The Alien King's Prey - Loki Renard Page 0,19

right to rule them.

He had eradicated everything and everyone. The more Iris thought about it, the more it seemed to her that he did not want there to be any witnesses. If he did not want there to be any witnesses, then perhaps he did not want his actions to be known. But she could not imagine any reason to secretly deploy a great dragon, that was the sort of battle-beast sure to garner attention.

The king’s actions were contrary to themselves. There was a haphazardness to them, a flair and a simultaneous secrecy. Had he simply been amusing himself? Or was there something more to the entire event? She doubted anybody could be as powerful as Archon clearly was and not know precisely what he was doing.

She thought and walked, walked and thought. For the most part, she travelled by foot, occasionally taking to the back of a passing wagon for a few miles, speaking to nobody, keeping her face hidden beneath the cloak which she wrapped around her body from head to toe. She did not want to be seen, not by anyone. There was no shaking the feeling that the murder king might come for her. She could feel the specter of death traveling in her wake, dogging her every step.

Iris had never been so afraid in her life. But she had also never been so determined to have her revenge. The king was evil. A monster. Some kind of half-dragon nightmare come from the stars to destroy all those she loved. It was right to be afraid of him - but it was also right to fight him.

Chapter 7

“She got you good.”

“Be quiet and suture me.”

“It is difficult, sire. We cannot suture scales with ease, and I am inclined to leave the wound open so it can drain properly. We do not want to trap infection inside.”

“I don’t want my insides falling out either.”

The king was being somewhat dramatic. The blade had only been half an inch wide, and it had lodged up in the flesh between the scales and the organ wall, where it had been trapped in a webbing of connective tissue. It had missed any major organs and also the blood supply. He was lucky, in other words.

“Your insides are mostly intact. I believe sire was more surprised than mortally wounded.”

Archon growled. Bad enough to be injured by his prey. Even worse for the injury to turn out to be nothing. He could have pursued her and claimed her. He had let her go for no reason.

That rankled and burned. His flesh would heal, but the wound to his pride would not be so easily resolved. Nothing would sate him besides capturing that vicious little human and breaking her thoroughly to his will.

“This is excellent news,” his young aide, Wilshire said with far too much enthusiasm. He had been hanging around Archon since he was beamed up to the mothership, a simpering concerned blonde politician with curling hair and just enough scaling to make him noble.

“Is it,” Archon growled flatly.

“You are not seriously wounded, and the crown remains yours,” Wilshire grinned. He had a habit of saying stupid, obvious things. Archon liked him because he was young and had absolutely no guile. He said almost everything that came into his head, and had given away several plots against Archon entirely by accident. Wilshire was the verbal equivalent of a canary in the coal mine of Archon’s existence.

“Find her,” he growled.

“Find…”

“The one who stabbed me. Find her.”

Archon expected Wilshire to go skittering off to do his bidding, but apparently the aide had other ideas. It seemed today was going to be a day where every weak underling who should be giving in to Archon’s will instead challenged him.

“Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a hunt, sire?”

Archon shot his aide a dark look. On the one hand, Wilshire was right. Having his men find the female did defeat the purpose of the hunt, and it was unsporting besides. He would normally never have suggested such a thing. He knew how to hunt almost every kind of prey on almost every kind of planet.

He was off his game.

The human had rattled him. He didn’t even know her name. She was nobody. An insignificant peasant, a rebellious subject who deserved to be incarcerated with the rest of the people once she had given her body to him. And yet, here he was, totally turned around by her.

Archon had once fought a boarbear, a beast which stood ten feet