Page 108 of Claimed by an Alien Warrior

Hehadto find a way.

Soon, the only sounds were the icy top layer of snow breaking beneath his feet, his ragged breath, and the snapping of branches against his body. He shielded Zoey from the scratching limbs with his arms and shoulders. The heat within him steadily increased as he pushed his body beyond the limits of his nyros.

Finally, he reached a clearing deep within the woods. The unbroken snow bulged at the center in a shape familiar to him, mimicking the curves and planes of the command module. He reached out with his nyros to make a connection but couldn’t initiate one beyond the basic tracking tether.

“Fuck,” he muttered.

Instinct.There was no time to overthink anything.

He carefully set Zoey down and hurriedly stripped off his clothing, laying it on the snow and moving her atop it to serve as a buffer between her and the cold. Then he rushed to the ship, using all four arms to claw through the snow, digging frantically toward the entry.

The snow was so cold compared to his skin that it burned, melting as he touched it. He didn’t relent until he felt the hull — which had maintained its cloaking field — beneath his palms. He held his hands to it and the connection crackled to life; nearly all the internal systems had been shut down to conserve power.

He forced his nyros to override the shutdown. Loose snow fell onto him from above, heavier than it had been during the blizzard in Vail, as the ship powered on. Ren stumbled back when the cloaking field switched off, and the craft rose slightly out of the snow, causing a small avalanche all around it. All the snow touching its hull quickly melted.

The entry slid open, extending a ramp to the ground and bathing it with gentle light.

Ren lifted Zoey, scooping up the clothing beneath her in the process. Her head lolled, and her limbs swayed limply; she was unconscious again.

He carried her onto the ship and rushed through the corridor into the main cabin, where all the command module’s functional equipment was housed. As he moved, he prompted the ship to go through all the necessary functions to enter orbit. It shook slightly before the stabilization systems kicked in.

Crouching, he tore off Zoey’s blood-soaked clothing and cast it aside. Her pale skin showed more signs of bruising. He carefully laid her in one of the medical pods and interfaced with the ship through his nyros. She looked so small inside, so fragile. The pod sealed with a hiss, pressurizing around her.

The medical systems scanned her but did not recognize her anatomy. Ren tried to force commands through, tried to force some sort of action, but the system rejected his attempts. All the while, her chest rose and fell with stilted, shallow breaths, each appearing weaker than the last. The scans had determined that she’d lost excessive blood, but the system did not have the resources to synthesize anything as a replacement.

He unleashed a torrent of human swears at the pod, his frustration overwhelming his clear thought. Drawing back an arm, he swung, and stopped himself only an instant before he would’ve plunged a vrahsk into the machine. Everything inside him stilled as he stared at the pulsating blade. He shifted his gaze to see Zoey’s face bathed in the violet glow through the glass of the pod.

In that moment, he realized there was only one chance. Only one thing to try before it was too late.

He dismissed the blade, climbed into the secondary pod, and lay back, sealing himself inside.

It was against the traditions of his people, perhaps even against the laws, but he didn’t care. He had to try for Zoey. Had to do all he could to avoid losing her.

The medical systems resisted his commands.

Control.

Fire blazed in his gut as he forced his nyros to override all the warnings and initiate the transfer. A blinding light filled the pod and forced him to squeeze his eyes shut. The pain was immense as the tiny machines — which had been part of him since he was young, bonded to the very molecules that comprised him — were torn from his body and transferred to Zoey’s pod. All his muscles locked up at once, and his back arched off the padding.

As his nyros diminished, he felt the abuses his body had endured making themselves known, all the aches and old wounds reintroducing themselves. It was nothing compared to the agony of having part of himself ripped out, but he didn’t voice his pain. It was for her.

A piece of his heart lay in that other pod already, and he’d give as much of himself as it took to keep it safe.

Something slipped in beneath the pain. It began subtly, but gradually strengthened as his nyros lessened.

Awareness.

He recognized the sensation — it was the bond shared by members of an Umen’rak, an invisible web binding their nyros together because of their common source. HefeltZoey; her body, her pain, her fear, herlove. Her life, weak but not yet defeated. Shoving aside his own agony, he poured as much of his willpower through that bond as he could.

Live, kun’ia!

Finally, the light vanished, and he dropped onto the padding. He drew in several deep, burning breaths and turned his head to look at the other pod; Zoey was enveloped in the same light that had enveloped him a moment before.

His nyros stirred, as weak and unresponsive as it had been during his captivity. It would recover, in time, but he didn’t care about that.

He could still feel her.

Zoey’s scream was muffled as the light in her pod intensified.

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