Warlord's Return

by Cynthia Sax

  His strong warrior female appeared to be on the verge of passing out.

  That reaction must have been due to the confined quarters. She had no sensitivity around blood or gore or killing.

  “I’ll carry you out of here.” He slid one of his arms around her.

  “No.” Her voice was loud. “I can walk.” She glanced at the warriors. “I only need a moment. But they—”

  “They will be fine.” He wasn’t concerned about them. “I’ll see that they don’t get stuck.” Ariq attempted a joke.

  His gerel’s lips curled ever-so-slightly. “Distract them.” A plea edged her voice. “I don’t want them to see me like this.”

  “Go.” He reluctantly moved away from her. “I’ll distract them.”

  She nodded slightly and walked toward the exit. Her normally long confident stride was hesitant, careful. That was how badly she suffered.

  His heart squeezed. Her pain was his pain. He would never intentionally place her in a situation where she suffered.

  Yesun glanced toward him. His gaze then shifted around the cave. He was searching for something or someone, perhaps Xareni.

  Ariq would ensure the young warrior didn’t find her. “The cave snake is dead.” He raised his hands in celebration.

  “Woot!” Yesun did the same. “We did it!”

  “We did it.” Dialo and his brothers freely gave the Chamele warrior partial credit for the successful hunt.

  The males gathered around the still partially immobile Yesun for self-congratulatory back pats. Their spirits were high. Vietor was quieter, but that was to be expected after the os khonzon. It took quite a bit out of a warrior.

  Spark nudged Ariq’s arm.

  He looked down at the drakon.

  Spark twitched his head toward the downed cave snake and shrieked. That sound resembled the one he made when he expected to be fed.

  “I’m sorry, Spark.” Ariq offered his apologies to the drakon. “There will be no eyeballs for you this planet rotation.” Both of the cave snake’s eyeballs been destroyed during the hunt.

  Spark screeched and glared at him. He appeared to blame Ariq for that situation.

  Ariq grinned. He gazed over his shoulder at the mouth of the cave. His gerel’s back was visible. She had her head tilted back. The sunlight shone on her blonde hair.

  She was stunning and she was his.

  He waited for her to return.

  The young warriors tramped around the cave, exploring, picking up portions of the cave snake, examining their kill. Dialo carefully pried the fangs from the creature’s mouth, washed them in the water. Then the four of them argued about who would keep those fangs and what they would do with them.

  “Drag the cave snake closer to the cave entrance.” His gerel shouted that advice as she walked toward Ariq. Her stride seemed steadier. Color had returned to her cheeks. “We have to process it.”

  That announcement surprised Ariq.

  It shouldn’t have. “Nothing on Carinae E is wasted.” He repeated the statement she’d told him early in their relationship.

  “We’re definitely not wasting a cave snake.” Xareni’s sky-blue eyes glowed. “The flesh, once it’s cooked over open flame, is not only edible. It’s delicious and rare. Very few beings on Carinae E have been fortunate to taste it.”

  “Yes!” Yesun raised his arms. The Chamele warrior loved nourishment of any kind. “This planet rotation gets better and better.”

  “The cave snake’s skin can be taken back to the Refuge with us.” Xareni had a plan for that also. “It can be fashioned into dagger sheaths, gun holsters, other items. You will always have a reminder of this hunt.”

  “Everyone will know we killed a cave snake.” Yesun slapped the boulder with his palms. “Second, Qulpa, the others, will be so envious.”

  “We’ll have proof we’re skilled.” Dialo nodded, his eyes shining.

  “Dad will have to allow us to take on missions now.” Jeden strutted around the space.

  “I didn’t get stuck.” Vietor’s chin lifted. “Not once during the hunt.”

  The warrior had almost succumbed to the os khonzon, the darkness, but no one mentioned that. Ariq suspected that information would stay in the cave.

  Xareni’s lips lifted, that hint of a smile easing his lingering concerns about her. “Jeden, Dialo, Vietor, you are familiar with processing creatures.”

