by Hope Hart
Ellie got pregnant before Nevada, so I’m guessing she’ll be due any day.
This is obviously the wrong thing to say because Ellie bites her lip, her eyes filling with tears.
“That’s it,” I say. “You’re telling me what’s going on.”
I lead Ellie to the small clearing where the kids like to play. We take a seat, and I focus all my attention on her.
Ellie’s face is so pale that I scan the clearing, wondering where Terex is. He’s usually close by, unwilling to leave her side with everything that’s going on. Most days, she watches him train and then they spend the rest of the day practically glued together.
From the way she’s staring down at the ground, this isn’t a conversation she wanted Terex to overhear.
“Okay,” I say. “Tell me everything.”
“I know I’m being stupid, but I’m terrified, Zoey.”
“Terrified of childbirth?”
She sighs. “I just feel like it’s not possible to be this happy without consequences. I know we’re basically at war right now, and there are so many external things to focus on, but I never imagined I’d find someone I love as much as Terex. Sometimes I wake up, and the way he looks at me…I feel like I’m dreaming, you know?”
I tamp down the envy that wraps around my heart, cutting into it like barbed wire. “You’re waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
Ellie nods. “I guess I am. I just have this feeling it’s all about to go terribly wrong.” Her eyes fill with tears, and I reach for her hand.
“It’s normal to be a little nervous.”
She shakes her head. “I’m not a little nervous, Zoey. I’m pretty sure I’m going to die.”
Where is this coming from? I frown. “I’m going to tell you the same thing I told Nevada when she was panicking. Women have been giving birth for thousands of years.”
“Human women haven’t been giving birth to Braxian babies!”
I blink at that. “You’re right. But look at Nevada and Danica. Don’t they help put some of your fears to rest?”
She sniffles and wipes away a tear. “Moni said Danica came a little early. My baby is bigger. I don’t think I’m going to live through it.”
I stare at her, stunned. “Let’s back up a bit. Did Moni say something to make you worry? Where did you get this idea from?”
“It was a few weeks ago, I guess. I heard some of the warriors talking. They were convinced Nevada was going to die. I didn’t say anything, but I barely slept. All I could think about was that poor baby without a mother. And Rakiz—” Her voice cracks.
“What the hell would Braxian warriors know about pregnant human women?”
I’m furious now. After Jozet’s comments in the cave and Tagiz’s admission about his father, I’m pretty sure I know where these rumors came from.
Ellie is the sweetest, kindest woman I know. She never has a bad word to say about anyone. And she deserves her happily ever after.
“If I die…I need you to promise you’ll be there for Terex and the baby. Terex will be lost, Zoey. I need you to make sure he’s okay.”
“Ellie. You’re not going to die.” She stares at me, her lower lip trembling as she waits, and I sigh. “I promise. But listen, you can’t think like that.”
“Will you be there when I give birth?”
“Of course. If I can deal with Nevada in labor, I can deal with you.” I’m rewarded with a tiny giggle.
I leave Ellie looking a little happier as she watches some of the tribe kids play on the grass.
Fury blinds me, and my body suddenly feels like it’s on fire.
Enough is enough. It’s time to meet Tagiz’s dad.
Chapter Fourteen
Tagiz
I’m sitting inside my parents’ kradi while my father paces, shooting me occasional furious looks.
“I don’t understand why you and Malis insist on waiting. You know each other well enough by now.”
“It’s not about how well we know each other, Father.”
He growls at that. “What about your duty to your family, Tagiz?”
It takes all my self-control not to flinch, and he narrows his eyes at me, sensing weakness.
This is it. No longer will I pretend my need for my little healer does not matter.
“You!”
My head twists on my neck so fast I hear a crack, but I ignore it as Zoey strides toward us, her face flushed, hands fisted.
I expect her to come to me. Obviously it is I that have made the tiny healer this incensed.
