His arms tightened around my waist, pressing my belly into the proof of his own love for me. “You sure?”
I couldn’t stop a smile from spreading across my face. “Oh, hell yeah.”
“Good, because I nearly bit my tongue off trying not to scold you. You sound like a cabra being attacked by grumpuses, with all the shouting. We have no idea how many Terran soldiers could be prowling around, but we know exactly what they’ll do to us if they hear you hollering like that. Once we cross the river into Hill territory, you’ll have to be as quiet as possible, understand?”
I stood at attention and grabbed his ass. “Aye aye, captain!”
A rumble vibrated low in his chest, and I swear I thought he was going to throw me down right there in sight of Ouma’s cabin, but he pulled back just in time.
“Later,” he growled, his fangs protruding slightly from his luscious, full lips.
I tipped him a wink and sauntered away, making sure my ass swung as far as possible to each side. To my eternal gratification, he groaned.
Any lightheartedness I felt slipped away with the currents of the river. The moment I stepped into Hill territory, the seriousness of our mission became very real. I followed Thrane’s every move, never stepping outside his giant footprints, for fear of alerting any Terran guards who might be on patrol. As we closed in on the Hill compound — once Thrane’s domain — we resorted to hand signals to communicate.
I’d only traveled there once, kicking and screaming the whole way as I tried to escape the clutches of Thrane’s men, who were now my brothers. Strange how things worked out. Consequently, I didn’t remember much of the trip, but when Thrane veered off the main path into thick vegetation, I wanted to question him. One sharp look from him stayed my tongue, and I soon discovered why.
After a short time thrashing through underbrush so thick, it scratched our arms and faces, we emerged onto a wide, clear path that led us almost to the back door of Thrane’s old command hut. The setting sun cast a warm glow on the compound, but nothing could make the place look cheery. A battalion of Terran soldiers marched through the commons toward the koshu, where the Hill men had kept their women to protect them.
“We’ll wait here,” Thrane whispered to the group. “Not another word.”
We sat and watched the activity die down as soldiers entered the koshu for their evening meal, and I grew very bored. We couldn’t speak for fear of being discovered, so I decided to practice my new mind-melding skill.
I’d barely closed my eyes before Thrane was standing before me in his telepathic form — sort of glowing and totally hot.
“Hi, you,” I said, all sexy and suggestive. If we had to wait around, we might as well have a little fun.
“Arlynn…” He seemed both amused and concerned at the same time.
“What? Just killing time.” I gave him a wicked grin, but he couldn’t be tempted. Well, I could see he was tempted, but he wasn’t giving in. Too bad, because I really wanted to find out what mind sex was like.
“Actually, this is a good idea. We need to find the Terran general and watch his every move.”
“Fine,” I said with a sniff, disappointed, but at the same time even more turned on by his decisiveness and dedication. Nothing was more sexy than an alpha protecting his tribe. “But before we go find him, I want to make sure we’re on the same page.”
“About what?”
“About killing.”
His eyebrow quirked up. “You mean that we will kill as many Terrans as possible? I wholeheartedly agree.”
“No! That we shouldn’t kill any, if it can be helped.”
Thrane scoffed at me. “Have you been smoking some of Bandrin’s butterweed?”
I scowled back. “No, but—”
“No ‘buts’. We kill as many as we can, as fast as we can. If our mission fails, that’s fewer murderers who will descend on our tribemates.”
“Thrane, don’t you see that’s why the Wargs have died out?”
He bristled at that. “What are you talking about, woman?”
“Generations of Wargs have fought for their honor, or something. I don’t really get it, but that’s the gist of it, right?”
One shoulder moved in a noncommittal half-shrug. I took it as a yes.
“One Warg would die in battle, and his tribemates would vow revenge on the Warg who killed him. Back and forth it went until we’re all but extinct.”
A muscle worked in his jaw, but he remained silent, staring at me with flames practically spurting out of his eyes.