  “Yesun has processed creatures also.” Ariq spoke for the youth, knowing he would want to be included. Hunting was part of Chamele culture.

  “That’s good.” His gerel’s head dipped. “They’ll need assistance.” She scanned the young warriors. Her gaze landed on the fangs gripped in Dialo’s hands. “Avoid getting venom or other liquids from the cave snake in open wounds or your mouths or noses or eyes or any other orifices.” Her tone was dry. “We’ll leave you to deal with your kill.”

  “Our kill.” Jeden flung his hands in the air.

  “Our kill.” The males cheered.

  “How they survived extracting those fangs, I don’t know.” Xareni muttered that to herself as she walked back from where she’d recently came.

  “They were careful…for them.” Ariq matched her stride.

  Spark remained with the young warriors. Ariq suspected the drakon was hoping they’d feed him.

  “We should stay with them.” Lines etched between his gerel’s eyebrows.

  “They’ll be fine.” He gripped her leather-clad hand. “There’s no need for that sacrifice.”

  “It is a sacrifice.” She sighed. “I’m damaged in more ways than this, barbarian.” She brushed the fingertips of her free hand over her face. “As you’ve already determined.”

  “You call it damage.” He veered closer to her. “I see a warrior female unlike any other being I’ve ever met, someone special, unique, strong, and beautiful, and I’m honored to call you mine.”

  She stiffened for a heartbeat, and he expected her to run from him as she often did when he pushed too hard. But she surprised him by relaxing, by smiling at him. “Your scar fetish runs deeper than the skin.”

  “It does run deep.” He grinned back at her.

  Both of them knew he didn’t have a scar fetish.

  Frost waited for them in the sunlight. That ended their private interlude. The modified humanoid’s expression was alarmingly serious.

  “I found this under Seven-One’s transport.” He held out a tiny device.

  Xareni examined it, passed it to Ariq.

  “It’s a tracking device.” It appeared to have the ability to be remotely controlled.

  “It’s a tracking device designed by the Humanoid Alliance.” Frost’s face was as hard as the ice on his shoulders. The Humanoid Alliance had created and enslaved the modified humanoids. They were enemies. “They know where we are.”

  “Fuck.” Ariq’s gerel kicked the sand. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”

  He wanted to pull her into his arms, tell her he would protect her, but they were being watched and he doubted his warrior female would appreciate that. “If Kralj is all-knowing, why didn’t he know about this?”

  “He prefers not to interfere with events outside the Refuge.” She crossed her arms under her breasts. “I’ll ask one of the triplets to drop the tracking device far from here. The Humanoid Alliance will eventually find this site, but it might give me some time to prepare for them.”

  “It will give us time to prepare for them.” Ariq corrected her. He wasn’t leaving her side.

  “It will give me time to prepare because you will be headed back to the Refuge with the rest of our party.” She frowned at him. “Our first priority is the safety of the beings we’re leading.”

  That was unee shit. The beings they were leading were all warriors. “If you believe that’s true.” He made it known he didn’t believe it was true. “You should be accompanying us.”

  His gerel’s jaw jutted.

  “She can’t accompany us.” Frost answered for Xareni. “The Humanoid Allian
ce is headed here to kill. When they don’t find us, they’ll look for others to slaughter, and that will put the clone community, the beings Xar has safeguarded for solar cycles, at risk.”

  The clones were under his gerel’s protection. He suspected they were, had heard the caring in her voice when she talked of them, had seen the respect the elders had shown her.

  “Then we stay and we fight with you.” Ariq didn’t have to contemplate that decision. She was his gerel. He would wage war with her. “We fought the Humanoid Alliance the last time we visited. Yesun found it entertaining, chattered about it the entire trip back to Chamele 2.”

  Xareni narrowed her eyes at him.

  He smiled at her.

  She shook her head. Her gaze shifted to Frost. “Kralj would want his guests to return safely to the Refuge.”

  “Our Ruler gave the orders to attach the guns to the back of the transports, told us to pack extra firepower, appointed Libor and me to the expedition team.” Frost shrugged. “I wouldn’t assume to speak for him, but I suspect he knew what we’d face here.”

