Protected by the Alien Warrior Triad Read online

  His blood is acidic? What kind of Aurelian is he?

  Ignoring the discomfort, I move like lightning – dropping the slug to the ground and grabbing the sealant gun. I pray it has enough left in it to close the gaping wound and halt the bleeding.

  I aim and pull. The black beam shoots forward and touches the wound. The Aurelian’s flesh pulls together over the jagged injury and the alien bellows in pain – writhing and twisting as I keep the beam centered on his wound.

  The other two Aurelians pause from their battle to spare a glance over at us. I know it looks like I’m torturing their friend – and the alien with the scar, who’d saved Tod and Stacey, stares at me with open distrust.

  They have the opportunity to stare now. Scorp bodies are piled so high at the doorway that no more of the foul creatures can enter. Despite that, the curly haired warrior with the war-hammer still stands at the ready.

  I feel the heat of their eyes on me, and I know what this looks like. There seems to be something primitive about these mysterious Aurelians, and I have the instinctual understanding that they’re confused and suspicious about what would be considered standard medical treatment by any Aurelians we’re more used to encountering.

  To these primitives, the situation is this: Their warrior companion, who somehow radiates an aura of leadership despite kneeling wounded on the ground, took a bullet to the chest. Then a woman – a stranger – used a jagged implement to pull metal from the wound. Finally she fired some sort of mysterious beam gun at the injury; one that appears to cause their leader endless agony.

  Damn the embargo! The Aurelians we’re more used to dealing with – the ones without the loincloths and tribal tattoos – have access to the highest-quality medical supplies. My human-made sealant gun has none of the numbing qualities that the Aurelian versions possess; so the treatment that might save this alien’s life causes pain akin to killing him all over again.

  But it’s not like I have much of a choice. I focus the sealant gun again, aiming the sputtering beam against the rest of the wound. Through inhuman willpower alone, the injured Aurelian doesn’t put his hands out in front of the tool to stop the beam, or try to push me away. He just grits his teeth and bears the agony stoically.

  That much I’m grateful for. My only other hope is that the gun continues to work long enough to seal the injury completely.

  The Gods must be looking down on us. The sealant gun finally flickers and snuffs out only after the wound is completely sealed.

  The gush of green blood finally stops.

  I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding in. The alien looks down at his sealed wound, smiling faintly – as though this near-fatal injury had been just a minor inconvenience.

  Then, incredibly, he stands.

  “No! Wait!” I yell, putting my arm on the top of the alien’s shoulder to try and stop him from getting up. I might as well have been standing in front of a train. The Aurelian shrugs me off like I’m weightless - getting halfway to his feet before he finally falls back down to the ground in a heap.

  I dive forward and thankfully catch the green-blood alien’s head in my hands before it can hit the hard ground. I didn’t just use up the last of my sealant gun to treat a gunshot wound, only to have him die of a concussion instead!

  The alien had been courageous to try and stand – but he’s lost so much blood it’ll be a few days, or even a week, before he can stand effortlessly again.

  Unless, of course, Aurelians heal faster than humans. Once again, I’m so ignorant of their physiology that I can’t even answer that question.

  But even as I congratulate myself for saving this Aurelian’s life, a new horror hits me.

  We may have survived the Scorp attack – but what happens when the Capital sends reinforcements and finds three of their hated Aurelian enemies here in the city?

  I stare down at the passed-out Aurelian. He has a strong jawline, and close-cropped hair. No stubble frames his masculine face. He’s the most attractive man I’ve ever seen, and even while unconscious he makes my heart pound in a way I’d never thought possible.

  But I don’t have time to waste with thoughts like that. I need to save the other two kids – Runner and Tyler. Even if it means going out into the battle that waits for me outside.

  I swallow hard, nervous about what awaits me.

  I feel safe enough in the company of these three aliens, but I know there’s no such safety outside. The huge, half-reptilian Scorp will be roaming the streets, and it’s probably suicide to try what I know I must.

