Page 38 of The Alien Warrior's Heart

She stood confidently and took the Heronas’s hand. The brood hid behind her, poking his head out past Si-Moon’s skirt to watch him with wide eyes.

Zar’s nostrils flared. “Do you understandwhatyou are touching?”

Si-Moon arched an eyebrow. Though she said nothing, defiance simmered in her brown eyes and in the firm set of her lips. She had taken a liking to this Heronas brood and would not allow him to kill it.

He huffed out an angry breath. How could she dare to see that Heronas as anything but an evil, betraying beast in the making? Perhaps he had not matured to the level of his comrades, Zar would admit that, but this brood would become his enemy in time.

Neh.

Hewasalready Zar’s enemy.

“Zar,” Si-Moon sighed, “plez.”

His top lip curled in a sneer. “Neh.”

“Zar!”

“I said neh, Si-Moon!” His voice crackled with fury and Zar had to spin away to keep a lock on his temper.

Si-Moon was treating his enemy as if he were harmless and in need of help. She knew not what she was doing. When Zar looked at that Heronas brood, he did not see a small, helpless creature. He saw his father being slashed down in battle. He saw blood draining from the wounds. He saw the Heronas sneering as he stood in the puddle of red. He saw his own hands tearing that Heronas apart while his father bled out and died.

Neh.

The Heronas deserved to perish.

All of them.

Even their brood.

Zar, we must show kindness to all…

He pushed his father’s voice out of his head.

Kindness helped no one. On this planet, showing mercy to an enemy could spell the end of an entire species. Zar could not afford to followthatPlutonian tradition. Not when the anger inside him threatened to cloud his vision in red.

This Heronas scum would not receive forgiveness. Because of him, because of his back-stabbing kind, so many Plutonian offspring had grown up without fathers.

Korben, Pin, Tiegan, Lans—all of them.

Every. One.

It was bad enough to lose their females in the Red Death, but the Heronas were never satisfied without bloodshed. It wastheirfault that he had suffered. Should he take pity on this Heronas young when those bastards had never taken pity on the Plutonians?

Neh.

Never.

Brood or neh, the Heronas would feel his rage.

Zar felt a soft hand on his thigh. Expecting to find Si-Moon when he turned around, he was stunned to look down into the dark eyes of the Heronas. He roughly threw the brood down and pressed a blade to his neck.

The brood rose on the tips of his toes, his eyes trained on the dagger. He tried to retreat, but Zar grabbed him by the back of his long neck and kept him still. So close. Just one whip of his wrist…

“Zar!” Si-Moon darted toward him. She knocked into his arm and tossed his dagger away. Her tongue began to wag in a scolding hot enough to burn the foliage.

“Si-Moon, stayoutof this.”

Si-Moon threw her arms wide, her eyes flashing.