Eleven
Four planet rotations passed. Over a normal rest period, Kralj killed one or two offenders, beings who had broken his rules. During the previous rest period, he had killed three offenders. Dita, with his approval, had killed an additional three. Although that pleased his beast, it worried his more rational side.
Residents were becoming more and more brazen, threatening beings under his protection, not adhering to the rules, not fearing his wrath.
Todt-932, the second clone, was responsible for that rebellion. He recruited quietly, utilizing the residents’ fear of change and the rumors about Dita, not thinking Kralj noticed his activities.
Kralj heard everything. He knew about the actions organized, the words whispered, the thoughts pondered.
Todt-932 had sent his brother on a fruitless mission at sunrise, directing him to venture far from the settlement, ensuring there would be no doubt in residents’ minds who was in charge.
He had gathered his minions, was riling them to the point of violence. They planned to confront Kralj in mere moments.
Kralj would face the angry mob first, operating on his timeline, his terms. He was the Ruler of the Refuge. This was his settlement, not the clone’s.
Residents stared at him as he passed them. Their thoughts rushed over him. Everyone was aware of the unrest. They questioned his ability to manage it.
They didn’t know him. Kralj scowled, his shadow dark and foreboding, the wind whipping his coat. No one did, not truly, not even the tiny assassin following him.
He had told her of his abilities but hearing about them and seeing them were two very different things. Would she align herself with him once he released his monster?
Would she stay with him after he informed her Todt-933, the third clone, had left the Refuge? He was a male of honor, had given her his word. She trusted him to keep it. He had to tell her.
But not now, not yet.
Three females nudged each other as he approached, their gazes on the female behind him. They extended their arms, their palms flat, facing downward, and carefully made fists.
If Kralj wasn’t certain of her loyalty, he’d suspect Dita of leading another rebellion. But the females’ thoughts were of gratitude and admiration, not anger or fear. They had been sharing his little assassin’s self-defense lessons.
Would their thankfulness eventually turn to hatred? Would they betray his female as their male counterparts plotted to betray him?
When those beings first stepped through the Refuge’s gates, they had seen the place he’d built as being special, a miracle on a desolate planet. Time passed and that appreciation had dimmed. They now took the Refuge for granted.
They took him for granted.
And this planet rotation, they planned to battle him for control of the settlement he had built.
They would lose.
“What do you want me to do?” Orol, his second-in-command, fell into step beside him.
“Guard the front gate with Balvan.” Kralj gave the winged male a task. “No one enters.” He didn’t require any assistance with the uprising.
“Consider it done.” Orol sauntered away, heading for a better takeoff point.
Dita took his place beside Kralj, bumping against his arm. He looked at her. She rested her hands on her holstered guns and lifted her eyebrows.
He shook his head.
His damn female didn’t move her hands. She would insist on participating in the killing, thinking she was helping him, and that would lessen the impact of his response.
“They’re testing me,” he explained. “I have to be the one to deal with them.”
“If they hurt you,” she whispered, “they will deal with me.”
His lips twitched, the weight on his heart lifting. “They can’t hurt me.”
He suspected only she could do that. She had a power over him he couldn’t defend against.
Mate, his beast growled.
Kralj ignored it and turned the corner.
A mob filled the pathway. They consisted of the most violent residents and the most gullible. Yorick, the breeding female’s handler, was among them, his face bruised from Dita’s assault.
Almost all of the mob members were male. They clutched weapons, believing those would be enough to protect them.
Todt-932, the second clone, saw him and stopped, his eyes rounding, his jaw dropping. Shit. How did he know?
“I know everything.” Kralj answered his unspoken question. “You don’t want to do this.”
He gave the male an opportunity to change his mind, to stop this madness. Kralj could ensure that happened. He could turn every resident in the Refuge into his slave but he hadn’t escaped his own bonds to take away the freedom of other beings.
All he asked was that his rules be obeyed.
“What we want is the assassin’s head on a stake outside the settlement.” Todt-932 foolishly clung to his plan. His gaze shifted to Dita.
The clone dared to look at his female. Kralj’s chest rumbled, his beast angered by the male’s insolence.
“She broke one of your rules.” Todt-932 encased that last word with sarcasm. “She killed my brother. She should die for that.”
“I allowed her to kill your brother.” Kralj stepped to the right, blocking the clone’s view of Dita.
“You didn’t allow her to do anything.” Todt-932’s top lip curled. “You finally found a female who could look past your ugly face and she’s leading you around by your cock.”
Kralj folded his fingers into tight fists, his temper rising. “Careful, Todt-932.”
The wind around them strengthened, portholes in nearby domiciles rattling.
“You’re weak, unfit to rule the Refuge.” Todt-932 wouldn’t be cautioned. “We’re taking control.”
The mob cheered, waving their guns, their swords, their weapons giving them courage. Beings hurried to the left and to the right of Kralj, taking positions on the tops of domiciles, in doorways, surrounding him.
