“That is the most awesome thing you’ve ever said to me,” Geoff replied.
Keirah chuckled, and then she took hold of his hand before grabbing hold of Geoff’s hand. The meaning wasn’t lost on him as she joined them together.
A family. He never realized he wanted one until that moment.
“If we work together, we can take him down,” she said.
“How do we take down a chameleon?” Geoff asked.
“You have to surprise it,” Krig said, grimly. “We know what this moon has to offer. He doesn’t. We use it against him.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Keirah replied.
Chapter Eleven
Krig knew the Xyran would blend into the background. He would attack slowly, methodically, stalking them to pick them off one by one. Since they had fallen into the bottom of the ravine, the trees were too far away for a tactical advantage. He stood on a boulder in the heart of the muck, knowing he was too exposed, but he wanted to make sure he grabbed Iell’s attention. Krig gripped his shield, another piece of the pod they’d peeled off. It wasn’t the best, but it would protect him well enough against any type of killing blast.
Keirah waited at the hatch of the pod, and he felt her eyes trained on him. Even though he was a trained warrior and had stared danger and death many times in the face, he was unsure with a monster out there hunting her. There were so many variables in an uncontrolled situation, and he didn’t like it. A light mist hung in the air, making everything seem hazy, and Krig was hoping this worked to their advantage.
He heard the shot seconds before it reached him, barely giving him enough time to bring his shield up. It pinged, and the vibration viciously rolled though him, but he held on and kept his concentration. The blast had come from the right side of the pod, so he focused on that area.
Another blast came and he deflected that as well, and he shot back, which he knew went wide. He couldn’t see Iell at all although he knew he was out there, using his natural camouflage ability to hide among the lush greenery. He could feel the Xyran’s eyes watching him, so he waited for movement. His perception was what made him a worthy warrior, what had propelled him so quickly through the ranks until he was captain, and he relied heavily on it now. The air thinned, electricity danced over his skin, and he saw the barest glimpse of moving plants that seemed to sway for no reason. He looked at Keirah and gave her the barest nod, and she took off running toward him. The mud was thick and she had a little trouble making her way toward him, but when she reached him, he lifted her up beside him on the boulder. She clung to his back, and he felt something wild and possessive sweep through him.
Then he heard a curse, and he allowed just a hint of a smile just as he saw a blur begin to shift. For a second he saw a foot, a foot that had stepped on carefully placed thorns, which no doubt stung Iell just as they’d stung Keirah. He wondered if the poison would have the same effect on Xyran physiology and how much time he’d have to waste until it incapacitated the demon. Krig fired his weapon, but the Xyran managed to duck the blast as he ran forward.
“Now!” Krig called out, and a second later, Geoff pulled a long vine up, causing Iell to trip into the mud. His camouflage was rendered useless as he was covered head to toe in muck, but just as Krig took aim to kill the Xyran, another blast hit the outside of his arm, singing the material. A painful jolt shocked him, traveling through his body, and caused his heart to jump for a moment. He fell back, causing Keirah to scream as she slipped off the boulder and into the mud. His head hit the stone hard, hard enough to render him slightly dizzy, and he lay there for a moment as the world spun around him. Iell had a helper, and had he been a better shot, Krig would be dead. That blast had been set to kill.
Keirah screamed again, and Krig flinched. He didn’t have time to lie here while the world righted itself. He forced himself up and saw the Xyran with a hand holding her hair. The other hand encircled her neck, cutting off her panicked cry, and without another thought, Krig launched himself onto Iell. Keirah was knocked away.
“Run!” he yelled at her, and then the Xyran turned and attacked.
The mud made it difficult to fight, but at least it made things difficult for both as Krig swung his metal shield around to bash Iell in the side of the head. Iell ducked, but he wasn’t quite that fast because he fell back, his forked tongue snaking out in a hiss. He touched the wound at his hairline, which bled steadily, and his black, evil eyes darted malevolently toward Keirah.
“Leave her alone,” Krig ordered.
