The crash came through the kitchen window like thunder.
Goraath’s hand froze on the pot handle, morning porridge bubbling forgotten on the stove. That wasn’t just the krulaati moving. That was?—
Juni’s scream cut through the morning air.
He was already moving before his brain caught up, the pot clattering across the stove as he slammed through the back door. The screen banged against the wall hard enough to crack the frame. He didn’t care.
The sight that met him turned his blood to ice.
She was down. In the dirt, maybe thirty yards from the fence in the krulaati pen. And the herd was coming straight for her.
Everything else disappeared. The house behind him, the fields stretching golden in the morning sun, the dust already rising like smoke. All he could see was her small form trying to scramble backward. Trying to get up. Failing.
And thirty tons of panicked muscle bearing down on her.
The distance between them might as well have been miles. Time stretched and compressed at the same time… he saw every detail with crystal clarity. The lead bull’s eyes rolling white with panic. Juni’s face, pale under the dirt, eyes wide. The way her movements were jerky, desperate.
She was going to die right in front of him.
No.
His body remembered things his mind had tried to forget. The sprint that ate distance like it was nothing. The way muscles could move when death was on the line, when failure meant losing everything. His legs pumped, driving him forward faster than he’d moved in years. The peaceful farmer he’d tried to become fell away like old paint, revealing what had always been underneath.
The war cry that erupted from his throat wasn’t planned. It was nothing like the careful farmer’s call he’d practiced, the gentle sounds meant to soothe and guide.
This was older. Darker. Something that had once made grown males piss themselves on battlefields, that had announced death’s arrival to anyone stupid enough to stand against him.
The lead krulaati’s head snapped toward him, its charge faltering. Good. See me, you draanthic. See the bigger threat.
He spread his arms wide, making himself massive and impossible to ignore. Another cry, this one deeper, more threatening.
The lead beast veered, just enough. Its massive shoulder caught the second animal, starting a chain reaction. But the herd was too tightly packed and too panicked to all change course.
Three of them were still heading straight for her.
The math was simple and brutal. He had maybe two seconds. Not enough time to pull her clear. Not enough time to get them both out of the path.
But just enough time to be a shield.
He hit the ground in a slide that would’ve impressed his old unit commander, if the draanthic had still been alive to see it. Rocks tore through his work pants, skin scraping away in long burns he’d feel later. If there was a later. His momentum carried him the last few feet, and he curved his body over hers without thought, arms braced on either side of her head, making himself into a living cage.
“Don’t move, kelarris.” The words were a growl against her ear. “Do not move.”
The first hoof glanced off his shoulder. White-hot pain shot down his arm, made his fingers go numb for a second before he locked the joint.
Hold. He had to hold.
Another caught his lower back, just above his hip. The impact drove the air from his lungs, and sent fire racing up his spine. He gritted his teeth, kept his body curved over hers. A third struck his calf, a glancing blow that would leave a bruise the size of a dinner plate.
The thunder of their passing shook the ground beneath them. Dust filled the air, thick and choking. The stench of terrified animals, musk and trall and fear, was overwhelming. Each heartbeat lasted forever, each second stretching into eternity as tons of muscle and bone thundered past inches from them.
Juni trembled beneath him. He felt everything… her rapid breathing, the racing of her pulse where his wrist pressed near her throat, and the warmth of her body against his chest. Smelled her under the dust and fear… that sweet human scent that had been driving him slowly insane since she’d walked through his door.
The herd passed. The thunder faded to distant drumming, then to silence except for their breathing.
He stayed where he was for three more heartbeats. Four. Making sure. Then he pulled back just enough to see her face.
Dust coated her skin, tracks through it where tears had fallen and there was blood on her bottom lip where she’d bitten it. Her eyes were huge, pupils blown wide with shock, staring up at him.