“If you kill a single Terran, they’ll try to kill two of us. Don’t you remember what Hawking’s second — whatshisname — said?”
“His name was Martin, and he had the soul of a demon.”
“I can’t argue there, but do you remember what he said?”
Thrane sighed. “He said he wanted to eat the heart of the Warg who killed his nephew, the stupid Terran who didn’t know I’d stalked him all that time.”
“Right, and do you know who that Warg was?”
His lips grew thin and his jaw worked. “Sienna. All the more reason to kill him!”
“No, all the more reason not to. If we kill him, then his friends or family will want to kill Sienna and us. When does all this revenge killing end?”
“Arlynn,” Thrane said, softening with emotion, “they’re not trying to kill only one or two of us, they’re trying to kill all of us.”
“I know. And I know you hate my idea. I agree there are times to fight, but I also believe Markon is right about sometimes negotiations are the better path. I think this is that time, Thrane. We need to look at the big picture, now more than ever.”
Thrane stared down at me for a moment, his lips pressed into a thin, hard line. Finally, he nodded curtly.
“We’ll try it your way, but if any of them so much as touches a hair on your head, his head is coming off. Got it?”
I nodded somberly, but a thrill shot through me at Thrane’s protectiveness. My reaction rather surprised me, but I couldn’t deny it turned me on. I bit my lip to keep from smiling and reached out for his hands to start the mind-meld with Hawking.
“Does everyone have a photogram of Penelope?”
I looked up at Thrane, wide-eyed at the sound of Hawking’s voice. We hadn’t connected with him yet, which meant only one thing: he’d started his nightly rounds early. Jerking ourselves back into our bodies, we peered through the cover of the dense shrubbery surrounding the compound. Hawking was speaking with Martin as he strutted in front of his guards.
All twelve of them!
21
THRANE
“Fuck,” I whispered into the leaves.
Luckily, none of the Terran guards heard me. Still, Arlynn laid a hand on my arm to quiet me.
We shouldn’t have wasted so much time talking. We should have jumped right into the general’s head — then at least we would have been prepared. As it was, the five of us would have a hard time defending ourselves against so many Terrans, much less all of their laser guns.
Maybe we could use our powers to tell them to lay down their weapons, but we’d just barely learned how to use them. Would any of us have the skill to disarm them all? We’d practiced by making others pick boogers and fart on command, but that’s a far cry from forcing someone to leave themselves completely defenseless in hostile territory. Despite our abilities, the Terrans would still have the power to resist within them.
I looked at my squad, and found them all wide-eyed with worry, even Arlynn. The Terrans had drawn closer, and I couldn’t risk speaking out loud. I could communicate with Arlynn, but I had no idea if the others would ‘hear’ my plan too. Summoning all my mental strength, I blasted my message out with such force, the others rocked backward. Thank the gods none stumbled, or we would have been exposed. Everyone nodded their agreement and crouched down in preparation.
As the general’s entourage drew even with us, I gave a slight nod, and we all focused our power on as m
any of the Terrans as we could manage. Broadcasting the suggestion to lay down their weapons worked on three immediately, but the rest just stood there looking at each other, utterly befuddled. I pushed harder, and one more guard dropped his gun, but the others remained stubbornly armed.
We had no more time to waste, not even to shift into our beast forms. This was the best we could manage, and the rest would be up to fate. I prayed the Elders of the Warg were looking down on us and would give us the strength to save the rest of the tribe.
“Go!” I shouted, then barreled through the thicket, aiming for the biggest guard. As we tussled, I caught sight of the rest of my squad rushing from the forest to take down the remaining seven guards.
I’d knocked my guard’s gun out of his hands upon impact, so I turned to attack the next armed guard. The guns would be our downfall, not the wimpy Terrans themselves. Imagine my surprise, when the big guard leapt onto my back, quite effectively slowing me down.
