Page 28 of Marked

A clap of thunder echoed piercingly loud overhead, and the Uruk-Zuk struggled to slow down before they plunged over the edge.

When they finally were able to come to a complete stop, they were only about one hundred feet away from us.

They stared back at us, cut off from reaching us with their land-based mounts.

Their putrid yellow eyes stared back at me with a fury all their own.

I didn’t care. They’d asked for this. The Ghengrills were the ones who’d stolen me in the first place. They’d taken me almost the very moment Alaric had finally come back for me. They deserved whatever bad thing happened to them.

I had tried running, but it was too late now. It was time to fight, and I was going to destroy them.

Then we were going to get the fuck off of this godforsaken planet.

The Ghengrill with the launcher lifted it again, and I roared with anger.

The tiny rocks that had been swirling around us lifted high into the air and came together in the shape of a massive white spear.

I watched as it petrified above my head, hardening into a formidable weapon of war.

Before the Ghengrill could pull the trigger, another scream had escaped my throat and the newly formed missile hurtled toward him.

He didn’t even have time to dismount off his Uruk-Zuk before the spear skewered him straight through his chest with enough force that he flew backwards at least ten feet before he slammed into the ground, a broken bloody mess of dead alien.

The connection between him and the Uruk-Zuk broke off almost immediately, and the animal roared once it regained its freedom of mind once again. It bucked once and then twice, before it bit off the saddle that was latched onto its back.

Its eyes turned toward mine, and I recognized that they were no longer yellow like the Ghengrills, but purple. A royal amethyst color that was actually quite beautiful to behold. The strange creature bowed its head to me once before turning and sprinting away in the opposite direction.

The Ghengrills were clearly the problem. Not the Uruk-Zuk.

My gaze focused in on the long silvery connection between the aliens and their mounts. The lines pulsed with a silvery fluid. They had the texture of a coiled fiber that was carefully wound into a perfect, evenly-spaced braid.

I had to focus my anger on each one of those.

I had to break the mind control connection in order to take down the Ghengrills.

There were still five of them to contend with, and each one of them had an additional launcher lashed onto the side of their Uruk-Zuk.

The five of them turned to each other and started making clicking sounds with one another, likely trying to come up with some sort of plan to take me down.

I wasn’t going to allow that.

I growled, more softly this time, and the ground rumbled around me. The tiny rocks rattled together, and then all around me, little arrows formed out of them. I growled again, and the arrows grew larger, their tips sharper.

The Ghengrills kept talking, kept underestimating me. They kept trying to come up with a plan to either kill me or take me hostage for whatever they decided to do with me. For whatever they were going to do with my mate.

With my baby.

My fury reigned stronger than ever, and I screamed.

The resounding boom fractured the air with an explosion that was as terrifying as it was deafening. My ears rang with it, but I didn’t care as I watched my arrows sail forward and connect with those pale, shiny condom heads once and for all.

One after the other, my arrows fell in a deluge of death. A reign of terror that none of the aliens had a chance of escaping.

I roared out my anger, and the air collapsed in on itself.

The Ghengrills clutched at their chests, the actualization of my rage causing their hearts to explode inside their chests. They couldn’t breathe, and they clawed at themselves in desperation, frantically trying to draw in air.

But they couldn’t.

They wouldn’t.

I was going to kill them all.

The last volley of arrows fell. I didn’t miss a single one of those fucking yellow eyes.

All five Ghengrills looked like pincushions by the time my last arrow had fallen. Each one of them slid off the backs of their designated mount. They hit the ground hard, lifeless as their blood pooled beneath them out onto the pale white surface of Ghengra.

The black of their blood was in stark contrast to the white color of the ground. It was as unsettling as it was satisfying.

They were dead. They wouldn’t be coming for us now.

Their mounts hadn’t been touched with a single arrow.

My anger had been focused on the Ghengrills and not the Uruk-Zuk, leaving them unscathed.

I watched as the yellow eyes of the Uruk-Zuk mounts slowly changed back to their natural purple color.