But no, she stalks toward my father, a sneer I’ve never seen before on her beautiful face. Her beautiful bruised face, thanks to the vicious Dokhall who hit her yesterday.
“And who are you?” my father demands.
I sigh. My father knows the human females by now. They have been here for long enough that gossip about each of them has swept through the camp. Most of the warriors even know the names of the new females who came on the last ship, and many are attempting to convince them to mate with them.
“I’m the woman who delivered the tribe queen’s baby. The woman who just had to comfort my friend who was crying, terrified of giving birth thanks to your vicious rumors.”
Surprise flashes through my father’s eyes, but it’s quickly replaced by an icy fury I know well.
“They’re not rumors,” he snaps. “Human females are weak. Too weak to mate with our warriors.” He waves his hand toward where I’m sitting, and Zoey doesn’t even look at me. My stomach clenches.
“Let me be very clear,” she murmurs. “If I ever hear you have been spreading rumors about human women dying in childbirth again, I will make you pay. We have enough problems on this planet.”
He narrows his eyes. “The fact the tribe queen survived is nothing more than luck. Do you think we can’t see the size difference between Braxians and humans? You should thank me for preparing your friends for their fate.”
Zoey shakes her head. “You know nothing about us, and instead of being embarrassed by your ignorance, you spread it like a disease. Human women have more strength in their vaginas than you have in your entire body, so you need to shut your fool mouth before I shut it for you.”
I’m hard, I realize, as I stare at the scene in front of me. I wrestle with the urge to stride toward Zoey, fist her long hair, and slam my mouth down on hers. My father glowers at her, and I step forward. Enough.
Zoey sends me one burning look that warns me not to intervene, and I wave my hand, giving her space as my father lifts his lip in a sneer.
“What could your weak human body do to me?”
Zoey smiles. “You know how I killed the Dokhalls in that cave? Poison. Be very careful not to push me.”
I stare at her. I know Zoey would never poison my father. But he doesn’t know that.
“You dare threaten me?”
Her smile widens. “It’s not a threat. It’s a fucking promise. The women in this camp have enough to deal with without narrow-minded idiots spreading rumors.”
My father reddens at that, but a tiny flash of respect sparks in his eyes as Zoey turns and stalks away.
It would be easier to stop breathing than it would be to not follow her. So I don’t even try.
“Tagiz,” my father hisses, but I pretend I can’t hear him as I stride past him, keeping the furious female in my sight as she stomps between the kradis, muttering angrily to herself.
I stalk her, ignoring the way she glances over her shoulder at me, making it clear I’m not welcome anywhere near her.
“You made an enemy of my father, little healer.”
Her jaw sticks out. “I don’t care.”
I laugh, and she glowers at me. But I’m not laughing at her. I’m laughing at the sheer ludicrousness of my actions up until this point.
I’m laughing in disbelief at the fact I thought I could ever give Zoey up.
I follow her to her kradi, and relief courses through my body. I no longer have a constant weight
pressing on my chest. The decision has been made. Of course I couldn’t stay away from my little healer. Of course I can’t give her up. Asking me to do so is like asking the sun to no longer shine.
When Zoey was taken…my blood turned to ice. I couldn’t imagine never seeing her again. All I wanted was to keep her safe in my kradi for the rest of our lives. The sight of the bruise on her cheek still makes me want to roar.
The way I feel about her…it’s all instinct. I become feral at the thought of losing her—of watching her gift her smile to someone else for the rest of our lives. Or worse, never again seeing that smile light up her face.
Zoey turns once we reach her kradi. She stares at me, and I realize I must look insane as I throw my head back, still chuckling at the thought of falling in line with my father’s plans and giving her up. I truly thought I could do it, and that’s the most amusing thought of all. Because I would burn down this world for Zoey.
So now I have to prove myself to her.
I will lose my father over this, and my mother will likely stand beside him. His friends and their families will probably shun me. But if my father’s love is only dependent on my doing what he wants, then it’s not love at all.
