Page 135 of Saved By the Alien Hybrid

A hovercraft set down beside them as they left the ramp behind, and familiar faces poured out. Pandora, Haerune, Yelir, and Ven.

Ven.

His heart skipped a beat, seized by despair.

Pandora and Haerune hustled over ahead of the others. The human doctor caught Cordelia as Haerune studied him. His brother hissed in horror at the wound on his arm. It was bad, then. In truth, Rentir couldn’t feel it. Any of it, actually. He only knew his arm was still attached to him because he could see it dangling there.

“My brother,” Ven called, catching up to them. “Where is my brother?”

“I am sorry,” Rentir rasped in answer, for it was all he could bring himself to say through his tightened throat.

Ven jerked back as if he’d struck him. “No… no, where is he? Where is Thalen?”

Haerune moved to lead Rentir past him, but Ven yanked hard at his good arm.

“What did you do to him, you bastard?” Ven shouted, shaking him.

“Hey!” Cordelia tore away from Pandora to shove at him, situating herself between them. “Lay off! Can’t you see he’s injured?”

“This is none of your business, you alien creature!”

“Creature? That’s a new one,” she muttered.

Ven shoved her aside, and that was the limit of Rentir’s patience. He grabbed the male by his collar and wrenched him nearly off the ground.

“Do not touch her,” he said, his lungs beginning that deep, powerful breath that preceded his mated violence. “Thalen was a hero. Do you hear me? A hero. I should lie in his place, but the decision was not down to me.”

Ven’s eyes filled with tears, and Rentir felt the violence go out of him. He released the male.

Everything that followed was a blur to him as the pain of his injuries finally began swelling. He knew they got on the hovercraft, that they reached the base, that someone tucked him into a medpod. It was all a haze of sound and color.

The world faded in and out. The bitter tang of sedatives coated his tongue, but he was still riding the hormonal high of knowing Cordelia was in danger. His body would fight through the haze, and then the medpod would spray him again, and consciousness would slip away.

“…irreparable damage to tendons, ligaments, nerves, muscles…”

“…local anesthesia applied. Please remain still while…”

“Oh, God.” Cordelia’s voice roused him, prompting a sharp inhale as his mind sought the relief of her scent, the reassurance she was truly with him. “It looks so…”

“Painful,” Haerune said grimly. “Yes. But he will not feel it, not for some time. The medpod has anesthetized him.”

“This is my fault,” she said in a small voice, her distress dragging him closer to consciousness. “If I had done a better job of managing the situation, he wouldn’t be hurt like this now. And Thalen…”

“Thalen died for what he believed in,” Haerune said. “He spoke with me at some length the night before the mission. He understood what he was dying for, Cordelia. He had begun to bond with a female of his own.”

Cordelia gasped softly. “Who…”

“Sophia.”

“Sophia? She almost killed him!”

The ghost of a grin tugged at the corner of Rentir’s mouth.

That’s what I said.

“The bond works in mysterious ways,” Haerune said, and Rentir could almost hear him shudder with horror. “What is important is that Thalen believed you women were sent here for a reason. He believed you were a sign from the universe that we were meant to thrive here, all of us together. It gave him hope, Cordelia. Something that has been in short supply here.”

She sniffled, and the scent of her tears perfumed the air.