  “Ugh.” Xareni turned and walked away from them.

  That was a concession. She wouldn’t fight their involvement in the battle.

  Ariq grinned at Frost and rushed to catch up to his irate gerel.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Xareni would part from her barbarian. That fate was unavoidable.

  He loved his planet and the beings he viewed as his brothers. His voice softened when he spoke of his fellow Chameles, when he pointed out the similarities between her home and his hunting planet. He would leave Carinae E, return to Chamele 2, and she would never see him again.

  She would hurt—badly—when that happened, but she accepted that future.

  Her universe, however, would always have Ariq in it. He would be alive and healthy somewhere, merely not with her, and that gave her a tiny sliver of comfort.

  If he stayed at the camp, if he faced the Humanoid Alliance with her, he could die.

  She wouldn’t survive that.

  Convincing him to leave became more difficult when the news was shared with the other warriors. Battling the Humanoid Alliance was heartily embraced by everyone except her.

  Yesun declared the expedition to be the best he’d ever participated in. The functionality in his leg was returning. He dragged the limb yet could walk.

  Jeden, Dialo, and Vietor were determined to kill as many Humanoid Alliance beings as possible to prove themselves to their parents and to avenge their dad. Orol, like Frost and Libor, had been enslaved and tortured by the Humanoid Alliance.

  The fully mature modified humanoids had immediately laid out their weapons, had turned the open-air transports so one set of mounted guns faced one direction and the other faced the opposite direction.

  Seven-One returned from the clone community, and the preparations for war began in earnest. Frost, Libor, Yesun stretched wire between boulders. Other traps were laid. Defensive positions were assigned. The triplets circled high above them, watching for the enemy.

  Xareni continued to try to persuade Ariq to change his mind. “This isn’t your battle.” She checked one of the guns, ensuring it was in top shape.

  Spark, his belly filled with cave snake meat, was coiled on the boulder beside her, sleeping off his nourishment coma. The drakon would fight with her also.

  “It’s your battle.” The damn Chamele was coating rocks with venom from the cave snake, careful not to get any of the liquid on his fingers. When the fist-sized stones were dropped from the sky by the triplets, they would be formidable weapons, stunning the humans on impact or paralyzing them upon breaking their skin. “That makes this my battle. I’m not leaving your side, gerel. Ever.”

  He would leave her side. Eventually. But his honor dictated he safeguard her now.

  She understood that. Her code of ethics dictated she do the same. “If I left here, if I led our team to the safety, returned to the Refuge with them, would you accompany me?”

  That option filled her with unease. It felt like cowardice. She shifted on the container-sized rock she was sitting on. The clone community was unofficially under her protection. She was responsible for their well-being. To desert them, to leave them to the cruelty of the Humanoid Alliance males, turned her stomach.

  But she would consider that drastic choice to save the male she loved.

  “Why would you do that?” Ariq lifted both of his eyebrows. “Why would you lead a group of battle-loving warriors to safety, leaving the clones, peace-valuing beings, to be slaughtered?” Her barbarian met her gaze. “Because that is what will happen—the Humanoid Alliance will slaughter them.”

  She reached for an excuse. “Kralj—”

  “Kralj isn’t the reason.” He wouldn’t allow her to use that logic. “Frost is right. The Ruler is all-knowing, all-powerful. He saw this coming, and he didn’t stop the expedition. Instead, he gave us additional warriors and weapons to deal with it.”

  Fuck. “You know why I would do that.” She scowled at the damn Chamele.

  “Say it.” He was merciless.

  She glared at him.

  He gazed back at her, not relenting one bit.

  Stars. She loved him.

  “I can’t lose you, Ariq. I would—” Her voice broke.

  “You won’t lose me.” He wiped his hands on his ass coverings, bracketed her face with his rough palms. “Look at me.”

  She complied. Her gaze locked with his.

