Page 108 of The Weaver

“Rekosh!” Ahmya screamed.

He tumbled over the uneven ground, over branches, rock, and debris. The Tangle did not cease spinning even when his body came to rest, his hand landing upon the jagged edge of a stone.

A thick, heavy leg came down on his chest, pinning him in place. Rekosh grasped it reflexively. His claws sank into tough hide, which only seemed to draw more weight upon him.

Snarling, he looked up to meet Ulkari’s blazing blue eyes.

“Bind this betrayer,” she growled, snapping her mandible fangs, “and his creature.”

“No!” Rekosh’s rage flared, hotter than any goldworker’s forge, flooding him completely.

No one could touch his mate.No one.

A bestial roar erupted from his chest as he grasped the sharp, jagged stone and stabbed it into Ulkari’s leg.

Gold adornments clanked as the Fang reared back, snatching her bloody leg away. Rekosh kept his claws latched onto her, dragging himself off the ground and shredding more of her hide in the process.

With a furious cry, Ulkari shook him off. At the edge of his vision, he saw Ahmya crawling out of the net. He would not let them have her. Crimson filled his vision as he lashed out with a wild flurry of claws and kicks. The males who had caught him in the net joined the battle. He sent blows at them too, so quickly and savagely that they had no time to counter.

Do not touch her.

She is mine.

Mine!

Rekosh didn’t know whether he only thought those words or shouted them. Hands grabbed at him, yet his claws bit into flesh again and again and again, splattering his hide with warm blood. What pain he felt was distant—like a voice echoing from another world.

Ahmya. Mine.

Must reach her.

Must protect her.

He didn’t perceive individuals around him. They were but the limbs of a faceless monster, and he would slay the beast at any cost. Anything between Rekosh and his mate was to be destroyed.

“Enough!” a female vrix yelled.

With another roar, Rekosh lunged toward the female.

A wave of terrible, overwhelming cold crashed into him, forcing him to an abrupt halt when he saw her.

The female, another Fang called Nuriganas, had one hand wrapped around Ahmya’s neck from behind, holding her aloft. Ahmya’s kicking feet were more than a segment off the ground.She clutched the Fang’s thick fingers with both hands, and her face was already red.

A firestorm clashed with that bone-deep chill. He needed to tear that arm off the female’s body, needed to rip out her throat with his mandibles, needed to kill, and kill, and?—

“Submit,” Ulkari demanded from beside him, “or we will show you what our queen did to the first of these creatures.”

Terror and fury swirled within Rekosh, as powerful and violent as the worst storm to have ever battered the Tangle. He met Ahmya’s gaze.

Her eyelids were flaring and drooping, and the light in her eyes was fast dulling. But the fear in them remained apparent throughout, tinged with desperation as her struggles continued, a little weaker with each heartbeat. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

All Nuriganas had to do was tighten her grip, and…

And Ahmya would be gone.

A simple contraction of muscle, and Rekosh’s mate would be taken from him forever. Before he could say a word, before he could move any closer, before he could so much as blink, she would be gone.

I am sorry,kir’ani vi’keishi.

---