The Xyran pushed himself to his feet, and the two circled each other. Both their weapons had fallen in the mud, lost forever, so the fight was now between their brute strengths. They were similar in build, both muscled, both large. But Krig had a mate to protect, and he’d do anything to make sure she stayed safe.
They attacked, both swinging their fists, which connected on the other. Iell’s punch was like an anvil smacking him in the jaw. Iell swung with his other arm and connected it to Krig’s midriff, causing the warrior to grunt and double over slightly. Krig’s grip loosened, and Iell twisted free, stepping back to watch the warrior.
“You’re going to die,” he taunted.
“If I am then I am taking you with me,” Krig promised.
He bent over and charged as fast as the mud would allow, hitting Iell in the gut and sending them both flying. They tussled on the ground as warrior strength matched equally with blind rage. Iell punched with jabs and drives, using every inch of his arms and legs. Elbows thrust upward while knees tried to cripple, and Krig had a difficult time defending all parts of his anatomy at once. They dove for one another causing each fist to connect with a jaw; they staggered back, dazed.
Krig saw his shield and dove for it as he wiped the blood trickling from the cut on his cheek. This had to end, and he had to win. There was no other option.
“I will have her!” Iell screeched. “She will pay for what she did to my brother. I’ll peel her skin off, inch by inch.”
Krig didn’t want to hear any more threats. With all his strength he swung the metal shield and smacked the side of Iell’s head so hard part of the skull crunched inward. Krig actually heard the bones breaking. The Xyran fell into the mud, dead.
“Krig!” Keirah cried and rushed toward him. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed, and he winced as all his bruised parts came roaring alive. “Are you all right?”
She began poking and prodding him until he had to grab her hands. “We have to get out of here. Iell had someone helping him.”
Besides, his head fucking hurt and he needed some water. And some pain medicine would be nice. He could’ve taken Iell’s chest gems, but at that moment he didn’t really care about taking trophies. He and Keirah were both covered head to toe in mire and muck, and he just wanted to get her to safety. However, as they made their way closer to the edge of the swamp, another blast scorched past them, halting their wobbly stride.
Krig pushed Keirah behind him and looked around. A second later, his former first officer, Niklis, stepped into view and holding a blaster. And Krig knew that he wasn’t there to help them.
“You?” Krig asked in disbelief. “You betrayed us? For what?”
“For her,” Niklis replied, nodding toward Keirah, who peeked out from behind Krig’s back. “Because I don’t get the chance to have a woman.”
“What are you talking about? You can have any human woman you want!”
“I need money for that,” Niklis said. “I need honor for that. I need to not be scarred for that! Do you really think a woman would have me looking like this, with me missing a horn, without a substantial sum of money? The Xyrans will let me have my pick. Maybe I’ll take your girl and make her my own.”
“You did all this because you can’t find someone to fuck? You pathetic waste of life!” Krig proceeded to call him all sorts of lowlife names in their native tongue. He wanted to rip Niklis’s tongue out of his head and stuff down his throat.
�
�Enough!” Niklis yelled. “You would’ve done the same had you been me! You would’ve done anything for a chance in her bed!”
“I wouldn’t expect him to do anything for me!” Keirah yelled back. “Especially not treason! His people come first. Planet Alpha comes first, not me! I wouldn’t expect him to turn traitor for me!”
“Doesn’t matter now. I will kill him, and I’ll take you. I’ll report the tragic demise of brave warrior Krig.”
“I’ll tell everyone the truth,” she said.
“Not if I cut out your tongue. Perhaps I’ll tell everyone Krig was the traitor. How befitting such a noble warrior.”
The bitterness behind the words boiled over, and Krig knew Niklis was going to pull the trigger, knew his life was over. He didn’t know where Geoff was and could only hope that Niklis hadn’t hurt him. Regret flashed through him at the loss of the family they’d only just created. He wished he’d had time with his new mate, wished he’d told her how much he cared for her. How much he loved her.
