Page 70 of Made For The Alien Warrior

He turned and saw her getting dragged away. His eyes flashed. “Sim-pony!”

Distracted by her, Tiegan did not see the warrior running up to him with a spine dagger aimed for his chest. Symphony watched in slow motion, horrified, as the warrior pierced the dagger into Tiegan’s flesh. He jolted, his hands flying out at his sides and his back hunching.

“No!” Symphony screamed.

The rebels dragged her into the tree line, blocking Tiegan from view. She heard a thump and imagined that he had fallen to the ground.

Was he dead?

Grief, panic, and anger exploded in her chest. She felt her arm tingling and didn’t know what it meant, only that she needed to get to Tiegan. Now.

“Let. Me. Go!” Symphony wrenched her shoulder and the taller warrior’s hand slipped off. His jaw slacked. Symphony didn’t give him a moment to make sense of his confusion.

She wrenched her arm back and then shoved her palm into his chest with everything she had inside her. Her mouth opened on a scream, the sound echoing over the treetops.

An energy blast ripped the air where her palm slammed into the rebel. The warrior went flying back and crashed into a tree. A sickening crack whipped the air, warning that his spine had been broken. He slumped to the earth, his eyes going flat as the life seeped out of him.

The second warrior scrambled to his feet, his gaze filled with confusion and fear. Adrenaline pumping her chest, she stomped toward him. He scowled and reached behind him for his spine dagger.

Symphony didn’t give him the luxury of snapping the weapon off. She charged him, her left arm extended. Suddenly, the rebel froze and whipped his head up. Without hesitation, he abandoned the spine dagger and took off.

She watched him, her eyes narrowed to slits.Why had he run?It didn’t matter. She had to find Tiegan. Symphony sprinted through tall weeds and knocked vines aside to get back to Tiegan.

When she cleared the tree line, she saw that the other rebels had left as well. Tiegan remained on the ground, still and unmoving. The dagger was still in his side.

“Tiegan!” She skated to her knees beside him. Tears welled in her eyes as she grabbed his head. “Tiegan!”

His eyes pried apart.

She almost bawled in relief. “You’re alive.”

“On…”

“What?” She leaned her head close to his and then jerked up. “No, don’t speak. We need to get you to the Healer.”

His hand moved slowly. “Onten…”

She frowned, confused.

Tiegan’s pale blue lips trembled as he used what was left of his energy to point upward. “Ontenta,” he said.

A cloud descended overhead, blotting out the sun. The low, menacing sound of buzzing filled the air.

She stiffened as a horde of alien wasps gathered above her. Symphony finally understood why the rebels had run. The poisonous bugs that could kill a full-grown Plutonian warrior… were here.

Twenty-Seven

Tiegan

Tiegan heardthe buzzing of the ontenta grow louder and louder. His breath rattled through his lungs, escaping in short bursts. He tried to move his hand, tried to move his body.

Protect Sim-pony.It was the only thought in his mind. He would walk through a fiery furnace for her if it meant that not one hair on her head would be harmed.

But though he gave the command, his body did not obey him. He wanted to rush up, cover her and take every hit from the ontenta. He could survive long enough to look into her sweet brown eyes until he took his last breath. And even his corpse would provide protection for her until the ontenta cleared.

Move, Tiegan. Move.

Still, he could not gather the strength.

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