Page 1 of Hadley's Heroes
Chapter One
Hadley
Honestly, I have no idea how I end up in the situations I do. I promise I’m a good person… mostly. But sometimes the universe was out to get me, literally. How could so many things go wrong to one person? I must have done something terrible in a past life to have such bad luck in this one.
Like, what were the chances that I was the only one that signed up to this alien bride job to get away from a crazy ex and his gang of assholes? They wanted me dead… I won’t go into specifics, but let’s just say I didn’t stick to the code they lived by, I wouldn’t, and that pissed them off. Badly.
Yeah, I was going into witness protection when I was offered the chance to leave the country for a new job. I said, “Sign me up.” They never mentioned also leaving the entire planet, lack of pay, and the fact I was gonna marry some alien I had never met. But I couldn’t complain, I was going to make use of what I had been given. I was safe and away from those thugs at least.
Then I get here on this alien planet, incredibly far away from where they were. Nothing more could happen to me. Right?
Oh no, I get another group of assholes. These ones fought nonstop between each other about who was going to “mate” me first. That was not going to happen, I held the cards here, and I was going to do what was best for me. I wouldn’t stand for it. I wouldn’t be used as a plaything by more controlling assholes. I didn’t even want to think about the anxiety and stress it gave me.
So, I snuck out one day; it was easy. They wouldn’t stop fighting enough to even realize I was gone, so I packed my bag and left. I was always told I was quiet but that’s because I was always observing. People wouldn’t notice me as much if I kept my mouth shut. It gave me a chance to watch everything around me. I studied people, the way they were… It was how I learned who I could and couldn’t trust. Like my mates Jaka and Vetok. I could trust them, they proved to me they were trustworthy and haven’t let me down like so many others in my life have.
But even now… I thought I was finally onto some good luck. I had started to relax, not always feeling like I had to look over my shoulder. Then I went and walked off the edge of a cliff—that I didn’t see, mind you—and then fell down it. Yes, that was the kind of bad luck I’d been having my entire life. And either something had to change, or I was going to accidentally get myself killed.
I've dreamed of falling before; it felt like I was floating. It felt freeing, so gentle, like I was on a cloud. That was the complete opposite of how this felt. The fact I was actually sliding down the side of a massive cliff with rocks and trees and other things that could actually kill me. It didn’t feel like a cloud when you were hitting rocks and trees. It hurt, like hell. Especially when they don’t stop your fall. I felt like I was in a pinball machine, bouncing from tree to rock.
The panic really set in that I wasn’t stopping. I was trying to grab anything to stop myself from falling, but I couldn’t get a good grip on anything. It would just slip through my hands and cut them up until I finally stopped and blinked through the tears in my eyes. I sniffed and wiped the tears away.
I took a shaky breath. “You’re okay,” I whispered to myself, as if I needed to hear the words out loud. I had landed at the bottom of the cliff. I was sitting on dirt and, although my hands were bleeding and I hurt all over, I knew I was alive.
I was lucky to have survived that; I wasn’t dead. But then dread filled me as I held my hand to my belly. I hope that I didn't hurt my baby. Oh god, that was bad. So, so bad. I took a shaky breath as I glanced down to my little bump. How could I be so stupid as to not look what was in front of me? I didn’t hit my stomach—I made sure of that as I was falling—but all that tumbling wouldn’t have been good. I looked to my knees and saw the blood, cuts, and dirt covering my legs and feet.
“Hadley,” Elle called out to me. My heart started to beat faster as tears welled in my eyes. Oh god, where was Vetok? Jaka? Did they fall? Were they okay?
“Elle,” I called back, choking back a sob. I didn’t want her to know I was hurt and worry her. I was alive, and now safely on the ground. Thankfully, she was up at the top and didn’t do something stupid, like not look where she was walking and fall, like me. She was walking close by me, right before K’Tem said something, as I pushed through some brush and skated down the side of a cliff.
I looked around me, trying to get my bearings. Wow, this was so different from where we had been. The trees were different here. The colors a little pinker than the purple trees I had become so used to. It was pretty. There were small shrubs around like up above, but they held small blue berries. I wondered if they were edible. There was a bird calling out as it fluttered through the branches. It was red—there was a red bird here! My mouth dropped open as I watched it dodge and weave through the trees. It went right over my head and past the tree in front of me.
