Page 44 of The Alien Warrior's Heart

As if she’d understood his words, Si-Moon pursed her lips and shot him a glare. “Yez, weh er.”

Chozo glanced up at the sky in terror. “I’m scared.”

Zar did not really care if the brood was frightened. There was no way he would let anyone of Heronas blood sit on the zapten that he’d built with his father. The machine was more than a powerful transport and an exoskeleton in battle. Garbas was a precious memory.

Many cycles ago, his father built this machine. Zar remembered his excitement whenever his father would work on the zapten’s electronics. He remembered how tightly he’d held the tools, feeling important and useful even though—in hindsight—he knew his father had only been giving him something to do to keep him out of the way.

He remembered the long conversations they had and the promise Zar made that he would one day build a zapten with his own brood.

After the Red Death, that promise could no longer be kept. The Plutonians could not bear young with any other species than their own. It was a reality that made the relationship between father and son all the more precious.

When one Plutonian perished, the entire species suffered.

But if the Healer perished, the entire species would die.

It was scum like Chozo, his species, that stole his father from him. Why would he desecrate his father’s memory by saving his enemy now?

Thunder clapped in the distance.

A warning shot.

If they did not leavenow, they would all feel the sting of the rain that could singe the earth and melt the flowers like wax. A Plutonian’s skin could withstand a small onslaught, but Si-Moon’s fragile human skin would burn until there was nothing but bone.

Panic rocked his heras and made his eyes narrow to slits. Should he knock her out and carry her over his shoulder? Ordinarily, Zar would never consider hitting a female, but if he had to choose between hurting Si-Moon to save her life or losing her, he would choose the former.

Determination beaming in her dark eyes, Si-Moon walked behind Chozo and wrapped her arms around him. Holding the brood in front of her like a shield, she shrieked at him in her earthen tongue.

Thunder boomed again.

Zar growled at Chozo. “What did she say?”

The brood trembled.

“Tell me!”

“She said that I should go with you.” He blinked rapidly behind his mask. Sweat beaded on his neck and travelled the great length to his shoulders. “I go or she stays.”

Zar raked angry fingers through his hair.

This stubborn, unbelievable female…

He heard the patter of rain and the hiss of the earth crying out for mercy. The storm did not care who or what it destroyed—Plutonian, Heronas, Human. They meant nothing. The storm came to destroy and purify.

Zar imagined Si-Moon remaining with Chozo in the elements. In his mind’s eye, he saw her trying to duck behind a plant or a tree, knowing nothing. He saw the wind blowing the rain toward her. He could hear her tortured screams as she died a slow, painful death.

His jaw muscles clenched.

Neh.

Never.

He would rather die first. He would take that pain on himself.

Even if his heras burned and corroded.

Zar’s gaze swung between the Heronas and his zapten. Gritting his teeth and pushing himself to move while he still had the resolve, he strode forward and grabbed the Heronas from Si-Moon’s arms.

Chozo cried out, trembling in fear. His breath hit the face mask rapidly, fogging up the window. Lifting the brood like he was carrying the trunk of a tree, Zar slapped him on top of Garbas. It was not the gentlest movement, but he did not care.

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