance, knowing the information her parents had placed in her brain, wished to kill them. If Kralj uncovered what she knew, it was logical he might seek to do the same thing.
“Paloma knows nothing.” Rhea might not be able to save herself but she could protect her sister. “I shielded her from all of our parents’ activities. She doesn’t even believe they were spies.” Her sister insisted their parents were still alive. “I’ll abide with whatever your boss decides to do as long as she is kept out of it.”
“I won’t allow Kralj to harm either of you.” Orol spread his fingers over her fluttering stomach, holding her tighter to his body. “Don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried,” Rhea lied. She was very worried.
But there was nothing she could do to stop fate. Orol was taking her to the Refuge. They would meet with his boss. That was inevitable.
Enjoying these last moments with Orol was all she could control.
Rhea lifted her face into the wind, focused on his hands on her body, his form against hers, the soothing beat of his wings, and not on her approaching doom.
The sky was clear, a gorgeous blue. The sun shone. The male she loved had his arms around her. They were together, happy, free.
She wished they could fly forever.
They passed a line of Humanoid Alliance ships pointed in the same direction they were going. Rhea recognized a couple of the vessels. They had been positioned outside the mining fields, had pursued the ship transporting Paloma.
The Humanoid Alliance ships’ engines were running. Clouds of white sand sprayed behind them. But they weren’t moving. It was as though they pushed against an invisible force.
A couple of heartbeats later, they passed a line of Humanoid Alliance ships pointed the other way. Those ships weren’t moving either.
“What happened to them?” She frowned. And why weren’t the modified humanoid ships affected? She hadn’t spotted her sister’s vessel.
“Kralj stopped them.” Orol said that as though stopping ships was a simple task. “He has powers.”
She should learn more about his boss, her potential adversary. “They say he controls the air currents over the settlement, not allowing anyone to approach it from above.”
“He controls everything. Show him respect and don’t lie to him,” Orol advised. “He can read your thoughts.”
Lying and not talking were two of her favorite tactics. She wouldn’t be able to hide anything from his boss. “Can he read memories?”
“Yes.�
��
That was why her parents had sent them to him. Disappointment swept over Rhea. They hadn’t been thinking of her safety, of Paloma’s safety. They had been thinking of the Rebel cause, of relaying the information they’d planted inside her head.
Their emotions might not have been real but Rhea’s love for them, for Paloma, for Orol was. She had power over that, not much more.
“I love you.” Rhea wanted Orol to have no doubt about her feelings. She loved him more than anything, more than life.
He folded her deeper into his hard form. “I know.”
Rhea waited. He said nothing more.
“This is when you tell me you love me too.” Her dry tone covered her uncertainty.
“If I told you that, you wouldn’t believe me.” He wouldn’t say the words she wanted to hear. “You don’t believe anything anyone says.”
“I’d believe you.” He was the only being she truly trusted.
“I love you.”
Her heart leapt. He loved her. Her.
Then her brain interceded. She knew he cared for her, had claimed her as a mate, would always protect her but love was a different level of commitment.
Had she forced him to say the words? Had he meant them? Did he love her? Doubt after doubt bombarded her, crushing her joy to dust.
Orol’s big form shook. “You don’t believe me.”
“I do,” she insisted but that was a lie.
A laugh escaped him, followed by another and another. “You don’t believe me, my constantly doubting mate.” He nuzzled his smiling lips against her neck. “Your body is as stiff as a panel.”
“I might have some trust issues.” She swallowed her pride and admitted it.
“Might have?” That statement set off another round of laughter.
Rhea rolled her eyes. “You’re an ass. Did you know that?”
“I’m the ass you love.” He covered her with kisses and she wiggled. Rather than discouraging him, that did the opposite. His leather-clad cock pressed against her ass. He tugged on her body covering.
She was as aroused as he was but she only had one garment. “I’m not meeting your boss naked.”
Orol lifted his head, groaned. “And he’s waiting for us.”
Rhea followed his line of sight. High white stone walls were barely visible on the horizon. Spotting beings standing on those walls was beyond her capabilities.
But she believed him. About that. She placed her hands over his, clutching both him and her guns, her two sources of comfort.
“You’re mine, Rhea.” Orol told her, reading her emotions as he always did. “I won’t allow anyone to harm you.”
That anyone was his boss, a male he respected, admired, owed his escape from the Humanoid Alliance to. Kralj was also all-powerful, all knowing. She would never ask Orol to confront a being like that.
Below them, Humanoid Alliance warriors stood still, frozen in the midst of raising their guns, speaking, running. The Ruler must have been responsible for that also, his abilities scaring the cockiness out of Rhea.
She doubted her weapons would be useful against the male.
“They aren’t.” The voice came from everywhere and nowhere.
Orol landed with her on top of the wall. A tall man in a long black coat and black leather ass coverings faced them, his countenance concealed in shadows. He must be Kralj, the Ruler.
A brunette female, Rhea’s height, held his hand, her slender body clad in black. Daggers and guns decorated the garment. She would be Dita, the assassin, Kralj’s mate. Orol had told Rhea about her.
There was no sign of Balvan or her sister.
“Balvan took your sister to the medic bay.” Kralj addressed the concerns she hadn’t expressed out loud. “She is sleeping off the psychotropics and will fully recover. There is no damage to her mind.”
There was no damage…yet. “She knows nothing.”
