Seventeen
Kralj stood at the top of his wall and scowled at the sand dunes, expecting to see curly brown hair, a pointed chin, goofy-looking goggles concealing eyes as blue as the sky.
He wouldn’t spot her. His damn female was hunting another prey.
Without him.
Putting herself in danger, running into a trap, his impetuous fool.
When he’d returned to their chambers, had seen the empty sleeping support, he had known where she’d gone. His little assassin was chasing her last target, seeking vengeance on the male who’d hurt one of her friends, had likely ended the life of another.
Her sense of responsibility would demand she do that. Kralj understood that, understood her. But she might not survive that course of action
Although she was highly skilled, one of the best warriors he’d ever had the privilege to hunt with, she was merely one assassin, one agonizingly killable human.
She was outside his protection, outnumbered and alone. Her enemies could hurt her, end her life.
His beast snarled, raking his already hurting heart with its claws. His monstrous humanoid side pushed at its restraints. His shadow stretched across his entire territory, blocking the light, casting the settlement into a darkness Kralj felt to his soul.
He gripped the parapet, needing to hold onto something, anything. The stone crumbled under his fingers. Losing her would accomplish something the Humanoid Alliance, with all their solar cycles of torture, could never do.
It would break him.
He loved her. More than life. Kralj turned and gazed into the settlement, at the pathways, the rooftops, the residents. He loved her more than the Refuge. More than the rules he’d erected to protect beings, to protect himself.
He hadn’t ventured outside his terrain since he’d had the settlement built, had never left the residents undefended, hadn’t turned his back on the vow he’d given them.
Follow the rules and he’d safeguard them. That’s what he’d promised. They wouldn’t die within his walls.
If he chased Dita, he’d break that vow. The Refuge would be left unmonitored. The residents might take that as license to kill. Outsiders might attack.
At sunrise, a Humanoid Alliance Commander and five of his males had demanded entry. Kralj had refused that request. They hadn’t accepted his ruling and planned to take the settlement by force, their thoughts centered around vengeance.
That attack wouldn’t happen this planet rotation. More Humanoid Alliance exiles were scheduled to arrive. The Commander hoped to add them to his forces.
Bu that didn’t mean others wouldn’t take action.
Kralj no longer cared. Vows and honor and rules meant nothing without the female he loved, without his mate, the missing piece of himself.
He descended, moving at human speed toward the settlement’s ground level.
Orol. Kralj touched his second-in-command’s mind. I’m leaving the Refuge. You’re in charge.
What? The winged male’s thoughts raced. He never leaves the Refuge. This must have something to do with Dita. I haven’t seen her this planet rotation and—
It has everything to do with Dita. She requires my assistance. She would also receive a heavy hand applied to her backside. Kralj stomped toward the front gates. Don’t tell anyone I’m gone. I’ll be back as soon as possible.
Preferably he’d return before all of the residents killed each other.
He exited the gates. No one gets in or out. He gave that order to Balvan.
The great green gatekeeper nodded.
Kralj inhaled deeply, sucking in Dita’s distinctive scent. She’d exited that way also. He tracked her route around the rotting corpses. His intelligent female knew how to shake the gazes watching her. She easily disappeared into nothing.
The trail ended at the docking area. Kralj stopped following her there. He knew where Dita was heading and he didn’t require transportation.
He would arrive there faster on foot. Kralj ran, building momentum, his velocity inhumanly fast and then catapulted himself forward with the power of his mind.
His beast yelped with glee. Within the settlement, it had been restricted by domiciles and other obstacles. In the desert, there was nothing blocking it. His body was a blur moving in a straight line toward the beverage outlet, toward Dita.
Kralj smelled death before he saw it, the sticky sweet aroma of spilled blood flavoring the air. It excited his beast, enraged his monster, filled him with concern. He couldn’t sense Dita, couldn’t determine if she was hurt or worse. Her unique brain prevented that.
Only males were detected within his range. He froze them all, not allowing them to move, to possibly harm his female.
Slowing his speed, he sniffed the air, searching for her scent. He picked up a trace of it by a domicile. A male lay dead in the sand, his throat slit. That was his little assassin’s work.
He tracked her. She’d left a trail of corpses in her wake. That pleased his dark soul. She was strong, clever, fearless.
Kralj approached a group of males and his muscles pulled tight, flexing to the point of pain. The warriors were gathered in a circle, leaning forward, weapons in their hands, blades and clubs raised, about to strike.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. He knew who was at the center. Kralj rushed toward them, tossing the males to the left and to the right, frantic to find her.
She lay on her back, covered in blood, her beautiful face sliced, her eyes wide, her chest rising and falling. She breathed.
“Little one.” He dropped to his knees, bending over her, shaking with relief.
His little assassin lived.
Barely.
A dagger was lodged deep in her chest, exactly where her heart was. Crimson dripped from the corners of her mouth. Both of her legs were badly broken, the bones jutting through her skin, through her torn body covering.
The pain she must be enduring, the agony…
Kralj couldn’t contain his anguish. He tilted back his head and howled, raw, unfettered energy blasting from him, flattening everything within his territory. Sand swept away, a crater forming around them. Domiciles collapsed. The force pressed down on the nearby males, crunching spines, popping veins until all that was left of them were puddles of red.
