I preferred to time my ambush perfectly to minimize risks, but this time I leaped before I knew all the facts. It didn’t matter, he was about to squeeze the life out of Jolene. I had to act now. Coiling my tail, I jumped, knife at the ready. With my arm catching him by the neck, I hauled myself up and then sank my blade deep into his tiny, beady black eye. He twitched, his hands releasing Jolene so she tumbled to the floor. I drew in a relieved breath and started to pull back, certain that was a fatal blow.
Maybe it was, eventually. Unless his brain wasn’t where I expected it to be, but he wasn’t immediately out, like I expected. There was no slide to the floor, no thudding to his knees. He remained upright, even as Jolene scrambled away and I twisted my knife free and began to back off. His hammer had already disappeared in the fight with the hairybeast, but, as it turned out, that did not mean he was unarmed.
Lowering his bleeding head, he roared at me, and I raised my knife just as he ducked his head and charged. I would have dodged him had I had both eyes—I knew it—but my depth perception was skewed, and I was just a fraction too late. His horns raked me across the side, leaving a fiery pain in their wake. As he passed, he began to tumble, crashing with a thud to the ground, a deep knife wound visible along his flank, and the red-and-black hunter’s tail dripping with blood as it withdrew.
Gasping for breath, having had it knocked clear out of me, I reached for Jolene and hauled her into my arms. I might be injured, but I knew it wasn’t badly; it was more important to know how she was. “Are you hurt?” I demanded, my sigils glowing bright gold all over my body as I curled myself protectively around her. Blood was getting on her fur outer clothing now, but she didn’t care, throwing her arms around my neck and clinging.
“That was terrifying, Khawla! Are you hurt? Oh, shit, that’s a lot of blood,” she said. Her hands fussed over me, pushing against my shoulders, trying to slide along my side to press against the gouge in my scales. I wasn’t helping, my arms locking tight around her to hug her close. My whole body was trembling, and I didn’t understand why. I’d never had that kind of reaction after a fight before. I was always the cool, levelheaded one.
“I almost lost you,” I said to Jolene. “I can’t lose you.” The fear that she’d slip from my grasp and die was never going to leave me. My mind could conjure up far too many scenarios in which that happened, including a dozen situations that might have occurred seconds ago, minutes ago, when we entered this hold and risked our lives. No, never again. I wasn’t letting her go.
“But you didn’t,” Jolene soothed, her tone distracted as she pressed harder with her small hands against my wound. “Now let me take care of this before you bleed out and I’m the one losingyou. I can’t let that happen, Khawla. I love you.” She wriggled in my grip, but I still couldn’t manage to untangle my arms from around her. Even my tail had begun to coil and wind around her legs. Then her words began to sink in, and I struggled to wrap my head around them. She said love. Like that was something meaningful she was supposed to say, to declare it as if she were saying she was my mate. I’d never heard any mated pair say they loved one another, and yet…
It felt right. That big feeling in my chest, it wasn’t entirely unlike how I’d felt when I’d first held tiny baby Rasho in my arms, or when Kusha had birthed Daois or Nisha and I’d first laid eyes on them. Huge, encompassing, devastating, and perfect. Yeah, maybe thatwasthe feeling males had for their mate too, but it was always so complicated… Not with Jolene, though. Even the complicated parts were amazing.
“Let her go, Naga,” a male voice rumbled, deep, layered. The words were perfectly recognizable, though the voice was not. “You are bleeding profusely. That needs a bandage or two,” he said in the dry tone of a warrior used to seeing the gorier side of things—not alarmed, just matter-of-fact. Still reeling from the emotional revelations, I was barely aware of my wound. A strange male voice was enough to put me on the alert.
I flicked my eyes from Jolene’s worried face to look over her shoulder at the red-and-black hunter standing behind her. He had wiped the blade on his tail clean and was sheathing another knife in a holster strapped around his upper leg, his tail flicking back and forth calmly and his eyes on my face. He’d spoken the same language Jolene spoke, and since we were mated, that meant I understood him.
“Listen to Thor, okay?” my mate said. “Let me look at the wound. And then we need to check on your friends.” She did not appear harmed, I could finally see that, take in that information. There was redness about her pale throat, butnothing that indicated serious harm. So I slowly released her, just a little, though not all the way. She was quickly pulling bandages from the bag at her hip, then pressing them tightly onto the scratch along my side. The bleeding was already slowing, and it was the bruised ribs, rather than the wound, that ached. It was barely a scratch at all.
“Go back to what you said,” I muttered. My eye flicked around the room to take in the situation at a glance. Jasmine and the rescued humans were in a huddle together, watching avidly what was going on. The hairy beast crouched in front of them, in what was clearly a protective posture, blood streaking from his fanged mouth. Felish was still out cold on the floor, but Akrash had risen from wherever he’d been, blood dribbling from several gashes along his chest. He was next to the downed former Copper Tooth male, checking his pulse just like I’d done not long ago. All was calm, but it didn’tfeelcalm yet.
“Tell me what you mean when you say you love me, Jolene. Naga don’t say this,” I added, focused on her now. Her hands were fast as she wound fabric about my waist, tight enough to support my aching ribs. That was clever, she’d already figured out what really ailed me. I wanted her to repeat it, say it again so I could analyze what those words evoked in me. I craved it the way I craved kissing her.
“I love you, Khawla. I thought I wouldn’t get a chance to say that to you once that big lunkhead got his meaty paws on me… I love you. I’m really glad you’re my mate.” Ah, my chest filled with all those big, intense things I felt for her, warmth, caring, lust, and pride. Yeah, love was a good word for all that. I loved my younglings. I loved my mate, my Jolene.