Arlynn called my name, with her mind, not with her voice. I sensed her fear and spun around to find a guard standing over her, with his gun aimed at her head and a grin on his ugly face. With the slightest of shrugs, I sent the big guard flying and launched myself at the one about to kill my mate.
I shifted in mid-air, my beast no longer willing to be restrained. The guard’s soft, Terran flesh tore under my claws, and his howl of pain sounded like music to my beast’s ears. We tumbled to the ground, and as I regained my footing, I turned to find three more guards aiming their guns at me.
“No!” Arlynn screamed and jumped in front of me to shield me, as if the Terrans actually cared about who they killed first.
One of the men knocked her aside, but kept his sights trained on me. I snarled at him, and he blinked uncertainly for a moment, before settling into his resolve. Around us, the other Wargs fought valiantly against the other Terrans, until my tribemates all stood with laser guns pointed at their heads.
My eyes sought out Arlynn who — as a ‘helpless female’ — had been ignored by the Terrans. I finally spotted her crawling on all fours toward the general, who stood red-faced and completely oblivious to the danger inching toward him.
What a dummy I was! The Terrans thought women were harmless, so what better weapon could we have, than one our enemy dismisses so easily?
Even as a guard jammed the muzzle of his weapon into the side of my head, my lips peeled back in a beast version of a proud smile. If she could capture the general, we might all survive this after all.
“What are your orders, sir?” the guard holding a gun to my head asked the general.
Before he could answer, the leaves of the forest rustled behind us in a way that sent shivers along the dark ridge of my spine. Something vile lurked in the gloaming, and it wasn’t a Warg. Of course, the Terrans didn’t know that.
“They have reinforcements!” the big one shouted.
They all trained their guns on the forest and waited. Even though I look like a monster to them, I was just as terrified as they all were. They thought we were the most dangerous beast in the forest, but they were about to learn otherwise.
The incessant squeaks and sounds of tiny, scurrying feet made my beast want to make a run for it. I had no desire to be standing around helpless when a pack of forest rats descended on us. If the pack was big enough — and only a big pack of rats would dare attack a group of Wargs — we’d be nothing but bones, puddles of blood, and a few random scraps of flesh in only a matter of minutes.
I turned wary eyes on the forest behind me, and watched in horror as hundreds of rats, more than I’d ever seen, poured out of the forest — a living, gnashing, screaming river of cabra-sized carnivores.
But they didn’t attack and tear us to shreds. Instead, they surrounded us in a perfect circle, never stepping across some invisible border. A few impatient ones tried, but quickly squealed in pain and retreated, their thin lips pulled back in menacing snarls, which showed their needle-sharp teeth.
The Terrans shot at a few, killing them instantly, but three more just took their place in the circle. No way could their guns — designed to kill a single enemy at a time with a zap of deadly light — defeat an entire rat pack. And this looked more like three rat packs had joined forces…to what end, I had no idea.
Another loud rustle of leaves drew my gaze to the exact spot we’d been hiding. Wild white hair poked up out of a shrub, then Amma turned her face to me and cackled. The big guard I tackled in the beginning turned his gun on the old woman, but before he could shoot, a single rat rushed forward and chomped down on his leg. He kicked it away, but not before it had taken a healthy chunk of his calf with it.
Any trace of amusement in Amma’s eyes blinked out, and was replaced with a steely hardness I never saw in her before. It made sense she would be tough — it had been hard enough for me to survive in the forest on my own for mere weeks, I can’t even imagine what it would’ve taken to do so for generations?
The big guy apparently saw the glint in her eye too, because he turned away from her and trained his gun on me again. I focused hard, and for a moment, his hand dropped ever so slightly, but he quickly pulled it back up again.
Obviously, I didn’t have enough skill yet to overcome his will.
Fuck!
“Don’t move!”
Every head — including the rats’ — turned toward the warning. The hackles along my spine rippled in fury at the sight of the general holding an arm around Arlynn’s neck and pressing a laser gun to her temple. My instinct was to rush him, but Arlynn stopped me.