“Get down, Keirah,” he ordered.
And then he heard some type of rolling call and saw Geoff come swinging out of one of the high trees on a vine. Niklis had barely looked up before Geoff fell on his back, using a piece of log to bash him on the head. Niklis tried to buck the other man off, but it was no use as Geoff pulled out a small piece of metal and slashed down with the homemade shank. The blade buried deep into Niklis’s back, and Krig realized the spinal cord must have been severed as the Alphan male instantly dropped dead. He saw Geoff stand and kick Niklis’s body to make sure he was dead.
He felt Geoff watching him as he made his way out of the muck and over to the body, curiously watching as he dipped his fingers into the mortal wound.
“You are a true warrior, Geoffrey DeWinter, and I’m proud to have you part of my house.” And with those words he smeared the blood on Geoff’s face.
“What the hell?”
“The gore of your foe is worn as a badge of honor among my people.”
“Oh. Cool,” Geoff replied and straightened his shoulders. “Do you have a camera?”
Krig smiled. “Come, we can use these vines to climb out of this mud pit.”
“Tarzan?” Keirah asked as she made her way to them.
Geoff shrugged. “Seemed appropriate.”
Chapter Twelve
They each grabbed a vine and used the thick cord to ascend the pit. Geoff was glad it wasn’t that steep. “Do you think there’s another Xyran ship waiting for them to return?” he asked as he helped Keirah up the side.
“If there is, a rescue party will come soon enough,” Krig replied. “We need to find their ship and leave.”
“Is the ship able to fly us to Alpha?”
“Yes. If we escape off this moon undetected, and if we can hit the jump, we should be safe.”
“All right, let’s do this.”
Geoff ignored how sore he felt, surprised how much it had hurt jumping onto someone. He knew he was bruised up and could only imagine what type of bruises the Alphan male sported. If they all could take a beating like that then he admitted the race was full of tough sons-of-bitches.
“I think I saw the ship land just beyond that ridge,” Krig said, pointing.
The small ship waited for them like a present, and it only took Krig a moment to bypass the door code. Although it was small, it looked humongous compared to the pod, and Geoff was grateful there was room to move. Krig sat at the command chair and fired up the engines. The view screen immediately came online.
“Strap in,” he ordered, and Geoff and Keirah did just that.
Seconds later, they were flying low to the ground, and Geoff figured it was to keep under the radar. Looking at the surface from this point of view had Geoff reevaluating this life-sustaining moon because it was simply breathtaking. Crystal clear waterfalls and sandy beaches, it looked like a vacationer’s paradise.
He hoped he never saw the fucking place again.
Then they were rising through the atmosphere, through the thick layer of clouds into the dark emptiness of space, and he’d never been so happy in his life. And when the ship entered the jump to Alpha, well, his world just fell into place.
“Do Xyrans have the need to bathe?” Geoff asked.
“Yes,” Krig replied, and Geoff heard the humor in his tone. “In the back.”
“Keirah, why don’t you wash up first?” he said. She nodded and rose and disappeared into the back.
“I’m sending a coded message to King Ronyn,” Krig murmured. “He needs to know about Niklis.”
“I’m sorry he betrayed you.”
Krig sighed. “Before the attack I had heard the bitterness when he talked about his scars. I should have been more sensitive.”
“No, that type of fucked up ran far deeper than just scars.”
“Perhaps. By the way, what is a Tarzan?”
Geoff grinned. “It all starts with a man named John Clayton.”
Keirah came back in the middle of the story, clean and wearing only a shirt that made her look sexy as hell. Krig told him to clean up next, and when Geoff went back to the latrine, he saw some clothes that Keirah must have found and laid out. He didn’t know how he felt about Xyran clothes, but they were clean so he couldn’t complain too much. He washed up before pulling on a pair of pants. When he went back to the front, he saw that Keirah had laid out a blanket upon the floor, so he joined her. All his aches and pains hit him at once. Keirah put her head on his chest and curled up near his side. He loved how her body fit against his, loved how soft she was to his hard muscles.
