Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“I hate to tell you, darling, but I don’t think that man is leaving this planet without you.”
He’s not exactly a man, is he?
I ignore my inner question and the way it curls wickedly in my chest like nothing else ever has, but nonetheless, I still keep hearing what my father said. The prince. It whispers in the back of my head even as I move back to Zarah with supplies from the first-aid kit to give myself something else to do. Something with my hands to keep my mind and mouth distracted by a task that’s more important than the prince named Halun who suddenly decided I was his mate.
The prince, it hisses again.
How does one fight and win against that?
How does one win against a prince?
“I don’t think it’s really as bad as what it looks like,” Zarah says of her foot, peering down at it as I return to her.
“Nothing is ever as bad as it seems,” my father murmurs behind me.
I know his words are not meant for just her, but I can’t seem to get out of my own head long enough to absorb them.
Because now I wonder about something else …
Just what would my father give to defeat The New Order? To finally have the means to justify his cause?
Would he hand me over for it?
How easy would doing so be?
*
“Talk,” I demand of Katur as I step under the spray of pleasantly warm water. Leaving my ruined pelt and boots on the floor.
“Could I ask a question first?”
I turn around to face my cousin who keeps his gaze focused on the far wall instead of me inside the cleaning stall. Only used as a way to clean off the worst mess before entering the ship’s main bathing hall, the stall isn’t large enough for a crowd but it’s comfortable enough for Katur and I to speak.
“We left your mate before I could properly greet her,” Katur says the longer my stare levels on him. “I’m wondering why that is.”
Fair enough.
“I’ll present her when she’s ready, when she wants to be.”
Katur nods at my explanation. “Understood.”
I watch the blood and gore fall from my body the longer I stay under the spray of water, and it begins to loosen the filth from my skin, swirling a deep red down the drain between my feet.
“How many Hallans want to stay?” I ask.
“At least half,” Katur replies quietly. “Some with fates that can be tied to finding a mate here—others because they wish to stay for the cause.”
“The cause?”
Katur lifts one shoulder. “Even you won’t say the females of this planet deserve to live this way, Halun. We’ve had training missions in space that lasted longer than the time it will take to end The New Order for the people on Earth.”
“More war,” I murmur.
“Well—”
“More suffering,” I interject. “I’ve done my part here and served out my duty, so anything more is an insult to a race I’ve spent months of their time destroying. I needn’t remain here any longer than I have to. I won’t spit in their faces. Why do you think they wish to see the rest of you stay?”
“It is entirely possible that, like with The Opposition group, spending a bit of time and effort here will serve us to find common ground with more humans.”
“No, what we’ve done is start a civil war on a planet that isn’t even ours,” I tell him.
Because all I did was come here and get my brother. The rest was just a byproduct, and it’s fine and well for the humans to have their moment to battle it out, but I’m not sure it is necessarily our cause to take up as well. Not when it could mean death for even one Hallan.
Katur lets me voice my worries before he repeats, “Half of the army and fleet will stay. To help fight for the people here. For our possible mates.”
Half of our army and I already took most of our guard from home as it is. How will I explain that one to my father? We’ve done very well to control and maintain our power here while searching for Selina’s mother but how will they fair in the time to come when half of the Hallan army is gone? I feel more responsibility to the blood spilled by my kind than any of the blood I’ve spilled on this planet.
Strange how that works.
“Do you honestly believe there will be mates who leave here that will never want to come back?” Katur asks suddenly.
The question stumps me.
For more reasons than one.
“Hallalah is—”
“Home,” Katur interjects gently. “But there are those who would say as much about Earth, too.”
Letting out a sigh, I shift under the spray of water again and escape into my own mind to run through the options I have. Which isn’t very many.