Page 11 of 80% Beef 20% Cake (Alien Fated Mates #2)

11

I sloshed through puddles on my way to bossman Geo’s office. How would he take it when I informed him I wouldn’t be building dwellings for the foreseeable future? I didn’t even know how I felt about it.

A siren blared through the colony, the first I’d heard. It stopped me in my tracks. My eyes darted toward the nearby bakery. D’ovey would know what was happening.

“JayJay.” Beads of perspiration dotted D’ovey’s wrinkled brow. He swiped the hem of his apron over his shiny brown skin, dusting it with flour while one razor-sharp tooth worried his lower lip. “What’s that awful sound?”

I bumped a rack of warm graneth puffs to my right as I strained my ears for sounds of danger. “Yurstille must have an emergency response system in place?”

“What in the galaxy is going on out there?” D’ovey came to stand by me, and we both peered through his open door at nothing. Even though the threat hadn’t shown itself, the back of my head pounded.

My stomach growled at the yeasty tang in the air, but the thunder of approaching feet occupied my senses. A water container on the window ledge beside me held a few early blooms, their flower heads vibrating on their stalks. From our doorway vantage point, it seemed every available enforcer jogged through the puddle-strewn main street.

When D’irk came into view, I tipped my chin to a bewildered D’ovey, his apron string in knots. I sprinted away from the bakery, calling over my shoulder, “I’m sure Sisip will send word soon.”

Moments later, I fell into step with the brown-skinned Boola. “What the blant is happening?”

A bandolier of knives crisscrossed D’irk’s chest, glinting in the late winter sun. One of the many Boola colonists on Tern, he was among the few who’d encountered hellsna—twice now.

“That big white veiny bastard seems to have gone back to its nest and awoken its friends, is what’s happened.”

“They should still be in their overwintering grounds. It’s too cold for them to be rousing now,” I said, more to myself than to Sisip’s second-in-command.

“Well, I’ll let you talk those ugly worm faces back to bed. Tell me how it goes.” D’irk’s voice was flat, but his lips twisted up.

I snorted as I ran at D'irk’s side, bypassing the enforcers ahead of us. “The flying toy diversion may have angered it.”

Pink mud splattered around my ankles, and a mounting pressure built among the enforcers.

D’irk’s razor-sharp teeth clacked as he ground them back and forth. “That’s an understatement. They’re mad as hell. The last patrol reported all five hellsna headed directly toward town.”

Blant, where’s Ginger? Geo better have her at home recovering still.

My longer stride stuttered beside D’irk’s as I forced my feet toward answers rather than behind me to Ginger. We ran past the shuttered cantina. Usually teeming with revelers at any time of the rotation, the silence was unnerving. The alarm quieted as we stormed past the town center to the outskirts of Yurstille. A rooster’s crow took up the call from inside the plant-filled greendwelling, its lamar windows streaked with condensation. On the outskirts of the wastelands, the headquarters’ bay doors rattled open ahead of us, and the squelch of feet pounding the ground was replaced with enforcers catching their breaths.

Before I moved on, I cupped D’irk’s shoulder. “Let’s put them to bed for good.” I spotted Sisip in the crowd and made my way toward her.

Even on Yagras, where soldiers trained daily to fight the giant beasts, five at once were terrible odds. The need to take control of the situation pulsed through my veins.

“JayJay, just who I wanted to see.” Sisip briefly acknowledged me before her jaw tightened and she wrapped up the instructions to the Boola enforcer on her left. The wisps on the points of her ears flicked as she turned to face me. “We’ll need you sooner than I thought. Are you willing?”

On instinct, my boots snapped together, and my shoulders shifted back. “At your service.”

“You will lead a team of five. I’m giving you D’irk, one of my most experienced. The rest are all untried in battle.” She projected a three-dimensional image from her wristport into the air and pointed to a small patch of level ground past the ruins.

As she relayed her commands, doubt licked my heels. If someone died, would I be held accountable? What kind of cruel punishment might I face if the Intergalactic Federation sentenced me for a crime I had no control over? Another banishment?

Deep in thought, Sisip sucked in her striped cheeks. “It’s tough ground, but it will also be tough ground for the hellsna. The coordinates will be sent out momentarily.” Her voice cracked, the first sign of emotion flickering through her commands. “Your team will be the front line. There will be a quick debrief at the hoverbike bay.”

She passed me a com that allowed two-way communication with her and my team, and I pressed the round disk until it adhered behind my ear.

“May the goddess Sola be with you.” Sisip patted my back and forged through the crowd of enforcers to give directions to the next team leader.

