Page 16 of Primal Vow

"They intended to lay waste to thousands of lives."

Chapter seven

Rhys's mind was spinning. Explosives. That stuff the others had made him mine was explosives?! He could barely wrap his head around it.

Why didn't they tell him? What were they planning? His stomach twisted into knots, alarm and confusion tumbling over each other.

But right now, that wasn't the only thing he had to face.

Taryn's eyes blazed with fury. He rounded on Rhys, the human falling back against the cave wall. "How much did you know?!"

Rhys's heart thundered in his chest, caught between the fear of a predator's rage and the sheer force of Taryn's presence. The weight of the Borraq's strength pinned him in place, the unyielding cave wall behind him stopping any chance of escape. "I — I didn't know anything about that, I swear!"

Taryn's snarl was threatening. "Liar. You were with them. You knew what they were planning."

"No, I didn't!" Rhys protested, the words bursting from him in a mix of desperation and indignance. "They told me they were just miners! I thought we were just here to dig up rocks and get paid for it, that's all!"

He shoved back against Taryn's hold, defiance warring with despair. "I was just a worker! A laborer! I was here to dig, to haul, and then get paid for it — that's all I'm good for, that's all I wanted to do! I never signed up for any of this bombing crap!"

His voice rose, thick with a mix of anger and despair. "I was never part of your damn war! I'm just a human trying to survive, trying to pay off his debts and make a life for himself, not — not get involved in any of this!"

Rhys's shout echoed in the cave, the sound of his own voice ringing back at him. He was caught in a mix of emotions, each one tearing through him.

Despair, as he realized that the miners had seen him as nothing more than a tool, to be used for their own ends and then discarded. He was as disposable as the machinery he'd operated.

Anger at being so callously manipulated.

And at the same time, a burning, furious sense of denial. He couldn't be part of a terrorist plot. He couldn't be a willing accomplice to a plan that would harm an entire city, alien or not.

He may have been worthless space trash — but he wasn't that low.

Fury burned hot in his chest, a mix of anger at the miners and a deep, seething rage at the unjust world that had pushed him into their arms. "I'm no damn terrorist!"

Taryn's eyes had been fierce as he pinned Rhys in place, but now that same gaze was assessing, searching. His stare roved over Rhys's face, as if looking for any hint of deception.

After a long moment, Taryn's expression softened. It was only a fraction of a second, gone in the blink of an eye, but Rhys saw it.

Taryn believed him.

Taryn stepped back, releasing Rhys from the cage of his body and the wall. As Taryn stepped back, a tense look crossed his face. He turned on his heel, staring at the young warriors who were gawking at them. "Get ready to move. Now."

The young Borraq jumped at the order, clearly recognizing the tone of their leader's command.

Taryn eyed the explosive container. His jaw was set, a hard line on his face. He looked like a predator about to chase down its prey. "We need to start the hunt immediately. The humans can't have gotten far. They need to be found, and they need to be found now. We're moving out."

Taryn turned back to Rhys, his green eyes blazing. "And you're coming with us."

"I — what? Why?"

Taryn's jaw was set. "To stop this, I need any tool at my disposal. You're coming with me. You're going to help me hunt down your fellow humans."

Rhys swallowed, then looked Taryn in the eyes. "They're not my fellow anything. Let's go."

They ran all day and into the night, a grueling marathon that saw them crossing miles of unforgiving Vasz terrain. Rhys had never breathed air so thick with life, so untainted by the smell of metal and fuel. Despite the hardship, his whole body aching with each step, there was a kind of rapture to it.

He'd grown up on space stations and cramped colony ships, surrounded by recycled air and the hum of machinery. He'd visited more planets than most, but they'd all been polluted by human touch, the wilderness tamed and covered in concrete. To experience a world as wild and untamed as Vasz…

If this was the kind of planet that the Borraq were fighting to protect, Rhys could understand their determination.

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