Alien Conquest (Fated Mates of Xaensskar #2) - Jude Gray Page 0,44

running and find me. Dexx would check each of his guard’s trevars, and he would know which one had been activated.

He weighed those risks, and his hesitation was what saved me.

Well, it wasn’t all that saved me.

Dexx flew at the guard and Graez turned at the last moment, and though I could no longer see them, I could hear them. I heard Graez shout, and then his trevar clattered into the hole, bounced off the walls, and fell to the ground at my feet.

Not that it’d do me any good. I stepped away from it and kept my face turned up toward the hole, my heart pounding wildly.

Dexx had come.

Then he was peering down at me. “Kreia,” he said, his voice hoarse and strained. That was all he said, and it was enough.

He lowered a rope, muttering to someone I couldn’t see, but I knew it was the female from earlier. She’d found him. I owed her my life, and I wouldn’t forget it. Neither would Dexx.

“Tie the rope around your waist,” he told me, sounding a little less…dark, “and hold on.”

I did the best I could with frozen fingers, not sure the knot would hold or that I could actually grip the rope with my stiff, claw-like hands—but I did both. Adrenaline lent me strength, and I barely felt it when I hit the wall going up, thanks to the padding of my borrowed coat.

After he pulled me up, things were a little blurry. I caught a glimpse of the woman who’d helped me—a Hgrir—and I freaked out at first thinking she was the awful Avanya.

Dexx sat back on the cold ground and dragged me into his arms. “No, my love, no. She’s not going to hurt you. No one will hurt you.”

I broke down, I’m ashamed to say. I broke in his arms when I didn’t once break in the dark hole. For a little while, I allowed myself to let go, sobbing and holding onto him so tightly I may have hurt him. He squeezed me tightly and murmured into my ear, and finally, I hiccupped, wiped the tears from my cheeks, and looked at him.

His face was so dear to me already.

“I am…” He swallowed hard, shook his head, and then started again. “I am so fucking sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” I said. “Just because they work for you doesn’t mean you’re responsible for their actions.”

“I am responsible. I am responsible for you.” His face was stark, his eyes dark. “I will never be so careless with you again.”

“Dexx,” I whispered.

Hgrir begin to walk away, drawing my attention to her. “I’m glad you’re safe and sound, kiddo,” she said.

“Wait!” I struggled to my feet with Dexx’s help. “What’s your name? What can we do for you?”

“My name is Marsa,” she said. Then she shrugged. “And I don’t know that I need anything at this moment. But when I do I will come find you.”

Dexx nodded. “I will be waiting,” he said. “Whatever you need, whenever you need it. You saved Kreia’s life. I will not forget that.”

“I will be waiting as well,” I said. It was my life she’d saved, after all. “Whenever I can do anything for you, all you have to do is ask.” I held out a hand to her. “Thank you, Marsa.”

She never did take my hand, but I wasn’t insulted. And I knew I would be seeing Marsa again someday.

“Take me home, Dexx,” I said.

And I don’t think I’d ever said anything that sounded better to my ears. But then I thought of something that would sound even better, something I needed to say. So I said it, because I wasn’t going to keep my feelings to myself anymore. I wasn’t going to be afraid to trust. I wasn’t going to be afraid.

“I love you,” I told him. He was my lifemate, my fated mate, my heart. Of course I loved him.

And finally, the darkness in his eyes faded and the corners of his lips lifted in a smile. “And I love you, little one. For the rest of my life, I will love you.”

“And even after,” I declared.

He laughed. “And even after.”

And then he carried me back to the camp, and though my heart was easy, I knew Avanya was waiting, and I knew that for Vihn’s sake, I couldn’t let Dexx kill her. Vihn would never forgive me. No matter what she’d done, the bitch was his mother.

“About Avanya,” I said, and Dexx immediately stiffened.

“Yes?”

“I have a better idea