“Wait,” I called over the clamoring voices. “The people in town are worried. Are you able to make an announcement over that system?”

“Good thinking.” Her wispy ears flickered, and she motioned an enforcer over.

I counted heads. If this was all the enforcers that meant five teams. Would that be enough? Blant. On Yagras, there would be many more reinforcements. And trained soldiers at that.

My wristport dinged with coordinates that, when overlaid with the data gained from regular patrols, positioned us on the eastern edge of the wastelands. That meant the entrance to their hibernaculum was likely on the opposite side of the Starry Volcano from where Ginger and I had been trapped.

Although trapped no longer seemed like a fitting description. Only one morning of waking with her in my arms had been enough for me to understand the draw of a life companion. And even though we’d only been apart for one rotation, her absence carved a hollow space in my rib cage.

A group of eager faces approached me, most of them too young.

“Sisip has commanded me to lead this team for the duration of the siege.” A group of hoverbikes mobilized to the west, and two more teams jogged through town, splitting somewhere on the main street. “I’m JayJay, former elite guard on Yagras, tasked with protecting my home from hellsna.” Some of the worry faded from their eyes. “Who here has played traegon?”

Freckles dotted the light brown skin of the male in front of me. His features came from a combination of races I couldn’t quite pin down, but the sharp teeth were Boola. “I’m Hill, Protector JayJay. My traegon team made it to the Intergalactic Gamers Championship last annum.”

A Drack youth with broad shoulders and midnight-purple scales elbowed another Drack to his left. “I kick my sibling’s ass in that game nearly every night.”

Hot-tempered, untrained Drack youth—just what I needed. But their ability to breathe fire would come in handy in a fight against the fleshy worms. Though, they both looked too young to have gained their wings or to produce much more than smoke.

Interrupting their argument, I asked, “Can either of you fly or produce fire?”

“No, Protector,” they mumbled, their heads dipped in embarrassment.

A young Boola shuffled his feet. “I’m D’unter, sir. I’ve never played traegon, but I’ve seen it played many times.” Then he thrust his chin up as if he had something to prove.

“You’ve never played traegon, D’unter?” The young Dracks exclaimed, scales glinting.

“That’s enough Efred and Saluda!” D’irk clacked his sharp-edged teeth back and forth at the Dracks before turning to me. “Your plan, Protector JayJay?”

I leaned in. “Ready to play a match with a giant blanting worm?” Five heads nodded back at me as the plan formed. “D’irk will take point. He’s second-in-command. If I should fall, or you can’t reach me, report to him. If the goddess Sola is in our favor, the beasts will remain together.” The imagery from my wristport displayed the terrain mapped to date.

I trailed my finger through the wasteland ruins to the flashing red dot. “D’irk will act as bait, luring them here, where you will be waiting, D’unter.”

D’unter thrust his chin up again as my gaze met his.

“D’irk will hide and turn off his hoverbike, and you will take his place, drawing the big veiny bastard to Saluda. Efred, you’re next, and Hill, you will bring them to me.”

D’irk already had one leg slung over his hovee, ready for action. He made eye contact with each of the young enforcers. “We’re bait. Timing is essential. You must remain silent until the very last moment and then explode on your hoverbikes with as much noise as possible and lure them to the next bait.”

“Questions?” I scanned the team’s young faces. When none of them spoke, I dismissed them. “Take your positions. May the goddess Sola find you safe passage.” I closed my eyes for a moment. Please don’t let me lose anybody this rotation.

Debris shot through the air from the downdraft of six hovees, and my team was off. I barely knew the males beyond D’irk, but I felt like an elite guard again. The protector title was one of respect, and that my team deemed me worthy of it fed my starved pride. Each young face became a brother.

The need to take action and prevent the beasts from destroying my new community and friends pulsed in my veins. With a conviction so deep it rattled my bones, I promised myself the hellsna would never threaten Ginger again.

Cold air skimmed my head as I scanned the Starry Volcano in the distance, trying to judge where their entrance might be. D’irk’s com came through the disk behind my ear, loud and clear. “D’irk here. D’unter’s engaged. Saluda, be ready.”

With the first stage complete, I loosened my grip on my steering bar and landed near a cluster of large volcanic rocks. The blue snow was hard and crunchy where I paced, but soon, my boot punched through to the soft slush below.

“Stage two complete,” D’unter gasped as he caught his breath. “Saluda engaged. Efred, be ready.”

I pulled my drink container from my gear bag, hoping the other teams were in place. Who knew when I’d have another quiet moment? The dorat popped her head out and climbed onto my shoulder. Immediately, my racing heart calmed as she settled. Her bushy tail wrapped around the back of my neck. Mid-battle, I was composed and controlled, but all this waiting around turned me inside out.

