Alien Conquest (Fated Mates of Xaensskar #2) - Jude Gray Page 0,43

I find him on my way back to town, I’ll tell him what you said and where to find you.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

She was gone before I finished speaking, but my heart was light and I was warmer than I’d been in what felt like forever. She’d left the cover off the hole, and compared with the awful darkness from before, it was almost bright in my little prison.

I hadn’t thought to ask her for her name. I was nearly certain that even if she didn’t run across Dexx, she’d tell someone in town and help would come. I was not going to die here today.

But I had to reconsider that thought when a lifetime later, another person blocked out the light from above. “I cannot believe you’re still alive,” Graez the guard said.

Shit balls.

Chapter Twenty-Three

DEXX

Corsov was a big place, and Kreia could have been anywhere. I knew I wasn’t near her, because the spark she’d lit in my heart was dim. I stopped walking, closed my eyes, and cleared my mind.

Finally, I began searching again, but this time, I went on pure instinct. I wasn’t far from camp when a big Hgrir loped toward me. I’d never seen her before, but it wasn’t unusual for a new person to run to Corsov to hide from something.

I stood still and watched her come, and I knew before she spoke that she brought news of Kreia.

“Where is she?” I asked, when she reached me. “Is she all right?”

Her eyes widened. “How did you know I’d seen her?”

I took a step toward her. “What is her status?”

“She’s alive.” She gestured at the rope coiled around my shoulder. “You’re going to need that. She’s cold, maybe hurt, but you wouldn’t know it to hear her.” She shrugged, then began to walk. “I’ll take you to her. She wanted me to tell you what happened in case she died before you got to her.”

Her words caused me physical pain. “Tell me.”

“One of your guards is the fated mate of a cunt named Avanya. They’ve been planning shit since you took the woman in. You’d get her pregnant and take her as your lifemate, eventually she’d kill you, then she’d hitch up with your trusted and traitorous guard. Dumb plan, if you ask me, but whatever happened, she’d have been taken care of. She got greedy and reached a little too high, eh?”

“The guard’s name,” I said, my teeth clenched. “Graez?”

“That’s the asshole.” She shot me a look that was a little too close to a sneer. “And suddenly it all makes sense?”

It was nothing obvious, but I remembered little things I’d overlooked. Graez walked away whenever Avanya approached me. He never so much as said her name. Never looked at her. Never joined in when the other guards mentioned how they’d like to have her attentions but she was so “hot for the boss” that she couldn’t see another male.

There wasn’t any one thing, and certainly no one big thing—but his efforts to pretend she didn’t exist were telling—as were her actions. She’d followed me to Corsov, and he’d helped her get here.

“Why didn’t they kill her?” the Hgrir asked. “Why throw her into a bonetrap and leave her alive?”

“I doubt they meant for her to live.”

She nodded. “I couldn’t see her well, but she sounded beat up.”

I said nothing, but my mind was dark. Kreia had tried to warn me about Avanya. If I’d have listened to my mate, Avanya wouldn’t be back at the camp in my bed, and Kreia wouldn’t be stuck in a fucking bonetrap.

But she was alive. That was what mattered—for now. My worry eased even as I made a silent promise to those who’d hurt her. I’m coming for you.

Then I shot out my hand and halted the Hgrir. She gave me a sharp nod, and silently, we melted into the shadows and crept toward the man who crouched on the ground, speaking softly.

Graez.

Apparently he’d come to finish what he’d started.

I handed the Hgrir the rope, then slid the knife from the sheath on my hip and went to save my woman and kill the man who’d hurt her.

Chapter Twenty-Four

KREIA

“You don’t have to do this, Graez.” I walked to the farthest edge of the hole, but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t escape him, trapped as I was. There was nowhere to go.

And he had a trevar. He hesitated to shoot me, though, because the sound of the shot would carry. If anyone were near, they’d come