“I know what she knows, what you know, what everyone knows.” The Ruler said that as though it were a curse, not a gift. “As soon as you entered my territory, I knew everything about you. I know things about you that you don’t even know.” Power radiated from the male.
Rhea backed into Orol’s form. He placed his left wing around her, that connection restoring her confidence. She wasn’t alone as she had been in the past. She had him.
“Those blueprints your mother made you look at?” The shadows over Kralj’s face darkened. “They were for the World Ender, a weapon the Humanoid Alliance developed. It has the ability to destroy entire planets within mere moments.”
“And now you have those blueprints.” She’d given them to him. What would he do with the knowledge? Would he blow up planets, kill beings?
“I don’t need a machine to do that. I already have more power than I want.” Kralj’s voice was heavy with sadness. “I’ve seen how it can tempt a being, cause him or her to do terrible things.”
Rhea had seen that also. Marowit had betrayed her, betrayed her family to gain more power. She glanced up at Orol. He would never betray her like that.
“Orol would do anything for you.” Kralj’s mind-reading ability made her extremely uncomfortable. She’d always hidden herself from others. With Orol’s boss, she was completely exposed. “Our loyalty belongs to the Modified Humanoids, not the Rebels.”
Why would he mention their ties in the same breath as Orol’s dedication to her? Unless… Oh, fuck. “You didn’t enter the battle because you were seeking to complete your mission.” She gazed at Orol. “You entered them for me. You fought your friend for me, killed him for me.”
“Scales had to be stopped.” Orol stiffened. “He had lost control.”
Kralj dipped his head. “The Humanoid Alliance couldn’t inject him with the enhancers. He had to take them orally. The dosage was…off. I was impressed he hung on to his sanity for this long.”
“That’s why you didn’t ask him to be part of your team.” Some of the lines around Orol’s lips flattened. “I had wondered about that, sir.”
“You killed your friend for me.” Rhea repeated louder. His physical response, his tone said he had done it for her. But that was too much for her to absorb. Scales was his friend, his brother.
“Scales had to be stopped.” Orol gave her that non-response yet again. Someone had to end his friend’s killing rampage. That was true. But she doubted Orol would have volunteered for that task.
He’d done it because he loved her.
Rhea didn’t believe words. They often lied. But she, normally so observant, hadn’t seen his actions, the way he drew her close whenever she was threatened, how he gave her access to the guns she needed to feel safe, the sacrifices he silently made that would have broken a weaker male.
“I believe,” she told him. He loved her.
Orol’s eyes glowed. “You should.”
He gazed down at her, his face framed by the blue sky, strength in the set of his chin. The air between them hummed with awareness, understanding, trust, their link tightening even more. There was no need for words. Rhea felt their truth.
He was hers as she was his.
She was loved.
Orol squeezed her hip and turned back to his boss. “What will you do with the blueprints?”
“There’s a weakness in the design that I will share with the Rebels.” Kralj rubbed his thumb over Dita’s hand, the act surprisingly tender, telling. Rhea’s heart warmed. It was as telling as the way Orol wrapped his wings around her. “They don’t need to know more than that.”
That ominous statement from Orol’s boss sliced through Rhea’s happiness haze, returning her to cold, harsh reality. “I know more than that.”
“You do.” The Ruler nodded. “If it weren’t for your state, I would have already erased that memory from your mind.”
Her state? Erase that memory? “I don’t want it erased.” It was one of Rhea’s last moments with her mother. When she thought of her, she pictured that moment, the excitement sparkling in her mother’s eyes, the
feel of her mother’s hand on her shoulder, the lilt of her mother’s voice.
“You believe your mother didn’t care about you.” Kralj pointed out the lack of logic in her thinking. “Why do you want a memory of her?”
“I care about my mother. That’s all that matters.” Rhea clenched her guns, willing to fight him to protect it.
Orol twisted the weapons out of her grasp, put them in his holsters. “We won’t leave your territory, sir.” He tucked Rhea under his left arm, his warmth easing some of her tension. “You’ll have complete control over both of us. There’s no need to erase that memory from my mate’s mind.”
He’d do that? She looked up at Orol, studying his handsome face. He’d give up his ability to fly freely to preserve one memory of her mother?
His expression was sincere. He would make that sacrifice.
Because he loved her. As Kralj had said, her mate would do anything for her.
“I won’t allow you to restrict your freedom like that, Orol.” She would never hurt him and that’s what the restriction would do. Her winged male loved to fly. Being confined to a small area would be torture for him. “I’ll stay in your boss’ territory.”
“My territory is quite large,” Kralj murmured.
“You’re my mate.” Orol lifted her off the stone and gazed directly into her eyes. “I’m not leaving your side.”
“You don’t have to do that.” She touched his cheek.
“I want to.” He pushed into her palm
“They have worse lines than Hulagu and Azalea.” Dita swung Kralj’s arm. “I didn’t think that was possible, handsome.”
The Ruler straightened. “You’re both confined to my territory for two solar cycles.”
Rhea opened her mouth to protest.
“You’ll need that time to put your personal affairs in order.” Kralj stopped her words. “I’ll safeguard your children but I won’t tend to them.”
Safeguard their… What? Rhea stared at the powerful male.
“Children?” Orol sounded as confused as she was.
“Modified humanoids are designed to be super potent.” The Ruler shook his head. “Thankfully, we also develop quickly so they should be self-sufficient within two solar cycles.”
