Chapter Seventeen
There was only one thing more unnerving than going into battle alone.
That was to enter a fight with his precious female by his side.
Dare’s Drache snarled and slashed his insides, unhappy with the situation. Its sole focus was to safeguard its mate. It didn’t care about honor or responsibility or missions.
“The other mates are staying in the Refuge.” He ignored his beast as he checked Faylee’s guns for the third time, gazing down their barrels, ensuring they were set to kill.
The wall of vibrating sand before them concealed his voice from the enemy. The Humanoid Alliance wouldn’t know of their presence
“Dita is guarding the settlement with Kralj.” His mate peered up at him, her form tiny compared to his. “Azalea hasn’t left the Refuge since she was attacked. Rhea is distracting the triplets.” The winged babies wanted to follow their father. “Elyce is caring for the girls. Paloma is…”
He lifted his eyebrows.
Faylee pressed her lips together. “Paloma is scarily incompetent with a gun. Do not tell her I said that.” She held up one of her index fingers. “But it’s the unfortunate truth.”
It was the unfortunate truth. The girl was more likely to shoot herself than the enemy. “We have enough warriors.”
He had been stunned by the willingness of the males and females to follow him into battle. No one had questioned his abilities. Many of the modified humanoids, beings genetically designed for war, had voiced their agreement with Kralj’s decision, declaring him the right being to lead the dangerous mission.
He’d fought with those warriors for mere solar cycles and they trusted him with their lives. He’d spent his entire lifespan trying to prove his worth to his fellow Dracheons yet his kind shunned him.
Dare slid his mate’s guns back into her holsters. He wouldn’t subject her to that type of judgment. His decision about their future was made.
That left the present to be negotiated. “You don’t have to fight.”
“Vicuska is our friend. We have to help her.” Faylee covered his hands with hers. “And where you are, I am. We’re a team.”
They were a team. He wouldn’t have agreed to leave her side if their positions were reversed. He shouldn’t expect her to behave differently. “You’ll stay behind me at all times.”
“I’ll have your back.” Her beautiful face was adorably solemn.
His mate sought to protect him and he sought to protect her.
She’d be tucked between him and Balvan. He looked over her head, nodded to his friend. The huge green warrior had already agreed to guard her.
Warriors, take position. Kralj was coordinating the assault while they were in his terrain.
“Fight with honor, mate.” He softened the formality of the traditional Dracheon saying with a kiss, capturing her lips, surging into her mouth.
She moaned and clung to him. He delved deeper, striving to convey everything he felt for her, relaying a devotion without limits, a fire that could never be extinguished, a caring that exceeded any word in existence.
The human concept of love wasn’t sufficient to describe his feelings. His little thief had stolen his heart and his soul, had meshed the two parts of him, his Drache and his humanoid side, together, making him more than whole. He was stronger, wiser, better with her.
Without her…he couldn’t contemplate what he’d be.
“You will not do anything foolish.” He echoed the words she’d told Vicuska.
“I prefer to think of it as heroic.” Faylee smiled. “Fight with honor, mate.”
For once in his lifespan, honor was a secondary concern for Dare. He gazed at her, imprinting her face in his mind and on his heart. She was the first.
His beast screeched in protest as he turned around. Sensing danger, it didn’t want to take its gaze off his female.
He had to look away from her. The threat was in front of them. He clenched his jaw and approached the wall of sand separating Kralj’s terrain from the rest of Carinae E.
Ships hovered overhead. Orol’s shuttle craft was situated in the middle of the fleet.
He drew his guns, looked to his right. Oghul, Hulagu’s brother, grinned at him. The Chamele had weapons in both of his hands. His warriors surrounded him.
Dare looked to his left. Libor, a genetically enhanced Silan, hefted his huge missile launcher onto his ridged right shoulder. Other modified humanoids braced for battle.
He couldn’t resist glancing behind him once more. His mate held her guns, her lips set in a flat white line, her expression determined.
They were ready.
Dare faced the enemy. According to Kralj’s sources, the commander was positioned on the other side of the wall of sand. The male was his target. Humanoid Alliance troops tended to fall apart without their leaders. He—
“I love you, Dare.”
Faylee’s words were barely audible yet they struck him to the core. She loved him. His knees weakened, threatening to collapse under him. The beautiful creature behind him had given him her heart.
“Mate?” He looked over his shoulder, part of him unable to believe that was true.
“Oh, Dare.” Her eyes shone with caring. “I have—”
Focus, warrior. Kralj blasted his love-numbed brain.
“We’ll talk about this later.” He had to concentrate on the fight. Dare tightened his grip on his guns. He had a mate to protect.
A mate who loved him.
Attack. Kralj gave the command.
The wall of sand lowered. Missiles launched from the ships above Dare’s head. He ran, shooting before he saw targets.
