Seven
Aimer
I knew Cassala and LeiLei hoped he would just leave the Earthling behind. Something told me she was stronger than they gave her credit for. I sensed a true power in her, and I had seen it in Queen Daphne. It wasn’t just King Kajo and Alpha Jase’s trust in these Earthling women, my intuition resonated with them: there was something special about them. And, besides, the Curan magic spoke true… Queen Daphne was the Beast King’s Destin. Maybe Vania was something special, too.
Not for Jase, of course. He would be a lone wolf, forever. I did not doubt that. There was no woman good enough for him.
But, right now, what was important was finding him so I could maybe someday test a woman that would be good enough for him. I had to find my leader. I had to find my Alpha. I had to find my friend.
I pulled up hard on the stick and swept the speeder around the low desert hills. I was in fairly constant telepathic communication with Commander Xane. I and three of the others from the Emerona Crew's transport had managed to steal a speeder to get out of Tarsine's territory. It was the Trio and Gabra, one of the other trusted Crew. The other five had been taken prisoner, which included Criper and Lyal, who Jase had kept alive during their transport crash free-fall, but who had been saved essentially into the hands of the Bordash. The two who had died in the crash, Helga and Honcho, had gone up in flames with the aircraft… and Jase and the Earthling were somewhere out there, unable to answer, hopefully alive, definitely not yet captured, but unable to be found. They would have headed to the caves, as planned. Turns out, these particular hills were high in salt content, which was likely why there was telepathic interference. But there was a soldier assigned a Code Blue alert and Jase would surely have picked up on it by now.
Code Blue meant I was in charge and it meant to follow a particular code structure. Code Red would have signified Cassala. Code Green would have indicated LeiLei and two entirely different codes, respectively. Now, we just needed to wait for Jase’s instruction.
I hadn’t alerted Kajo yet that Jase was lost in the Bordash wilderness. I didn’t think Jase would want to give up that control, yet. But if we didn’t find Jase within the next four hours, I was going to make that call. One of us Trio would make that call, that was.
I had, though, called for an advance searching party in our fastest Emerona vessels to seek out Jase and the Earthling, a total of about forty-eight highly skilled scouts and warriors from the Curan troops to seek out Jase, split into teams of 12, similar to our Crew. Special Operations troops. We had to find Jase. The Spec Ops were on their way now and would arrive within the hour. I was flying the Bordash speeder we had stolen to meet them, racing the storm that was brewing in the south. The storm was a good sign: the Bordash would remain in their camps while we searched. That might mean we could also sneak up and slaughter the Bordash camps…
That call would be Alpha Jase’s though. Finding him came first. He was trusting me to do just that.
Eight
Vania
I squinted in the dim light of the cave against the pain in my head. It was like fireworks were exploding inside my brain, making lights flash behind my eyes and setting the cerebral fluid on fire. I groaned as I sat up, because that made it ten times worse.
“You feeling okay?”
The voice came from the darkness to my right. I squinted again and saw just a blurry shadow making a smooth, even movement that sparked the practiced motion of rippling fire along a telekinetic row of geometric patterns in the air. It was beautiful and mesmerizing, but burned the shapes into my eyes, making me blink rapidly to clear them. When he saw my blinking, he quenched the flame quickly.
"Sorry, was just passing the time," Alpha Jase said, the smoke from the extinguished flame snuffing into our nostrils for a moment. I realized there was a wet smell to the air, and then a moment later heard the crack of thunder roar up the tunnel of the cave.
“Is it storming outside?”
Jase nodded.
“That’s fantastic! The Bordash will be pinned down!”
“You have learned a great deal about our cultures.”
I have learned Alpha Warlords can kiss like angels… I said and couldn’t help but touch my lips. But that hadn’t really happened… Had it…? I had been pretty out of it…
“You were pretty out of it there for a while. Are you feeling any better? How is your leg?”
I looked at the Warlord sharply. Had he read my thoughts just now? That’s just so unfair… He hadn't moved from his casually sprawled spot in the darkness, and I wondered where he had found a chair. I took a sharp breath in when I realized he was sitting on the body of the Bordash spy.
“Good God, Alpha!”
“Ah, yes,” Jase thumped the spy on his back. “You like my chair? I call him Lumpy. Man had a bit of good eating in his past. I imagine that’s why I heard him so easily in the tunnel; have to be fairly fit to tiptop through that tunnel on your hands and knees.”
I looked from the spy, glad his face was turned to the cave’s side and then pressed my hands to my head again. I rubbed at some crusted blood and remembered
