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The sting of antiseptic seared across my back as Nara's gentle hands worked to clean my wounds. I sat motionless on the cot inside the medic bay, my mind far away in the dark tunnels of the sorium mine where my spirit mate and kinsmen still toiled. Guilt and anguish warred within me, each lash across my back a reminder of the suffering where I'd left them dwell.
Her face materialized in my mind's eye, haunting me with every flicker of memory. The faint trace of her spirit whispered around my heart, gently squeezing it with an exquisite ache that threatened to suffocate me. I'd been fortunate enough to have found my spirit's complement in another female only to abandon her.
The first female to breathe life into my ancillary heart was Neylla, a Valosian who I watched succumb to a germ I had thought had been brought back by Sia Sakkar, one of two twin rulers of Clan Huren. The male had since stepped down, relinquishing his crown to Nekko, his twin brother’s second. I had unjustly hated Sakkar when he had been as much a victim of the Gretolics as me.
Neylla gasping her last breath will forever be burned into my memory right alongside the gaunt human struggling under the weight of her bucket after munthis of enslavement inside a filthy mine. I had to free her before it was too late. I couldn’t lose another spirit mate.
“Fucking Heliose!” I seethed. Yet I had no choice but to leave her there, the reconnaissance mission came first if there was to be any hope of freeing her as well as all of the captives.
“Sorry, Gunnox,” Nara sucked the words through her teeth. “I know this has to sting.”
“Not that,” I grumbled. “Just furious I left them all in that place.”
I closed my eyes, picturing the gaunt faces and emaciated bodies of the Valosians, their strength waning under the ruthless demands of their Gorken overlords. Fury ignited within me, scalding away the guilt. I would return for them. For her. For the other human women. No matter the cost, I would see them freed of their bonds and avenge every injustice inflicted upon them.
“I understand,” Nara murmured, her voice pulling me back. “I saw Zorin. He was behind the electro-bars with the Valosians. It was difficult for me to leave without him as well.”
I turned to meet her luminous gaze, resolve steeling my words. "As a warrior of Valose, I vow to free him along with all the others.”
She studied me a moment, then nodded.
A rush of adrenalyne surged through me, igniting my veins with newfound determination as I sucked in a lungful of air. The need to return to the mine gnawed at my insides like a fiery beast.
My hearts thudded in time with the frantic rhythm of my thoughts. I dug my fingers into the edge of the thin cot to keep myself grounded. The urge to race back into the mine and liberate my spirit mate and my people surged through me. My scales pulsed and flashed with the same fierce determination coursing through my veins.
Ruze stormed into the medic bay, his sleek, black horns absorbing the overhead lights as he got all up in my personal space. "What part ofreconwere you unclear on, Valosian?” he growled, fangs bared.
I met his glare, unflinching. "I would bear a million lashings for her."
Ruze snorted. "You don't even know her name."
"I don't need to know her name, my spirit recognizes her as my complement. That is all I need to know." I placed my hand over my ancillary heart, feeling it pound with fervor.
"Foolish male!" Ruze bellowed, angrily striding around the room.
Nara interjected softly, "How is scenting a compatible female to become your shoulsis any different, Ruze?”
Ruze huffed, his rigid stance softening. Nara had hit a nerve and I knew the Nomadican was as desperate to find his missing mate as I was to rescue mine.
“If you’re done bickering among yourselves, maybe you can get your asses to the command deck and help me plan our next move.” Tyrk poked his head inside the medic bay before turning on his heel and sauntering away.
I hopped off the cot, heedless of Nara's fussing, and followed Tyrk's retreating back.
“I wasn’t done cleaning your wounds, Gunnox,” Nara called after me.
My wounds didn’t need tending as much as I needed to plan how to free the human female in the mine who had awakened me for the second time in my life. She had breathed life into my ancillary heart, an organ I thought to never beat again.
Just like for Neylla, it beat for one purpose only —to pump adrenalyne through my veins. A hormone that increased my strength, endurance, and healing abilities for the sole purpose of protecting my spirit mate. Already, I could feel my damaged scales knitting together. With each passing sec, I felt my body becoming stronger, ready to fulfill my duty as her protector.
Soon, her name would become known to me. Soon, she would find refuge and safety in my embrace.
The command deck’s door slid open and we filed inside, our booted steps echoing on the metal floors. Tyrk was already at the central console, manipulating the holographic display. Strange symbols and diagrams flickered as he worked to pierce the interference caused by the ore clouding the scanners.
I stood at his side, studying the convoluted maze of tunnels branching through the projection. "There must be more ways in and out beside the main entrance because the air shaft is too small for any of us to crawl through. What about the tunnel where the conveyor is housed? The ore is being hauled away from the cavern to somewhere else. Maybe we can use the conveyor tunnel to sneak inside, take out the guards, and egress the captives without alerting the Gorkens guarding the main entrance.”
Tyrk grunted in agreement. "Good plan, but the signal's too degraded to trace the ore carried on the conveyor for very far."
Nara approached. The glowing bracelets covering both arms softly chimed with her movements. "Perhaps clarity lies not in banishing the distortion but utilizing it." She waved a slender hand through the display, letting the dense ore deposits guide her movements. Gradually, a path revealed itself, leading away from the mine to a vast cavern beneath the Gorken queen’s palace. A tunnel to the surface revealed itself. “There’s a way inside the chamber from the center of the village. It doesn’t appear to be guarded.”