Their line of warriors, solid and deadly, advanced quickly. The Humanoid Alliance was caught by surprise, their hands empty of weapons, some of their backs turned toward them. Dare shot one male between his widening eyes, downed another as he turned.
He spotted gray hair in the melee. The commander was slowly, steadily navigating through the confusion, heading toward a parked ship.
The bastard, as Faylee called him, sought to escape.
Dare would stop him. A projectile caught him in the shoulder, the pain bone deep. One of his scales fell to the sand.
He winced, returned fire. The enemy didn’t have his all-over natural armor. The human’s head was exposed and Dare’s placement was perfect.
The male fell, his arms and legs twitching. A pool of red expanded on the white sand.
Dare forged forward, killing all hostile beings between him and his target. As he moved, he kicked the corpses and other wreckage to the side, clearing a path for his shorter mate to follow. He was acutely conscious she was behind him.
There were too many enemy warriors guarding the commander. Another projectile hit Dare in the chest, the punch bruising his flesh, causing him agony, slowing him. He wouldn’t intercept his target in time. The male would—
A missile hit the ship the commander sought to reach. A wave of heat, sand, and debris blasted them. His target dropped to the ground.
Dare spun around and pulled his female into his arms. He folded his large physique over her much smaller form, seeking to protect her.
His body absorbed the full force of the explosion. Shrapnel pounded him, the pain excruciating. A large piece of ship bounced off his back, shaking him. It took all of his strength to remain standing.
Then it was over. A calm fell upon the site, the stillness bizarre after the previous chaos.
His entire form screamed in anguish, pulverized by the explosion. “Faylee?” He looked down at her, his mate being his only concern.
“I’m alive.” She splayed her fingers over his chest, her touch reassuring him. “But I dropped my guns and now they’re gone.”
His weapons had been shredded to strips. He tossed the remnants of them away. They wouldn’t be any use to her.
He extended his claws. “Utilize your daggers to defend yourself.”
The blades shouldn’t be needed. Dare turned. He would protect her.
The commander rolled onto his back. The male looked around him, saw Dare, fired rapidly at him. Projectiles pinged off Dare’s forehead and cheeks.
The bastard was aiming for his eyeballs. That part of him had no protective scales. One projectile could end his lifespan.
Dare held his claws in front of his face and rushed toward the enemy. His beast roared, infuriated, wanting to maim, to kill.
The commander must have seen his intent. He scrambled backward. Dare knocked the guns out of his hands, slicing through the human’s fingers.
The commander shrieked and waved his hands. Blood sprayed over the ground.
Dare’s Drache howled with triumph. He approached the human, preparing to end his suffering. Permanently.
“Why are you doing this?” The commander palmed a rock and threw it at him. “Dracheons were neutral. Your kind didn’t take sides in the war.”
They hadn’t taken sides in the war because Dracheons were dangerously insular in their policies and the Humanoid Alliance had the intelligence to leave their planet alone.
“I’m not aligned with the Dracheons. Not any longer.” Dare’s intentions to finish the male quickly evaporated. Both his humanoid side and his Drache hungered for blood, wanted to inflict pain. “They aren’t my kind.”
“They don’t deserve you.” His female, as she had promised, fully supported his decision.
“I now fight with my friends and with my mate.” He spread his claws, exhaling smoke.
“Fuck you.” The commander pushed himself to his feet. “Males,” he bellowed to the beings around him. “Protect your commander.”
“They’ll have to get past us.” Hulagu stood to the right of him. The kid’s bare chest was smeared with blood.
The Chameles, the modified humanoids, the other warriors Dare had fought with, drank with, considered friends, circled them, forming a barrier of muscle and weapons.
The Humanoid Alliance males tried to obey their commander and rescue him. They attacked. The Refuge forces cleaved them into pieces, batting their projectiles away as though it were a game.
“Mate?” Faylee asked.
“Stay behind me.” Dare denied her request to join the warriors. His beast needed her close and her assistance wasn’t required.
The enemy was human. Many of their friends were not. They had evolved or had been genetically designed for battle. Some of the warriors had projectile-proof skin. Almost all were faster, stronger than the Humanoid Alliance males.
His friends had been given defensive roles in the Refuge because they could fight. They loved waging war. Joy lit their countenances as they killed their attackers.
“You’re on your own.” He relayed that obvious truth to the commander.
On Dracheon, Dare would face his foes alone. They would have the support of friends, of family. Now, the roles were reversed. He had friends and a mate at his back. His foe was solitary.
“The males assigned to me are fuckin’ incompetent.” The commander managed to extract one of his daggers from a sheath, his hands mutilated, his palms slick with blood. “That’s how this mess happened in the first place—their incompetence. I had to travel to this shithole of a planet and clean it up.”
“This shithole of a planet is our home.” Faylee yelled.
Dare’s lips twitched. His mate had fire in her belly.
“How hard is it to kill two females?” The commander staggered, his eyes glassy. “Must be hard for some fuckin’ beings because here I am.” He sliced through the air with his dagger. “I always have to do everything myself.”