  But I stand up, ready to face my fate.

  7

  Forn

  I blink groggily and open my eyes. I fainted for a moment, losing myself to darkness – but it didn’t claim me completely.

  I know it should have done – by rights I should be dead right now. It was the endless abyss of the void that should have grabbed me, not the warm fogginess of mere unconsciousness.

  The strange woman – my mate – has saved me by some kind of otherworldly magic. By some miracle, I’m cured. I saw how much blood I’d lost – even now I lay in a pool of it, watching it hiss and fizzle against the floor. No man should suffer a wound that spills so much of his life’s blood and still live to tell the tale of it.

  Yet, somehow, this sorceress used her incredible healing powers to stop the bleeding before the last of my blood spilled out; and pulled me from the brink of oblivion.

  If she can work this magic, what else is she capable of?

  I know instinctively. She is the one who will heal my tribe.

  The thought emerges in my brain as though it was placed there by the Orb-God Himself. It rings true in my mind, as sure as the sun rising in the morning. I need to bring this beautiful woman back to my planet and take her into our tribe’s cave; to heal the masses of sick Aurelians, their female mates, and our vulnerable children.

  I look down at the wound on my chest, which is but now merely a scar. The room spins around me but I breathe in deeply and taste my mate’s scent. She smells right. Just breathing her in makes me feel stronger.

  A shiver travels the length of my spin. Even more than that – she’s untouched. A virgin. I can sense it – and I know that I will be the one to claim her innocence.

  The gorgeous virgin has seen that I’m conscious, and she seems surprised – astonished, perhaps. She clearly has no understanding of how resilient our Scorp-blooded warriors are.

  The beautiful female reaches out a hand, and I take it. Her eyes widen ever so slightly at the touch of my skin against hers.

  Her hand is calloused – the roughness of a woman unafraid of hard work. She’s clearly been left to take care of herself on this planet. I ache to take her with me, back to our world, where she’ll never have to work again. There she can bathe in the cool, clear streams and I can rub soft-grass pulp over every inch of her delicate body. I know I could stare into those gorgeous blue eyes of hers for hours or even days.

  I clamber to my feet and gently brush a stray hair out of her face.

  “Forn,” I say softly, trying to keep my voice gentle so I don’t scare my mate. How can a woman like this be mine? She is so soft, so petite – so delicate compared to me.

  How could a flower like this look at me and see anything but a brute?

  There’s a hint of confusion in her eyes. “Forn,” I say again, touching my chest, taking care to avoid my wound. She bites her lip and nods, then points to herself.

  “Tammy,” she says, her voice barely a whisper.

  Tammy. I’ve dreamed of this moment since I was a boy, playing in the mud and wrestling with the other children. I’ve waited for this moment so long, it barely feels real.

  “Tammy,” I repeat, and I finally know the name of my mate.

  The word is soft on my tongue. There are no hard consonants, no roughness to the word. My cock surges to attention, and the diversion of blood to my dick sends another wave of dizziness through me. I stumble and Tammy catches me, her han
ds gentle on my chest.

  I ache to kiss her, but there is still a war to be won.

  Outside is chaos. My mate is touching me, but I have not won her yet. I stand to my full height, looking down at her and knowing I must keep her safe, no matter what happens. I snarl as I turn and look at the pile of Scorp corpses plugging the entranceway. The foul creatures have stopped the assault, seeking out softer targets – not ones protected by a triad of lethal Aurelian battle brothers.

  For now.

  “More Scorps will come,” I telepath to my triad. They nod as one, keeping their eyes on the door and every muscle tense. We’ve saved each other’s lives a hundred times over, but nothing could prepare us for what awaits us outside. I saw how many of the Scorp ships had landed.

  It’s going to be a slaughter.

  “Are you strong enough?” Questions Hadone, looking at my closed wound. I grit my teeth, bristling at his words. He speaks truly, but I am ashamed to be weak in front of them.

