Fresh mud and muck drip from my body as I stand before the Dydrak warriors holding two sharpened daggers, compliments of the Dydrak weapons room. Kayne and I climbed through that hole just in time. The sight of them manhandling Willow and Bear fills me with rage. It only increases when the warrior laughs at my request.

“Stand down,” he says. “You are easily outnumbered.”

His laugh spreads and suddenly all of the warriors are laughing.

“Easy brother,” Kayne says. “Unless you’re ready to start something much bigger than this.” He nods toward the warriors in front of us. They’re armed and ready to fight but Kayne is right. The moment I engage them, diplomacy between us is lost.

“They started it when they threw us in their dungeon and touched my mate.”

I lash out with my daggers at the two warriors closest to me. Kayne moves at the same time, body slamming a warrior to throw himself into the mix. I slash and cut quickly trying to get to the warrior that is holding Willow. He sees me coming and tosses her to the side, pulling his weapon and meeting my blades. I knock him off balance and drive the blades into his sides, through the weakest point of their armor. Before he falls I’ve already moved on to the next. I think of Willow lying on the ground so close to the fight and I’m eager to finish it. The warrior inside of me takes over and I take down the next two guards in my way with a few quick jabs of my daggers.

Once the Dydrak guards around me have fallen, I turn to see who’s next. Instead, I find Kayne standing in the middle of a circle of fallen Dydraks, mud smeared all over his body but a satisfied grin on his face.

“Clearly, they are out of practice,” he says.

I’m already moving toward Willow. She’s sitting on the ground, her body curled up to protect herself.

“Willow, are you alright?” I ask, putting my hands on her.

She lifts her head and looks around at all of the fallen Dydrak warriors around us. Instead of answering me, she says, “You’re still here?”

“Of course,” I say. “Kayne and I found ourselves locked down in the dungeon but we managed to find a way out.”

“Jot’ohz told me I was his property now. I thought you sold me.”

Her words cut through me sharper than the knives I was just wielding. I want to exact my revenge for his lies and deception.

“I would never,” I say, shocked that she could believe such a thing. “You are mine and we will leave here together.”

She continues to look at me and a smile takes form over her features. “You’re filthy,” she says.

I laugh.

“We just crawled through a tunnel of mud to get free from the dungeon.”

“You have great timing,” she says.

Suddenly her eyes grow wide and she says, “Bear!” She quickly gets to her feet and races over to where Bear is still chained to one of the warriors. She grabs the straps on the top of Bear’s head and quickly removes them. Bear does a full body shake once all of the straps and chains are removed. “Are you okay, girl?” she asks.

Bear makes a simple grumble, but somehow it sounds happy.

I’m surprised when she walks over to me and begins licking my arm. She has always been very fond of Willow but I thought she just tolerated me.

“Oh look,” Willow says. “She’s cleaning you. Like you’re her baby.”

We look at each other and smile. I pull her into my arms, not caring that I’m full of mud and filth. I just need to feel her safe and close to me.

“Okay, you two,” Kayne says from behind us. “Are we going to go finish what we started?”

Clearly he’s right. It won’t be long before more warriors discover us and see what has happened. We’ve started something that can’t be stopped.

“How long until our backup arrives?” I ask.

“We’ll need a report from the ship,” Kayne says.

“Let’s go get the rest of our men and confiscate the weapons before they have a chance to use them.”

“I like that plan,” Kayne says, slugging me on the shoulder.

I take Willow’s hand in mine and lead her toward the Nightfall.

“It will be safest if you stay here,” I tell Willow. The entire Force has assembled outside of the main gates leading into the castle, ready to proceed with the mission of confiscating the illegal weapons the Dydrak are manufacturing.

“I don’t want to stay here by myself,” she says. Bear makes a disgruntled sound from her side. “I want to stay with you,” she corrects. Her comment makes my heart soar. Such sweet words to hear that she wishes to be with me.

“Our plan is to recover the weapons without incident. But I can’t promise that will happen. If they fight, I need to know you’ll be safe.”

She looks down and crosses her arms over her body. I pull them apart and bring her into my chest, holding her close. “This will all be over soon. Then we will board the Nightfall and leave this place.”

