Warlord's Mercy - Cynthia Sax Page 0,7

one else would harm her.

“I’m accustomed to being on my own.” Her lips twisted. “What I was trying to say was, your resemblance to Chameles unsettled me. They have long, sharp claws, and I’ve seen what those claws can do.” She shuddered.

Had she been on the hurting side of those claws?

Anger coursed through him. “Did a Chamele harm you?” That warrior would die for daring to injure her. Tolui ran his hands over his little human’s small form. One of her sides was sticky with blood. “You’re bleeding.”

“That’s not my blood.” Her breathing turned ragged. “The escape pod was coated in it, and it was transferred to me.”

She was covered with his blood. That pleased Tolui’s primitive soul.

He had marked her. She was his.

“I should have known you weren’t one of them.” She rested her cheek against his chest. “Chameles aren’t as nice as clones are.”

He scowled at her. “Clones aren’t nice.” No one had ever accused him of that trait. “We’re fierce warriors.”

“I’m sure you’re a very fierce warrior.” Her tone mirrored that which some of the unmated Chamele females used with the orphan children. “But you also caught me when I fell. That was nice of you.” His little human shrugged. “The other Chameles weren’t as accommodating. I saw what they did to one squatter, as they called him, when they captured the male. They forced him to fight, and then they tore him to pieces.” She trembled and Tolui instinctively splayed his fingers over her back, seeking to comfort her. “They shaved off his skin, removing his flesh layer by layer, with their claws.”

He had done worse to enemies, wouldn’t hesitate to inflict pain to protect what was his.

“I don’t know how to fight.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Not well.” She touched the dagger strapped to one of her arms. “My father was a pacifist. We voyaged here to escape the Humanoid Alliance wars.” The pain in her big brown eyes pulled at him. “He was killed within moments of landing on Chamele 4.”

Her father was a fool. Chameles were war-loving beings. A pacifist wouldn’t last long in the sector. “Where is the rest of your kind?”

“They were killed or captured.” Her shoulders lifted and fell again. “I’m alone.”

Zondoo. She must have survived by pure luck. “You’re not alone now.”

He would safeguard her.

“No, I’m not alone now.” Her lush lips curled upward.

He couldn’t rut with her. She was too tiny for his huge cock, as she had described it. But he yearned to taste her. Tolui cupped the back of her head. She placed her palms on his shoulders.

Directly over his wound.

Pain stabbed at him. He winced.

“You’re injured.” She removed her hands and stared at the hole in his form, her expression stricken. “I have a medic pack.” She stretched across him, clasping it. “I found it in the escape pod.”

A rock vulture screeched. They both looked upward. The creature circled to the right of them.

“Someone is approaching the site.” His female sat upright, straddling his waist with her knees. “I’ll tend to your wounds when we get to the tunnels.” She slung the medic pack over one shoulder, grabbed the other pack. “Can you walk?”

“I’m a Warlord, one of the best warriors in the universe.” He pushed himself upward. His head spun.

“You’re injured, one of the best warriors in the universe.” She stood, severing the physical connection between them. He regretted that break immediately. “There’s no shame in accepting help.” She hooked the second pack over her free shoulder and held out her right hand. “Those wounds would have killed a less-powerful being.”

He reluctantly clasped her hand, ashamed that he needed assistance from anyone, and especially from such a tiny female. She stabilized him as he lurched to his booted feet.

“You don’t know me.” He leaned against her. “You shouldn’t be helping me. I could mean you harm.”

“If you meant me harm, you would have allowed me to fall on my head.” She wrapped one of her arms around him, her hands on his form feeling right. “And maybe if someone had helped my father, if a stranger had assisted us when we first arrived on Chamele 4, he and the others would be alive this planet rotation.”

Tolui doubted that. “I can defend myself.” He didn’t need her protection, and once his world stopped whirling around him, he could walk on his own.

“Sure, you can.” Her tone relayed she didn’t believe him. “We have to move. Daisun and his brutes will be here soon,