Page 23 of Hadley's Heroes
I woke to the twin suns blaring heat into my skin. I sat up, startled.
“It’s okay, I’m here.” It was Jaim, he had come and found me.
“We need to leave now,” I told him, standing to my feet. I must have passed out from exhaustion. I didn’t mean to sleep this long. But as the first drops of rain started, I cursed the Goddess. Why would she do this to me?
We would lose all scents in the rain. I wouldn’t be able to find Hadley or Aalee. There was nothing I could do.
Chapter Twenty-One
Hadley
The hut they constructed was rough. If that held up I would be very surprised. But I guess they weren’t trying to build some amazing hut to impress me. This was just so they could mate me… rape me. Fuckers were going to feel the wrath of my heel in their stupid hairless balls.
One came to grab me and I did everything to slow him down.
“No, stop,” I screamed, my feet digging into the earth in front of me, legs out straight, and being as much of a dead weight so it was hard for him to carry me. But that wasn’t going to stop an almost-seven-foot-tall alien with four arms and two tails. No, he wrapped his tails around my ankles and lifted me off the ground, and carried me like I weighed no more than a feather.
“Stop, no. Get off me.” I lashed out, trying to hurt him, but my nails were blunt. I had a habit of chewing them down. I wished I didn’t so I would have something to scratch him with.
The fear rose in my chest. This was it. As he took me into the crudely built hut, there were five other males inside already. Their cocks out… they were stroking them, watching me. I was dropped into the middle of them all, naked, cold and shaking. A few of them turned to the opening of the hut, but I didn’t look. I didn’t want to take my eyes off any of them. I needed to be prepared to fight them off.
They started speaking, their hands no longer on their cocks as they grabbed weapons. I took that chance to look outside. The rain was heavy and making everything hard to see, the fog was thick, but I could see the shape of a male.
“Aalee?” I called out. Someone hit me in the head and I saw stars before everything started to become fuzzy. But as I slowly laid my head down, I could see the male come running, and calling out in an Aashi war cry.
Aalee… he came for me. He was here. I closed my eyes and felt my body grow heavy.
He was here…
Chapter Twenty-Two
Aalee
Ihad found the warrior Jaemay, he was on guard at the cliff farther up from the fall of water. He told me that a Zalli male was supposed to be guarding that section where the males had taken Hadley. I knew this male… it was Jeralk. The pink Zalli warrior who I had stayed with, he had become a friend. But where was he now? Was he working with these Aashi? It made no sense. I didn’t see him when I was at the top.
We had tracked the scent, but these males knew how to cover their tracks and made it difficult. But they had become careless the further they got from the clan. Maybe because they didn’t expect anyone to find them after they hid their tracks. When we got close, we had sensed Hadley, but also many other males. We knew they could sense us too, so we backed right off. I didn’t want to start something with them, something I couldn’t finish with being so outnumbered. That wouldn’t help Hadley at all.
We made a small camp in hopes we could wait for backup to come. We needed more males to take them on. I had heard Hadley cry out my name so many times, and it broke me inside not to be there for her. If Jaemay wasn’t with me, I knew I would be dead already. I wouldn’t have waited, I would have charged in and done anything to protect her.
He was a male of reason and good strength. He held me down every time she cried out to me and I tried to run to her, only ever letting me go when he knew I would use my mind and not my heart.
When the rains began it wasn’t getting better for us. The clan wasn’t here, they never came. I didn’t understand, we had left marks and our scent for them to follow. But now the rains were here, that was going to be impossible to find. Did they not know Hadley was missing? It didn’t make sense to me. Jaim would have told them. They would have known. But why weren’t they out here looking for her?
“We need to move now, they are building a hut… They will mate Hadley against her will.” I was pacing as I tried to explain to Jaemay why I couldn’t wait. He knew we couldn’t take them on, but I couldn’t sit here and wait any longer.
When I heard Hadley scream, I lost it. Jaemay tried to grab me and hold me back as he had done so many times before, but all those times I had let him stop me. This time I broke free and ran to her. I would do whatever I could to stop this.
The males knew I was there as I slowed down my approach.
“Aalee?” Hadley almost whispered my name. I stepped forward. I sensed the six males emerge from the hut. The odds were stacked heavily against me, but I would die trying to protect Hadley.
The fog was thick from the rains, making it hard to see, and I tried to see where they were as I sensed them surrounding me. Caging me in. Even if I could only stop them for a short time, it would be worth it. Giving her a chance to run, for the clan to find her… anything was better. Hadley was everything to me, I didn’t know that until now, how much I loved her.
The males charged me as one and I wasn’t expecting that. I moved, but not fast enough as one caught my chin with their fist. I swung out, hitting them. But they overpowered me. Shoving me to the ground and hitting me over and over. I tried to hit back, but it only left me vulnerable to attack as I couldn’t block that many fists.
Jaemay came into view as he dropped from the tree above and attacked the males with his knife. At least the odds were a little more in my favor with Jaemay. The males had underestimated me and didn’t come at me with weapons, only fists. They had left their weapons behind. If I could get to one, I could use it against them.
Jaemay jumped back into the tree and it seemed to distract the males from me, but my body was injured severely. I knew I had many broken bones, but I could see Hadley. She was safe for now, but how long could Jaemay last? Once they brought him down there would be no one. I had to get to Hadley. I needed her to run. I wished she was already running. I didn’t understand why she stayed in the hut.