Kralj’s lips flattened. They believed they had captured him.
That’s how little they thought of his abilities.
“This won’t end well.” He struggled to keep his voice level, calm.
“This won’t end well for you, you mean.” The clone jeered, looking at his buddies for agreement. They grinned and nodded their heads. “You’re surrounded. You might be able to defend yourself against one or two of us but you can’t fight everyone here.”
“Can’t I?” Kralj extended his shadow over the entire settlement, partially blocking the sun, casting them all into darkness.
Some of the males swallowed hard, sweat beading on their faces.
Can he? Todt-932 had a moment of doubt. No, that’s impossible. “You can’t fight everyone. We know how you kill—with swords, axes, your teeth.”
They were fools and Kralj had no patience for them. He’d allowed them within his walls, had given them sanctuary, a safe place to reside and this was how they repaid him—with disrespect, rebellion.
Threats. Against him. Against his mate. That angered him most of all. No one threatened Dita.
“You know how my beast kills.” Kralj met Todt-932’s gaze directly. “That isn’t the part of me that should scare you.”
He pushed the air around them, swirling it into a vortex encompassing the entire settlement. Wind plucked at garments, at hair, pitted skin with sand.
A few of the males retreated, having the intelligence to be frightened.
The rest of the males raised their weapons. They were determined to end their lives.
“Try to kill me and you’ll die.” Kralj gave them one last chance to live.
“Not if we’re successful.” Todt-932 aimed his long gun at him. “Now.”
Guns were fired. Daggers were thrown.
Kralj’s enhanced mind reacted, manipulating his amplified brainwaves, stopping everything. There was stillness, an eerie quiet. Beings froze in place.
Projectiles and blades hung in the air around him, around Dita, for one heartbeat, before falling to the pathway, the ping, ping, ping of metal against stone musical.
Beings breathed. The wind whistled.
No one, except for Dita and Kralj, could move. He had taken away that ability. They could listen, they could feel and they could think, their fear washing over him in dark waves.
He could have spared them that.
But he didn’t. He wanted them to experience everything.
“Don’t expect anyone to save you.” He took away that hope also, broadcasting that message and the scene around him to every resident in the settlement, pushing the images and words into their minds. “I’ve blocked all entry to the Refuge. Everyone inside the walls shares your state.”
He couldn’t have frozen everyone. Many beings shared Todt-932’s doubt.
Kralj’s lips twisted. “I’ve frozen everyone, human, humanoid, other, even the insects deep within the sand.” He did that because he could and because he was angry, furious at the dissenters, at their disrespect and their gall. “There’s one exception—the assassin you tried to kill.”
Dita was the exception to every rule. He turned and looked at her, needing to visually reassure himself that she was unharmed. Her face was pale but he saw no other signs of distress.
She caught his gaze and glanced down at the pathway. A line of projectiles and daggers encircled her, an arm’s length from her booted feet.
“We can speak.” He gave her permission. Keeping their conversations private hadn’t stopped the rebellion. “I would never allow any being to hurt you.”
“I thought we were dead.” She gave him a shaky smile.
The males had scared his normally fearless female. Kralj’s fury spiraled higher.
“Nothing happens within the Refuge without my approval.” His voice rose. That message was for everyone. “They can’t kill you. They can’t hurt you. They can’t touch you. I hear all of their thoughts, know all of their actions.”
“They realize that now.” Her voice was soft.
“Now is too late.”
Kralj scanned the faces in the mob. They’d feel his wrath this planet rotation. He’d hold nothing back.
“You called me weak.” He glared at them. “You claimed I was unfit to rule. You thought you knew the extent of my power,” he boomed. “You believed all you had to fear was my beast. You didn’t know I killed that way because it was a kindness. My beast isn’t the reason I am a monster.”
He unleashed the true horror inside him, directing it first at Todt-932. The clone’s mind was weak. His body’s settings, including its ideal temperature and its reaction to stimuli, were easy to manipulate.
Todt-932’s skin turned bright purple. His eyes bulged. His breathing grew ragged, fast.
Kralj released his mental hold on the male’s mouth.
Todt-932 screamed, a wail expressing the most gruesome pain a being could endure. His face, arms, hands bubbled, the welts growing larger and larger and larger. His chest rapidly rose and fell, his heart under strain, unable to keep up with his brain’s demands.
The clone exploded in a spray of blood and guts, splattering the beings next to him with gore. Without raising a hand, Kralj had killed him. That was how easy it was for him.
It was also satisfying, a release of the constant pressure inside him. His monster reveled in its power, was pleased with the results.
Everyone else in the settlement had been horrified. Their thoughts swept over him—their revulsion, their terror, their disgust. Wave after wave of dark emotion hit him.
Dita had to feel the same way. He’d heard her gasp but he hadn’t turned his head. He didn’t have the strength to look at her, to see the end reflected in his little assassin’s blue eyes.
