Page 22 of Primal Vow

In that instant, Taryn saw everything with blinding clarity. He saw the malice in Mal's eyes, the hard truth that he fully intended to murder Rhys in cold blood. He saw the betrayal etched on Rhys's face, the honest pain and fear of a soul who had given everything, only to be discarded.

Most of all, he saw a future where Rhys ceased to exist, his light snuffed out by one of his own kind.

It was unacceptable.

Gun raised, Mal lunged around the tree.

Taryn moved without thought, without hesitation. His blade left his hand in a flash of blurred motion, the metal singing as it sliced through the air. "Down!" he roared, his voice a thunderous command that brooked no refusal.

To his relief, Rhys obeyed instantly, dropping into a protective crouch. Taryn's blade found its mark a heartbeat later, slamming into Mal's chest with deadly accuracy. The human's scream of shock and pain drowned out by the thump of his gun hitting the ground.

"You will not harm him," Taryn snarled, his words laced with the promise of violence as he advanced on the now-disarmed human. "He is under my protection."

He risked a glance over his shoulder at Rhys. The human was staring at Mal with naked shock, his dark green eyes searching the man's fallen body as if seeing him for the first time.

"Are you unharmed?" Taryn asked, his tone softening ever so slightly.

Rhys nodded mutely, seemingly at a loss for words. Taryn felt a strange sense of relief.

And then Rhys suddenly broke away. He rushed to the fallen human's side. Taryn watched in surprise as Rhys fell to his knees beside the man who had intended to kill him mere moments ago.

"Mal!" Rhys cried, his voice tight with desperation. "Tell me, where's the pick-up point? Where?" He shook Mal. "Where's the extraction point?!"

Taryn froze.

That was why Rhys had wanted to approach Mal. He wanted to escape from Taryn, and flee Vasz. He needed to know where and when to go.

That was all.

But Rhys's last grasp at hope crumbled before his eyes.

Mal's laughter was a gurgling, bloody rasp. "You really are dumb as a rock, aren't you?" He fixed Rhys with a sneer, his eyes glittering with cruel amusement. "There was never any extraction. This was a one-way trip from the start."

The color drained from Rhys's face. "No..." he whispered, shaking his head in mute denial. "No, that can't be right. You're lying!"

Mal let out one final wheezing chuckle. "Stupid kid..."

With those last mocking words, the human fell still. Rhys stared at the lifeless form for a long moment, his expression one of stunned disbelief.

Taryn watched him carefully. Fear, anger, sorrow — they all flickered through those expressive eyes before being subsumed by a bone-deep weariness.

"He's gone," Taryn said, keeping his voice low and steady. "There is nothing more to be done."

Rhys didn't respond at first. He simply knelt there beside Mal's corpse, his shoulders slumped in dejection. Taryn could practically see the weight of his situation crashing down on the human.

His last hope at fleeing the planet was gone. Stranded. Alone. Cut off from everything and everyone he had ever known.

It would be enough to break a lesser being. Rhys had proven himself resilient thus far, had demonstrated a core of inner strength that Taryn could not help but admire.

But even the strongest will could buckle under such a staggering burden. If Taryn had found himself stuck in human space, never able to get back to Vasz…

Slowly, Rhys lifted his head to meet Taryn's gaze. There was no accusation in those haunted eyes, no resentment or fear. Only a hollow sort of resignation, as if he had finally accepted the cruel reality of his circumstances.

"What do I do now?" he asked, his voice little more than a cracked whisper.

In that moment, with Rhys bowed before him — vulnerable, adrift, bereft of hope — Taryn felt an unexpected swell of protectiveness. This human, this fragile creature so far from home, had been thrust into Taryn's world through no fault of his own. Left to fend for himself against dangers he could scarcely comprehend. Betrayed by his own kind.

It was unacceptable.

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