Page 18 of Protected by the Alien Warrior Triad

8

Darok

Ifelt Forn’s aura weakening through the Bond as his blood spilled out. He knows heshouldbe gone, claimed by the void.

Yet this woman, Tammy, was somehow able to heal him through her strange witchcraft.

Tammy’s blue eyes are wide and innocent as she looks at the two little children, cowering beneath the table. She goes to them and holds her hands out, gently soothing them as she helps them out from their hiding place. My heart breaks as I imagine how attentive she’d surely be caring for my many sons.

“We keep them safe. All of them,” I say, my voice resolute. I feel a surge of frustration through the Bond from Hadone, and he gives a hard look...

...before nodding in deference.

He’s tough, Hadone – sometimes bordering on callous. But not when it comes to our mate.

These children might not be Tammy’s biological children, but she looks at them as if they were. If we allow any harm to come to her adopted children, she’ll never be able to look at us with the love and adoration we desire from our fated mate.

At least, I think that’s my reasoning? Or am I growing soft?

I nod at my mate and hold up four fingers. The smile she gives me melts the pain in my chest. Iwillprotect this beautiful little creature and her four adopted charges – with my last breath, if it comes to that.

My adrenaline pulses. The auras of Hadone and Forn swell in my mind as we contemplate the upcoming battle. I feel the tinge of fear welling up in my mind. Unlike my blood-brothers I take no pride from battle, no joy from killing. I’d always preferred to teach the children of our tribe how to hunt and craft, rather than fight.

Or, at least, I did before we had to flee our ancestral home and live in solitude.

Killing. There’s always killing. I tried as best I could to keep our youngsters away from it as long as I could.

I turn and look at Tammy, and my heart swells. Tammy is a gem – a perfect, soft little creature as yet unmarked by war. I ache to keep her safe, and yet I can barely look at her. Knowing she exists is a dark pain; because I know what awaits her.

She is going to die today.

So will my battle brothers, and so will I.

Hadone courts death to erase his guilt. Forn courts it for glory and bravery. He wants to die in a hail of blood, fighting to his last breath to be immortalized in song.

But me? I have no taste for it. I have no death wish.

And yet death is all that awaits us. There is not an Aurelian triad in the universe that could make it through the mass of Scorp Warriors pillaging this city. The rumbles of thunder from the communities defenses have already slowed and stopped. Whoever was manning the weapons have clearly been overwhelmed and slaughtered.

There’s nothing to protect the people of this city now.

We’d only survived this long by creating a choke point – using the pile of Scorp carcasses blocking the entranceway to mount a defense against them.

The Scorp warriors could have slowly overwhelmed us – but they’ve chosen not to. Like the craven, disgusting beasts they are, they prefer to hunt easier targets… for now.

But is that what we’ll become if we leave this place?

Out there in the open, trapped between huge buildings, we’ll have nowhere to run. We won’t stand a chance.

I look at Tammy and despair overwhelms me. Here is my fated mate, and yet I can’t even tell her my name. It would be too painful to hear it on her lips and know that I won’t hear her speak it again for the rest of my life. I breathe in and smell her scent, and it makes my hackles rise as lust pulses through every cell of my body.

Gods, Iachefor her – even if she was sent to be my doom. I ache for her, even if the God of Tricks brought me to this planet for the sole purpose of letting me see what I want before I lose it.

---