“Are you ready to tangle?” I spoke quietly to the dorat, stroking her spine. Her murky eyes were so expressive it was as if she replied, ‘I know more about hellsna than you could learn in a lifetime,’ and ‘Why is your heart jittering like a hive of buzzy insects?’

“Well then, as long as one of us is certain.” My deep rumble penetrated the silence.

The next message came in over the com. “Saluda clear. Efred engaged. Hill, be ready.” Saluda had completed his segment. The halfway mark neared.

“It won’t be long now, little thing.” I placed her in my lap, where she melted into the color of my brown pants and the silver of the hovee. A long drink of water moistened my dry mouth before I returned the container and sealed my gear bag.

The hellsna’s screams grew closer.

One steady finger hovered over the ignition button as my mind cleared of everything but the mission.

A desperate com came through from Efred. “They’re splitting up!” he shouted. “I can’t keep them together.”

Blant it! Why do these beasts have to behave differently than those on Yagras?

“Hill, hold your position.” I commed before anyone did anything stupid. “Saluda, come up their left flank. Efred, hang on. Saluda’s on his way. D’unter, D’irk, be ready to assist.”

My feet bounced, restless, on the footpegs. But I would herd them in the wrong direction if I moved now. “Hill, hold your position,” I repeated.

The shrieking intensified. The plan could still work if Hill, Efred and Saluda could get them to me.

“Hill here.” His controlled voice was a steady calm among the deafening screams. “I’m on point. Efred has the left wing and Saluda the right. Be ready, Protector.”

I’d been on the verge of launching for so long that the dorat pounced off my lap and made an easy kill of a passing linobee. My guess was it sought shelter from the churning ground. Red blood stained the linobee’s white fur pink.

Hmmm…Could Ginger remove that stain before turning it into mittens?

I shook the strange thought from my head as I watched the dorat strike one sharp claw down the linobee from chin to tail. Its entrails poured out as she brought her catch to me. Her clever gaze narrowed on mine and I stared at her for a moment.

Then it clicked. “You’re brilliant.” I patted her head. While I tied a line from my hovee to the linobee, I marveled at the fact that a dorat had claimed me once again. The fresh blood and stinking entrails made this plan fail-proof, all thanks to my companion.

Back on my hovee, with the dorat secured between my front legs, the ground rumbled. The vibrations shook loose rocks and snow around me. From behind the rock, I watched as Efred, Saluda and Hill darted in and out like starbugs around the five enormous worms, luring them straight to me.

Right hand on the accelerator, near ready to burst, I waited. My heart beat so loud it drowned the monsters’ shrieks. A lungful of air later, with Efred almost on top of me, I rocketed from behind the black rocks, dragging the bloody entrails of the linobee behind me like a gruesome kite. The giant white worms’ circular maws snapped at me, and I zig-zagged through the air, capturing their attention.

“Efred, Saluda, Hill, guard my rear,” I barked into the com. “If the formation breaks, return to herding.”

I slowed one tick and shortened the distance between my hovee and my prey. Their interest must not wane.

I scanned up, then right, then left. Where was the beast’s blanting entrance? My handlebar mirror showed the five hellsna moving as one behind me, tearing up everything in their path. They shook the ground so hard I feared the volcano would erupt. I hunkered down on my hovee, skimming the rockface and a wash of waterlogged snow slammed into me. With its thin, crusty cap shattered, icicle spears assailed my exposed head, and I flinched in pain.

“Reroute west!” I shouted into my wristport. When I glanced over my shoulder to assess positions, my jaw clenched as Efred’s machine tumbled amid the churning icy shards.

Blant, no brother’s going down on my watch!

“Efred, status update.” With no response, I reworked the plan. “Saluda, circle back for Efred and regroup with D’irk. Hill, with me.”

Each time I glanced in my mirror, the monsters’ undulating throats snapped and swallowed a little closer. The gore rotting in their teeth smelled of decomposing bodies. I flew close enough that the vicious protrusions spiraling through their translucent bodies grew as large as battle swords.

Efred was a sitting linobee—if they smelled his blood, all would be lost. I had to give Saluda the time he needed to reach Efred.

I pulled the line, dragging the linobee toward me, severed it with the knife strapped to my leg and threw it high in the air. They writhed together, screaming for each tiny morsel.

The ground shook so hard that the vibration loosened the rocky ledge I’d been flying beneath, trying to find the entrance. Rock rained down on me, and I swore as I lifted my arms to cover my bludgeoned head. My hovee jerked and I prayed to Sola to guide me through this doomed mission. My footpeg ground against stone and then sheared off, shooting me off balance, and I ricocheted off the black volcanic rockface. A burst of heat shot through my leg, and I cupped the throbbing spot where a shard of rock had sliced through my pants and plunged into my thigh.

