Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“At last,” he breathes.
I feel just the same.
“How long has it been?” I ask him as we separate.
When he tells me it’s been a good season of them searching for me, I have to swallow against the way my throat feels like it’s seizing. So much can happen in that time. Everyone probably thought the worst back home, the longer it took to get here.
I bring Selina around my body and she looks up at me with uncertainty. Smiling down at her, I say words I have waited to all my life, watching her eyes light up when I get to the last words of the sentence that she does understand.
“I present my mate, Selina.”
She gasps as my brother quickly grabs her hand, and her wide eyes look to me again, but I just nod, telling her it’s okay. Halun bends at the waist to bring the back of her hand to his forehead, greeting her the way one would a female on Hallalah. As he releases her hand, he tells her the traditional response to meeting the mate of one’s kin.
Selina looks at me for understanding.
“He said that he is honored to meet the one who holds his brother’s heart.”
She smiles at that, but it drops when a human male begins speaking.
“Selina Lockett, you are under arrest for the murder of your father, General Arthur Lockett.”
I’m sure every Hallan here was given a translator as soon as the computer picked up the human’s language, but like me, it will take days to learn what some words truly mean here. The proximity of mine to theirs may make it easier for the computer, but there are still holes in the language that takes practice to learn. From the way I turn my head, so slowly because it seems hard to move at all with the fire rushing through my veins, Halun doesn’t need to understand every word the human said to know they have angered me. And that he will pay for them.
“You will surrender for your punishment immediately,” the human continues.
I seek out who speaks, and find one of males at the front of the humans assembled is the one who dares to talks to my mate in such a way.
“Speak to my mate again, and I will rip out your tongue,” I growl.
His head jerks back in clear shock that I’ve spoken their language.
“Who are these aliens? What do you want here?”
“They came to get the one that my father was torturing in his basement!” Selina shouts to be heard.
“No!” the male exclaims, putting his hand up to stop Selina before scoffing. “I will not listen to some woman, especially such a disgraceful and lowly one as you. You need only walk over here so you can be placed where you deserve to spend the rest of your pitiful days. If you have any days left at all.”
My brother easily lets me snatch his spear away from him. I grip it, only taking a second to make sure my aim is correct before I send it sailing through the air. It impales the male right through his chest so much that even when he begins to collapse, the spear sticking into the sand keeps him up. The humans are utterly still as they watch him gasp out his last breaths, blood gushing from his wound and his mouth. Before he’s even dead, I speak.
Loud and clear.
“Anyone who threatens my mate will suffer the same fate.”
The humans look around at each other, but one of them steps forward.
“What are you waiting for?” he yells. “Kill them.”
The guns that had gone slack in their shock, rise now, pointing at different Hallans. Pointing at Selina and I. I turn, engulfing her in my arms as I dart towards the ship. The humans begin firing before I make it there, though. I can feel the vibration of the bullets that hit my suit, the sound of the many guns being emptied deafening. Just as we reach the biggest ship of the fleet, the firing stops. I place Selina on the steel of the steps and turn around. Not a single Hallan harmed, but all of them are enraged.
“Bada roma,” Halun says with such ease. He doesn’t shout the words or scream them with the anger I’m sure is boiling inside of him. It’s not even whispered with the excitement I’m sure is thrumming through him. No, he tells the Hallans to slaughter them, to begin our war, with the same voice he might use to discuss the weather. And the Hallans obey. A war cry rises from the people as they rush forward with spears ready, swords being pulled from their sheathes, and guns raised.
I urge Selina further into the ship, beyond the thick doors that will soon seal shut. Whether their males treated her harshly or not, I don’t want her to watch her people be massacred. The Hallans still aboard the ship bow to me as I pass them, until I see one that does not. She rushes over to me, and I hurry to clasp her arm and bring her hand to my forehead.