Their relationship was over. Kralj whipped the mob with wind, inflicting on them the pain he felt. She would leave him now. No female would choose to be with a male who could kill with one stray thought, who could wipe out an entire settlement, all of her friends, all of the beings she loved, dying in an instant.
She’d leave him and he’d have nothing, nothing except the rage in his heart, the blackness in his soul.
“Even now, you think you’ve seen the worst of me.” He’d show her everything. “You haven’t, but you will.”
The clone’s inner circle were his next targets, twenty-three of Todt-932’s top males plus Yorick, the male who had dared to attack Dita. They bubbled. They screamed. They burst, coating the beings around them in crimson.
“Kralj.” Dita touched his arm. “They’ve learned their lesson. You’ve done enough.”
“They broke the rules.” Kralj chose twenty-five more targets, the worst of the lot, child killers and remorseless males. “They know the consequences.”
“They were scared, weak, had a moment of doubt.” She stood in front of him, gazing up at him. “They followed the wrong leader.” Her words were barely audible over the screams. “Would you punish them for that?”
“Yes.” He’d punish all of them, make them hurt as he was hurting.
The beings exploded.
“Look at me.” She cupped his scarred face, forcing him to do exactly that.
Kralj gazed down at her and blinked. There wasn’t disgust, fear, or loathing reflecting in her big blue eyes. They were soft with pride, sympathy, caring.
“Look at me,” she repeated. “Give me everything.” She petted his cheeks, her fingers rough yet gentle. “Flow it into me. That’s it.”
She murmured those four sentences over and over, touching him, soothing him. His beast rumbled with contentment. His anger dissipated.
Why wasn’t she afraid of him? “I can kill with a thought.” Hadn’t she noticed that?
“You can’t kill me.” She smiled at him.
“I’m a monster.” He was confused.
“I’m one also.” She lowered her hands to his shoulders.
He wanted her palms on his face. “I can kill everyone inside the Refuge without lifting a finger.”
“You can kill everyone except me.” She squeezed his shoulders, as though reassuring him.
She was comforting him, a being genetically designed by the Humanoid Alliance for only one purpose—to end lives as quickly, as efficiently as possible.
“You’ve taught them a lesson. You can stop now.” Dita held his gaze. “Leave us someone to hunt.” She patted the handles of her guns. “Your beast will thank you.”
“The beings here tried to kill you.” Why wasn’t she angry with them?
“They were stupidly following someone else’s orders.” She touched his face again and he calmed. “You killed that being and you stopped them. If they try again, you’ll stop them again.” She grinned. “And then we’ll track them and end their foolish lives. Together.”
They’d stalk from shadow to shadow, her tiny fingers in his large palm, her scent in the air. Kralj breathed deeply. They’d kill. He’d feed on the target. When his hunger was sated, he’d sip on her while they fucked like wild things against a blood-smeared wall. He’d be balls deep inside her hot, wet pussy and fangs deep in her delicate neck. His cock hardened. He’d fill her with his seed, marking her as his.
He wanted that future.
Resolute, he faced the motionless mob. “You have broken one of the Refuge’s rules. The sentence for that is death.” He clasped Dita’s hand. “But my mate has requested I spare you.”
Her breath hitched.
“Don’t mistake my leniency for weakness.” He warned them, hiding his tender feelings for his little assassin under a glower. “If you break the rules again, you will die. You can count on that.”
Kralj stomped away from them. Dita hurried to keep pace. He shortened his stride to accommodate her, wanting her by his side. Always.
“Thank you for not killing everyone.” She swung his arm as she skipped along beside him. “I can see why you prefer not to end lives that way.”
He preferred not to end lives that way because it scared the shit out of everyone, including himself. Kralj thought that, said nothing.
“Killing with your mind isn’t much of a challenge.” Dita wrinkled her nose. “And it’s over so quickly.”
His ability didn’t scare his female.
She must be even more messed up than he was. That was the only explanation he could find for her acceptance.
“It would be like me using guns.” She drew one of her weapons, twirled it in her dainty hand. “One tap of the trigger and it’s done.” She holstered it again, extracted a dagger. “I like blades.” She threw it in the air and caught it. “Killing with them requires skill. I have to get up close and personal. If I make one mistake, I’ll spook my target.”
They were far enough away from the mob. He released everyone within the settlement from his psychic restraints.
Beings took one look at him and ran in the other direction.
“You like battle-axes.” Dita chattered, seemingly oblivious to the residents’ reactions. “They’re your favorite weapons. I can tell. There’s genuine joy on your face when you wield them.”
There was genuine joy in his heart when he was with her. “Battle-axes aren’t my favorite weapons.”
“Really?” Her head tilted, her abundance of curls rearranging, as alive as she was.
“Really.” He tightened his hold on her. “My favorite weapon is you.”
“Oh, Kralj.” Her eyes shone with a suspicious gleam. “That’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me. Thank you.”
Only his damn female would think being called a weapon was sweet.
Only she understood him.