I longed for my old armor. The dorat jumped to my shoulders as I wildly twisted the hovee to avoid smashing into the steep volcano side again. One-handed, I slowed my hoverbike and did my best to lash a strap around my leg.

“Status, Protector?” Hill’s voice wobbled over the com. “You’re leaking fuel!”

Blant, the volcanic rock must have penetrated the fuel tank. I lifted my arm in a sort of half-wave at Hill. “D’irk, report,” I ordered as I swayed in my seat.

“Efred has non-life-threatening injuries. Hoverbike non-operational.”

I tapped the fuel gauge, urging the needle to move. It remained in the red. I’d be forced to call the team off if I didn’t find the entrance soon. The amount of blood I was losing loosened my grip on the seat.

Hill had teased and taunted the hellsna away from me, saving my sorry ass, riling the enormous worms just enough to follow. He appeared undaunted among the chaos. I would keep him with me a little longer.

“D’irk, proceed to the western cave entrance. Advise Sisip medical assistance is requested.”

My instincts, though fuzzy, told me I needed a little more time. I tapped the fuel gauge again. It didn’t fill.

A com came in from D’irk. “I won’t leave you and Hill, Protector.”

Ignoring D’irk, I flew ahead. A sign at last. A long swath of cleared land appeared, and an opening in the volcano’s side revealed itself. Though made of rock, the ground rippled like sand after the tide had passed—evidence the hellsna had been coming and going here for many annums.

I reefed the strap on my leg tighter as my vision blurred. “Entrance located. Hill and I will join you shortly. Get Efred safe and warm and conserve fuel. Return to the west entrance at once.”

D’irk’s teeth clacked. “Retreating to the west cave entrance as requested.” Saluda and D’unter grumbled in the background.

A dressing down would be coming. Sisip had been lax in training her enforcers to follow the chain of command. But right now, I had to coax a group of enraged hellsna back into their hibernaculum.

Hill and I climbed straight up the face of the volcano, transmission straining along with my thumping head. We pushed the hovees to their limits as we urged them toward the entrance.

The beasts shrieked and writhed as they reached for us. My leg throbbed. The dorat walked a tightrope line across the handlebars. The beasts showed absolutely no inclination to return to their cave. The blanting bastards weren’t cooperating in the least. I lifted my chin to the sky and closed my eyes for a moment.

This time, when I flew over the entrance to entice the vicious demons inside, a bushy-tailed dorat leaped from the handlebar. She dropped into the dark hole in a technicolored display, lifted her tail and released a pungent liquid mist. My heart leaped after her, but fortunately, my body remained firmly on my hovee. “Dorat,” I called after her in dismay. She really needed a name.

“Protector, do you have some kind of secret weapon?” I could tell Hill was smiling through the com. “You’ve been holding out on me.”

“Looks like I do.”

She landed, feet soft, and prowled along the entrance, continuing to spray. I held my breath as the almost blind hellsna launched toward her scent like a homing beacon.

Undulating wildly, they tracked her scent, slamming their monstrous bodies into the cave entrance. If I could’ve called her back to safety, I would have. But she had a mind of her own and I had to trust she knew what she was doing.

Each salivating beast jostled for the lead. The brittle volcanic rock broke and gouged into their translucent flesh, leaving long trails of blood that trickled like streams in their shadow’s as they fought to reach the dorat.

“Well, would you look at that,” I muttered.

Hill pulled his hovee alongside mine. “I can’t believe it. She’s herded them all back into their hibernaculum.” His eyes widened as the last beast fought its way inside the cave. “Don’t know about you, Protector, but I’m running on fumes over here.”

“I won’t make it back.” My hovee sputtered, and I guided it to the ground.

“Hop on, Protector.” Hill idled beside me. He helped me prop my injured leg over his saddle and then climbed on in front of me.

“Happy to have you on my team, Hill.” I patted his shoulder. “Well done.” I opened the com to the rest of the team. “Mission complete.”

Sisip’s voice came through the com, her relief evident. “JayJay, D’irk, Efred, D’unter, Saluda and Hill, excellent work. All able-bodied enforcers, return to the hoverbay.”

Cheers rang through the com. Despite my worry over the dorat, my heart filled in a way it hadn’t for a long time. Even though the respite would be temporary, we’d kept the settlement safe.

“Ah, Protector…” Hill yelled over the downdraft. “What’s keeping them from coming back out after us?”