Page 40 of Matched to the Alien King
Another step backward brought me into the hallway where a host of my superiors, and Avery, were currently marching toward me.
Yep, now was as good a time as any to skedaddle.
I hightailed it down the rest of that hallway, not at a sprint like I wanted, but still at a good clip. If they were calling after me, I sure couldn’t hear them.
After rounding the next corner into the short hall with the ladder, I checked to see I was alone and then took off toward the exit. Away from Mike and Avery and everyone else with their endless questions I was sick of not answering.
Before my escape, I dove into the little room, grabbed my dress, and shoved it down into my shirt. It was too pretty to leave crumpled underground. Besides, Oreo would poke my eyes out if I left it here.
I took the ladder two rungs at a time, feeling like I was climbing at a crawl as the sour taste of panic coated my tongue. Why did it feel like I was running away from Earth Space Fleet for good? Because I’d fucked up the package delivery beyond measure? Because they might be mixed up with an assassin like Emjay, and that didn’t sit right with me? Because of Maxx? I wasn’t exactly sure of the reason, but I did know I wasn’t the same person who agreed to make the delivery that I was now.
Did that make me a traitor?
No, because I still believed in the Faid War.
At the top of the ladder, I shoved my thumb into the button that scraped the sand from over the door and then opened it, all without looking behind me. Nothing like pretending the problem doesn’t exist if I can’t see it, right?
Another tap on the button gave me a ten-second lead time to get out before it shut again. As soon as my boots hit the sand, I grabbed my high heels and sprinted toward the jungle. Toward Maxx.
Just in case, I risked several glances over my shoulder. No one was there. Yet.
“Maxx,” I shouted as I drew closer. “Ma—”
My voice died in my throat when he stepped out from behind the trees.
A red sticky wet film soaked him from the crown of his head, over the purple scales on his bare chest, and down to his shoes.
Blood, I realized.
Struck silent, I gazed up into his eyes, fierce but growing softer the longer he looked at me, until they landed on the cut on my face.
“Are you all right?” we both asked at the same time.
“You first, Nera,” he said gently, reaching for the wound on my cheek and then reeling back again without touching it. “Did someone do this to you?”
“I… I had a run-in with my ex-husband,” I admitted.
The change to Maxx’s demeanor happened instantly. His lightning eyes flared with brutality. His mouth twisted into a furious line. His muscles stiffened and coiled.
He was an apex predator about to unleash on his prey.
I’d be scared to death if I didn’t know he’d never, ever hurt me.
He pulled his machete from the makeshift scabbard hanging from his belt and started forward to the trapdoor.
“No, Maxx,” I begged, swinging around in front of him. “You can’t just go in there.”
“What does he look like?” He easily pivoted around me and continued his charge forward.
“Nothing. He looks like nothing.” I skirted around him again and planted my hands on his rock-hard pecs in a weak attempt to stop him. “Please. He’s not worth it.”
He didn’t stop of course, and now my boots were sliding backward across the sand with the unstoppable force of him. My hands were sliding too, all over the blood that coated him.
“Is this yours?” I asked, horrified. “What happened?”
He continued to shove forward; I continued to slide backward uselessly across the sand.
Not stopping his forward progress, his gaze flickered with pain and malice as he looked at my cut again. “He hurt you, Nera.”
