Page 32 of Broken Triad

“Gods, you gave me a fucking scare! Are you alone?”

“Yes! The triad left me here. How did you find me?” I say, in wonder.

“The three of them are giants. They left enough bootprints for me to track. I used to hunt as a kid—these three are big game. Shit, that’s a steep cliff. How can you get down?”

I look down at the sheer cliff face. I memorized each handhold the aliens used to make their way down, but they’ve got long arms and steadier grips than me. “I don’t know. They carried me up here.”

Summer thinks. “It’s dangerous. I can’t carry you out if you fall. I don’t think you should risk it. How long until those three come back?” She casts a glance into the forest, tense.

“They’re on some patrol, I don’t know, it could be hours. I don’t know how long a patrol lasts.”

“Hmm. I thought I saw a Reaver through the trees, but it was hard to tell with how damned thick the trees are. They must have abandoned their posts to come get you. Okay. If I know anything about this species, it’s that they’re tireless. I’d guess they won’t be back until nightfall. It’ll take me that long to get to the Royal City and report your location. The General will be incensed that his three best soldiers kidnapped a woman they swore to their Mate was safe.”

I pause, my mouth going dry. I reach down, touching the cliff face. It’s clammy, cold. Above me, the cliff reaches up another ten feet, and there’s a rivulet of water which curls around the entrance of the cave and down the face. Trying to scale down, I’m likely to fall to my death. The waters are deep below the cave, but I never learned how to swim.

But reporting the three men is certain death for them. Their heads will be taken from their bodies.

They will never look at me with that mixture of intense longing and pained hatred.

They’ll never be whole.

“I know what you’re thinking,” says Summer. “You’ll have to spend a night with them. Even if I run, I won’t get there in time. If those three suspect…they’ll move you to another location. You’ll have to lie to them, because help won’t come until past nightfall. If they even get a hint of what you did…”

“Wait.”

“What is it?”

“I…” I take a huge breath in. “Don’t report them.”

Summer’s stunned. “What are you talking about? You can’t try to climb down that cliff. You’re going to fall, Lola.”

“No. I…look. You told me you’d help save my father. I said no, and you insisted. I should never have told you my plan. There’s no coming from that journey. I was foolish. The two of us, against Scorp, walking through the mines that we don’t know? Dammit, Summer, even if the Scorp didn’t kill us, we’d get lost in the caves. I was bringing you along to your grave.”

“I’m not scared of Scorp.”

“Well I am. These three aliens are brutal. But they’re strong. And the only way I’m saving my dad is if I convince them to help me. I can’t do that if they’re dead.”

The three men have this cruel possessiveness to them—but they don’t feel they own me yet.

Maybe that’s why they didn’t take me. They said they had to go back to their post, but I know the Mating Rage of the species. If they let it well up in them, they could have taken me, hard and fast, breeding me ruthlessly and rutting me then racing back to their posts.

They held back. Maybe it’s because I’m a virgin, that they did not want my first time to be a rushed breeding. Maybe it’s that they want to save me for tonight, when they have hours and hours to enjoy my body.

Or maybe they have some shred of humanity, some honor in them.

I can’t let them be cut down like dogs.

“You’re insane, Lola.”

“Am I? Tell me right now you think the two of us searching for my father has a better chance than me convincing those three.”

“Fuck.” Summer pauses, looking nervously out to the forest, then back at me. “Fuck, you’re right. Okay. I’ll be in the Royal City. I don’t know where else to go.” She muses. “Do you still have the smartwatch?”

“They took it from me.”

“How about this. If I don’t hear from you by tomorrow, I report it.”

“It’s not a good idea. They can move me somewhere else. It’s better I pretend you never came.”

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