  Her male’s dark eyes shone with fierce emotion. “We’ll survive this battle, you and I.” His certainty eased some of her fears. “And we have to do this. The clone community relies on you to protect them, and safeguarding the innocent is what you do. It is part of you, part of your warrior soul. That you would contemplate walking away from that, from your responsibilities, your duty, your honor…for me—”

  He swallowed hard and looked away from her, staring into the distance.

  “It means nothing.” She attempted to shield her pride, guard her heart from possible rejection.

  “It means everything to me.” Her barbarian’s gaze returned to hers. “It is the greatest gift anyone has ever offered me.” He leaned his forehead against hers, rubbed his thumbs along her scars, gently caressing her skin. “But I can’t accept it, gerel, because it would destroy you, and that would destroy me.”

  Moments passed and they remained like that, their forms entwined. His breath wafted on her cheeks. He brushed his fingers over her face.

  “If you die during this battle, I will be so fuckin’ mad at you.” Her tone was brusque.

  He barked with laughter. “You are a gift, Xareni. I am—”

  “Frost says he’s taking the first watch.” Yesun had returned from his tasks. “I don’t know why I can’t take a turn at it.” He kicked over the wetted pack of rocks. They rolled everywhere.

  “We needed those.” Ariq pulled away from her.

  “I’ll put them back.” The youth grabbed two of them, juggled them.

  “They’re covered with cave snake venom.” Her barbarian sighed.

  “Zondoo.” The warrior dropped them again. “That’s why I can’t feel my fingers.”

  Xareni’s lips twitched. “Starting immediately, everyone should wear hand coverings.”

  “Yesun, retrieve yours and, once you can move your fingers again, put the rocks back.” Ariq stood, grasped Xareni’s hands, pulled her upright.

  Spark continued to sleep, exhaling puffs of smoke. The drakon should be safe where he was. No one, with the exception of perhaps Dialo, would disturb him.

  Xareni didn’t know where Ariq was taking her, but she would go wherever he did. She’d decided that, had no ideas how to make that a reality, but that was her new goal.

  Carinae E’s single sun lowered on the horizon, painting the sky shades of red, orange, pink. “The Chamele sector only has one sun?”

  Her male nodded. “The sunsets are almost as beautiful as this.”

  “They’re
almost as beautiful?” She was surprised by that statement. He usually equated their planets or positioned his as superior.

  “I didn’t share those sunsets with you.” His eyes glowed.

  “Fuck, barbarian.” She smiled at him. “You have some great lines.”

  He laughed. “If Second or the others heard me, I’d never hear the end of it.”

  “I heard you, Chamele.” Libor’s voice traveled to them over a distance. “And you’re right. You’ll never hear the end of it.”

  Xareni’s mirth meshed with her male’s.

  “I like Libor, Frost, and many of the other modified humanoids.” Her male walked with her. “They’re warriors. I understand them. And there’s a comradery between them, like there is between Chameles, within Second’s team.”

  “Second’s team is like your family.” She felt a tinge of guilt. “I took you away from them. You have Yesun and Seven-One, but the others are back at the Refuge.”

  “Families can be apart.” They stopped at their portable sleeping support. “Hulagu and Second are brothers. They live on different planets.” He shrugged. “They see each other as often as they can, communicate whenever they want, seem to be content with that.”

  That was true. Ariq had devices. He could communicate with Second, with the others, whenever he wanted to.

  Her male hadn’t reached out to his manufactured family very often during her time with him.

  Ariq moved behind her, pressing his form against hers. He unfastened her garment, slowly, peeling away the leather, pulling it to her waist. That bared her breasts. The warm breeze skimmed over them. Her nipples tightened.

  “You’re so beautiful.” He mouthed along her neck, and she tilted her head to the side, offering that scarred skin to him, knowing he’d revere it, cherish her.

  His words weren’t merely that—words. He truly believed she was beautiful, and she believed that now also. In his gaze, she wasn’t a monster. She was a deity, the target of his devotion, and she reveled in that role. It turned her on.

  But they shouldn’t be touching, kissing, fucking. The enemy could be approaching. “We should be watching for the Humanoid Alliance.” They could attack at any moment.