X

 

 

 

TIME FOR THE human bitch to die.

I heard the assassin’s thoughts in my mind seconds before an arrow whistled past my head, on track for my mate.

“NO! Prairie, look out!” I roared, but the crowd was cheering so loudly there was no way my voice carried to her.

Horrified, I watched the arrow pierce her chest. I saw her go down, caught at the last moment by Dylka.

I’d let her be a completely open target!

I quickly whipped around. There, in the stands, a male garbed all in black and carrying a crossbow darted through the melee as panic spread. I sent a silent order to Magnar and Dex to go after him.

My hearts beating a furious tattoo, I hurtled toward Prairie, the sight of her blood blooming across the chestplate warping my vision.

The wound would be fatal to a human.

I skidded beside her, taking her from Dylka’s arms. Miraculously she was still breathing. Unconscious and bleeding but breathing.

Jedrek, Kerta, and Zane hurried to my side.

The arrow plunged deeply, too embedded to remove. Prairie’s face paled to ghost white, and she began shivering in my arms as more blood seeped from the puncture. Crimson drops formed on the pierced metal of her armor then ran in furrows to the ground.

Anger inflamed me. Worry knocked deep inside me.

Gathering her close, I set my lips at her ear. “You will not die on me, meehri. You won’t. Do you hear me?”

Eyelids flickering, she moaned with a rattle from her chest. A rattle that heralded death.

I gathered Prairie closer to my body, rising to my feet. Fury leaped inside me, a mounting rage for utter violence directed at the traitor who’d harmed Prairie. I placed her gently in Zane’s arms, my muscles swelling with the need to destroy her attacker’s life.

To sever his head.

Disembowel him.

Leave his carcass for the glecaw birds to tear at his flesh until nothing was left but bone to bleach beneath the suns.

“Take her to my chambers.” My command came out low, forced. Razors of pain cut through my hearts, nothing like the pain I was about to bring down. “The healer will meet you there. Go, all of you, now.”

Jedrek led the way, Zane carrying Prairie, Kerta and Dylka following.

With blood in my sights, I ignored the hysteria in the stadium. I sprinted after Dex and Magnar, who’d bounded into the surrounding forest. Intense fury lengthened my strides, and I overtook both my warriors on the hunt for the bastard who’d attacked Prairie.

Catapulting through the underbrush, I caught up with the assassin. I yanked him around by the scruff of his neck, bellowing my rage with my teeth bared, muscles taut, fangs punching from my gums and dripping saliva I’d replace with his gore.

He swung his crossbow at me, but I batted the heavy weapon aside like it was no more than a toy.

“Why?” I roared, yanking the smaller male off his feet so he twisted like an outlaw hanging at the gallows.

“I’m not the only one who thinks a human queen is an abomination.”

A snarl ripped from my chest. Blind wrath propelled me, and I tore into the traitor with my bare hands, my sharp fangs. Only growls escaped my lips as I punctured his main arteries.

Blood dripped from my mouth. Blood spewed from his body.

I reaped gruesome violent vengeance for my meehri, tearing the male limb from limb before finally losing it completely and slashing his head from his neck, his torso from what remained of his lower half.

I hadn’t recognized the male . . . and now I made sure he was even more unrecognizable.

Shaking, I crouched over the remains of the body. Dex and Magnar swam into view.

I lifted myself from the ground, flinging blood from my hands. My fangs returned to normal, and I tightened my jaw.

“Find out who he is—”

“Was.” Magnar glanced at the grisly heap.

“Then destroy what’s left of the traitor.”

****

As ordered, I waited outside my chambers while the healer tried to keep Prairie alive. Zane, Kerta, Magnar, Dex, and Jedrek remained by my side, forming a ring, all of them bristling with weapons.

Every time I heard Prairie moan, my hackles rose.

She’d only just admitted she loved me and now she might be taken from me. The swift elation from having won her heart plummeted into gut-deep worry.

I paced back and forth, raking my hands through my hair. “How did I not know there was a plot against her?”

“None of us did.” Jedrek looked officially pissed off.

“Did you question Dylka?” I asked my brother.

Zane glanced up from his worried pacing that matched mine. “She’s innocent in this, X. She would’ve protected Prairie if she could have.”

“She conceded the fight to Prairie anyway,” Kerta added.

