by Cynthia Sax
“You wouldn’t return alone.” She thought about what he’d do. “You’d ask your friends for help, gather all of the firepower you could find, have a plan to retrieve me.”
“Marowit wouldn’t get to you in the first place.” Balvan rubbed his hands over her back, his touch soothing her. “You’ll never be within his reach.”
He wouldn’t risk her life to obtain credits. She settled against her big male. “I hope the other merchants heed Kralj’s warnings.”
Marowit would target anyone venturing close to the settlement’s borders. More beings could die.
Guilt filled her. One of the reasons her abductor was hurting others was because he didn’t have her to torment. She wished she had ended his lifespan before she fled.
But she might not have survived that confrontation. Marowit and his males were skilled with weapons and she had never shot a gun before meeting Balvan
Elyce’s chin lifted. She was stronger, more able to defeat her abductor now.
The gates opened again. Hulagu, the Warlord-in-training, sprinted toward Balvan. She moved behind her big male. Her heart pounded. Her hands trembled.
It was foolish. Hulagu was devoted to Azalea, looked at Balvan with hero worship in his dark eyes. He wouldn’t touch her. But he was large for his number of solar cycles and he was moving fast. That evoked memories she wished she could forget.
“Kralj said you wanted this, sir.” The boy held out a gun.
It was identical to the ones she used.
“Thank you.” Balvan grasped the weapon.
“Do you need help?” Hulagu stood beside his hero, mimicking his stance, his scrawny chest heaving. “I could fight by your side, help you defend the Refuge.” He extended his claws and Elyce took another step away from him.
“There’s no threat.” Balvan tucked her into his side, his arm sheltering her from any accidental gouging.
“There could be a threat.” Hulagu gazed at the sand dunes.
There was a very brief moment of silence.
“The gun is really small.” The boy chattered. “Is it for your mate?”
Balvan grunted and she glowed. He’d replaced her gun immediately, must have sent that thought to Kralj.
“I gave my gerel a set of daggers.” Hulagu’s chest puffed out. “She doesn’t need them. She has the greatest Warlord protecting her.” There was a pause. “That’s me.” He added that as though the statement needed clarification. “I might not be the greatest right now, but I will be very soon. I almost beat Dare during our training bout this planet rotation.”
Balvan lifted his eyebrows.
“If I had been a little faster and turned my body like this”—the boy twisted his torso—“and Dare hadn’t noticed, I would have jabbed my claws upward.” He demonstrated. “And the bout would have been over.”
“Scales,” Balvan murmured, her male back to monosyllables.
“My claws could have pierced them.” Hulagu’s head tilted. “Maybe.” He looked at his claws. “Do you think they could?”
“No.” There was no hesitation in her big male’s answer.
Elyce’s lips quivered, laughter bubbling within her.
“I think they could.” Hulagu ignored Balvan’s input. “If I struck him hard enough.” He practiced a couple of jabs, grunting with the effort.
Balvan ignored the boy, turning to her. He slipped the replacement gun into her empty holster. She caught his wrist and squeezed.
His head dipped toward the boy. She nodded, understanding. They would talk when they were alone.
He was like his boss that way. Neither male liked to have non-critical conversations in front of others.
Dita was Kralj’s private counsel. Elyce was Balvan’s. She liked that. It made her feel special, valued, loved.
“I could defeat Orol.” Hulagu waved his claws. “He doesn’t have scales.”
Balvan simply gazed at the boy. Elyce’s chest shook with suppressed humor. Orol had earned his role as Kralj’s second-in-command. According to Balvan, few warriors on the planet could come close to defeating his friend.
“He flies, though.” The boy’s forehead furrowed. “That will increase the difficulty. You don’t fly.” He glanced at Balvan.
Balvan opened and closed his massive fists. His knuckles cracked.
“I’m not challenging you to a fight,” Hulagu hastily added, his eyes widening.
There was a slight pause.