The two females the commander desired to kill were Orol’s mate and her sister, beings Dare considered his friends. His beast snarled, reacting to the threat. His humanoid side was equally angry.
The human would feel pain before he died. He’d ensure that.
Dare spun into a crouch, lowering his form. “This is for Rhea and Paloma.” He swept his claws over the commander’s upper thighs, cutting through his flesh to the bone.
The male screeched and fell to his knees. Blood gushed down his legs.
“Finish him.” Dare’s mate leaned against his back, the contact soothing his Drache.
A flick of his claws across the male’s throat would end his lifespan but that was too quick, too painless. Their foe had killed countless beings, had destroyed families, entire species, likely worlds.
“How should I finish him?” He awarded the choice to his female.
“Release your beast.” She gave that order without hesitation.
Both parts of him approving of her decision, Dare tilted his head back, clicked his teeth, and ignited his fire. He blew that heat over the commander, covering him with metal-melting flames.
The male screamed, thrashing his arms, rolling, trying desperately to extinguish the inferno, to end his misery. Dare doused him with more of his scorching breath. The smell of burned hair, skin, and flesh flavored the air, adding to the scents of battle.
He roared, his beast ecstatic, his humanoid side satisfied. The screams lessened more and more, gradually stopping. The commander’s body was reduced to a mound of ash.
“Son of a Gechii.” Oghul stared. “Remind me never to make you angry, Dracheon.”
Balvan grunted his agreement. The other Refuge warriors laughed.
The few remaining Humanoid Alliance males, now leaderless, retreated. Some of the Chameles chased after them, brandishing their claws and whooping.
“I’ll return to Carinae E soon.” Oghul bumped shoulders with his brother. “This was fun.”
Hulagu grinned.
Dare’s chest heaved, his focus fixed on his mate. He scanned the area, looking for threats, didn’t see any. “Faylee?”
She skimmed her slender fingers over his arm. Her touch was light yet it knocked him back on his heels. Every fraggin’ time.
“The battle is over?” Her voice was just a whisper.
“The battle is over.” He pulled her in front of him. “We have defeated our enemies.”
He ran his palms over his female’s small form. Her flight suit was torn. Her scales were dull in places but they remained in place. There were no signs she’d been hurt.
“Are you unharmed, mate?” He needed that verbal reassurance.
“I’m fine.” Her gaze drifted down his body, pausing at his groin. Her eyes widened. “And I see you are more than fine.” The remnants of his ass coverings didn’t hide his arousal.
He grinned. “My beast has fought. Now, it wants to mate.”
“Now?” She looked pointedly at Hulagu and Balvan.
The kid was regaling the green gatekeeper with embellished tales of his fighting prowess. Balvan’s bushy eyebrows were raised and his big arms were crossed. The male was familiar with Hulagu’s abilities.
“Now.” Dare swung his mate into his arms. “But not here.” He would ravish her in private, away from the killing and the death.
“Oh, Dare.” She reached upward, linking her fingers at his nape. Her slight curves flattened against his muscles, that contact easing his lingering aches. “I do love your beast.”
His female was the sole being in the universe who felt that way about his Drache. He blew his heated breath over her face as he walked with her.
She shuddered, her expression blissful, the scent of her arousal strengthening.
“Do you only love the beast?” He wanted to hear those words again. “Does my humanoid side not appeal to you?”
“All of you appeals to me.” She pressed her lips against his chest.
Steam wafted upward, giving her beautiful countenance a dreamlike softness. Dare stared down at her, completely captivated by his female.
“I love your scales and your kindness, your intelligence and your flame-filled eyes.” She stroked her fingertips along his neck. “I love the way you fight and the way you touch me. I love how powerful and beautiful I feel when I’m with you.” His mate held his face between her small hands. “I love you, my big strong honorable warrior, and I’m proud to be your mate.”
“I’m proud to be your mate also.” He pushed his cheeks against her palms. She was the best part of him. “And I—”
“Hey, where are you going, Dracheon?” Tech yelled at him. “You’re our leader.”
“I was your leader for the ground assault.” Dare bit back his irritation over the interruption and stopped to address the modified humanoid’s question. “That mission has been successfully completed. There are no more Humanoid Alliance beings to attack. We’ve killed them all.”
Warriors cheered, slapping each other’s backs.
“You can decide who is now in charge.” That being would be Kralj once they re-entered the Ruler’s terrain. “I’m returning to the Refuge with the female I love.”
Faylee’s breath hitched. “Dracheons don’t speak of love.”
“I’m not aligned with the Dracheons. Not any longer.” He repeated what he had said to their enemy. “My allegiance lies with you.” Where she was, he’d be. “I’m your mate and your mate does speak of love. I love you, my little thief.”
“And I love you.” His female hugged him close. “Take me home, mate, and I’ll show you how much.”
Dare’s beast rumbled with happiness.