Page 84 of The Alien Warrior's Heart

Zar gritted his teeth as the zapten made a ragged descent.

Si-Moon.

He forced the machine back into the air and slammed his foot on the gas.

So close.

So close.

He poised himself for the battle ahead, plotting out every move in his mind to escape from Si-Moon’s hold on him.

Zar would mount the hovercraft at the back of the flight line. He would dig his daggers into the metallic hull and tear it straight off.

He could already feel himself diving inside the hatch and grabbing the nearest Heronas by the throat. He could already smell the bitter, metallic twang of Heronas blood spilling into the air.

He would coat the tops of the trees in their green life source.

He would scatter the ground with Heronas guts, limbs, and masks.

His fingers trembled with the image of the violence and then another image overtook it. Si-Moon. Her brown skin glowing in the shadows of a dungeon. Her lips pressed tightly together. Her fingers tapping the collar the Heronas used to keep him penned.

The zapten slowed to a crawl and Zar shook his head to clear it.

Neh.

The Heronas. They were getting away.

He had to…

Another memory shocked him. Si-Moon smiling up at him as he fed her pith and gave her damas. The careful way she’d chewed as if he’d offered poison. The flash of pleasure in her dark brown eyes that told him she enjoyed the taste.

The hovercraft became a blip in the distance and yet, Zar could not give chase. He was trapped by his mate’s longing. By her emotions that swept through his mind. By the memories. So many memories.

Si-Moon charging out from behind that tree with a broken Rulari gun, intent on joining a fight she would undoubtedly lose.

Si-Moon running her fingers down his tattoos, tracing every line and curve.

Si-Moon’s body flush against his as he mated her for the first time.

“Ah!” Zar released a handle on the zapten to grab his head. “Ah!”

Too long. He’d spent far too long wrapped up in his anger. To peel it away now, to live with a feeling that was lighter and less oppressive would mean giving up everything he’d known. The warrior he’d been.

It would mean embracing something new.

Something far more powerful.

Something that scared him more than a Heronas blade ever did.

The zapten went careening toward the ground.

As his mind spun, Zar saw his folly for the first time. His rage could not fill his heras the way Si-Moon could. Fury could not give him a future. He had sacrificedeverythingto bring vengeance to his father, but it had brought him no closer to the peace he sought. It had only made him thirstier for Heronas blood.

Si-Moon changed everything. She rolled into his dungeon and she freed him, not only from the Heronas’s shock collar but from his own restlessness. She cut him from the chains that bound his heras and now he was choosing to go after the Heronas instead of winning back his woman.

His eyes flickered as he came back to reality and saw the ground rushing up like a monster. With a roar, Zar pulled on the handles of the zapten and leaned back to break the severity of his fall.

Garbas bounced hard. The sound of metal bending and screeching filled Zar’s ears. His heras bucking rapidly, he climbed off the zapten and caught his breath.

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