“Not right now,” the boy said under his breath.
Elyce failed to stifle her grin. Balvan saw it and shook his head. Her smile spread.
It would be a long shift for her big male.
Chapter Twelve
“Berke is the eldest, but Khan is the fiercest. He’s skilled with his claws.” Hulagu waved his own natural weapons. “And big. Not as big as you.” His gaze slid to Balvan. “But he’s big for a Chamele.”
Balvan grunted. The chatter had been non-stop since the kid arrived. He now knew more about the Warlords of the Chamele system than he ever desired to learn.
The Refuge’s gates opened. Five warriors strolled through them.
“Our shift’s over.” The kid’s eyes lit up. “I’ll give the males our updates.” He rushed toward the warriors, kicking up sand as he moved.
Balvan suspected the males would hear about everything that had occurred over the shift and much, much more. His lips twisted.
“He admires you.” Elyce pressed her softness against him.
“The kid has no discretion.” Unlike her. Balvan squeezed her hip. She was a being a warrior could entrust with his secrets.
“His heart is good.” She scanned the sand dunes. It was dark, but even she, with her human vision, must have seen they were devoid of life. Her shoulders drooped. “That’s depressingly rare.”
“Your heart is good also.” He swung her into his arms.
“Is it?” She flattened her palms against his chest, her touch soothing him. “They haven’t returned.”
“They haven’t.” The merchant and his female were likely dead. “But that’s Marowit’s doing, not yours.”
Her huff told him she disagreed.
His female took too much responsibility for the wrongdoings of others. Balvan carried her through the settlement.
Somewhere to their right, metal rang, the sound slightly muted like a large knife cutting through flesh, striking hard bone. A cry of pain followed. The scent of blood thickened in the air.
The violence within the walls had escalated, beings venting their frustrations on their fellow residents, frustrated that they couldn’t leave.
Balvan took less-traveled pathways, using his enhanced senses to avoid the fighting, trying to shield his soft-hearted female from the brunt of it.
One male laughed, triumphant about a throw. Another male mocked the distance. A creature yipped.
“Did you hear that?” Elyce gripped his arms. “That’s the sound Sparkles makes when she’s in pain.”
“Someone is causing that hurt, my little female.” And those someones wouldn’t appreciate having their plaything taken away from them. The situation could become dangerous. Quickly. “I won’t risk your lifespan.” She was the most precious being in the universe to him.
“We’ll walk away?” She gazed up at him, her bottom lip trembling. “Refuse to help her…also?”
Like they had refused to help the merchant and his female. Fraggin’ hole. He couldn’t cause her more sorrow.
“No. We’ll save the puffker.” Balvan lumbered forward, moving toward the commotion. He cradled Elyce in his arms before him.
That wasn’t the optimal place for his fragile human to be. They didn’t know who they were confronting, what weapons those beings would have.
“Hold onto my neck.” He rumbled that command.
She looped her arms around him, linking her fingers at his nape. He shifted her until she clung to his back, her legs wrapped around his waist.
His hands were now free and his big
form and tough hide would block any projectiles from the creature abusers. Utilizing all of his senses, he monitored the space around them.
Stone clinked against stone. The two males muttered about losing the projectile and complained about the smell. The puffker was alarmingly quiet. It could be hiding from its abusers.
Or it could be dead. They could be confronting the males for no reason.
Balvan stopped close to a corner, looked around it. Two Palavian males hunched over a pile of broken containers. They searched through the debris, throwing it into the middle of the pathway.
“I’m certain it landed over here,” one of the four-armed humanoids said.
“When we find it, it’s my turn to throw it.” His friend flexed all of his biceps. “I’ll beat your distance with no difficulty.”
“In your dreams.” The first one snorted.
“I could shoot at them,” Elyce whispered into Balvan’s right ear. Her soft lips brushed over his skin as she spoke, that contact felt deep in his groin. “That would scare them away.”
