Page 47 of Heart of Dawn
That was it, the source of all my hope.
Stars, I was getting super emotional, my eyes hot. “I wish I knew how to thank you.”
“You never have to thank me, Orion.”
“But…” I shut up, my head spinning with happiness, overloaded with information.
We were meant to be—all of us. Wendy, me, Miko, Trev, the pack—every single piece finding the other against the odds. Surviving, fighting on. Success wasn’t guaranteed, yet look how far we’d all come. Look how much potential lay ahead of us.
We could do this. We could make things better.
Wendy found another cell, pleased with its condition, then gathered more pollen from the flowers.
“The honey’s gift needs time to blossom,” she said. “It can take as little as thirty minutes to as long as a day. I want to fill as many cells as possible to give us options.”
“Okay.”
“It will do, I suppose,” a smooth voice answered from the tunnel.
I jumped to my feet, my stomach dropping.
King Damien crouch-walked out of the opening, wielding a crossbow. “Though I do ask the stars not to make me wait too long.”
Oh. Crap.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
MIKO
The bullet rushed past my head with scant inches to spare. It hit a tree, splintering the bark with a bang.
“Fuck!” Lance yelled, reloading the rifle.
I seized the opportunity to go for him, putting Basil down before springing forward. Lance roared, abandoning his reload and taking a swing at me with the rifle instead.
Leaping back, I dropped into a sweeping kick, knocking his legs out from under him. He landed on his arse, gun flying from his hands.
“You stupid cunt!” he screamed.
Full of fury, I leaped on top of him with a right hook to his face. Bone crunched, teeth breaking. He grabbed my arms, pushing me back with his almost equal strength—enough to get me off him.
Lance sprang to his feet, his hair hanging around his face in greasy tresses. His clothes were filthy. Blood poured from his nose and mouth and he spat shards of teeth, pain contorting his face
“You’ll pay for that, Miko.”
We charged at the same time. I ducked a left hook, landing my fist in his gut. Heoofedbut didn’t go down. Instead, he kicked me in the shin, forcing me onto one knee. He backflipped, delivering a brutal kick to my chest as I tried getting up, hunching slightly at the wrong moment.
At least he didn’t get me in the mouth. Small mercies, I suppose.
I hit the dirt, rolled, and sprang back to my feet. Rampaging adrenaline kept the pain at bay, pushing me harder to kick his arse.
God, I still couldn’t believe I’d slept with this creep.
He backflipped again, dodging my barreling charge, laughed in his irritating way, then scrambled up a tree.
Squatting on a thick branch, he flipped me his middle finger, his blood now staining most of his neck.
Where was that rifle? I felt like shooting a prick off his perch.
