I pretended to swing at him, and he ducked out of the way quickly, tossing a geode light in my direction, which I dodged, but which hit Vania in the chest as she crawled out of the tunnel.
"Thanks a lot," she grumbled as she got to her feet. She winked at me, and I found that the most charming, most disarming, most genuinely adorable act she could have done, a bit of luminescent sparkle of dirt splashed onto her face. "Looks like you guys take interrogations seriously."
“I think we have what we need.”
“Did you ask him if they have moved to intercept your troops from the North yet?”
“Yes. They are more worried about capturing me right now.”
“Good, doesn’t that mean the troops from Emerona can shift direction and take him from the south?”
“Exactly.”
“What about King Kajo?”
Axis stepped forward as if Vania had said something threatening.
“Are you questioning Alpha’s skills as a leader?”
"No, not at all." Vania pushed around him, and I moved backward, frowning, but secretly smiling inside, enjoying the chase as Axis kept himself in between myself and my Earthling lover. "But, I think he needs to follow up on the Eastern lands. The Delks are coming from that side, right? Capital City could descend and sweep up that Clan before they come to the Bordash aid against the Emerona troops we have on the way. Our troops who should be here within the hour, I think."
“That’s about right.”
Everyone was quiet. It was a good plan.
"We would need a fast speeder and a good pilot, to get back to Capital, or to get far enough away from interception range to send the hail for help to Kajo. I'm sure Tarsine is monitoring any waves toward Capital." Axis was nodding as he spoke, moving aside as if Vania's wise words gave her permission for her to approach me now.
“Aimer stole a speeder to save all of us from the Bordash. She left us to meet the teams and give directions when the four Twelve teams split ways. She is with the Ironhead team right now, to the north of the Tarsine camp. She is the best pilot. She can make it. We just have to get her the word.”
“All right. Let’s see if there’s anything else we need from these soldiers, anything else they want to talk about, and then get us back to your ship to talk to the others.” I moved around Axis and swept Vania into a hug, touching the ring on her left hand, quivering so strongly that it made me shut my eyes a moment and have a sharp intake of breath.
Vania smiled up at me and squeezed my hand. I winked at her this time, and she smiled even bigger. My soldiers averted their eyes as I smacked her ass. I didn't care if they were uncomfortable. The happiness in my heart couldn't be touched by the anger in their eyes. As soon as we leave this cave, I thought… As soon as we leave this cave and I have to be on the battlefield again, I will buckle down. After all, I have to defend my throne. There is an angry, monster of an asshole out there wanting to strip everything I care about away from me.
But, now I have something else… Something that tingles and tangles my heart into a dream I didn’t even know I could have…
I sighed as I caught Cassala and LeiLei glaring at me. I rolled my eyes.
I am still an Alpha Warlord. I am also just incredibly infatuated with an alien Earthling warrior woman who is somehow making me forget why we are even out here.
My heart suddenly skipped a beat. There is no way she is a spy for Tarsine, right…?
No. Of course not. It was Tarsine’s father that practically tore her to shreds. Only Kajo’s magic saved her.
And now, she is mine…
Fourteen
Aimer
There was nothing in this world that I liked about the Bordash. Not their food, their dancing, their music, their method of fighting, their dress. But, I had truly started to fall in love with this speeder. It said Skylark on the side, but, I called her Larkie and Larkie, and I were having quite the time weaving through the salt hills and threading through the limestone bluffs of the Wazuun River toward Capital City and King Kajo's ready and waiting troops.
I wouldn’t need to fly all the way to Capital, even though I was certain I could make it in less than half a day in this thing. She was fast. I could make her faster… I just needed to get out of the range of Bordash scanners. That would be about an hour’s flight at top speed.
Alpha Jase was safe with the Seawards and Commander Axis. He had been found; really, he had found the Spec Ops team. He had been at the salt caves not far from our crash site, just like we thought. It was why I had assigned Axis the role of heading that way. I wanted to make sure the best was there to greet him, knowing that there was no way Alpha would just rest in hiding. I knew he would be reveling in a solo mission, outside in the storm, away from anyone else, away from protection… My fingers tightened around the stick, and I shook my head. Didn’t he know he needed to stay safe?
And now it seemed he was concerned with keeping the Earthling safe… Cassala and LeiLei had managed to sneak the comms with me for a while, about the attack, yes, but also about their concerns for our Alpha’s infatuation with the Earthling. There was nothing we could do about it. He would choose who he would choose. And it sounded like they were quite connected. She was wearing his family’s ring. If she could last underneath all the power that
