Page 30 of Her Alien Mercenaries
Shadow came over and patted her shoulder in sympathy. “You did nothing wrong. Stand tall and don’t take any crap from them. If they’re anything like mine, they’re bound to say or do something annoying. Just remember, they might act like idiots. But they areyouridiots.”
“And everything they do is because they care about you,” Skye added. “Repeat as many times as needed. Oh, and welcome to the club. We meet on Tuesdays.”
“We should be ashamed of ourselves,” Zanyr muttered out of the side of his mouth.
“We? What’s thiswecrap. I wasn’t the one who gave away our position by sneezing at the worst possible moment,” Torren shot back.
“You’re the one who stirred up the dust when you landed. I’ve seen younglings on their first flight make better landings.”
One of their captors coughed. “Actually, we just followed the sound of bickering, and there you were.”
“Shut up, Edge,” Zanyr snapped.
“You want to go for round two? I’m ready if you are.” The dark-haired de facto leader of the cyborgs turned back to them, one fist raised. He was sporting a split lip, and his clothes were covered in dust and detritus from the forest ground.
“That depends. Are you going to throw a decent punch this time?” Zanyr smirked at Edge. The cyborg sat on the council with him, and while they weren’t exactly friends, he had a deep respect for the male.
“Stop goading him,” Kade interrupted them. “In fact, everyone, stop goading everyone. You’re giving me a headache.”
Edge rolled his eyes at the Vardarian walking beside him. “Stop being dramatic.”
They all walked in silence for several seconds.
“So, can I ask where we’re headed?” Zanyr asked as he tried to remove some of the dust and debris from the vest Torren had brought for him.
“You wanted to know what yourmahayawas up to. You’ll get the chance to ask her yourself.”
Fraxx. “She knows we’re here?” he asked.
“If she doesn’t know yet, she will soon. She was attending a very important meeting. Or did you think we were out here guarding an empty camp for the fun of it?” Kade said.
“We didn’t know you were here at all,” Zanyr retorted. The admission cost him some pride, but it was the truth. They were out of practice.
“Who are you guarding? And why is Jenna involved?” Torren asked, his voice sharp.
Kade lifted one wing in a shrug. “I’m guarding my mate. Edge is with me because I asked him to come. The rest, you’ll have learn from someone else because I have no idea.”
“You don’t know why your mate is out here having a secret meeting?” Zanyr stared at Kade. “Why not?”
Kade grinned back. “Because I’ve been mated long enough to learn a few things.” He ticked off the points on his fingers. “Fact one, if I don’t know, I can’t get in trouble for repeating something to the wrong being at the wrong time. Fact two, my mate is a badass cyborg assassin who is quite capable of tearing my wings off if I annoy her too much. Fact three, I trust her. If I needed to know, she’d tell me.”
Edge snickered. “This is one of the many reasons I’m glad I’m not mated. This relationship crap is complicated.”
All three of them turned to look at Edge. “What?”
“Denial is not a good look for you,” Kade said.
“I’m not denying anything. I’m. Not. Mated.”
“I never said you were,” Zanyr said.
“We just don’t believe you’re glad about it,” Torren finished.
Edge flipped them off with both hands. “All of you can shut up now.”
When the door opened, Jenna half expected her mates to storm in and start demanding answers. Instead, they were shoved through the doorway by two males—one cyborg and one Vardarian. All four of them were dirty, disheveled, and had a collection of scrapes, cuts, and bruises.
“Kade. What happened?” Shadow demanded before Jenna could.