Krig came back from cleaning up, and Geoff knew his alone time with Keirah was at an end. Surprisingly, he was okay with that, and when Keirah told Krig to lie with them, it didn’t bother him at all. In fact, Geoff liked the feeling of peace that covered him.
“My bruises have bruises,” he muttered.
“I was surprised by how you didn’t hesitate to kill,” Krig said. “That is a true warrior heart.”
“Remember when you didn’t understand street smarts? That was it. It’s down and dirty fighting, and you win however you can.”
“Victory is victory, and I am proud to call you family,” Krig murmured.
“I haven’t had a family in a long time. Keirah’s always been my home.” Geoff grabbed her hands and kissed her knuckles. “I never wanted you to know about my time on the streets.”
Her brows drew together. “What do you mean?”
“I did things to survive,” he whispered. “Things that hurt me. I was afraid if you discovered all my secrets you might not love me anymore.”
“Oh, baby, that’ll never happen. You have me for eternity.” She grabbed Krig’s hand in her other one. “You have us for eternity, whether you realize that or not.”
Geoff took a deep breath. “I … I can’t father any children.”
She blinked. “Wait. That’s not … what?”
“I’m sterile,” he clarified. “I had a secondary reason for getting you an Alphan male. When I heard the rumor that they needed females for procreation I thought it would kill two birds with one stone. Get you somewhere safe and let you be a mother.”
She sat up and looked at him. “Wait a minute. Go back. When did you find out you were sterile?”
“Remember when I left the orphanage on my seventeenth birthday?”
“Yes. You were gone until I turned eighteen.”
“Well, you know I was a gang runner. Krig, you wanted truth between us? I was a fucking psycho, beating up innocent people to rob. I ran drugs. I was wild and unstoppable.”
“What happened?” Krig asked.
“I ran into someone crazier than me,” he answered calmly. “Another gang moved into our territory, so we went to fight them, and I got the shit beat out of me. Tore me up. I almost died. When I came to, it didn’t take me long to realize the asshole had done something to my balls. Found out a little too late that I had a rupture, things torn apart in there, and by the ti
me I got any kind of medical help, well, my testicles were pretty much worthless. When I was told I would never be a father, well, my whole outlook on the life I was living changed. I wanted out of the gang but … I didn’t get out until I killed the fucker who did this to me.”
“Oh my God,” Keirah whispered, her face mirroring her horror.
“I hid in the shadows and fucking shot him. I’m a murderer, Keirah, and as awful as that makes me, do you know what the truly heinous part of my sin is?” he asked, looking at her. “I married you knowing I couldn’t make you a mother. Even after we were married I hid it from you. When you mentioned you didn’t feel right bringing a child into our fucked up world, I thought it was a miracle I wouldn’t ever have to tell you about how I fucked up your future. But I knew you wanted a baby someday, and I was wrong for hiding it, for deceiving you. Can you ever forgive me?”
“Oh, Geoffrey,” she said, cupping his face with her hands. “You are a good man. At the beginning of this journey, when we were in the shuttle center, you said you’d love me no matter what and then you asked me to trust you. Now I’m asking the same of you. You didn’t fuck up my future. I love you, not whatever children you might have given me, and I’ll love you no matter what, so trust in that.”
He buried his face into her neck, shuddering at the feeling of letting go of the demon that had been hanging around his neck, dragging him down.
“Keirah, Krig said you needed both of us to be happy. Is that true?” She was quiet for a long time, so he raised his head to look at her. “Answer me.”
“Yes,” she whispered, looking away. “I’m sorry, Geoff. I tried not to … not to care for him, but I do.”
“Don’t be ashamed,” he said. “You don’t ever have to feel guilty for caring for Krig. For loving him.”
Her eyes flashed to his. “How did you know?”
“Because I can see it whenever you look at him.” He looked past her to Krig. “She loves you. It’s time we showed our woman how much love she has.”
****
Proposition Page 8
