Page 19 of Claimed By the Alien Barbarian

“Which I’m not.”

I stopped.

While she kept walking a few paces, she eventually looked back at me over her shoulder, pausing.

“If you’re unmated,” I said, “another male may try to claim you.”

“I’ll say no.”

“If the traedor states you must pick someone, you won’t be allowed to say no.”

“Then I’ll run away.”

“There’s so much danger in that,” I said.

“Don’t forget, I did quite well here on my own for over a week.”

“You were lucky.”

We started walking again.

She huffed. “Luck had nothing to do with it. I have great survival skills thanks to my mom. You can’t deny that.”

“You’re strong.”

“Thank you.”

“And resourceful.”

“Even better.”

“But you have no idea what you’ll face in my world.”

Her shoulders fell. “You’re right about that, but I’ll find a way.”

I sighed, and we kept walking. “Please don’t run away. You might—”

Molly hissed.

“What’s the problem, little one?” I whispered, stopping again, peering around.

She hissed again and crouched low, leaning into my chest, her eyes focused on the dense woods to our right.

Someone cried out from that direction—a Zuldruxian if I wasn’t mistaken.

Wewerebeing followed.

And . . . Thuds and snarls rang out, the sounds getting louder.

Kerry froze. After I gently placed Molly on the ground, she hustled beneath a cluster of bushes on our left.

I pulled my new spear while Kerry notched an arrow in her bow. We moved quickly and quietly to place our backs to each other, studying the area.

A culendar burst out onto the trail ahead of us, its dark lavender scales bristling across the top of its spine and its orange eyes focused on us.

It had been driven this way. While a pack might attack a lone Zuldruxian, they rarely came after more than one person at a time.

Whoever stabbed me was trying to get the beasts to kill me for them, and they’d now placed Kerry in their sights.

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