Dex shifted his gaze from the closed doors to me. “Not that it’ll matter if Prairie doesn’t—”

I was at his throat before he could utter one more word. “Don’t you say it. Don’t you fucking say it!”

Jedrek pulled me away. “Perhaps you should go for a walk.”

“A walk? A fucking walk?” Fear for Prairie’s recovery clutched my insides. “What I need is to know she’s okay!”

Hours passed.

I walked up and down the hallway.

Kerta had food brought to us, but I couldn’t eat.

I was just about to bust down the doors when the healer silently exited.

I spun to the tall regal female who’d first inspected Prairie when she arrived on the planet. Only now there were blood splatters on her robes.

“The barb was poisoned with toxins from the mortilla flower. And the arrow alone should’ve meant her death. If the queen-elect were any other Earthling—”

“Yes, yes, I know,” I interrupted, reaching the limits of my patience. “Just tell me, does she live?”

“If she wakes in the next twelve hours, she should make a full recovery.”

Delirious relief almost made me collapse on the spot. I knew Prairie. She was strong, a fighter.

The healer eyed me curiously before venturing, “My king, did you breed her recently?”

All eyes swung to me. Magnar, who’d been on guard outside the chambers last night, coughed into his fist.

“I guess you could say that.” I’d had Prairie in every single way imaginable . . . except for her ass.

The healer nodded. “Your life force saved her.”

More eyebrows arched in my direction, but I shrugged. I was just thankful my mate was alive, that she was on the road to recovery.

I entered the rooms on my own, rushing to Prairie’s side. Shallow breaths raised her chest. The freckles on her cheeks and shoulders stood out starkly against pallid skin. But when I rested my hand above her breast, I felt her heartbeat. Slow and sluggish, but alive.

Twelve hours.

She was supposed to give me her decision about staying, but that didn’t matter now, so long as she lived.

I sat beside her every single minute, every single second, tending her, compelling all other caretakers and visitors away. I swabbed her skin and held her hand. I kissed her neck and reclined next to her, carefully so I didn’t disturb her.

The healer had injected Prairie with one of the most potent miracle drugs on Zenithia.

She’d survive.

She had to.

The tenth hour passed. She still lay unconscious.

As the twelfth approached with no change in her condition, I clasped her hands against my chest, resting my lips against her clammy forehead.

Wake up. Please come back to me, meehri.

“Are you going all hive-mind on me now?” Prairie mumbled, eyelids fluttering.

“Meehri.” I lunged up, framing her face in my hands. “Did you hear me?”

“Yes. God. No need to shout.”

You can . . . hear my thoughts?

“Trippy.” A sleepy smile curved her lips as her pale eyes, green like the verdra stone, blinked open. “This is gonna make sex even more awesomesauce.”

Relief surged through me, and tears I hadn’t shed before pricked behind my eyelids. After hugging her close, I helped her sit up, bringing her one of the smoothies she favored.

“How am I alive?” Prairie let the furs slide down, baring the rapidly fading scar on her breast.

“Well, remember my super-cum?”

“I knew it!” she shouted then winced as pain gripped her.

“Easy now.” Bracing her against my shoulder, I eased her against my chest. “Also an injection of an elixir made from the unix blood.”

“No way. So I’m part unix now? Cool.”

Burying my face against her hair, I breathed in her scent. “I love you, Prairie. Promise me you’ll always stay safe even if it’s not with me.”

One giant sob caught in my throat, threatening to rip free, and I gathered Prairie in my arms.

“I’m sorry, X.” Her cheek rubbed against my neck where I felt her tears.

“Why?” I tipped her chin up.

“I didn’t win the fight for you.”

My lips met hers, gently at first then more fiercely. “You only needed to meet the challenge, brave woman.”

Sitting up slowly, Prairie laced our fingers together. The nerezeen jewel on her necklace pulsed with life.

She stared into my eyes, into my soul. And quietly, so, so seriously, she spoke the words I’d given her when I’d professed my love in Zenithian. “X, taw Ze stas verst Idris Neoas. Leere net sed zem, meehra.”

X, what I feel for you is more vast than the Idris Sea. There’ll be no one else for me, beloved.

The moment her words fell over me, the markings on my chest transformed to their final shape. The infinity circle connected. Our love complete.