Wait! her voice whispered in my head.
I stopped, but my entire body tensed, ready to attack. The muscles in my shoulders quivered, and my vision narrowed, until only the pulsing spot on the general’s throat remained.
“Look at me the wrong way and this whore is dead!” the general shouted, irrational hate pouring from his eyes.
I knew that form of hate. It was borne of fear, and no matter what happened, this situation would end badly. For him, I thought, as drool spattered to the dirt between my massive paws.
Join me, my love.
I allowed my eyes to lose focus, and in the time it took a flutterfly to flap its wings, Arlynn and I stood before each other in my mind. Without pausing to think, I reached for her hands and looked deep into her eyes.
“Are you ready?” she asked.
I didn’t need to respond. Together, we focused our energy as if we were one entity. The strength of whatever we were sending through the spectrums of the universe, drew frightened screeches from the rat pack and a soft grunt from a Terran.
Releasing Arlynn’s hands, I slipped back into my beast’s body and watched in amazement as the hand holding the gun to Arlynn’s head twitched, then moved to the general’s own head. Arlynn lurched sideways, out of his grasp, at the same moment I leapt forward, my jaws snapping in anticipation.
Terrans were but ants compared to a full-grown Warg beast, and I could have easily knocked the man over by simply blowing on him, but my beast needed vengeance. One of my paws nearly covered his entire chest as I knocked him down.
Lying on the ground, he gasped for air, surprise and fear mixing in his eyes in a way that gave me far too much — and yet not nearly enough — satisfaction. Before he could get a full breath, my razor sharp teeth clamped down on his neck, and my soul reveled in the taste of blood.
Arlynn’s scream ripped through the night. “Thrane! No!”
22
ARLYNN
Shouts heralded our arrival back in the village, and we were greeted by the full force of the Great Tribe of Thracos. Warriors surrounded our battered, but still intact, little party. Only when we reached the commons and stood in front of the blazing fire pit, which broke the darkness did we stop. It had been a very long day, and I really wanted to snuggle up to Thrane in our bed and fall asleep in his embrace, but we had business to settle.
“You’re back!” Markon pushed through the crowd, hope glowing in his eyes…
until he saw Thrane’s cargo. “What the—”
With a growl, my mate dropped the general’s limp and bloodied body at Markon’s feet, then shifted back into his very hot, naked, manly form. Drool pooled in my mouth, and any thoughts of sleep fled, before shouts brought me back to the moment.
First, Solan ran up and grabbed Thrane’s hand, then pressed their foreheads together. “Good to see you, my friend.”
Then my sisters and friends from the Training Center elbowed a few big Wargs out of their way.
“You’re alive!” Sienna cried, launching herself into my arms, followed quickly by Nat and the three Terran women. “It’s been so long! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I started, but was cut off by Nell’s scream.
“Father!”
She rushed to Hawking’s motionless form, sobbing, as we all stared at her — then each other — dumbfounded.
Father?
“Father! Wake up! Please wake up!” She cried and begged, clutching at his blood-stained uniform in a desperate attempt to revive him.
The man groaned and opened his eyes. Nell gave a throaty half-laugh, half-sob, then buried her face in his chest. With tremendous effort, he weakly wrapped his arms around her.
“Penelope…” he croaked.
No doubt his throat would be sore for a few days, considering how close Thrane had come to ripping the jerk’s head off with one snap of his beast’s jaws, but fortunately, I’d stopped him just in time. If his fangs had sunk into Hawking’s neck a fraction of an inch deeper, we’d all be watching a very different scene right now.
“Father, are you okay?”
The general grunted as he struggled to sit up with his daughter’s help. He touched his neck, then stared at the light smear of blood on his fingers. His gaze found mine, then locked onto Thrane’s.
“It appears so,” he said cautiously. “The question of ‘Why’ remains. What do you want?”
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