Zoey’s words run through my head.
“Maybe you feel like you need to live up to the idea of what Calix wants you to be simply because you feel like you owe him for taking you in as a child. But any decent person would’ve done the exact same thing.”
They would have. If my father loved me, would he want me to never know the pleasure of a true mating?
If I choose to do what my father wants, I’m ruining four lives. Malis, Heric, Zoey—none of them want this mating. And for me, the thought of never touching Zoey’s soft skin again, never kissing her soft lips, makes me want to roar.
Even worse, I allowed my father to poison my thoughts. I believed him when he said human females were weak. The idea is absurd. My little healer is tougher and smarter than most warriors.
I step closer, my hand finding Zoey’s cheek. She closes her eyes, and I brush my thumb along her neck, watching as her skin breaks out in goose bumps.
“Your body knows you belong to me, little healer.”
“Tagiz,” Zoey says, but we’re interrupted by Kroniz as he runs toward us.
“Dokhalls have been spotted near our territory,” he says. “Rakiz wants a full defense.”
I nod, my eyes still on Zoey’s face.
“We will continue this later,” I say. She shrugs, turning and walking into her kradi, and I grind my teeth in frustration.
First, I will make sure this camp is safe. Then I will win my little healer back to my side.
Zoey
“Zoey?”
I look up from my food. I’m eating lunch with a group of the new women, attempting to forget the weird look on Tagiz’s face before he left to fight the Dokhalls.
I stare into the distance, my stomach tense. I chewed out Calix in front of his son, making an enemy of him. If I thought my situation was bad before, threatening to poison Tagiz’s dad definitely didn’t make it better.
I can’t bring myself to apologize though. The look of terror in Nevada’s eyes when Jozet blurted out she was going to die and Ellie’s shaking hands…childbirth is scary enough. These babies are just the beginning for the human women here. And I won’t have their pregnancies tainted by terror.
Still. I probably shouldn’t have called Calix a narrow-minded idiot.
Even if he is one.
Now Tagiz is somewhere out there, fighting against the Dokhalls.
My stomach clenches, and I push away my plate at the thought. What if he gets hurt? Or worse?
“Zoey?”
I blink. I shouldn’t have come to lunch when my mind is so clearly elsewhere.
“Sorry. I was just…thinking.”
One of the women gives me a knowing look, her moss-green eyes narrowing on my face. Makayla, I think her name is.
“Thinking about Tagiz?”
I shrug. This camp isn’t small enough for me to escape the sympathetic looks that are going to appear on everyone’s faces when Tagiz mates with Malis, making it clear whatever obligation and guilt he feels toward his dad is bigger than anything he feels for me.
The atmosphere turns serious as Clara arrives, placing her plate down on the grass in front of her. We’re sitting in the clearing where I talked with Ellie, and if we weren’t watching Braxian kids attack each other with fake swords, we could be sitting in any park on Earth.
“Hey, ladies,” Clara says, sitting down. She’s tall and slim, with curly blonde hair and a light dusting of freckles scattered across her nose and cheeks. She looks delicate, but I recently saw her throw a Braxian warrior over her shoulder while she was training. Granted, the warrior was a teenager, but she planted her foot on his chest and lifted one eyebrow while he scowled up at her.
“So I’ve been thinking,” Clara says, and Aria laughs.
“What else is new?” she murmurs, and I grin. Aria has long wine-colored hair that reminds me a little of Ivy’s, but unlike the firefighter, Aria is pint-sized, with the creamy skin and delicate features of a porcelain doll. She’s also hilarious, with a love of practical jokes.
“Anyway,” Clara says, throwing Aria a look. The other woman gives her an easy grin but pretends to zip her lips. “When the Dokhalls separated into smaller groups, they became more of a threat, not less. It allowed them to be sneaky and move around in a way they couldn’t as a large group. Just look at what they did to Zoey and Nevada.”
The other women glance at me, and I fight not to squirm.