I gasped as my heart skipped a beat. There were three male Aashi by that tree the bird had flown past. My throat felt thick and I couldn’t swallow. Two of the males were standing on a rock, one held a spear. I noticed that as he shifted it in his hands. One was crouched in a tree, looking down at me. His spear was dropped low, as if he was confused as to what I was, the look in his eyes as I caught them had him leaning back.
I sucked in a shaky breath, my hand slowly rising to my chest as my heart started racing. Where were Vetok and Jaka? Were they coming for me? They would come, why did I even question that? I swallowed the lump in my throat.
I needed my mates, I didn't know who these guys were. Were they from Clan Wolf? If so, they got here fast and didn’t have a scratch on them, but I knew in my mind they weren’t. These males were from somewhere else, and I think I just fell into their lands. Each of the males on the rock were different to each other. One was small, lighter purple and he didn’t hold a spear. The other was a dark hue of purple. He was tall, and I watched as his eyes roamed my body and then glanced to the trees above, probably wondering where I came from.
The smaller one beside him had his hair tied back, very similar to that of Axoh, Luna’s mate. He was a healer, a takxe. That was what they called the smaller ones. I remember that from when I had those Chosen mates.The ones I ran away from.The other male in the tree watched me behind his hair. It was cut shorter of the three but it covered his eyes. It was such a pretty color, too. His color was the same dark hue as the warrior below him.
I blinked as I saw the healer move. He came closer, hands out in front of him… all four of them were coming. I stared, frozen, unsure what he wanted. I didn’t know these males or what they would do to me. I tried to push myself to stand; my hands stung at the pressure, but it was my ankle that stopped me. I gritted my teeth at the pain. “Shit,” I hissed out looking down to it. I didn’t want them to know I was injured. If they did, they would know I couldn’t run away. I dropped back to where I was sitting and reached out to touch it before stopping myself.
This male held his hands out in surrender as he stopped suddenly. I sat up a little, moving back as I felt a tear roll down my cheek. Gosh, how bad everything had become in just a split second. How did I just let my guard down and didn’t even think something like this could happen to me? Not here, not now anyway.
When they looked at each other but didn’t say anything, I started to shake. I I was going into shock, the pain, the fear… My breathing was coming out rapidly and I felt nauseous.
They looked to the left, towards something. I did the same, worried that something was coming for me. What I didn't expect to see was an entire village down here at the bottom of the cliff. I didn’t see that before, distracted by the bird. It was a valley that opened right up with huts and… more Aashi. I swallowed and glanced back up to where I fell from.
“There is something down here,” I called back up to Elle as calmly as I could. The Aashi males looked up as well, probably wondering who I was talking to, but I didn’t want to scare them and have them run off with me, so I tried to keep calm and smile at them like everything was okay. They didn’t speak to me but they watched me intensely.
“Vetok. Jaka. You really need to comeseethis,” I called out again… hoping that someone was coming for me. Because these three males were looking at me like I just dropped from heaven and they wanted to take me back to their hut. Or to eat me… I kept forgetting that not all Aashi knew what a human looked like, they might think I was dinner.
I shuffled back a little as one dropped from the tree he was in, landing silently. Fuck, he was deadly. You would never hear him coming. His spear in his hand rested loosely, not poised to attack. He cocked his head to the side, studying me. He was… beautiful. Alluring. The way his hair fell around his face and he watched me through it with those dark eyes. If I wasn’t scared for my life, I would have wanted to touch him… get to know him. Claim him. I watched his chest rise and fall with harsh breaths as if he was affected by me just as I was by him. The smaller one moved faster towards me this time.
“Fuck, stay back. I have mates, they’re coming,” I screamed out.
All three of the males’ eyes widened at my words, as they all took steps further away from me. They spoke between each other. I wished so badly right now that I had the translator, but it was in my bag, which Jaka was carrying. Fuck…fuck.
“Vetok! Jaka!” I screamed again. I heard them calling out to me. So many were calling my name. I sighed in relief, they were coming for me. They wouldn’t leave me. Clan Wolf were my family now and they would protect me. I just needed to keep these males from taking me from them until they arrived.