  “Aye,” I growl, taking a step forward. My leg doesn’t buckle under me, and I feel steadier. I spare a solitary glance at the man who pointed that devastating stick-weapon at me, causing me so much pain.

  It shot something, as from a bow. The soft tribes of the south rely on bows and arrows to strike their enemies from afar. They are a coward’s weapon.

  The human looks sheepish now that he’s seen us keep his home safe from enemies. Even with a weapon like he has in his hands, he’d not have been able to stand up to the endless waves of Scorp warriors flooding through that doorway.

  And even now, his home will not be safe for long. My triad and I have more than just ourselves to protect. My mate is the priority, and because of the way she looks at them, I want the two, small children she protects to be the next.

  Hadone steps forward, close to Tammy – and for just a moment I bristle with jealousy. And yet, I owe Hadone my life ten times over. I’d rip the head off of any other man who attempted to get near her. But Hadone? And likewise Darok? They can approach.

  “Hadone,” my blood-brother says slowly, looking at Tammy as though she’s a precious thing he’s already lost.

  Tammy gives him a weak smile. “Hadone,” she repeats, then adds a string of words that I cannot make sense of. She accents the words by pointing furiously at the two small children cowering under the table in the corner.

  “She wants us to protect them,” says Darok slowly, piecing her words together logically. He licks his lips, giving Tammy a stare that has a hint of suspicion to it. He’s never been a trusting one.

  Mind you, perhaps Darok has wisdom Hadone and I like. All of us feel the wrongness of this situation, but Darok feels it most keenly. We did not earn our mate through ritual sacrifice – so why did the portal that brought us here open?

  Darok doesn’t like that the ancient traditions have been circumvented. I feel it as well. I feel as if I don’t deserve such a fine mate to keep and have as my own – not yet, anyway. Not until I’ve proven myself.

  Tammy points at the children again, then holds up two fingers.

  “What is she saying?” Asks Hadone.

  “She wants us to protect both of them,” I answer.

  Tammy puts up two more fingers and I squint.

  “There are two more children, somewhere out there,” says Darok slowly, and we all understand the gravity of his words.

  “By the Orb-God, two more? Somewhere out in that madness?” Hadone sounds angry. “We’ve found our mate. We need to keep her safe, not attempt to help every human in this damned city!”

  His voice goes cold. Hadone is a callous man at times, a necessary trait for survival. We all know the odds of getting out of a city laid siege by Scorp warriors. It’s going to be slim odds even without two extra bodies to find and protect.

  But four children? Four will cut our chances in half.

  8

  Darok

  I felt Forn’s aura weakening through the Bond as his blood spilled out. He knows he should be gone, claimed by the void.

  Yet this woman, Tammy, was somehow able to heal him through her strange witchcraft.

  Tammy’s blue eyes are wide and innocent as she looks at the two little children, cowering beneath the table. She goes to them and holds her hands out, gently soothing them as she helps them out from their hiding place. My heart breaks as I imagine how attentive she’d surely be caring for my many sons.

  “We keep them safe. All of them,” I say, my voice resolute. I feel a surge of frustration through the Bond from Hadone, and he gives a hard look...

  ...before nodding in deference.

  He’s tough, Hadone – sometimes bordering on callous. But not when it comes to our mate.

  These children might not be Tammy’s biological children, but she looks at them as if they were. If we allow any harm to come to her adopted children, she’ll never be able to look at us with the love and adoration we desire from our fated mate.

  At least, I think that’s my reasoning? Or am I growing soft?

  I nod at my mate and hold up four fingers. The smile she gives me melts the pain in my chest. I will protect this beautiful little creature and her four adopted charges – with my last breath, if it comes to that.

  My adrenaline pulses. The auras of Hadone and Forn swell in my mind as we contemplate the upcoming battle. I feel the tinge of fear welling up in my mind. Unlike my blood-brothers I take no pride from battle, no joy from killing. I’d always preferred to teach the children of our tribe how to hunt and craft, rather than fight.

