Page 82 of Protected by the Alien Warrior Triad

21

Hadone

Diana watches as I duck a blow and tackle Forn to the ground. I’m the best grappler of all of us, but I know deep in my heart that Ton of the fish-eaters is stronger. This will not be a glorious battle. This will be a brutal fight to the death, and we’ll most likely lose.

The three of them have hated me ever since their woman left them. Her name was Ginger, and she left her tribe for me.

She haunts me to this day.

They believed that Ginger left this planet through a portal, because she wanted me, yet could not have me. Shedidwant me – that part is true. Ginger professed her love for me, and when I told her I didn’t return her feelings, she threw herself from a cliff.

She killed herself, rather than return home.

I buried her, and yet her face still haunts me to this day.

It is true what Ton said. She left them because of me. I still feel the guilt every day of my life – bearing the knowledge that I was the cause of her death. Some part of me has been aching to repent for what I did to her all this time.

Some part of me thinks Ishouldbe beaten to a bloody pulp by Ton. Part of me still hurts every night for that woman – not because I had feelings for her, but because the fate she chose and the hole she left in our tribe still haunts me.

Maybe I should have pretended I loved her – if only so she might still be alive today.

Fear and horror come through the Bond from Darok. I stop my training instantly. We were all preparing for the battle of our lives, and yet I was not prepared for such raw emotion to come pouring through the Bond.

“Tammy! Something has happened to her!”

For much of my life, there was the call of the void reaching out to me – a siren’s song attracting me to oblivion that I’ve constantly had to fight against. Now that I have Tammy, it feels as though I finally want to live again. She brings me back a joy for life, a lust to be alive.

What if something has happened to her?

Forn stares, eyes wide as he looks over my shoulder. The sun is hanging high above us and sweat drips from my body. It is nearing the time when we’ll have to do battle for our lives. I turn, and gasp as I see Darok running towards us carrying the limp body of Tammy.

I can feel his grief through our Bond.