Chapter 28
ARDRUC
Elena’s scream rang in my ears as we plummeted toward the trees.
I was dazed by the stun net and still so numb in my arms and legs that I could barely hold on to my mate. But every fiber of my being narrowed to a single thought: Elena.
With a bellow of agony, I clutched her to my chest and spread my aching wings, desperate to slow our fall. To give us even a chance to survive.
This much pain and weakness meant our impact with the net had sprained muscles and torn ligaments in my back and shoulders. At least the partial numbness made the agony bearable.
I was in no shape to fly, especially while carrying the weight of another person—even a small one. But the fact I could not fly like this did not stop me from trying.
I set my jaw, tucked Elena’s head under my chin and wrapped my tail around her legs, and sort-of glided, sort-of flew, but mostly fell toward the forest canopy.
All around us, the air hummed. As we approached the treetops, the ground rolled and the trees rustled and swayed, webbing together vines and slim branches thick with leaves to form a cradle. I had no time to wonder if Elena was doing this or if the Vorsa and their world knew we needed to be saved.
A few meters above the trees, I turned in the air to take the impact, folded my wings, and dropped us into the waiting branches.
The web of vines bowed and bounced to absorb most of the force of the impact, but gods above, did it hurt. I grunted and Elena cried out in pain.
That web gave way, dropping us a meter or so to another. We fell from one leafy cradle to the next, slowing more with each short drop.
Finally, I landed on my back on a tall, thick bed of moss with Elena huddled on my chest. The final impact was far more gentle than the first, but it knocked what little air I still had from my lungs. The trees shivered one last time, and then everything went still.
The next sound I heard was Elena’s rough gasp. “Ardruc.” Trembling and whimpering in pain, she rolled from my chest to the moss and leaned over me. “Dragon. Say something.”
She was bruised and bloody and her right elbow was bent in an unnatural direction. The stun net had left its pattern seared into her skin. But I had never seen a lovelier or more miraculous sight than my Elena alive after falling from the sky.
Tears streaked her face and her eyes with their new, beautiful, bright blue-green rings were wild with anger and fear.
She raised my hand to her swollen cheek. “Ardruc, please.”
I caressed her cheek, careful not to touch her wounds. “You have not lost your dragon.” My voice was hoarse. “And I did not lose my little mate.”
She sagged in relief and kissed my forehead. “All the gods above and below, I’m going to kill whoever is in that ship.”
I caught a flash of purple out of the corner of my eye just before Forux launched himself onto our mossy bed and into Elena’s lap. She winced but wrapped her good arm around him and buried her face in his fur.
I wanted to cradle them both but I hurt too badly to move yet. Instead, I focused on breathing and figuring out if I had any broken bones.
“What is going on?” Elena asked finally. When she raised her head, the glowing rings in her eyes had faded. “Who would do this to us? The ship isn’t Nyvoran, I don’t think, but are they behind it?”
With a groan, I blocked out the pain as best I could and sat up. My vision grew hazy for a moment, then cleared.
“It is not the Nyvorans,” I grated. “That ship is from Fortusia.”
Her expression went cold as she came to the same conclusion I had the moment I spotted the markings on the ship’s hull. Forux growled, all four of his ears flat against his head.
“They sent someone after you.” Elena’s voice was quiet, even, and supremely dangerous. And were the circumstances different, I might have found it extremely arousing. “Mercenaries, maybe. But why?”
“To take me back, perhaps,” I said. “If they had intended to kill me, they could have shot us out of the sky.”
“Instead, they netted us and damn near killed us both doing it.” Her eyes narrowed. “If they came just for you, why net me too? I wonder what they planned to do with me.”
I did not want to imagine what might have befallen her if we had not been able to escape the net. Those thoughts led to a black hole of rage that made my skin buzz.
Elena squeezed my hand. “They didn’t get us, and they won’t.” Blinking rapidly, she shook herself and scanned the woods. “Which direction is the station? I’m disoriented.”
I tilted my head and pointed. “I believe it is that way.”
“Good. Let’s go get weapons and clothes. I want to get dressed before I go shoot these bastards.” She yawned. “No, on second thought, I’ll just wound them. We’ll need them to find out who sent them.”
My Elena. Woe to anyone who crossed her.
When we started to rise from our mossy bed, Elena flinched and doubled over, her hand pressed to her lower abdomen. “Oh, that hurts,” she gasped.
