Page 26 of Barbarian Daddies

My blood boils, but there is nothing I can do about this now. They knew we were coming, and they were prepared.

Maur grabs my arm, his claws damn near piercing my skin. “Where the fuck is Cynthia?”

“They have her,” I tell him. “We need to pull back.”

“I’ll kill them all!” my brother snarls, his tail lashing furiously around.

“They will kill us first,” I hiss. “We need to pull back. Our men are dead. Only you, me, and Dahlen remain. We have to regroup.”

“And get her back,” Maur says.

“Yes.”

I’m not sure how the fuck we’re going to do that. My soul is bleeding. Fuck my shoulder, fuck the pain simmering through my entire body, fuck the shame and the anger I’m feeling. My soul is restless, my conscience screaming as I think of what will happen to Cynthia if we don’t get her back.

“Leave,” the mercenary shouts.

All I can do is help my brother up, grab Dahlen by his quivering arm, and take them both away from here. I have to leave our men behind, too. Those Sky Tribe fuckers will likely burn their bodies or throw them in the sea for the sharks to feed on them. This isn’t right. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.

11

Maur

Slowly but surely, my eyesight is recovering.

We’ve been hiding between the jutting black rocks for a few hours. Drones keep flying overhead. They know we’re here. They’re just making sure we keep moving. I’ve launched a few stones at them. I managed to hit one, but not hard enough to crash it. They’ll come around again and again until we’re gone. Until we’re out of their range.

Dahlen is still speechless, sitting on his ass and rocking back and forth like a fucking baby. Useless. The anger inside me is too powerful, too hot and sharp for my reason to overcome it. I can’t even speak. If I open my mouth, only curse words come out. Curse words aimed at everyone, including our dead men, even though I know they don’t deserve my ire.

Kai uses a piece of his loincloth to dip in saltwater, washing my face and gently dabbing the burned skin around my eyes. It hurts like a motherfucker, but it will heal. I got lucky. It could’ve been a lot worse, but I’m nowhere near my full capacity yet. My vision is slightly blurry, and the faintest light hurts my eyes. I can see enough to not fall flat on my face, but I cannot see well enough to survive an assault on the city.

Not that we have what it takes to launch an assault on the city.

That much became painfully clear when Selina Sharuk came out with a horde of mercenaries to greet us. I shake my head slowly.

“We were played,” I tell Kai. “Somebody betrayed us. One of our own.”

“Or their drones did pick up movement when they flew above our position more than once, and they just let us come all the way to the gates,” Kai replies. “Why attack us when they could simply allow us to bring Cynthia to their fucking door?”

“It doesn’t make sense. What of your spies?” I ask.

He shrugs, his brow furrowed with concern. “Either dead or gone. I’ll need to reach out to them, but if you’re right, and we were betrayed, I wouldn’t know who to trust.”

“What the fuck is wrong with him?” I reply, nodding at Dahlen. “This wasn’t his first fight.”

“But it was the first time he saw so many of his brethren killed. It was over before he could even move,” Kai says, giving the boy a pained look. “He’s in shock.”

I slap Dahlen hard across the face. He gasps, then blinks fast and looks at me with a mixture of outrage and fear. “Wake the fuck up, Dahlen! We’re in deep shit here!”

“Why’d you hit me?!” He starts crying, so I slap him again. “Stop it!” He moves back and out of my reach.

“Enough, brother,” Kai says.

I’d slap Dahlen again, but my body is sore all over. At least I put up a fight before they took me down. The same cannot be said for our cousin. I’m not an empath like my brother. There’s no room for hesitation in battle. No room for second guessing. Fear must be used as fuel and nothing else. But the boy failed us. Maybe he could’ve gotten Cynthia out had he been able to react.

“I was right,” I grumble, giving Dahlen a sour look. “You’re nowhere near ready for active duty. You’ve proven that much.”

“I’m sorry,” he whimpers, shaking like a leaf.

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