  Or, at least, I did before we had to flee our ancestral home and live in solitude.

  Killing. There’s always killing. I tried as best I could to keep our youngsters away from it as long as I could.

  I turn and look at Tammy, and my heart swells. Tammy is a gem – a perfect, soft little creature as yet unmarked by war. I ache to keep her safe, and yet I can barely look at her. Knowing she exists is a dark pain; because I know what awaits her.

  She is going to die today.

  So will my battle brothers, and so will I.

  Hadone courts death to erase his guilt. Forn courts it for glory and bravery. He wants to die in a hail of blood, fighting to his last breath to be immortalized in song.

  But me? I have no taste for it. I have no death wish.

  And yet death is all that awaits us. There is not an Aurelian triad in the universe that could make it through the mass of Scorp Warriors pillaging this city. The rumbles of thunder from the communities defenses have already slowed and stopped. Whoever was manning the weapons have clearly been overwhelmed and slaughtered.

  There’s nothing to protect the people of this city now.

  We’d only survived this long by creating a choke point – using the pile of Scorp carcasses blocking the entranceway to mount a defense against them.

  The Scorp warriors could have slowly overwhelmed us – but they’ve chosen not to. Like the craven, disgusting beasts they are, they prefer to hunt easier targets… for now.

  But is that what we’ll become if we leave this place?

  Out there in the open, trapped between huge buildings, we’ll have nowhere to run. We won’t stand a chance.

  I look at Tammy and despair overwhelms me. Here is my fated mate, and yet I can’t even tell her my name. It would be too painful to hear it on her lips and know that I won’t hear her speak it again for the rest of my life. I breathe in and smell her scent, and it makes my hackles rise as lust pulses through every cell of my body.

  Gods, I ache for her – even if she was sent to be my doom. I ache for her, even if the God of Tricks brought me to this planet for the sole purpose of letting me see what I want before I lose it.

  9

  Tammy

  Inside, my mind reels at the crisis. Outside, I try to stay calm and strong for the sake of Stacy and Tod.

  Think, dammit! Think! What are we working with, here?

  Let’s take a look at these three.

  The one at the back �
�� the one with the scar, who’d rescued the kids. Well, he doesn’t even want to look at me – like I’m something horrific. The one with the curly hair and the war-hammer? He clearly wasn’t too pleased about the idea of going out into the open to find Tyler and Runner.

  But what about this third one? The one that sends tingles down my spine? I know he wants to help me. I need to focus on him, but he’s wounded.

  I feel protective of the third alien, even though he’s over a foot taller than me and could pick me up with one hand. He’s my patient – and that means I’m responsible for his life.

  I swallow hard as I stare at the pile of twitching Scorp corpses at the doorway. I have no pity for the beasts, but their deaths show the brutality these three Aurelians are capable of.

  Why had fate thrown these aliens into my life?

  I’m supposed to hate Aurelians. In fact, could they somehow even be responsible for this Scorp attack? It does seem too coincidental that they arrive at exactly the same time…

  I glance toward my two young charges. The two little kids are tough customers, but they’re trembling. I don’t blame them. I kneel down until I’m face-to-face with the two kids. “We have to go find Runner and Tyler. If you stay close to me, you’ll be safe, okay?”

  Stacy and Tod nod, trembling, and I wish that my words were true – and not just hopeful fantasy.

  Out there, we’re almost certainly doomed – but perhaps no more than we would be remaining here.

  Edgar grunts from behind me. He’s a little abashed from shooting an ally, but he clings to the rifle like it’s his only lifeline. “I can keep them safe. I’ll hold out here until the Capital sends reinforcements.”

  I swallow hard, analyzing all the factors. It’s a tempting offer. If Edgar could hold out against the Scorp, I wouldn’t have to bring the two children out into the dangers of the city. Hell, I’d be able to cower here until help arrives.