“I agree,” I say. “The Dokhalls have no true loyalty to each other. If a group of them can get that ship, they’ll leave the rest of their people here in a heartbeat.”
Clara nods. “So if we want to take them all out at once, we need to be able to get them all to show up at the same place at the same time.”
“Makes sense,” I say. “But the Dokhalls are brutal and smart.” I brush my hand over the bruise on my cheek and fight to ignore the way my ribs seem to twinge at the reminder of just how brutal they are. “We’d have to lay the kind of trap they can’t ignore.”
Clara blows out a breath, and we all go silent. She nods her head once, straightening her shoulders. “I think we need to tell them we’ll give them the ship.”
Everyone explodes, talking at once. Clara raises her hand, and I have to admire the way she takes back control.
“We let it leak we’re tired of being targeted and we want to stay here. After Zoey and Nevada were kidnapped, we’ve realized the Dokhalls are too dangerous. We’re willing to give them the ship if they leave and swear never to come back.”
“Why would they believe us?” Makayla asks.
“We tell them we’re staying with the Braxians. We don’t trust that the ship will work if we take it. Plus, we don’t have the chip anyway.”
I chew on my lip. “It’s risky. If we lure them close to the ship, we have to take most of them out. If they survive, they’ll be gunning for us. Not to mention, the ship was already damaged in the last battle. What if it gets damaged again?”
“And what if they have the chip?” Eloise pipes up. “All they’d have to do is get on the ship and they can take it.”
“We have part of their thruster,” Aria says.
A woman I haven’t been introduced to snorts. “I bet they’ll take the risk anyway. We don’t know how far their planet is from Agron. If its close, they might be able to make it even if the ship is damaged.”
Clara angles her head, her eyes serious. “There are risks,” she says. “And if you guys can think of another way to lure all the Dokhalls into the same area at the same time, I’m willing to hear it. But I think this is the only way.”
“If we do this, we have to find a way to take them all out at once,” Aria says.
“What about the explosives you guys used last time?” Eloise asks. “The pods?”
I sha
ke my head. “If we’re luring the Dokhalls close to the ship, the pods are a bad idea. The last thing we need is to blow a hole in the side of the ship by mistake.”
The beginning of an idea is simmering in my head. It’s the kind of idea that if I execute it, it’ll change me. Forever.
“I have a few thoughts,” I say. “But first, we need to see if luring the Dokhalls to the ship is even possible and if we have the numbers we’d need to take them down. Let me talk to Nevada and Rakiz.”
Tonight, the entire camp will be celebrating the arrival of their baby girl. Danica represents hope to a tribe that rarely sees female babies. Alexis convinced Dragix to move the old ship that was leaking fuel into the Braxians’ drinking water, and while she’s hoping it will help with the uneven male-to-female birth ratio, it’s still far too soon to tell.
“Zoey! Oh, thank God!”
I jump to my feet as Ellie rushes into the clearing. “What is it? Is it the baby?”
“No,” she says. “It’s Hewex.”
Chapter Fifteen
Zoey
I sprint to the healers’ kradi, finding a group of warriors gathered outside. I elbow my way through them, and a familiar voice roars at them to let me past.
Tagiz reaches for my elbow, hauling me through the crowd.
“How bad is it?” I ask.
His gaze darts away, and my heart sinks.
“Oh God.”
From the moment I was rescued, Hewex has been a staple in my life. Sure, he’s grumpy and impatient, but he’s also kind. When I was recovering in the healers’ kradi, he would bring me snacks and tell me all about Agron, encouraging me to get better so I could see it myself.
I choke out a sob when I reach Hewex. He’s lying on one of the beds, and Tagiz steps up next to him. Moni is attempting to push his intestines back into his body.
They gutted him.
I step closer to Moni. “Can I help?” I murmur.
She nods. “I can’t see any perforated organs, but I must stop the bleeding. Hand me those clean rags.”