It wasn’t enough, not nearly enough.
Dita, the female he loved, the female he’d failed to protect, stared up at him. She struggled to live, to breathe.
“Dita.” His voice cracked.
Her injuries didn’t stop his stubborn assassin from raising her hand. She placed her palm on his scarred cheek. “Love.” Her eyes glowed.
She loved him. Pain bombarded her yet she thought only of him, comforting him, caring for him. He didn’t deserve that, didn’t deserve her.
She stroked his skin. “Glad. Here.” She glanced down at the dagger. “Dying.”
“No, you’re not.” Kralj covered her lips with his, his kiss hard and silencing. “I won’t allow you to die. Not now. Not ever.”
The solution was inside him. His blood should seal her wounds, should give her his ability to heal quickly, completely.
It might also give her all of his powers. It could turn her into a monster like him, a being able to kill with a mere thought. She could be privy to everyone else’s musings.
He swore he’d never bring another being like him into the universe.
But that was before he’d met Dita, his daring, stunning, loving assassin. He loved her, would break all of his rules to save her life.
Kralj pushed back the sleeve of his coat, raised his wrist to his mouth and tore into his flesh with his fangs. Agony radiated from the wound. Blood gushed.
He pressed his wrist to Dita’s lips. “Drink.”
Her gaze flicked upward. There were questions in her eyes.
She might have doubts but he didn’t. “Do it.” He shook her.
Dita fastened her lips over his self-inflicted wound and sucked, tugging at his flesh. The pain was exquisite, her mouth on him thrilling.
She gagged, her chest heaving. His little assassin didn’t have his thirst for blood.
“Swallow, little one.” Kralj rubbed her throat with his free hand. “Force it down. Do this for me.” He wouldn’t survive without her.
Dita complied, her beautiful face dark with determination.
A heartbeat later, she convulsed, her spine bowing. Her body was trying to fight the primitive blood transfusion. He stroked her neck, murmuring comforting words while his fearless female sucked on his wrist.
Her weakened form couldn’t defend itself against the invasion. The tremors eased. The cuts on her face healed. Dita’s eyes lost the sheen of impending death. She grew stronger. Her legs straightened, the nanohumanics in his blood setting her broken bones.
As she drank from him, Kralj laved her face, neck, and other exposed skin with his tongue, cleaning her, savoring her taste, speeding her recovery even more. She was his to care for and he vowed to do a better job of that in the future. No one would ever harm her again.
Kralj grew lightheaded from the blood loss. “You’ve had enough.” He pulled his wrist away from her. She resisted, was no match for his strength. He licked the wound closed and then swiped his tongue over her lips, tasting himself.
“I love you.” Her voice was husky. “I loved you from the first moment we met but I didn’t recognize the emotion. I’ve never felt it for anyone else.”
“I’ve never felt that emotion for anyone else either.” Kralj confessed. He petted her hair, reassuring himself that she lived. He hadn’t lost her. “Did I change you?”
Had he cursed her, caused her to become a monster like him? He probed with his mind. The connection between them had tightened but he still couldn’t penetrate the barrier around her brain, couldn’t read her thoughts, couldn’t determine if she’d gained deadly new powers.
“Yes, you’ve changed me.” Dita’s words were barely audible yet he felt them deep down in his heart.
He’d changed her, made her like him. “I’m sorry.” He bent over her, pressed his lips to her forehead. “I didn’t want to convey my powers to you but I had to save you. I had—”
“I don’t have your powers.” She placed her fingers over his mouth, stopping his apology. “I feel unusually strong. I’m healing quickly.” She touched a gash on her chin. “You’ve changed me in many other ways also. But I can’t read thoughts. I can’t control beings or objects or the air around us, not like you can.”
“Have you tried?” He had to be sure.
Dita’s lips flattened into a thin white line. Her forehead furrowed. She looked adorably intense.
Nothing happened. Not one grain of sand moved.
“Nope. I have no new powers.” She relaxed once more. “They would have come in handy earlier. I killed my target easily, too easily. Todt-933 was dead within moments.” Her lips twisted. “But I couldn’t kill all of his warriors. There were too many of them. I needed help.” Her gaze met his. “I needed you.”
She needed him. Kralj’s chest warmed. “Todt-933 had set a trap for you.” He’d been correct about that.
“He baited that trap with my friend.” A tear trickled down her right cheek, his female’s grief making his soul ache. “When I arrived, Sari had been dead for a long time.”
Kralj had suspected that.
“I failed her.” Dita’s gaze lowered. “If I had—”
“You can’t change the past, little one.” He told her the same thing she’d once told him. “You almost didn’t survive that lesson.” Kralj touched the hilt of the dagger in her chest. “Next time, you’ll listen to me.”
Dita blinked once, twice, her long dark eyelashes fluttering. “I always listen to you.”
“Next time, you’ll obey me,” he amended.
“Will there be a next time?” She curled her fingers over his, both of them holding the dagger’s hilt. “I can’t walk around with a blade in my heart.”