I stilled. “What hurts?”
“Here.” Her hand moved between her thighs. It came away smeared with blood. She swallowed hard and met my gaze. “From when your knot was pulled from me.”
Horror, guilt, and rage turned me cold.
The numbing effect of the mercenaries’ stun net had masked most of the pain when the impact caused our bodies to abruptly separate before my knot eased.
I had been unable to provide the comforts and physical effects of my coo.
My cock ached as a result, but no more than the rest of my battered body.
I scarcely noticed that discomfort over the agony radiating from my back and shoulders.
With a moan, she slumped against me. Caught between fury and panic, I cradled her in my arms as she blinked up at me, her eyes half-lidded.
“Suddenly, I’m so sleepy,” she breathed. “Am I concussed? What…what’s happening to me?”
Terror made my heartsbeats thunder in my ears, but whatever part of my brain was still capable of rational thought supplied the answer.
“You are injured,” I said, cupping her face. “My cum is healing you. The need to sleep as you heal is a known side effect, designed to conserve energy while you recover.”
“Oh.” The word was barely audible. Her eyes drifted closed. “I’m…sorry I can’t stay…awake and…shoot them.”
“Please do not apologize.” I pressed my lips to her forehead. “Sleep. I will keep you safe while you recover. And I will not leave your side for one moment.”
A fleeting smile turned up the corners of her lips. “I know.”
In her next breath, she was fast asleep. Forux whined and pawed at her arm.
“She will be all right,” I promised, my voice confident though my hearts were sick with worry and guilt. “I will protect her with my life.”
I struggled to rise from the mossy bed with Elena in my arms. My back and shoulders protested every movement and my left knee was swollen and discolored.
As I got to my feet, the trees rustled and closed overhead to block every sliver of daylight. A moment later, the sound of a ship’s engine reached us. It sounded like the mercenaries were flying low and slow over the forest.
The trees could hide us from view, but the ship was sure to have scanners. I must get Elena and Forux to Nova Cal and arm myself.
With a sprained knee, I could not run. The damage to my back and shoulders meant I would not be able to fly carrying my mate and her arval. Very briefly, I considered hiding them in the forest shelter while I tried to reach Nova Cal, but my stomach rebelled at the thought of leaving them unguarded.
So I made my way unsteadily through the forest toward the station with Forux ahead of me, all his ears on alert and fur bristling.
I walked as quietly as possible, moving parallel to the clearing and listening for anything out of place.
The forest was eerily silent without even a hint of a breeze to rustle leaves, as if it knew I needed to be able to hear danger.
And it very well might know. Even now, consumed with anger and worry, I was astounded by how miraculous and wondrous of a world this was.
Just as I glimpsed the clearing and Nova Cal through the trees, the ground rumbled, throwing me off-balance. I staggered and nearly fell until I braced myself against a sturdy tree.
The rumbling grew. The forest hummed and swayed. Plasma weapons fired, and then the sounds cut off abruptly.
One by one, bright, shimmering Vorsa emerged from the trees and lined up along a path that led directly to the clearing. Slowly, I made my way past them. My fury and worry about Elena’s injuries made my skin blaze and hands shake.
I did not care about my own nakedness other than I wished I had a weapon, but I did not want anyone to see Elena without clothes. I had nothing to cover her and that made my hearts sick.
And it was surely the least of our concerns at the moment, but these attackers had brought an abrupt and terrible end to our first knotted coupling in the sky and I hated them for that too.
When I emerged from the trees, I was astonished to find the clearing around Nova Cal was much larger than before. A dozen Vorsa had gathered and more emerged from the forest.
The small interplanetary ship was too large for the station’s landing pad and had landed instead in the newly expanded clearing, which had not been large enough to accommodate it before. It had been a trap set by the Vorsa and their world.
Apparently, the planet had waited until the ship’s heavily armed pilot and copilot—two Fortusian males as tall as me, one with reptilian features and the other covered with thick, shaggy fur—had disembarked to begin their hunt for us, and then the ground had swallowed the ship entirely.
The forest had strung up the trespassers, wrapping them in vines and branches and leaving them suspended two meters off the ground. The remains of two plasma guns and several nasty-looking daggers lay in the grass beneath them, melted by the Vorsa into almost unrecognizable lumps.