Page 42 of He Will Always Love Me

“Follow me,” he says and leads us through the smoke-filled rooms to the back door.

We fall out through the door, choking and sputtering. As I blink the smoke from my eyes, I become aware of several Alliance soldiers surrounding us. They all have their weapons at the ready, and I slowly raise my hands.

CHAPTER 22

MAYA

There was a time when I looked at Alliance forces as our friends. They said they were fighting on our side and that the IHC and Alliance should work together, but now, they look at me with naked disdain. If you hate humans, I’m an inferior creature, and if you sympathize with humans, I’m now a traitor to my species for being with a Coalition soldier.

And maybe I am. But I’m past caring at this point. I feel like a woman without a homeland, but I don’t care as long as Revnan is there, wherever ‘there’ is, with me.

One of the soldiers, a human likely from the IHC working with this Alliance squad, pushes me to my knees when we reach camp. When he kneels in front of me, though, his gaze is almost compassionate.

“Are you with them?” he asks. “Did you come by choice?” I hesitate for just a moment. This soldier is offering me an out. I can say to him that I was kidnapped, and they’d probably let me go.

But I’d still be leaving Revnan and Wilkes to die. Earlier, I said that where Revnan goes, I go, and I meant it. Even if where he’s going is certain death. “He’s my fated mate,” I reply steadily, my chin lifted in defiance.

Something in the soldier’s face hardens into disgust. “You must be stupid. He has no intention of mating with you. It’s just something a man says to get into the pants of dumb girls. I’ve seen it a hundred times before.”

“This is different,” I retort.

He snorts. “That’s what they always say, too.”

With a shrug, he gets to his feet. “I was going to give you a pass, but if that’s how you want to play, it’s out of my hands.” He leans in close. “Unless you’d like your freedom in exchange for a favor.”

Possessed by a sudden feral instinct, I bite, sinking my teeth into the soft flesh of his cheek. The metallic taste of blood fills my mouth as I pull away.

“Fucking bitch!” he yells, slapping me hard enough to knock me to the ground. Stars explode in my vision, and by the time they’ve cleared, he’s pulling me back upright by the hair while Revnan screams and fights against his restraints.

A swift blow to the back of Revnan’s head at the hands of an Alzohn soldier stuns him long enough for me to call out. “Calm down, I’m fine!”

He glares murderously at the man currently tending to his wounds but stops fighting back for the moment. “If you hurt her, there will be hell to pay.”

One of the others, a Vakutan, snorts. “Sure, whatever you say. Just tell us what we want to know and no one gets hurt.”

“And if I refuse?”

The Vakutan shrugs. “Well, people will start to get hurt. I think even an Odex could do the math on that one. So, where does the Coalition plan to strike next?”

Revnan snorts. “How should I know? They left me for dead after a skirmish several weeks ago.”

The Vakutan frowns, still maintaining his air of faux affability. He nods to the Alzohn, who punches Revnan in the gut, making him double over.

“Somehow I doubt that,” the Vakutan says. “Tell me, is that pretty little girl over there a spy? Are you trying to sneak her to your side so she can spill her guts to Coalition scum?”

“You leave her out of this.”

Wilkes clears his throat, speaking for the first time since we arrived at their camp. “You can have her if you want,” he drawls. “She’s basically useless. Just a fuckpuppet that he’s convinced himself is his fated mate.”

“You son of a bitch!” Revnan roars. Breaking free from his restraints, he punches Wilkes in the face hard enough to send him sprawling.

Unlike me, Wilkes is a trained soldier, so he quickly recovers, sweeping Revnan’s leg and knocking him off balance as Wilkes gets to his feet. The Alliance soldiers watch with rapt interest.

“Should we intervene?” the Alzohn asks.

The Vakutan shrugs. “Let’s see how it plays out. Ten creds on Loverboy winning the fight.”

The Alzohn smirks. “You’re on.”

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