“We have to remove it.” He dreaded causing his female more pain but this had to be done. “You should heal instantly.”
Logic told him that should happen. His nanohumanics had healed the rest of her. The blood transfusion should allow them to live inside her forever, replicating, growing stronger.
But that was a guess. Kralj had never fed another being his blood. He didn’t know what would occur.
His uncertainty must have shown in his eyes.
“If I don’t heal, don’t blame yourself.” Dita’s voice was soft with understanding. “You did your best, gave me more moments of living, another chance to see your handsome face, to hear your voice, to touch you. When I was fighting, I only had one regret—that I had never told you I loved you. You gave me that gift.”
“You won’t die.” He’d pour the last drop of his blood into her, drain himself dry before he allowed that to happen.
“Kralj—”
“You will survive this.” He tightened his grip on the dagger’s hilt. “Look at me, little one.”
Her gaze locked with his.
He pulled. A thousand points of light exploded in Dita’s blue eyes. Her spine straightened. Her scream bounced off the walls of the crater, the sound tearing him emotionally to strips.
“It’s done.” Kralj licked her blood off the blade. The taste of her coated his tongue. He flung the dagger away from him, drew her onto his lap, and wrapped his body around hers, trying to give her his strength. “You’re all right.” He said that for her and for himself.
Dita clutched his arms, her tiny form shuddering, her breathing ragged, painful to hear yet also reassuring. His little female lived. She had survived her solo adventure.
It would be her last one. He would never let her out of his sight again. Where she went, he went. She was too valuable to him, too much his.
Kralj held her while she healed. Dita maintained his gaze, never looking away. It was as though she drew power from her connection with him.
“Let’s not do that again.” Her voice was hoarse. “I can think of much more pleasurable ways to pass the time.”
Only his female would joke about almost dying.
“No one will ever harm you again.” Kralj no longer regretted having his powers. He’d need all of them to protect his reckless female.
“Ahhh…” Her eyes sparkled. “That must mean I’m not being reprimanded for this.”
“No one other than me will ever harm you.” He forced himself to be stern. “You’re being reprimanded. Harshly. When we return home, I’m applying my right hand to your backside. You won’t be able to sit down for ten planet rotations.”
“Oh.” Her sigh contained more contentment than distress. “We have to retrieve the battle-axe you gave me first. I left it in a bearded male’s gut.”
“I’ll have a new battle-axe crafted for you.” He’d replace all of her weapons. His little assassin would have the best of everything.
“There’s no rush to replace it.” Dita’s lips quirked upward. “I never thought I’d say this but I’ve killed enough beings for one planet rotation.”
He had killed enough beings also. Kralj’s gaze drifted to the pools of darkness next to them. They were all that was left of the males who’d attacked her. “I saw some of your handiwork. My beast was pleased.”
“Your beast would have enjoyed itself.” Her grin stretched from ear to ear. “I had fun…up to a point.” Her smile dimmed. “I would have had more fun if you’d been by my side.” She wiggled. “I like hunting with you.”
He liked hunting with her also. Kralj reclined on the sand. He turned her to face him, layering her body over his.
She sighed with happiness, parted his coat and snuggled against his bare chest, her breath caressing his skin. He stroked her curls, her back.
There were rips in the back of her body covering, those wounds thankfully healed. She’d been beaten and battered yet she hadn’t lost her resilience, her sense of humor.
“I don’t merely care for you, little one.” He told her softly. “I love you. More than my rules, more than the Refuge, more than anything in this universe.”
“You left the Refuge.” She lifted her head, her eyes widening. “You never leave it.”
“For you, I would always leave it.” He played with one of her curls, pulling on it, watching it spring back in place. “We can rebuild the settlement. There’s no replacing you.”
“That’s because I’m unique. I’m not a normal female.” Judging by her happy expression, that no longer bothered her.
“Nothing about you is normal.” He drifted one of his fingers over her upturned nose. “That includes the love I feel for you. There will never be a male who loves his female as much as I love you. My power is yours to wield. My monstrous heart and my beastly soul belong to you.”
“I adore your monstrous heart and your beastly soul.” Dita nipped at his fingertip. “I love all of you, the good, the deadly, the civilized, the savage.”
Kralj’s beast purred with happiness, rolling over on its back. Her words were an emotional belly rub, taming the primitive parts of him.
Dita’s inner musings, however, must have been less peaceful. Her head tilted to the right.
Kralj silently groaned. She often did that before suggesting a reckless, certain-to-be-deadly course of action.
She’d involve him in that wild plan because he wasn’t leaving her side. That was the price of loving her, a fee he’d happily pay over and over again.
“You said we could rebuild the settlement.” She frowned. “Will we have to do that?”
“It’s a possibility.” Kralj shrugged, trying not to think about that. “The Refuge is outside my range.” He couldn’t monitor it from here. It could be serene or in chaos. “I don’t know its state.”
“And that bothers you.” Her eyes gleamed.
He said nothing because it did bother him.
She kissed his chest. “Let’s go home, handsome.”
Home. He had a home and a mate who loved him. Kralj leapt to his feet, taking his little assassin with him.
He was the luckiest monster alive.