His little female’s aim was improving, but it wasn’t perfect. If she accidentally killed one of the males, she’d break one of Kralj’s few rules. The punishment for killing within the Refuge was a gruesome death.
Balvan would never risk that.
“They’re mine,” he murmured.
He edged toward them, moving as quietly as possible, conscious that he carried his female, trying to minimize her exposure. A modified humanoid would have heard his approach.
The two Palavians had inferior hearing and were focused on finding the puffker. They noticed nothing.
The males squeaked as he picked them up by their necks. Their eyes widened. Their mouths opened. Balvan knocked their skulls together. There was a satisfying thud and they went limp.
Elyce climbed down his back, correctly assuming it was safe for her to descend. “Is that a skull crushing?”
“No.” He held the males upright. “If you want them dead, I can carry them outside the Refuge and crush their heads.”
He’d used that workaround for Kralj’s rules in the past, one of the reasons no one messed with him or anyone he protected. His gaze settled on his female.
“I don’t want them dead.” She didn’t share his love of killing. “But they do deserve a taste of what they did to that poor puffker.”
“I can give them that.” He dropped one of the males on the pathway.
His female stepped hastily away from the unconscious Palavian. “Will avenging the puffker take a long time? Because we should be searching for her. She’ll be hurt, will need our help.”
“Justice will be immediate and swift.” He grabbed the remaining male by the legs and spun him around, gaining momentum. Then he let the male go.
The Palavian sailed through the air, landed with a thump, skidding far from them.
“You threw him quite the distance.” Her beautiful blonde head dipped. “I’m impressed.”
“I can do better.” He picked up the male he’d dropped, varied his grip on the legs, spun faster, longer.
The second Palavian soared over the first. His landing was harsher. Bones cracked and flesh smooshed, the sounds pleasing Balvan.
“He’ll feel that when he wakes up.” Elyce winced. “He’ll never throw another defenseless creature again.”
Balvan grunted, having a less optimistic outlook on beings’ abilities to change. “We should search for that defenseless creature now.”
He carefully lifted the broken containers, moving them one by one, not wanting to injure the puffker any more than it had already been injured.
His female looked under the smaller pieces of debris. “Are you there, little creature?” She cooed. “Don’t be scared. We’re your friends.”
A lid leaned against the wall. Balvan picked it up. A black ball of fur shrank back from him, the puffker as dark as its surroundings.
“Elyce.” He set the lid aside.
She joined him, pressing against his side. “I don’t see any…ohhh…” She bent over, sticking her lush ass in the air. “She’s good at hiding. You were clever to spot her.”
He had enhanced senses. It had nothing to do with cleverness. But her admiration warmed his chest.
He crouched before the trembling creature. “Hold out your hands to her like this.” He flattened his fingers. “Allow her to smell you, to determine that you don’t mean her any harm.”
Elyce kneeled on the pathway beside him, not caring about the dirt and grime. She held out her hands, her fingers so much smaller than Balvan’s.
The small creature sniffed his hands and then his female’s. Its body shook, its legs sticking out in unnatural positions. The males, those bastards, had broken all four of its limbs.
“She might not make it.” He cautioned, having lost rescued creatures in the past. “There could be internal damage.”
If its innards were scrambled, there was little they could do to heal it. They could only ensure its last moments weren’t spent alone and in pain.
“She’ll make it. Won’t you?” His female talked to the puffker. “You’re tough like I am, a survivor. The bad males won’t end your lifespan.”
Fraggin’ hole. She was already attached to the creature.
He slipped one of his palms under the puffker. It tried to bite him, couldn’t pierce his thick skin with its tiny teeth, its growls more cute than menacing.
“We’re friends.” His female attempted to ease its fear. “We won’t ever hurt you.”
The puffker stared at her with wide eyes. Its nose twitched.
“She understands us.” Elyce beamed. “She knows we’re her friends.”
