Page 18 of Alien's Challenge
“He didn’t start it. That creep grabbed me.” She didn’t understand the need she had to defend Faris, but he was the only decent person she’d encountered since going camping in the woods.
“He brought a human female here. He started it.”
“This place is the worst,” she muttered.
Faris
The haze of the fight took over. It was the fever, the chemical imbalance roaring through his body.
Faris reveled in the simple pleasure of fist striking flesh, feeling bone give way from the force of his blow. He was not a good male and never pretended to be. He only hoped that he had not frightened Alice. Currently, she was hiding under a table, cradling the blade he gave her to her chest.
That pleased him more than it should.
Someone capitalized on his distraction as he watched Alice and grabbed him by the quills. The shafts detached painfully, no doubt taking a good chunk of skin with them.
“You egg kicker,” he growled. The quills would fall out when he molted, but now the skin under his scales would be raw.
His tail whipped from side to side as he lost himself to the rhythm of the brawl. A blade punctured the coat, but he did not care. It was Rand’s, after all. Adrenaline numbed the sting of his scales being pierced. It did not matter. Faris would be the last male standing.
He was the fourth child of the Eternal House of Nakkon. He was made to be sacrificed. The Imperial Militia shaped him, honed him into a weapon, and then his family turned that weapon against their allies.
Sentenced for life on this prison planet, he had been without purpose. Now he had a female to protect, and no one here in this seedy establishment, this miserable town, or this wretched planet would harm her.
Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Kamron took Alice to the back.
No.
Faris stalked after the male. If Kamron thought he could take Alice from him, he was gravely mistaken.
“Are you in there? Your pupils have expanded, and your eyes are black,” Kamron said.
Faris growled. Dilated pupils were another sign of the fever as hormones surged out of balance within his body. Throwing himself back into the fight would help to purge the chemicals but then he would be distracted from protecting Alice.
He stretched out a hand, touching Alice’s cloud of brown hair. She needed him to be focused.
“I’m fine,” she said. “Though a shower would be amazing. And pants. I mentioned pants, right?”
“Shower. Rest. Garments,” Faris said, his voice thick and husky. He could do these things for her.
“You got to leave but you can’t go through the front,” Kamron said, interrupting the ways Faris would provide for his mate.
Faris growled.
Kamron held up his hand in submission. “Whatever you’re going through, don’t do it here.” He kicked up the corner of a filthy area rug, revealing a trap door. “This tunnel will take you to the edge of town.”
Faris opened the hatch. Blackness and icy cold filled the tunnel. He did not want to take his mate through a cold, dark tunnel but the noise from the brawl continued.
This was the only exit.
Chapter 5
Alice
They trudged through the tunnel. Fortunately, Faris could see in the dark or knew the way because he traversed the tunnel with confidence. She held onto the sleeve of his collar, trying her best not to stumble on the uneven surface.
Eventually, the tunnel ended in what could charmingly be described as a storm drainage ditch.
Better than a sewer.
