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The girls and I are in shocked horror as all our males look like they're dead and lie scattered across the ground. But before we can rush to their sides, the cowboy lizard ambles over, weapon raised and aimed at us.
"Nice to see ye again, darlin'," The cowboy lizard tips his hat at me and smirks.
"You piece of—" I start to yell, but my curse is cut short as a piercing sting hits me in the throat.
Chapter
Nine
QHIX
Consciousness seeps back into my being like a sluggish tide, reticent and heavy. My limbs are weighted anchors, refusing to heed the frantic calls of my mind. I try to swallow, but the action grinds against the metallic taste cloying at my tongue, a tang I recognize as the bitter kiss of sedation drugs.
I sluggishly scratch at the persistent itch on my throat, my nail grating against a small, metallic tube protruding from my skin. After plucking it free, I weakly hold it up for a blurry examination. My arm flops to my side as a dry laugh escapes me.
The irony is not lost on me. My sivot stood firm amid a hail of blaster fire, absorbing hit after brutal hit, yet what felled my beast was a tiny dart laced with a tranquilizer used on wild animals.
The beast within me growls in humiliation, sluggishly shifting beneath my skin under the strain of chemicals still coursing through my veins.
Razor sharp against the fog of drug-induced lethargy, are thoughts of my mate, Tasha, with her flame-kissed hair and vivacious spirit. My face in the dirt, I push myself onto my back. The world swims into focus, a kaleidoscope of unfamiliar shapes and shadows coalescing into the solid shapes of Crao's dense forest.
I take in the details of my surroundings. My ship is where I parked it, the ramp still extended as I left it. The passage of time, marked by the position of the sun now sitting low in the sky, shows me hours have passed since our battle with the Lizordian began.
It's quiet. Much too quiet for the aftermath of a raging battle.
The Lizordian's oddly accented words float back to the surface of my muddled mind. Me only came for de females.
He must have followed us from the Gilded Orb, and I wonder why my ship didn't alert me to the danger trailing us. The primal urge to protect my female saturates my starved muscles, propelling me upright on quivering limbs that threaten to buckle beneath me as I stand on legs pebbled with blaster fire.
I steady myself against a tree trunk, searching for any signs of life. Across the scorched field of battle, I catch flashes of bright colors just inside the tree line. It's the Ziarian males with their vibrantly streaked hair, the vivid colors of their species used to warn off natural predators on their home world of Ziaria.
The three-toed footprints left by my enemy are easily tracked. Pushing away from the tree, I stumble across the field, shouting and waving my arms. My hoarse cries yield no response. I follow in the Lizordian's footsteps, rushing toward the dense foliage, adrenaline pumping through my veins in my attempt to get to all five males who are lying on the ground, unmoving and unconscious.
Me only came for de females, is on repeat inside my frantic mind.
The undergrowth lay in ruins, trampled and scarred from the brutal conflict. Twisted branches and snapped twigs littered the ground, evidence of a fierce struggle, but the females are nowhere in sight.
"Tasha!" I bellow, my voice echoing through the dense forest. My heart hammers inside my chest. Fear and worry consume me, not just for my own mate but for the other females.
I drop to my knees next to the first male I come to. It's Mordox, his green-streaked hair now matted with dirt and leaves. His chest rises and falls with deep, even breaths. The dart I pluck from his shoulder evidence of the drug rendering him unconscious.
I check the other males, finding them all alive, each one shot with a dart the same as me. One has a blaster wound to his arm, and the others have wounds on their legs where my sivot's shield didn't reach, yet none of the wounds are life-threatening.
Why didn't the Lizordian just kill us?
My body, still weak from the tranquilizer's effects, slumps forward, pleading for rest, but I can't succumb until I know Tasha is safe and back in my arms.
"Tasha!" I roar into the dense trees, hoping for any reply or sign of her presence. But there is only silence.
The beast within me stirs, sluggish but anxious to emerge. I surrender to the transformation, falling to all fours as my body contorts and grows. My skin stretches and shifts, making room for bulging muscle and elongating bones. Black claws erupt from my fingertips, while razor-sharp fangs push outward from my gums. My glossy skin ripples and undulates like molten metal, the corium adorning my right arm solidifying from shoulder to wrist into a plate of armor.
In sivot form, I hoist myself up from the ground. On legs pockmarked with blaster fire, I scan the ground for signs left by the Lizordian, and my gaze trains on his fleeing footprints. Soon enough, I find his trail with drag marks following. The females were unconscious when he took them.
The trail winds through the aftermath of the battle, past my spacecraft still parked where I left it, and into the tree line where the Lizordian first appeared. Deeper into the forest, I find deep grooves where landing gear from a craft the size of a shuttle mark the ground.
Fury ignites behind my sternum, a blazing inferno fueled by the thought of my Tasha being dragged across the hard ground and taken captive. A searing sense of loss and defeat wracks my body, crushing me under its weight. My fists clench, knuckles turning white as I struggle to contain the rage bubbling within me.
I could tear this planet apart with my bear hands, but I mustn't give into my fury. There is no time to indulge my temper. Hours have passed since I lost consciousness, giving the Lizordian a significant lead. Time is of the essence, and I must act swiftly if I'm to find the females.
