Page 18 of Rhaz’s Redemption (Shifters of Valo Prime #6)

Rhaz swung his head in my direction and for a brief moment his eyes met mine. His eyes widened in surprise then he quickly shifted his gaze back to the front in order to make sure no one else looked in my direction like he had.

I quickly hid behind the bush again and bit my lip as I thought about what we could do.

“You don’t have to do this!” The words were garbled and weak. I looked through the leaves of the bush and found Rhaz had stopped walking. His split lip was bleeding and made it difficult for him to speak.

“Fighting the other dekes in their own home is a death wish!” He shouted the best he could.

This message wasn’t for the males that held him captive, it was for me and Zander. He was giving us a warning.

The young male who was leading him, Favalor, placed a firm hand over Rhaz’s mouth and pleaded with his prisoner, “Please, I’m begging you to be silent. Your sire will beat you again if you keep on like this.”

The young hunter might be walking with Dameron, but I got the impression he wasn’t one of his followers. It brought me a small amount of hope that someone was looking after Rhaz, even if it was in a limited capacity.

Zander didn’t seem to share my opinion, however. He bared his teeth in Favalor’s direction even though he couldn’t see us.

“We have to go back,” I tugged on Zander’s arm and whispered. “We have to warn them of what’s coming.”

Zander nodded his head in agreement. “We will wait until they are far past us, then we’ll take a shortcut back to the mountain.”

“Alright,” I agreed.

We waited until the other dekes passed us on the trail and then Zander took me down a winding path that led to the base of a cliff.

“It’s a dead end,” I said between panting breaths. I’d been running to keep up with the long-legged sirret.

“No,” he shook his head. “We have to climb.”

“I can’t climb that!” I could do many things, but climbing a steep cliff was not one of them.

“Then you will hold onto me while I climb. We must warn the others.”

I looked at Zander then at the wall ahead of us. “Alright,” I nodded. If we got back in time we could make a plan to help get Rhaz out of his father’s grasp.

I climbed onto Zander’s back and he made impressively quick work of scaling the rock wall. It didn’t take long before we were at the top.

“I don’t understand,” I looked around us and found there was nothing connected to this cliff. I thought when we reached the top there might be some mountain path that would give us a more direct route home, but there was nothing.

“There’s nothing here,” I commented.

Zander ignored me, however, as he fell to one knee and gazed out at the horizon. “The mountain is ahead of us and the wind is at our backs.”

Wind? What the hell did the wind have to do with this?

“Yes, I can see the mountain, but what I can’t see is how you plan to get us there.”

The black-haired sirret turned to me with a resolute look on his face.

“Do you trust me?”

What is this? Aladdin? Are we about to ride a magic carpet?

“Trust you to do what, exactly?”

The words no sooner left my lips that Zander’s arms started to glow. His scars looked almost like feathers. They started at his shoulders and reached all the way down to his finger tips.

“Do you trust me to fly you to the mountain?”

He stood to his full height and I watched in amazement as he shifted into a phoenix. His arms became wings of fire, and his eyes glowed red.

“You’re a shifter,” it was a statement not a question. I could see the truth before me.

“Yes,” he confirmed with a nod. “I was lucky. The night my first shift happened I was far away from the village on a hunt. No one saw me, and I kept it a secret.”

“That’s why you weren’t exiled with the others,” I commented.

“Yes, like I said, I was lucky.” A flicker of sorrow crossed his face like an expression of guilt for not having to face the same challenges the other guys did.

“And you’re sure you can carry me? I’m a heavy girl.”

Zander cocked his head to the side like a confused bird and gave me an assessing look.

“I’ve flown carrying dead jagwas twice your size on my back. You will feel light compared to them.”

“Alright then,” I tentatively walked toward the shifter with wings made of fire and he squatted down so I could use his bent knee as a stepping stool.

Then I climbed onto his back, careful to remain clear of his flaming wings. Once I was secure, Zander glanced back in my direction and asked, “Are you ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I gave him a tight smile that did little to conceal how nervous I was about this, but it would be the quickest way to get home.

He turned his gaze forward and announced, “hold on tight!”

The next thing I knew we were plummeting toward the ground until he expanded his wings, catching the wind and then we were soaring.

Tree tops zipped by as we flew past and the other dekes looked pleasantly small from all the way up here. It was a bit overwhelming, but also nice.

Dameron and his men had made much better time than anticipated and I could hear Zander's growls over the wind when he realized that too.

He flapped his wings to help us gain some speed and it wasn’t long after that we were landing in the clearing outside the entrance to my home.

Tarak, who’d been outside, rushed to our side with wide eyes filled with disbelief.

“I…what? How?” he stumbled over his words not knowing what question to ask first.

“I’ll tell you later,” Zander informed him in a commanding tone. “Right now you need to get ready for battle. Dameron is coming this way with a pack of hunters and they’re looking for a fight.”

A low growl ripped from Tarak’s throat and he bared his teeth as he looked to the forest.

“What do they want?” the Savrix asked.

“I’m not sure. They have Rhaz tied up. He saw us hiding in the brush and announced that they didn’t have to fight you in your own home. That’s how we know they’re coming this way.”

“Mot,” Tarak cursed. “Let’s go.”

He turned and headed inside and we followed him.

Conversations came to a halt when we entered the room. Everyone was staring at Zander and myself with questioning eyes and I wondered how much of a stir my disappearance caused.

“Beatrice!” I could hear Fatima’s voice before I saw her pushing her way past Drovo and Sozu. She ran toward me and nearly tackled me with a hug.

