“Worthy.”
What?
Another elbow. Another pull. More blood soaked the ground. I shook my head, tears streaming down my face. Why? Why was he doing this?
He pulled to his side. He groaned as I watched him cut himself open. He moved to his side. I watched in shock as the piece of claw protruding from his back slid—cut—through his body, moving in a slow, steady line from the puncture site to the edge of his armor. Then beyond. Velik rolled free, his self-inflicted wound easily the length of my hand, wrist to fingertip.
Shit! What was he doing?
He lunged to his knees. Then his feet. He stumbled toward me.
I tried to get up. To reach for him.
“No!” He drew in a deep, rattling breathe that I knew meant his lungs were filling with blood. “Cover!”
He screamed the warning and threw his body on top of mine, curling himself around me.
Something exploded, the sound like lightning striking the ground right next to us.
Fire roared above our heads as if someone was shooting a flamethrower at us.
It blasted past, then receded as quickly as it had come. My ears were ringing, but I wasn’t hurt. Velik’s battered body had taken most of the blast.
Wrapped around me, he didn’t move. I didn’t dare. The heat of his body mixed with the warmth of his blood. The only way I knew the difference was when a soaked area of the lightweight armor Helion had given me clung to my skin. Wet.
“Velik.”
“Mate.”
His beast whispered the word but disappeared right after as Velik transformed back into his normal self. By choice? Or because he was too weak to hold the form of his beast? I didn’t know.
Every breath he took rattled in his chest. The horrible wound in his torso had collapsed in on itself, so it was difficult to see any detail around his black armor. The injury was there. The blood was proof of that. And what I could see? His striking face and strong jaw? The lips that had kissed me, that I had kissed? Every single part of his head and neck was covered in dust-clotted gore.
He was beautiful. So strong. So gentle and protective and perfect.
And very much mine.
Even if I had to bring his beast back from the dead all over again, this beast was mine.
I lifted a hand and wiped the heavy gunk away from his eyes. His cheeks. His mouth. I cleared what I could. He was conscious, I knew by the arm he wrapped around me, holding me close.
I looked around his large body as much as I could. No one was here. I remembered them running and shooting at something on the ridge. Most of the team was gone, probably chasing the enemy—or whoever had been firing on them—to a place beyond where I could see them. Only one Prillon remained within shouting distance, the one who’d put his hand on my shoulder, been my shadow since we got on the shuttle to come down here. He must have remained behind as my guard.
I couldn’t drag Velik back to our shuttle, he was too heavy and it was too far. I wouldn’t dare, even if I could, afraid I would do the one wrong thing that would kill him.
I wrapped my arms around Velik’s head and held him as close as I could, cradled his cheek to my chest and hoped he would be comforted by the sound of my thundering heart. It was beating for him.
I held him. I loved him. I screamed for help.
19
Stefani, Battleship Zeus, Eight Days Later
* * *
I refused to leave his side. Not this time. If Helion or that other one, Mersan, walked toward Velik’s ReGen pod with anything in their hands, I demanded a full explanation before I let them near my mate. Details. What was it called? What was it for? Why did Velik need it?
No more experimental serum to kill Velik’s beast. No poison to erase his memory. He was nearly healed. I considered it a miracle he’d lived long enough to get back to the ship. I wasn’t taking a chance now.
