Driok
Idid not want to involve my mate in this business, but there’s no use pretending to myself I can keep her out of it, not anymore, not with a sarkarnling in her belly and my post rut kicking in with a vengeance.
“What the…?” Maggie exclaims.
I bellow the order into my comm to turn off the alarms and they, thankfully, cease.
“This entire galaxy is under attack. I’ve been working with all the other lifeforms with any sort of tech to keep it together,” I tell her. “This is hopefully going to be the end of it.”
“What is?”
“The reason we had to leave Vorostor so urgently. I believe we have the final piece to create a net to protect us all and to catch our attackers.”
“So, all this time, you’ve not been working against Vorostor but for it?”
“Who said I was working against it?” I search her face.
“The other warlords.”
I huff out a hot breath and some sparks as well. “They are wrong. Dalox knows.”
“I think we can safely say he hasn’t communicated that to anyone else.”
Of course not.
“Everything my crew and I have been doing has had to remain secret. We couldn’t risk the attackers getting hold of any information they might be able to use to stop us.”
“You’re not talking about the cockroach aliens, are you?” Maggie shudders. “The Veseli?”
“The Veseli, the Madar, the Gonoz—none of them are our real enemies.” I shake my head.
“Great,” Maggie says flatly. “Just when I was thinking being abducted from my planet, dumped on yours, and fighting cockroach aliens was all I needed to worry about.”
There’s a dull thump which reverberates through the hull.
“What was that?” Maggie asks, clutching at the horc on her shoulder.
“We have landed.”
“Where?”
“If you come with me, you’ll see.”
“So, we’re in terrible danger but we’re going for a stroll?” Maggie puts one hand on her hip, and I think my cock just exploded.
“You are never in terrible danger if you’re with me,” I rasp. “No one will touch even the air around your head, let alone place anything on your person. Or they will not survive.”
“Given you’ve just told me you’re the Sarkarnii equivalent of James Bond, I’m hoping I will survive and not be the sacrificial female.”
“Jaams Burnd. What is this Jaams Burnd?” I growl. “If Jaams Burnd hurt you, I will rip their limbs from their body.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Maggie shakes her head. “And you can’t injure something which doesn’t exist.”
I am confused, but as my warriors start to assemble, I resolve to ask her later what this Jaams Burnd did to her and how I can avenge it.
“My lord.” My lead warrior bows his head as he hands me a pulsar rifle. “All the parties are assembled.”
“All fully briefed?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“We can’t afford to nev this up,” I growl at him and the rest of my warriors. “We have one chance at this and one chance only.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“This is for the Sarkarnii.” I raise my voice. “This is for Vorostor,” I roar. “This is for all which has gone before and all which will go after. This is for our future.”
A cheer rings through the assembled Sarkarnii. They know what we are fighting for, even if the rest of Vorostor does not.
“To your mission, my warriors.” I nod.
“Very impressive,” Maggie says from beside me. “What do I get to do?”
“You get to come with me.” I beckon her to me. “And that…thing…stays behind.”
“If there’s the possibility of instant death, then he will stay behind,” she replies, extracting the horc from her hair.
“In a forcefield.”
“Horace says he doesn’t need a forcefield,” she replies. “He’s eaten enough now.”
I glare at the horc. It blinks discordantly back at me.
“Eaten,” it says in her voice.
Something I doubt very much, but we don’t have time to argue as Maggie lowers the creature to the floor and it runs off, presumably to chew the wiring once more.
“Then it is time you came with me, my mate.” I wrap my arm around her waist, and I’m rewarded by a little grunt and not being envenomated. “And we can deal with our enemies once and for all.”