Page 39 of Shielded Heart

“There were people here looking for you. Th-they were asking me questions about you.”

“What people, Samantha? Who were they?”

“They didn’t tell me, but one of them was the groalthuun from the Ventrillian Mall. The one who was taking pictures.” She wiped the moisture from her cheek with the back of her hand. “I didn’t tell them anything. I swear. I even gave them a fake name for you. You have to believe—”

“Did they hurt you?” he asked, his third eye lingering on her while the other two focused on something below the hologram.

Sam shook her head. “N-no.”

“Stay in your apartment. I’ll be there as fast as possible.”

“They said they’ll be around, Alk. They probablywantyou to come.”

“They’re probably listening to this conversation right now.”

Her heart leapt and her eyes widened. Why hadn’t she thought of that? Why had she been so stupid? Of course they would bug her apartment! It was probably why they hadn’t demanded to look at her holocom contacts.

And she was giving them all the information they needed right now.

“It’s okay, my little terran,” he said, all his eyes now on her. “I’ll be there soon. Don’t open the door for anyone but me.”

“Okay,” she said, searching his face. “Please be careful.”

Nine

The call ended, and the hologram of Samantha’s face—so beautiful, yet so filled with terror—vanished. Arcanthus slammed his fists atop his desk, denting the metal, and shoved himself to his feet. His pounding heart pumped fire through his veins. He clenched his teeth hard enough to risk shattering them.

A wordless, furious cry rose from his chest, beginning as a growl and ending as a roar; even if there were words to encompass what he felt at that moment, his rage was too great to find them. He’d known what she was to him—hismate—and had suppressed most of the instincts she’d awoken in him so far.

There’d be no stopping them now.

He wanted to destroy anything and everything in his path. Wanted to tear Arthos apart and make the city bleed until he had Samantha safe in his arms.

Bloodlust had always lurked in his subconscious; it was the part of him that had thrilled in the combat he’d seen in his brief days as a soldier, the part of him that had loved the bloody arena fights he’d been forced into as a slave, the part he’d always thought of as hisinner tretin. As years had passed, he’d done his best to silence it.

But he would embrace it to save Samantha. He would unleash it upon the universe to protect her.

He stalked out of his workshop and down the corridors to the armory, sparing the walls and light fixtures along the way from his wrath only because they wouldn’t bleed. As he moved, he sent a message to Kiloq and Koroq, informing them of the new situation.

Arcanthus threw open the doors to the storage locker and tugged out his combat armor breastplate. He pulled it on over his head and quickly hit the fasteners to activate the maglock seals along the seams; the armor covered his torso and pelvis, front and back.

“What the fuck are you doing, Arcanthus?”

Arc glanced over his shoulder to see Drakkal filling the doorway, his powerful arms crossed over his chest.

He’s not my enemy. Not my enemy.

Arcanthus moved to the next locker and drew an auto-blaster from the rack. “Going to help her.”

“Who? The damned terran?”

“Shouldn’t that be obvious by now?” Grasping the weapon in both hands, Arc turned it to the side and checked the power charge; full. He slung the auto-blaster over his shoulder and pulled down a second.

“What happened?”

“Groalthuun from the mall showed up at her apartment. Was asking about me.”

Drakkal growled. “I said you were being stupid, Arc. You think I was just messing with you? If you have people after you—”

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