Fiath was in position. He peered around the cow-like creature’s rear-end and eyed the Changeling on the ground floor.
With the Changeling up the ladder about to peer over the edge of the loft, Fiath took two strides out from cover.
The Changeling started, spying movement out the corner of his eyes.
Fiath swung the bucket around and smacked the soldier across the head. He fell, clattering, to the ground.
“Run!” Fiath said.
I pushed off the wall and bolted toward the barn door. Fiath was already there when I reached it and we squeezed through sideways.
“Hey!” the Changeling up the ladder said. “Hey! Hey you!”
We swung out of the barn and bolted across the open clearing toward the nearest cover—the hedgerow we’d hid behind the previous day.
Bolts of plasma screamed over our shoulders, kicking up plumes of dirt and scorching the trees.
We bolted around the hedgerow and continued in the direction we’d been heading before we stopped at this farm.
This trap.
I vaguely wondered how many innocent people the farmers had condemned in this place, how many they had betrayed and handed over to the Changelings.
All for what?
Food? Water?
No, I thought. For survival.
The farmers had children. And if their emperor did not give them enough supplies to live on, what were they supposed to do? Perish and die?
The Changeling ceased firing at us. Either he had lost sight of us or he’d stopped to help his comrade up off the floor.
Either way, it gave us a chance. A small one.
It was still pitch black as we sprinted through the undergrowth. Dry twigs snapped beneath our feet and broad leaves slapped our faces.
The forest grew thicker the deeper we headed into it.
I wouldn’t fool myself into thinking we were safe.
I tripped and fell, my foot snagged by an exposed tree root. Fiath was there in an instant helping me up.
“Are you okay?” he said.
I checked my foot and ankle. There was no pain. I nodded.
After what felt like hours, we came to a stop. Fiath pulled me behind a large tree and ran his hands over me.
“Are you hurt?” he said. “Are you injured?”
I shook my head but couldn’t speak—I was panting so hard.
He embraced me in his arms. It felt good I wasn’t the only one terrified by the ordeal.
“We’re almost there,” Fiath said. “We need to be careful not to lead the Changelings to the Fallen Temple. If they discover us it’ll be over for everyone.”
He looked at me a moment and smiled. He brushed the hair back from my face and pressed his lips against mine.
It was electric and pulsed like a lightning storm across my skin. And just like that, I was transported back to the loft just a few short hours ago, before this nightmare began.
Seeing Fiath half-naked that first night in the forest had been a revelation. As a nurse, you thought of patients as people in need. You focused on their ailments and injuries. You did everything you could to help them get better.
You definitely did not think of them as sex objects.
When he removed his shirt, I scanned his skin, admiring how much it’d healed. Then I began to notice things a nurse should never think about her patient.
The perfectly sculpted form, the curve of his back, and the line of his neck.
He turned, and I was blown away by his breathtaking chest and abdominal muscles. Most of these Titans were remarkable beasts but none had so grabbed my attention as him.
That first night, he had a shy look in his eye that only made me want to feel him at the back of my throat.
I stopped myself and managed to regain control… until he dropped his pants as I saw him in all his glory.
I almost choked, the same way I would have if I was gnawing on his thick stick.
He was hard as a rock.
And there was only one thing that could be turning him on right then.
Me.
Me and my carelessness when it came to nudity.
As a nurse, I’d seen countless naked bodies. Being naked didn’t concern me, only keeping warm did. When I turned my back on him so he could wrap his arms around me, cuddle me, and keep us both warm, I felt that hardness pressing against my back.
And not once had I thought of my fiancé back home.
Tonight, when we slept together again, I had no intention of opening myself up to him, of allowing him to enter me.
But when he pressed against me, once again as hard as a rock, and with his powerful muscles coiled tight, I heard that aching voice deep in the pit of my soul that kept whispering…
Go on…
Go on…
Go on…
Then I felt his kiss on my shoulder. I melted to the tips of my toes.
My defenses were shot and there was no way I could stop him.
No way I wanted to stop him.
Then he heard that noise.
The Changelings were almost on us.
Snap!
Fiath raised a finger to his lips and listened for another sound.
I wanted to run. My imagination was incapable of thinking it was anything but the Changelings coming after us.
But maybe it was wildlife that produced the sound.
I hoped it was.
Snap!
Snap! Snap!
Fiath’s expression fell.
He took me by the hand and lead us deeper into the forest. We made so much noise it was easy for them to track us. But not yet. We still had some time—
A bolt of plasma struck a tree beside us and blew a hole through it.
They had found us.
They were hot on our tail.
Fiath took us over a sharp rise and down the other side. It was a sharp incline.
We were trapped.
Either we ran along the top of the hill, exposed, or slid down the hillside, and who knew what kind of injuries we would sustain.
Maybe it would be okay for a Titan, but I didn’t have their quick healing abilities.
Fiath wrapped his arms around me and drew me close. He kissed me on the lips, shut his eyes, and then threw us over
