Page 70 of Alien Assassin's Heir

CHAPTER 20

KRAJ

Isit outside the safehouse, back pressed hard against the door, claws digging into the dirt until the earth gives way beneath me. My chest heaves like I’ve just run ten klicks under fire, but I haven’t moved. Not really. I’m frozen.

Her words echo through me, over and over, each syllable striking deeper than a blade.

“Mama says my heart is part yours.”

That little voice, high and certain. The warmth of her tiny hand pressed to my chest.

Every instinct I’ve ever trusted—instincts that kept me alive through ambushes and betrayals—screams that it’s true.

The girl. Solie. She’s mine.

I squeeze my eyes shut, but it doesn’t help. I see her anyway. Those golden eyes flashing like fire in the lamplight. That laugh that vibrates in the same rhythm as Luna’s. The small, scaly patches she tries to keep hidden.

The signs were there all along, and I—idiot that I am—told myself it was impossible. That she belonged to someone else. That Luna had moved on, found another, left me behind in every way that mattered.

But she hadn’t.

She hadn’t.

My hands shake so hard I can’t keep still. I drag my pack into my lap, flipping through encrypted files, accessing old medical reports, biometric scans. Cross-referencing images from three years ago with the girl’s features etched into my memory.

Everything matches.

Her eyes. My eyes.

Her laugh. My laugh.

Her blood… my blood.

A low growl rattles in my throat before I can stop it. The sound reverberates in my chest, alien and guttural, born of rage and grief and something I don’t have a name for.

I stand. My legs feel unsteady, but fury keeps me upright. Fury and something sharper. Something worse.

I push the door open and step back inside.

The safehouse isquiet except for the faint hum of the generator and the creak of old boards under my weight. Luna’s in the kitchen, arms wrapped around herself like she’s holding in all the pieces threatening to spill out. She doesn’t look up at first. When she does, her face is pale, her eyes rimmed red.

I stop in front of her, every nerve burning. My voice comes out rough, torn.

“She’s mine, isn’t she?”

Her lips part. No sound comes.

She doesn’t nod. Doesn’t shake her head. Just stands there, silent, with tears welling so thick they glisten on her lashes.

That silence cuts deeper than any denial could.

It confirms everything.

The moment fractures me clean through. I stumble back a step, my hand hitting the edge of the table like I need something solid to hold on to. My vision blurs red.

“You lied to me,” I growl, my voice low, dangerous. “You lied every godsdamn day.”

Her face crumples, but she doesn’t back down. “What was I supposed to do, Kraj? Tell you? And then what? Watch as you disappeared again? Watch as the Coalition came knocking because you couldn’t keep them away?”