Page 84 of Claimed by an Alien Warrior

Fuck control! That human threatened my kun’ia.

Ren slammed the door shut and thrust an arm to the side, catching Zoey and forcing her behind him.

The human in front of him was some sort of soldier — a peacekeeper, perhaps, or an enforcer. Ren was unfamiliar with their designations for such positions. It didn’t matter, either way. Fear had settled into the man and made him weak, and that weakness made him dangerous.

Rage burned through Rendash’s body like a ravenous wildfire; this enforcer had drawn a weapon and aimed it at Zoey.HisZoey.

That was unacceptable.

“On the ground, now!” the enforcer shouted, backing away while adjusting his hold on his weapon.

Removed from the confrontation by scant distance, a small crowd of humans watched with expressions of shock and horror. Rendash didn’t care; Zoey’s safety was more important than being exposed. He couldn’t allow her to be harmed or taken. He couldn’t continue without her.

“Put your weapon down,” Ren growled at the enforcer.

“Requesting immediate backup,” the man said into the device on his shoulder. “Repeat, request—”

“I will not tolerate you directing your weapon at an innocent,” Rendash said.

“Down on the fucking ground, hands behind your head!”

A strange wailing sound carried to Rendash on the wind, slowly growing stronger, as though something were approaching. Was it more enforcers? Were they so foolish — or so arrogant — as to announce their approach?

“You cannot have this female. She ismine. Return to your vehicle.”

“Ren,” Zoey pleaded, placing a hand on his back, “just go. This is going to get bad unless I do what he says, do you understand? You need to just leave! Don’t let them get you!”

“They will have neither of us,kun’ia,” he said gently, turning his head to see her from his outer eye. She stared up at him with fear and concern straining her face. He shifted aside the hanging fabric of his coat and reached back to her with his lower arms, hoping to offer her some comfort.

“Holy shit,” the enforcer said.

“We are leaving now,” Rendash declared. The threat of violence from the enforcer could easily have been answered with violence, and Ren was prepared to act — his nyros were functioning far better than they had since his arrival on Earth — but Zoey’s safety was tantamount. Battle, however brief or limited in scale, often took unforeseen tolls, especially when innocent non-combatants were near.

“Just…just get the fuck down!” the enforcer shouted.

Rendash took a step to the side, guiding Zoey to stay behind him with his lower hands.

He saw it in the male human’s eyes — a flare of terror, a gut reaction that any aligarii child in the Khorzar would have been conditioned to avoid — and projected a shield a fraction of an instant before the man’s finger squeezed the trigger of his blaster.

A chaotic eruption of sound dominated those drawn-out moments; five booms in quick succession, the hiss of the shield — flashing purple with each impact — destroying the projectiles, screaming from Zoey and the human onlookers, the intensified wailing and roaring engines of more enforcer vehicles as they raced along the nearby road.

Instinct.

Rendash darted forward, keeping the shield in front of him. The enforcer stumbled backward, firing several more shots. The shield pulsed but held firm.

The enforcer’s path was blocked by a vehicle; he nearly fell over when he struck it, and fear twisted his features into something primal. Such fear was not uncommon on a battlefield, but it served as a reminder to Rendash that these people were not nearly as advanced as his own.

The technology that aligarii took for granted was awe-inspiring and potentially terrifying for humans.

Somehow, it was enough to convince Rendash to be merciful.

He grabbed the man’s extended hand, and bones crunched as he wrenched the small, black weapon from the human’s hold. The enforcer screamed. Rendash threw the weapon into the snow before grasping fistfuls of the man’s clothing, lifting him overhead, and hurling him into the nearest pile of white. The human vanished in the deep snow.

Rendash surveyed his surroundings. Several of the human onlookers had fled, but several more remained in place, holding up small, rectangular devices — phones, similar to the one Zoey had possessed.

The other enforcer vehicles screeched around the turn and came to abrupt halts nearby; Ren counted four, with at least six more enforcers.

Their truck was blocked in, and he had no desire to battle more humans. The risk to Zoey would be too great. Ren alone couldn’t protect her from all angles.

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