Page 95 of Bred by the Alien Prince

"I'll clean the tunic," he stood and approached.

"No," I said, getting into the water and kneeling, using the cold liquid to scrub my clothes until a small stain persisted. I sat down and just stared into the woods across the way. "I want Lorvian to know what these people did. I want him to come back here and kill every last one of them," I muttered my wishes more to myself than the man playing with the fire nearby.

"I think we should leave now." He pulled the charred meat off the fire, wrapped it in cloth, and soaked it in the river. They sizzled as he placed them in the sack he carried. He put out the fire and led the way.

We walked away from the cottage, and now that we were on rocky land, my bare feet were taking a beating.

"Lorvian really wanted this child," I whispered as we continued on. "He was happy to tell me about it, for sure."

"What of your happiness?"

"I was happy, too. I finally felt like I was building something that was mine—my own family, as strange as it was."

"You don't know if you've lost it. We're very resilient if you didn't know," he replied, pushing ahead. "It will take much more than a single arrow to kill it."

"I keep hearing about the healing capabilities of your kind, but Travol women lose their babies by Valisian men all the time, so much so that Lorvian turned to me, a man."

"Your kind?" He stopped and looked at me. "I knew it. You're not Valisian."

"No... I guess I'm kind of one. I'm a human... or was...but something happened... actually, a lot happened. It's hard to explain, I guess the long and short of it is that some Valisian scientist experimented on me and it seems to have worked more than expected."

"I see." He kept moving. "I thought perhaps Valisian omegas outside the planet had evolved to be much smaller, and your legs were strange." He chuckled. "It makes sense now. Though the thought of an alien transforming into one of us is quite fascinating." He stopped again and held up his hand for me to stop. "Hide!"

We ran for the large bushes and trees and vanished inside. Those freaking armored soldiers were ahead, but I don't think they saw us, though they were still searching for us. Zai tapped my shoulder and gestured for me to follow him. We crawled along the ground away from the group, and everything was going according to plan. We remained low and hidden until we stumbled upon one pissing by the tree.

"Damn," Zai exclaimed and summoned the same gust of force from before, pushing him back, and now we were on our feet and running away from the chaos.

"We won't make it!" I exclaimed when the soldiers caught up to us. Zai turned to blast them away. One soldier leaped high over the tumbling bodies of the others and swung his large sword down, only for Zai to evade with another gust of darker swirling force.

I sauntered back and tumbled when another soldier came for me. My body tingled, and it was as if my mind connected to every nerve in my body, and it rushed through a force of power. I felt my hand around his neck, squeezing. I felt the blood stop and the windpipe give way.

"Oh my God," I breathed. The force released, and the armored man hit the forest floor, the armor clanking. "What the hell was that?!"

"We must hurry!" Zai grabbed me and ran. We climbed over large branches until we reached the edge of the woods, and I saw a pod standing upright nearby.

"Oh my God!" I pointed ahead. "It's one of the pods!" I ran toward it, but something was off. Lorvian, Cormac, and Connor were nowhere to be seen. Reddish-brown blood was splattered along the floor, leaving a trail near a bush.

"What manner of creature left this behind?"

"Had to be Cormac's blood."

"Ah, an alien. How odd."

"Odd?"

"I'm assuming your alpha is a Valisian."

"Yeah, he is."

"Yet he seems to have multiple alien companions…" He let it linger in the air.

I focused my attention on the medkit lying around. I looked for any sign that Lorvian was here while Zai was rummaging through the pod until the beeping noise stopped.

"There's a chance your friends may return, but we don't have time to wait, and I'm sure they know by now what could happen if they remain on this planet."

"Aside from the Lord of the Rings elves trying to kill us," I sighed, wanting this ordeal to be over. "What do we have to do?"

"There is a place created by Valisians long ago before their minds went sour, old tech that had been lost to the ages but may still work. I've traveled there from time to time." He went to the back of the pod, and what life left had gone dark after he pulled something from it.

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