The Alien's Revenge - Ella Maven Page 0,20

to my feet.

Armor. Kulks.

Heart turned and started sprinting away from the direction we’d been traveling. Between me and the dead moira, he had quite a burden on his shoulders, but he ran with light steps, barely making a sound as he seemed to glide over the ground. I’d seen some of the Night Kings run, but I wasn’t sure any of them were as fast as Heart. He was like Usain Bolt-fast.

We came to a large tree, which he scaled with me on his back with ease. Finding a spot where two branches forced off from the trunk, creating a little seat, he placed me there with the moira on my lap. “What—?”

He shook his head, once, and I fell silent. That was when I heard the armor clinking, more urgent this time. Heart stepped out onto the branch, his large feet curling like a gymnast on a balance beam. His thick tail was steady, helping him keep his balance. He didn’t waver, not once, and I understood why he made his home in the trees. This was where he had the advantage. I curled into a ball to make myself as small as possible. While he wore his blue skin like camouflage, I did not blend in.

The clinking drew closer, followed by murmured voices. About six Kulks broke out of the dense foliage into the clearing below us, and it took all my strength not to scream. I could still feel the smack to my face and the punch to my gut. The sight of their soulless eyes peering around through the slits in their helmet sent a bolt of fear straight into my veins.

Heart didn’t move. In fact, I wasn’t sure he was breathing. Even his hair was still despite the soft breeze blowing through the leaves.

Just when I thought we’d made it, that the Kulks hadn’t seen us and would leave, Heart’s aura went from dead calm to hurricane. With a raspy growl, he dropped to the ground between two Kulks like a spiked blue bomb. His forearm machets came down on the back of their necks, slicing their heads clean off their bodies.

I slapped my hand over my mouth to cut off my shriek.

Heart wasn’t done. He reached into the waistband of his pants and while I couldn’t see what he withdrew, sunlight gleamed off a shiny surface. He flung his hands out and two more Kulks dropped, blood pouring from their eye slits.

He must have blades, which explained how he’d been able to drop the Kulks who’d captured me at a distance.

The last two he took on hand-to-hand, slamming his elbow into the shoulder of one while his tail swept the other off his feet. As they clutched their pained limbs, he finished them off with two quick snaps of their necks. Just like that, it was over.

Heart stood in the center of the carnage with heaving shoulders dripping in green Kulk blood. I hadn’t moved from my curled ball position, and my hand remained tightly pressed over my mouth.

I had to get over my shock and remember this planet was a violent place. The other women told me how their mates had reacted when they were threatened. Sax, Val’s mate, had slashed some guy into bits and pieces.

Heart had thought I was threatened. And he did something about it. In his … alien way.

Capable. As. Fuck.

He turned his head slowly and met my gaze. His aura was still once again, but the smoke was thick, layer after layer built up so I couldn’t see a damned thing beyond it.

Before climbing the tree to me, he tore off a few dew-drop-wet leaves and wiped down his body. When he was clean of Kulk blood, he climbed up the trunk. When he crouched down in front of me, his expression was cautious.

Did he think I’d be upset at his violence? The only thing that upset me was the solid wall of smoke in his aura. Violence seemed to take him away from me.

I touched his cheek because he seemed to like that gesture. He leaned into my hand the first couple of times I’d done it. This time, he didn’t move for a long moment, then finally his eyes closed briefly, dark lashes casting shadows on his blue cheeks, before nuzzling into my hand.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

He blinked his eyes open at me, pressed a kiss to my wrist, then picked me up.

The way back was less eventful, thank fuck, but he remained alert the entire