Page 54 of An Alien for the Future

Just when he grunts, his arms tightening even more around me, a new voice, a familiar voice, a voice that sends a surge of hope through my terror, cuts through the chaos.

“Get your claws…off my mate.”

Tovan.

Suddenly, there’s a blur of motion. Tovan appears as if from nowhere, his eyes blazing with fury. He slams into the stranger with the force of a freight train, forcing him to let me go. I fall, barely managing to land unsteadily on my feet as I lift my head, trying to get a sense of what’s happening.

I look up in time to see Tovan punch the stranger hard enough that he staggers backward, crashing into the door before stumbling off the porch.

Chest heaving, Tovan turns, his gaze finding me.

“Donna,” his gaze skips over me, assessing, “are you hurt?”

I’m speechless, the words stuck in my throat as I shake my head.

There’s a sound outside, a growl coming from the stranger, and I see the moment Tovan snarls. And then he’s gone.

I’m frozen in place, watching in horror as the two Kari males trade vicious blows. Tovan fights with a ferocity I’ve never seen, landing punch after punch on the stranger’s face and body. It’s then that I realize I’ve never seen him like this before. The soft, agreeable male that’s been stalking me is nowhere to be seen. Instead, I see a warrior. A fighter who’s seeking blood.

But the stranger is just as large as Tovan, and his strikes, when they land, seem to shake Tovan to his core.

“Tovan!” I cry out as the stranger lands a devastating blow to Tovan’s ribs. I hear a sickening crack, and Tovan stumbles back, gasping for air. It feels like the sun is going down, cloaked by a heavy rain cloud as I watch the stranger press his advantage,driving Tovan to the ground with a series of strikes that feel like they hit me too. Blood trickles from a cut above Tovan’s eye and his breathing is labored. But still, he struggles to his feet, placing himself between me and the Kari stranger.

The sight of it shatters something inside me. Something I’ve been pushing against for so long.

I like Tovan.

I like Tovan Kamesh.

Seeing him get hurt like this, I can’t, I can’t stomach it. I have to help him.

I hurry to the kitchen, heading toward the knives when I spot the still-bubbling pot of hot stew. Gulping, I grab a towel and lift the pot instead.

“Leave.” I hear Tovan growl as I head back to the front. His voice is a mix of raw pain and determination. “She is not for you.” He’s standing but he’s gripping his chest with one arm, even as he glares at the stranger, who looks like he’s got a busted leg.

The stranger wipes blood from his split lip, but with his back turned to me he has no idea what I’m doing. “You fool,” he spits. “You cannot keep her for yourself. We are all waiting. Every single one of us. Waiting for ourkahls.”

Tovan stands taller. “She already has a kahl.” He speaks with such surety, such finality, that for a moment, I can only stare at him. This alien that stumbled into my life and is claiming me with such conviction it rocks the ground at my feet. “She has me and I’m not going anywhere.”

For a beat, there is silence and then the stranger laughs. It’s a grating hollow thing. A sound that makes me shake with the pot in my hands.

“Liar,” the stranger growls. “There is no core-rhythm. Just as you lied at the registration, you lie now.” He laughs again. “You should be ashamed.” He wipes his lips again. “You think you arebetter than us with your masses of credits. Better than we who were on the ground during the war. We who had to fight with our fists. We who bear the scars of those experiments. You are no better, Tovan of the line Kamesh.You do not deserve this female.”

Tovan’s jaw clenches, his scales glinting in the light as he stands taller. “Deserve?” he snarls. His voice is low, so deadly, it doesn’t sound like him at all. “You speak of deserving? You who would force a female against her will? You who would violate the sanctity of her home, her life? You are no Kari. You are a disgrace to our kind.”

His words are sharp. Cutting. They hang in the air like a challenge, a condemnation. The stranger flinches, his bravado faltering for a moment before his anger flares again. I can see it in the way he stands that he’s about to make a move, and I grip the pot tighter, ready to react.

But before he can retort, Tovan steps forward, his gaze never leaving the other male. He’s injured, vulnerable, yet the power radiating off of him, the raw intensity of his possessiveness, makes the stranger take a step back.

“This female,” Tovan says, “is mymate. She is under my protection, and I will remain by her side until my last breath, until she herself casts me away.” His gaze is fierce and unwavering. “I will stand beside her. Always.”

His words are a promise, a vow, and a warning, all wrapped up in one. And as I watch him, standing there, tall and proud, defying both pain and convention for a woman he barely knows, a warmth spreads through me, a feeling I haven’t dared to acknowledge, a hope I thought was long gone.

Maybe, just maybe…Tovan is right. Maybe I do have a protector. Maybe I’m not alone after all.

“What a pest.” The stranger snarls, crouching lower, and I know he’s about to attack. No more lingering around. Time to move.

“Hey!” I shout. There’s not much warning. I don’t allow it. It’s almost painful wasting the food, but I don’t hesitate. As the stranger looks over his shoulder in my direction, all he sees is a hot pot of good stew descending on him. Shock makes him howl as he spins to face me, his spine bending back as he roars in pain.

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