She looks into my eyes and I can’t resist pressing my lips against hers, tasting her once again before I need to leave her one more time.

The last time I leave her, I tell myself.

“Be safe,” she says when I reluctantly pull away.

“Always,” I say, before turning and walking toward the rest of the men.

I reach the others who are quietly waiting in the shadows. The darkness works to our advantage, covering the signs of a massive force gathering.

“Ready,” Kayne says in my ear when I find him.

“Everyone is clear on their orders?” I ask.

Kayne nods.

“Then let’s not wait any longer.”

I move forward and push the doors open. As soon as I’m inside the rest of the team files in quickly behind me. We spread out to both sides once we’re inside, surrounding the Dydrak as they eat their dinner in the banquet hall. We armed ourselves with our weapons from aboard the Nightfall, choosing guns over our swords, a much quicker way to disarm and take down the enemy.

As soon as we begin flooding into the room, the Dydrak stand and arm themselves when they see we have come with our weapons.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” I say once we have them surrounded. “All we want are the weapons. Then we’ll be on our way.”

“How dare you,” Jot’ohz says. “You take advantage of our hospitality. You are involved in things that are not your business.”

“Illegal weapons are our business, Jot’ohz. You know it as well as anyone. The real question is why you find the need to develop this new weapon when you have no enemies.”

“There are always enemies, you fool. You are proving that to us now.”

“Tell your warriors to put down their weapons, Jot’ohz, or we will make them.”

He glances around the room, disgust written clearly on his face. Or just disappointment because he knows he is beaten. With a subtle nod to his men, they put their weapons down.

“Show us to your production facility,” Kayne says. “I’m sure there’s another way to get there besides the hole in the floor of your room.”

Jot’ohz signals to some of his men. They step forward and walk toward the hallway. I follow with a group of Force members. The rest of them stay with Kayne to keep watch over the other Dydrak warriors.

We follow the Dydrak through the corridors, winding deeper down into the bowels of the castle. Our weapons remain trained on the warriors and I hope this is going to be a quick and painless process. I want to finish this job and return to Willow.

There is another way to get to their weapons room. We approach it from a different way and there is a large gate that needs to be opened. The Dydrak hesitate and I begin to lose my patience.

“Open it,” I say, eager to get inside. Our best-case scenario is to catch them off guard and hope the weapons aren’t already operational.

One of the Dydrak steps forward and turns a locks, followed by an audible click that can be heard echoing through the hallway. He turns a few more locks and then proceeds to push open the door. It opens with a loud creak and groan, the wood of the door already beginning to warp from the continual dampness found underground this far.

We walk inside and there’s a surprised gasp from some of the Force members. I look around, seeing things from the ground floor this time. It truly is an impressive operation. Dangerous and reckless … but impressive nonetheless. The space looks even larger from this angle. Huge wires hang from the massive ceiling, transporting large parts of the weapons. We haven’t had a chance to really look things over to see what they have, but it’s clear there’s one really large missile being built in the middle of the room.

“Stop what you are doing and walk to the door,” I say, stepping into the room and addressing the workers. They stand still at first, confused by what is happening. I look toward the Dydrak and incline my head, waiting for them to follow through on the orders.

“You heard him,” he says, “stop what you’re doing and walk this way.”

Once they’ve heard it from the guard, the workers slowly begin walking toward the door, confused looks on their faces. Two team members escort them back to the hall with the rest of the Dydrak. Those of us who remain begin confiscating the weapons in order to carry them in loads back to the Nightfall.

“I know just the place for the rest of you while we’re doing this,” I say to the warriors. I direct them to walk the short way to the dungeon. We lock the remaining warriors inside so we can do our job without worrying about what they’ll do next. We’re careful to avoid the cell that Kayne and I occupied.

“You can’t just leave us in here,” one of the warriors says when I turn around to leave.

“Don’t worry. Once we’re finished here you will be free again … eventually.”

When we return to the weapons room, my crew is already well on their way to organizing and transporting the weapons. I pick up a load and follow some of the other members down the hallway, back towards the ship.

Not much time has passed when we get back to the banquet hall but I’m not prepared for the scene that greets me. The first thing I see is Willow, standing in the middle of the room. I’m confused until I see Jot’ohz step out from behind her and place his knife to her throat.