Page 3 of Marked for Vengeance
Vengeance bowed his head and waited for Risk to speak. It was as close as any of them got to apologizing. Havoc did the same.
After a moment, Risk spoke again. “We have no idea how any of this mating crap works. We’ve neverseena female before today. Assuming there are any survivors, don’t you think we should get to know them before we decide we want to spend forever with one?” He pointed at Vengeance. “You want to charge in and claim one, but what if she doesn’t like you? What if you don’t like her?”
Vengeance considered explaining what he’d noticed about Hope and Menace’s scents, but he couldn’t find the words. Instead, he shrugged. “You think that could happen?”
Havoc scratched his beard, considering things. Then he scowled at Risk and said, “When did you become the logical one?”
Risk scoffed. “Right after the two of you saw Menace’s female and lost your fucking minds.”
Vengeance snarled in resentment. He hadn’t lost his mind. Meeting Hope had simply made him even more determined to reach the downed ship and try to find a female whose scent matched his own.
“But she was so beautiful,” Havoc said.
Annoyance with the delay and constant chatter pushed him to action. Vengeance turned and shoved his clan-brother hard enough to make Havoc stumble. “Hope is pretty. My mate will bebeautiful,” he declared. “I will claim the best of them for myself.”
Risk snapped. “That’s not what Hope said. She told us to be gentle with the females. Remember?”
“No,” Vengeance lied. He recalled every word the little human female had uttered, but he didn’t want to admit it right now. “I don’t remember that part.”
“She said to be gentle, like Menace was with her.” Havoc swung his head from side to side and grinned a little. “I don’t think that word translated correctly. Our brother is far from gentle.”
They all laughed in agreement. Menace was more like him than many of his clan-mates. Whatever the verexi had done to them, the results had not been uniform. Each of his brothers had their own talents and temperaments. Vengeance had never understood why they’d created the fa’rel to be so different from each other when their creators valued conformity. From the clothes they wore to the way they spoke, everything about that race was the same.
After the laughter died away, Risk spoke again. “Hope also said that if we were lucky, one of the females might choose tobond with us.Might,” he repeated. “We shouldn’t assume we can simply lay claim to one of the females.”
Vengeance growled, not in disagreement but because he knew how right his brother was. They wouldn’t be able to lay claim to whatever female they found. She had to be the right female for them. But if he was the only one who knew that, would the others try to take a female who wasn’t the right match? If she were among the survivors, would any of his brothers try to takehisfemale? They needed to catch up before that happened.
“I like my plan better,” was all he said.
Havoc turned and shoved him. “You would. Simple minds like simple plans. Risk is saying I’m right. We need a plan.”
Risk raised his voice. “That’s not what I said!”
Frustration and anger flowed off him in waves, triggering an instinctive response from both him and Havoc. Vengeance’s fur stood on end, and his hands curled into fists at his sides.
Havoc snarled and raised one hand, his claws extended and his teeth bared.
No one moved. This always happened when they spent too much time with other members of their clan. The wrong word or a sudden move was all it took for a fight to break out, and that would only delay themmore.
Determined to break the standoff, Vengeance forced himself to relax as he unslung the pack from his shoulders and started rummaging around inside it. “If we’re going to stand around here for a while, I’m eating. You two do whatever it is you’re doing.”
The tactic worked. The others relaxed, and the charged feeling in the air dissipated like when mist met a stiff breeze.
In no time, the three were eating and talking as if the entire incident had never happened.
Risk talked the most. He explained what he thought needed to happen. He wanted to act faster than Havoc did, with a flexible plan that would allow for more variables, but he still seemed to want to complicate things more than Vengeance liked. It sounded like a compromise, which meant no one got what they wanted.
When Risk was done, they lapsed into a thoughtful silence. No one agreed to anything, and now they had three ideas for how to proceed instead of two. That might be a problem later, but none of them seemed too concerned about it now. It was how things worked. Every member of the clan had the freedom to make their own decisions, so long as their choices didn’t threaten the safety of the others. After a lifetime of experiments and imprisonment, the right to make their own choices was too important. He and his brothers would fight to the death before they allowed anyone to take their freedom again.
Once they were underway once more, something did go Vengeance’s way. Risk set a faster pace than before. Soon they were racing each other through the woods, their tawny coloring allowing them to blend into the gold and orange foliage. Every step they took before nightfall reduced the distance they’d need to cross when the sun rose again. Even with the shortcut they’d taken, they were still nearly a half-day’s journey from the area of the crash site. Their clan-brothers would be there soon. They might have arrived already, depending on how fast they had traveled. If he’d been with them, they’d have raced the entire way.
Vengeance shot an annoyed look at Havoc. If Havoc still led them, they’d probably be walking. He wiped the expression from his face almost as quickly as it appeared. As annoying as his brother’s approach could be, sometimes he was right. Havoc had been one of the planners who orchestrated their escape from the verexi.
The fucking scrawnies had lied to them. They’d convinced the fa’rel that the entire experiment was a failure. That part was true enough. While he and his brethren were lethal warriors, they were also stubborn and resentful of any attempts to command or control them.
Their captors told them they’d found a suitable planet for the entire group, and they’d be allowed to live there unmolested.Thatwas all a lie.
The scrawnies wanted them dead and blasted into atoms to get rid of any proof they’d ever existed.
