Alien Conquest (Fated Mates of Xaensskar #2) - Jude Gray Page 0,24

had faded, then cursed myself for caring.

I didn’t like that fate was fucking with me.

Bo tried to hide it, but even he had begun treating Krey differently. Likely the spillover of my jeqwa had twisted him up just a little, too. I was glad to see it, though I would not say that aloud. Krey was so battered and abused that it was all I could do not to shuttle in a doctor to tend him.

There were a couple of doctors who’d fled to Corsov over the years. One of them would look him over.

We rode single file toward Corsov—slowly, because Krey wasn’t accustomed to riding a xilde. I dropped back to talk to Bo, making sure I kept Krey in sight. The path we were on continued for what seemed like days, and the boy’s xilde would not stray from it. Still, I’d stay close. One never knew when a wild or feral animal would leap from the woods and attack him. He’d be seen as easy prey.

I felt like a vicious, savage beast ready to rip to pieces any threat that showed itself. I kept my fierce stare on Krey as I spoke with Bo. “Xaena Kros contacted me earlier.”

He frowned. “What did she want?”

I pointed my chin at Krey. “Him.”

“So that’s why you changed your mind.”

He didn’t sound particularly surprised, and when I glanced at him I saw a gleam of satisfaction in his stare before he blanked it. I lifted an eyebrow. “The jeqwa is fucking me up, Bo. I have no desire to bed males.”

“Or Drimuti,” he pointed out.

“You’re affected as well. I see the difference in how you treat him.”

“It’s difficult to hide anything from you,” he declared.

I nodded. “True.”

“Boss,” he said, haltingly, “is there ever a time where you feel your hatred of the Drimuti fading?”

I clenched my jaw, my hands tightening on the reins. My xilde responded immediately to my tension, shaking his head and nickering gently in reproach. “Drimuti hands are soaked with blood,” I growled.

“You have the right to hate them,” he said, then gestured at the boy in front of us. “But Krey there is not your stepfather. He did not torture you or kill your mother. He—"

“Quiet,” I said, almost gently, then urged my xilde back to the lead to get away from him and his words. I attempted to tamp down the immediate surge of dark rage that rose up to choke me at the memory of my mother and the Drimuti bastard who’d killed her.

My mother had escaped him and fled with me into Corsov when I’d been a boy of eight, my body as scarred as hers.

Five years later, he’d found us.

His body was in a bog in the deadlands, where I’d put him after I’d ended his miserable life. I’d been Vihn’s age when I hacked his body to bits—but not before he’d murdered my mother. Some of the Corsovians who’d helped me bury them both were still there.

We pushed on through the night, taking short breaks mainly to rest and feed the xildes. XCRU bounty hunters wouldn’t rest, and I needed to get Krey into Corsov before the one on our trail caught up with us.

He would do whatever he had to do to capture his target—even if that meant hiding on a cliff like a coward, shooting Bo and me with a distance trevar, then trailing and finally securing his mark. XCRU had no honor and they didn’t shrink from murdering a man to get their capture—though that point was strongly denied by Xaena.

At times I was tempted to yank Krey off his slow-moving xilde and plop him down in front of me so we could ride faster, but I thought better of that plan. I had to be patient—the boy could barely sit the xilde. There would be no hurrying.

And at last, we reached the border of Corsov.

There were crude cabins—shacks—sporadically placed deep in the land, and one of those belonged to me. It was there that my other guards waited. They’d already set up their tents and had a welcoming campfire blazing.

The scent of cooking meat greeted us, and with a yell only a starving boy could manage, Krey slid off his xilde—almost gracefully, except his legs gave out when his feet hit the ground and he landed with a bone-crunching thump.

“Bo,” he bellowed, and I sat back on my mount and watched, fascinated, as Bo leaped from his xilde and rushed to tenderly help the delicate boy up.

“What the