Zeke hit it from the side with every ounce of strength his legion could provide. The impact shattered his left shoulder, but he drove the creature away from Michelle. Both of them crashed into the canyon wall hard enough to crack stone, rock dust raining down as they rolled apart, both finding their feet with predatory grace.
Up close, the thing was even more monstrous. Its face had elongated into something between Izaean and animal, too many teeth crowding a jaw that unhinged like a snake’s.
It smiled at him. The expression was too intelligent, too knowing.
They crashed together, and he learned what fighting a nightmare felt like. His claws tore through flesh, opening wounds that should have been fatal, but the tissue knitted back together, healing faster than he could inflict damage. The feral’s return strikes were sledgehammer blows that cracked his armor and sent shockwaves through his bones.
He drove his claws through its chest, feeling them puncture organs. The feral laughed and headbutted him hard enough to make his vision spark, its own claws raking across his ribs, parting armor and flesh like it was nothing.
They rolled across the blood-slicked ground, each trying to find the killing hold. He managed to get his hands around its throat, squeezing with strength that could bend steel, but the feral’s neck muscles bulged. Its claws found his sides, punching through to scrape against ribs.
Fire raced through his veins. Not just pain. Poison. Something on those claws that made his muscles seize and spasm. He lost his grip, and the feral threw him back, his body carving a furrow in the ground.
Rolling to his feet, his left arm hung useless as blood ran down his sides where the claws had found flesh. His legion tried to compensate, but the poison interfered, making his healing sluggish.
The feral stood between him and Michelle, that terrible smile still stretching its face. Behind it, he could see her—Raaze had reached her and was trying to pull her back, but she fought against him, trying to get to him.
The understanding landed like a fist in his gut.
He couldn’t win. The math was simple. It healed. He didn’t. But thirty seconds might be enough for Michelle to get away.
The feral charged again. Zeke met it, pouring everything into the clash, his claws finding its eyes, bursting them like grapes. It screamed and caught his throat, lifting him off the ground. He drove his knee into its chest, feeling ribs crack.
They were both dying, just at different speeds. The feral’s eyes were already starting to regenerate, cloudy tissue forming in the empty sockets. Zeke’s vision went gray at the edges as the grip on his throat tightened.
Through the narrowing tunnel of his vision, he found Michelle. She’d broken free from Raaze, was trying to run toward them despite her injured leg, terror widening her eyes, but her jaw was set, her teeth gritted against the pain. The blade was raised like she thought she could help.
No. She’d die trying to save him.
He used the last of his strength to break the feral’s grip, dropping to the ground in a heap. His muscles barely responded, the poison spreading through his system like ice, but his voice still worked, powered by desperation and love and the absolute need to see her live.
“RUN!”
Chapter 15
Michelle’s muscles locked, every fiber frozen as Zeke’s roared command hammered through her skull.
Her body refused to obey, frozen into place. The world slowed, each heartbeat a heavy thud as she watched the massive feral close the distance.
Zeke’s left arm hung useless, blood streaming down his sides where claws had torn through the thick armor to the flesh below. He was bleeding out, his movements sluggish and desperate.
This is it. He’s going to die right in front of me.
All that talk about “mine” and “his to protect”, it wasn’t just possessive alien bullshit. The thought stole what little breath she had left. He meant every word, a vow that went deeper than any human marriage vow. Those pretty words about death parting couples came from a softer world, one where people died in beds surrounded by grandchildren.
Not this.
Not watching the man she?—
I love him.
The truth hit her as hard as a shuttle crash. She loved this infuriating alien who’d claimed her, and who’d killed for her without hesitation, who made her feel things she hadn’t felt in decades. Loved his protective streak that drove her crazy. Loved how he touched her as if she was made of spun glass one moment and fucked her senseless the next. Even loved his damaged parts... maybe especially those. This man, who’d been thrown away by his entire civilization at eight years old, had somehow become the best person she knew.
The feral’s claws raked across Zeke’s chest, sending him stumbling. Its regenerating eyes had turned milky white, new tissue forming even as Zeke’s wounds kept bleeding.
Her paralysis shattered. Every muscle coiled, fire igniting in her blood that burned away the fear.
I’m not letting him die. Not while my heart still beats.