All five of them shook off the saddles they’d been forced to wear, and they turned toward me, just like their brethren had done.

They gazed back at me with a certain amount of respect, almost like they were thanking me for their freedom before they turned and ran off as a pack.

I stood there for several moments as the anger that had grown inside me with such ferocity quickly faded away, leaving what felt like a void in its wake. I tried to climb out of whatever had come over me, but I felt like I’d fallen too deep to ever escape.

I felt empty. Tired. Bereft.

I lifted my head and took in the carnage I’d left behind. The deep crevices I’d torn into the ground. The dead Ghengrills. The smattering of tiny rocks blowing in the wind that had been part of the devastation my weapons had wrought.

I tried to think about the fact that I’d won. I’d done what I’d set out to do.

I’d protected my baby and his father. I’d kept my family safe.

Just then, I felt Alaric wind his arms around my waist, and I allowed myself to lean back into his embrace. I could feel his heat. Could hear the loud beating of his heart. It felt safe. It felt like something I could understand.

“I’ve never seen a Lupenii female harness her control over the elements so quickly, my little mate,” he whispered in my ear, and I focused entirely on his voice. It brought me comfort.

“What does that mean?” I asked, narrowing my eyes in confusion. I wanted to know more despite the fact that I was so exhausted. I leaned into him further and his arms wound around me tighter.

“You’re strong, little Lupenii, and I will explain everything soon, but let us find a ship before more Ghengrills and their Uruk-Zuk arrive. What just happened will certainly not go unnoticed. We need to move now. Come. We’re safe and we need to leave. It’s not much farther,” he murmured.

His words were soothing, and I let him take my hand. I curled my fingers within his and smiled. I felt almost like myself again.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” I said with as much vigor as I could muster, and his eyes lit up in return.

“There’s my girl,” he replied, clearly pleased with me, and I smiled in return.

We jogged most of the way to the oversized air hangar without running into any more Ghengrill distractions.

The closer we drew toward it, the bigger I realized it was.

The building appeared to be an oversized garage, except it was the height and width of several large sports stadiums back on Earth.

It was open to the elements, with several models of ships lined up on either side.

There was a central runway that was cleared in the middle, likely for the movement of the vessels to exit the building and take flight.

Our boots crunched on the ground as we entered the hangar.

“Do you know how to fly any of these?” I asked, looking from one to the other without a single idea as to if they were safe or not. I didn’t even know what to look for.

“I’ve flown several like those over there,” he pointed. “Some of them are smaller and less powerful, but the one I’d choose is the one at the back,” he said thoughtfully.

“That’s just because that’s the biggest one. It’s not like you have to compensate or anything. Your dick is already big enough,” I retorted, before pointedly looking straight down at his cock.

“I didn’t hear you complaining the last time you begged me to fuck you with it, now did I, baby doll?” he questioned rather bluntly, immediately making me blush with shame at just how right he was.

“Pffft. I was paying you a compliment, Mr. Sensitive,” I answered with as much bravery as I could muster.

“You’ll find out just how sensitive I am later, little mate,” he warned, and a shiver of anxious pleasure raced down my spine.

“And Kendra?” he asked pointedly.

“Yes?” I answered.

"I'm proud of you," he said, his dark eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that made it impossible to look away. There was no teasing smirk this time, no sharp edge to his tone—just quiet, unshakable sincerity. It caught me off guard, sinking into me in a way I hadn’t expected. For so long, I had relied only on myself, never looking for approval, never needing it. But hearing those words from him, spoken so simply and without hesitation, sent a warmth through my chest that I wasn’t prepared for.

A slow smile tugged at my lips before I even realized it, something soft and unguarded.

His praise left me speechless, my throat tight with emotions I didn’t quite know how to name.

For a long moment, I could only stare at him, letting the weight of his words settle into the deepest parts of me.

When I finally found my voice, it came as little more than a whisper.

"Thank you," I murmured, the words fragile but honest.