“I can’t believe you’d do that! You’re not allowed to just up and leave me!” She scolded in her familiar eldest daughter tone that I’d come to love.

“I’m sorry,” I chuckled. “I promise not to do it again.” I wrapped my arms around her in a tight embrace.

“You better not,” she pouted. I’m sure she had a myriad of questions to ask but Tarak’s voice boomed through the cavern first.

“Dameron is coming with a group of hunters. From what Zander tells me, they’re coming here to fight, and we must be ready.”

Our Savrix looked at his mate and their daughter in her arms, and his gaze softened. “I want you and all the other females hiding on the ledge. That way you can hear what is happening and make quick decisions about whether to hide or run.”

He shifted his gaze to Sozu and Jax and said, “I want you to go with them. You will be our last resort if the rest of us should fail to keep them safe.”

“Yes, Savrix,” both of the young men bowed their heads and placed their fists over their hearts. “We will fight to our dying breath,” Sozu added and Jax nodded with a fierce expression on his face.

“I know,” Tarak frowned. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“Everyone fill your packs with food rations, and blankets and meet me on the ledge,” Gabby instructed the other females.

It was as if time had suddenly become unfrozen and all at once, everyone started moving again.

The hunters shifted and headed outside, the elders gathered their spears, the women made their way to our shared cave, but I stayed where I was.

My bag was still packed from my secret trip that had been cut short.

So I stood in the main cavern and waited for the other women to start heading up to the ledge.

Drondia was the first to come back into the cavern. She squeezed her mate’s hand and said, “I’ll see you soon.”

“You’ve got nothing to worry about, my kira-si,” Karo assured her. “We’ve survived worse things and come out on the other side.”

“I know,” she tried and failed to smile, and Karo cupped her cheek and placed a heartfelt kiss on her forehead. “All will be well. You’ll see.”

The other mated couples poured out from their private caves and gave each other similar encouraging words.

“Don’t do anything reckless,” Tarak commanded Gabby.

“I’m not a reckless person,” Gabby chuckled as she held Tabby in her arms.

“No, but you are brave, and sometimes that can be the same thing,” he leaned down and kissed Tabby on the top of her head then Gabby on the lips in a brief but meaningful gesture.

“Stay with Jax and Sozu. Don’t take any unnecessary risks,” he pleaded.

“We’ll be safe. I promise,” Gabby rose up on her tippy toes and kissed Tarak. He wrapped his arms around her and briefly kissed her back before he had to join his men outside.

With one last glance back, Tarak nodded his head in Gabby’s direction then exited the mountain.

I followed Gabby upstairs to the ledge where all the other women had gathered.

Fatima, Taylor, Kayla, and Gabby stood at the front, then behind them stood Hai, Ashey, Julie, and Anusha.

Then in the last row stood myself, Talia, and Sarah.

Jax and Sozu stood on opposite sides of the wide ledge and we all held our breath as we waited for the battle to come.

“I hate waiting,” Julie commented as she rubbed her lower back. Her round belly had lowered since I’d seen her last and I wondered if she’d have her baby sooner rather than later.

“Maybe they won’t come,” Sarah suggested as she chewed her bottom lip. Talia gave her a look of sympathy and put her arm around her friend.

I pushed my way to the front to get a quick glimpse of the scene below us.

The males of our dekes stood in a line, tall and strong in their shifter forms with our Savrix in the middle.

The elders stood with them even though they only had their spears and no shifter abilities to speak of.

It would take a great deal to get through their line, and I doubted Dameron would have the man power to do so.

“Look! They’re here!” Ashley pointed to the forest.

Through the trees I was able to glimpse the males of the other dekes making their way to our clearing. I wasn’t close enough to see Rhaz, though and that bothered me. I needed to see that he was still alright.

“Get down everybody! Down!” Gabby yelled and we all collectively got on our hands and knees to hide from Dameron. He didn’t know we existed, and everyone they met from our dekes kept telling him that they were the last of the females they’d found.

“Remember, no matter what goes down today, we’ve survived worse,” Gabby encouraged.

“Keep your eyes open, and your legs ready to run. Stay ready,” she pleaded.

I nodded my head. Sarah who was sitting beside me trembled and a tear streamed down her face.

Talia patted her shoulder and Jax looked like he wanted to comfort her, but knew he couldn’t leave his post. If either Jax or Sozu interacted with us, it would be clear to Dameron there were people hiding up here beside them.

“They’ve arrived at the clearing,” Sozu whispered, while keeping his eyes trained on the enemy below.

I rose ever so slightly and swallowed hard when I saw strange sirret males filling our clearing. They stood a few meters away from the defensive line the shifters had created, but they were still far too close for my liking.

Dameron said something, but I was too far away up here on the ledge to hear him.

“What’s going on?” Taylor mouthed to Gabby. Our fearless leader peeked over the ledge for a brief moment then turned to Taylor and pointed to her right ear while still holding little Tabby in her other arm. “I can’t hear what they’re saying,” she mouthed.

I tapped Gabby’s shoulder and mimed going down the stairs using hand gestures. “I’ll hide near the entrance. That way I can warn you if you need to run,” I whispered.

Gabby nodded and I quietly, but quickly crawled to the exit and made my way back to the main cavern. I stopped when I heard footsteps behind me and turned to find Fatima and Anusha following me.

“There’s not enough room for all of us up there,” Anusha explained.

“And I want to hear what’s going on,” Fatima confessed. I didn’t blame her, I wanted the same thing.

I put a finger to my mouth to indicate silence and we quietly walked to the entrance that led to the clearing. Once there, we crouched behind the larger rocks and boulders that lay scattered at the entrance, just out of sight of the others.