Page 28 of Tamed By the Alien Warlord
Barely.
I turn to Georgia. My mate. She’s trembling, mouth parted, eyes alight with something feral. She’s shaking.
“Y-you’re insane,” she whispers.
“Still want to kiss me?” I rasp, blood dripping from my jaw.
She doesn’t answer.
But her pupils dilate.
I grin through the pain.
We move.
My steps are dragging now. Every breath is knives. The burns are deep. Too deep. I’m losing blood faster than my body can patch itself.
We reach the access point for the emergency chute.
The hangar doors are sealed.
I kneel—barely—pull a device from my belt.
A detonator.
“Take this,” I tell Georgia. “Set it here. It’ll blow the door and clear the path. Aim high—the lock core’s at the top.”
She takes it, eyes wide. “Why can’tyouset it?”
I smile, tired. “Because if I kneel again, I might not get back up.”
“Then don’t kneel,” she snaps. “Get out with us.”
I lean closer, brushing her cheek with my knuckles. “That’s the plan. But if something happens—if I fall—you get her out. Do you understand me?”
Her eyes go glassy. Her hands shake. “I didn’t survive this far just to lose you now.”
“You won’t,” I promise.
I kiss her.
It’s not gentle.
It’s everything we are—blood and fire and fury and fate. She clutches my armor, lips hot and desperate, and kisses me like she’s trying to defy death with just her mouth.
“Don’t die,” she whispers against my lips.
“I wouldn’t dare,” I whisper back.
Behind us, klaxons wail.
And I’m still standing.
For now.
CHAPTER 12
GEORGIA