Ducking just a little, even though it made my chest ache, I pressed our foreheads together tightly. Then I flicked my tongue against her lips and kissed her deeply. When I drew back, I made sure she was gazing into my one good eye before I said, “I love you, Jolene.”
Chapter 23
Jolene
Khawla had a very hard time letting go of me after that fight. Since I’d nearly been a goner—my throat throbbing painfully where that big alien had gripped me—I had a hard time myself. In his arms, I felt safe, but I had a responsibility to my girls: to reassure them, get them out, and bring them to safety. I was also the most suited person to take care of the injured, including Eva and a still-unconscious purple Naga male.
So, even though I wanted to bask a little longer in my loving mate’s big, brawny arms, I had to move. Love. I couldn’t believe that had finally happened to me, but now I couldn’t imagine life without it, without him. It was all going to be a giant adventure: the next few weeks, months, probably years. There was so much still to figure out, but with my Naga scout at my side, I knew it was going to turn out just fine.
Jasmine was grinning at me, smirking and winking when she caught my eye. I found myself blushing, which was so out of character that it caught me by surprise. I’d never been the girl with the boyfriend, but now I was—and it felt good. The other ladies were a bit more reticent, staring with wide eyes at me and Khawla or at the bodies strewn about the entrance area to the hold. The Krektar always stank to high heaven, but dead, they were even worse.
I didn’t like it, and Khawla didn’t either, but we had to get back into action. I had more girls to wake, and I definitely needed to check the wounds of the two Naga hunters who had come with us. I found a compromise by looping Khawla’s tail around my waist with a meaningful look. He still hovered behind my back as I got to work, and that was okay. I liked having him there.
The Hunter with green scales was up, but a little bruised and scratched. He acted cool when I quickly bandaged him up, but I saw his tail shiver along the floor at the tip. The other one had woken up, groggy and a little confused; he needed more help than I could give him, but his buddy from Haven could prop him up and help him outside when we were ready to go. I wanted to check on the Dragnell too, but he told me he needed no help in a rough growl. That made Khawla growl back, and the wolfish alien smirked as if that pleased him. “Tell your mate I have no beef with him,” he said, bushy tail gently swaying behind him. “Are you waking more than just the girls?”
I paused, wondering if leaving the men asleep would be good or bad in his book, and whether I could risk angering him at this point. I knew he’d taken a few good blows from the big rhino guy, but he seemed sharp and able now, while Khawla and the other two Naga were both wounded. When it came down to it, I really didn’t know where Thor’s loyalty would lie, either.
Hewas, however, the one with the ready answer. Having stood nearby and clearly listening in, the large, strange alienspoke in his heavily accented UAR. “That would not be prudent at this time, would it? Too many mouths to feed in winter, and an unpredictable element at that. Get the females to safety first.” I eyed him, but he was watching how Jasmine was waking the last of my girls while Jessie was quickly bringing them up to speed.
We couldn’t linger much longer, so as soon as I’d wrapped the last bandage and Jasmine had woken the last girl we knew about, we headed for the exit. Thor had yet to explain whose side he was on, but it seemed, for now, everyone was taking his presence in stride. Khawla was keeping a very sharp eye on both him and the Dragnell. They went out first, unarmed except for their knives and fists, then crouched protectively beneath the hull of the ship as the rest of us crawled outside.
I was instantly reminded how incredibly cold it was; everyone was shaking, huddled together for warmth, and rapidly losing all heat. We needed to get them to our landing site and to the supplies that had been left there. Warm furs, spare clothes; my girls would not survive without them. Jasmine, despite the cold, stayed on the outskirts of our group with her bow at the ready. I did the same with my sling, we were dressed warmly and had an unfair advantage.
With Khawla and the two aliens at the front, we reached the edge of the ship’s hulking form above us. It was then that I got a good look at the battlefield outside, where Thunder Rock Naga, Krektar, and Haven Hunters had clashed. Snow had melted in furrows; bodies were strewn left and right, some Naga, most Krektar. They were still fighting, but it was a last, dying struggle, with only a few remaining Krektar. From the looks of it, the Thunder Rock group had either fled or fallen. When I noticed that, my eyes immediately went to the ridge where I’d seen the Queen overlooking the fight before. She was gone.
Zathar rose above the last dying Krektar with a bloodthirsty look, a pair of swords made of gleaming blackstone in his hands. Then he saw our group emerge, and his expression tempered. “Khawla! You made it! That way!” He pointed with a sword, and I spotted the dragon guarding a makeshift camp in the shadow of the ship. Even more interesting, a small, shuttle-like craft had landed there, and Artek was offering triage to wounded warriors.
It was still difficult to cross the deep snow to the temporary camp, and the sight of the dragon terrified my herd of rescues. “He’s tame,” I assured them. “I even flew on his back! He’s like a big puppy, I swear. There will be heat and warm clothes!” Jasmine concurred loudly, saying she’d had ample time to get to know the beast the past three months. That got them moving, but not Thor. He stood by the side of the ship and stared at the now-quiet battlefield.
Zathar was directing his hunters to carry the wounded to Artek, but it wasn’t long before a small group also split off to point their spears at Thor and the Dragnell. I thought perhaps the wolfish UAR alien would protest, call me a traitor—something to indicate he disliked this treatment—but to my surprise, he went quietly. Thor too… I couldn’t figure him out for the life of me, and I didn’t try.