“Pull your flight suit down until the fabric covers your fingers.” The puffker might be able to understand them but he wasn’t taking any risks with his female. “And cup your hands.”
She did as he instructed. He transferred the little creature to her palms. It immediately expressed its unhappiness with that action, sinking its teeth into the cloth.
“She’s holding on.” His female held a different view of the puffker’s attack.
“Hold onto her also.” And he, in turn, would hold onto Elyce. He swung her into his arms, relishing the feel of her against him.
“I won’t let go.” She gazed down at her little bundle. “You can count on me, Balvan. I won’t disappoint you.”
“You could never disappoint me.” He kissed the top of her head as he walked with her.
Elyce relayed that kiss to the puffker’s fluffy head. “Where are we going? Are we taking her home?”
Home. His female thought of their domicile as her home.
“Yes, we’re taking her home.” His voice was gruff with emotion.
He strode quickly, keeping his gait smooth and level, not wanting to drop either of his precious cargoes. His female murmured reassurances to the puffker, all of her attention on the creature.
Which was a good thing. He gazed ahead of them.
Beings were attempting to break into the domicile to the right of theirs. The mostly male mob shot at the portals and struck the doors with battle-axes and battering rams. They’d breached the domicile to the left’s defenses during the previous rest period.
The unruly crowd weren’t lost to all caution. They hadn’t attempted to enter the home he shared with Elyce. And the weapon-wielding beings scattered as he approached.
Balvan placed one of his palms on the control panel. The doors opened and Sparkles yipped her usual greeting.
The puffker in his female’s hands lifted its head.
“Sparkles, we have a new friend for you.” Elyce called out, her body vibrating with excitement.
Sparkles yipped again.
Balvan carried his female and the new puffker into the creature medic bay. Sparkles yipped from her padded square in a corner and attempted to stand. The new puffker tried to do the same, whimpering with the effort. Sparkles yipped louder, encouraging it.
“Silence.�
� He narrowed his eyes at Sparkles.
The creature cocked its head to one side. Its tongue lolled out of its mouth.
“She’s excited about her new friend.” Elyce came to Sparkles’ defense.
He lowered his little female until her booted feet touched the floor. “Her new friend requires peace and quiet.” He took the badly injured puffker from her and set it on a horizontal support.
“Like I needed peace and quiet after my ordeal.” She ducked under one of his arms, positioning herself directly in front of him, her back to his chest.
“Yes, like that.” He breathed in the scent of her hair, wanted to burrow his nose in the softness.
First, they had a hurt creature to deal with. “She also needs a pain inhibitor.”
He picked up the injector gun he’d modified, pressed the muzzle against the creature’s belly, tapped the trigger. The puffker jerked.
“She should be feeling no pain now.” He patted the creature on its tiny head.
“What do we do next?” His female wiggled, impatient to help.
“Next, you remove the dirt from her fur.” He handed her a cleaning cloth, giving her that task to complete. “You have smaller fingers. You’ll be gentler.”
“I do have smaller fingers.” She tidied several strands of fur at once. “But no one is gentler than you are.” His female leaned back, into him. “When you touch me, I feel cherished.”
“You are cherished.” His voice softened. He loved, adored, worshipped her. Didn’t she realize that?
She made no indication she did, humming as she cleaned the little creature. Balvan placed one of his arms around his female, savoring her generous curves, how she fit against him. Her musk teased his nostrils.
“We should give her a name.” She suggested.
He didn’t usually name the creatures he rescued. Naming them made it more difficult to let them go.
But he already knew she would never release the puffker. Their little family had expanded to four members.
“She’s a survivor.” He hoped that was correct. If the creature died, it would crush his soft-hearted female. “She should have a strong name.”
“Glimmer is a good name.”
Glimmer. He closed his eyes for a moment. The other warriors teased him about having a creature named Sparkles. Glimmer was even more fanciful and feminine. “Is that a strong name?”
