Warlord's Mercy - Cynthia Sax Page 0,8
and if we remain at the crash site, they’ll kill you and take me captive.”
The fear in her voice grated his skin. “Daisun and his brutes won’t kill me, and they won’t take you captive.” She belonged to him now.
Zondoo. The ground tilted upward and downward under his boots.
“They won’t do that…if we reach the tunnels before they reach us.” She walked with him. “Stars save me from stubborn males.” Her voice had lowered to a whisper again. He suspected that comment wasn’t meant for his ears. “I can see through the hole in his shoulder, and he insists on battling the universe.”
She muttered about obstinate beings and the many dangers on the planet and the beauty of what appeared to be an ordinary boulder, her private conversation diverting him from his pain as they trekked toward the mountains.
The pace was slow, yet it sucked much of the energy from Tolui. His lack of strength was humiliating. He was the leader of a great clone army, had battled Berke and his Warlord brothers for solar cycles, downing ships, evading capture.
That was how he wanted the female to view him, not as some weakling barely able to place one booted foot in front of the other. He was forced to use her small form to prop his up.
“I’m Lea…in case you were wondering.” She said that louder, her introduction meant for him. Her cheeks were pink. Her eyes glowed.
His little human was stunning.
He wanted her more than he had ever wanted anyone. It was his curse—to crave attention he could never have. “I’m Tolui.”
“Tolui. Lea.” Her smile lit her face. “Tolea. My name almost fits inside yours.”
He wanted to fit inside her. A grunt escaped his lips. With the amount of blood he’d lost, there shouldn’t be any excess to flow to his groin. But there was. He was as hard as the rock spires around them.
She smelled so good. He breathed deeply, inhaling her intoxicating scent.
Rutting with her wasn’t a possibility. But when he healed, he’d prove his worth to Lea. He’d kill that Daisin being she feared. She wouldn’t view Tolui as being weak then.
They continued to walk and walk and walk.
The sun blazed down on them, heating his shoulders, back, the top of his head. Sweat beaded on the female’s skin, the droplets making her glow. She breathed harder, her strain palpable.
Yet she didn’t complain about assisting him. She treated him to a continuous flow of words. Not one of them was a protest.
He was impressed.
His little human was stronger than she appeared.
She was also concerned about being pursued. Every twenty steps, she looked behind them.
He shared her trepidation. His skill in battle was unmatched, but as she had pointed out, he was injured. Standing unsupported was a challenge. Fighting would be a hardship.
“No one is following us.” His senses, however, had been unharmed.
“They’re not following us…yet.” She increased their pace. “Daisun might not track you. He’ll assume from the blood in the escape pod that you’ll die soon, won’t be as much fun to torture.”
She said that with distaste. His female wasn’t a supporter of violence.
Tolui, in contrast, couldn’t remember a time when he’d been at peace. Once he had fully matured, he and his clone brothers had been hired out as mercenaries on a variety of battlefields. They escaped that killing, only to join the war in the Chamele sector.
He had tried to negotiate with the Chamele Warlords. They refused, preferring to fight. And he had indulged them.
“Daisun will track me.” His female sighed. “He’s been hunting me for four solar cycles. The male is fixated on me.”
She had survived on this shithole of a planet for four solar cycles. That required skill…or a tremendous amount of luck.
“Once you’re healed, we should part ways.” Her head bowed. “You’ll be safer that way.”
She believed he couldn’t defeat that Daisun being even when he was healed. He gritted his teeth, said nothing. She wouldn’t believe words. He would show her he was a great Warlord.
That she assumed they’d part also irked him…and it shouldn’t. His clone brothers would find him. Soon. He’d return to the war, defeat Berke and the other two Chamele Warlords, give his brothers the home they deserved.
A tiny human female who abhorred violence, whom he couldn’t rut with without harming, had no place in his future. She would merely slow him down, get herself killed.
“What do you want from me before we part ways?” He asked the question that was bothering him.
She was risking