Page 5 of Hadley's Heroes
“I’m good. Jaim here was just about done fixing my ankle. I sprained it.”
I quickly changed my thoughts as I smiled at Hadley’s praise. Brooklyn turned back to me and patted my shoulder. I had helped Hadley. There seemed to be no broken bones and what I had been trained to do with a female… well, it was different with Hadley. I was to use a thin blanket that I placed on an injury and touch her over it so I would not touch her skin and set off my mating hormones. But because I already had them, my cock leaking seed proved that, she asked why I had done that to treat her.
When I explained, she had looked down to my thighs and pointed out that it wasn’t going to do anything, and it would probably be easier to treat her without the blanket on her. And she was right. Hadley was smart, and I was going to prove myself to her after she let me touch her hands and feet. She might want a takxe as a mate, or even to use me as her personal healer. I knew in that moment, I never wanted to be apart from her. I would take whatever she was willing to give me.
I heard loud voices from outside. Then they got louder and more heated. Everyone in the hut turned to the sounds as a fight broke out within the clan. I think it was the new clan fighting against Clan Freedom. This wasn’t good, we just got here.
“Stay here,” the Aashi male that came with Elle, Zurcov, spoke up and jumped to his feet. He was a smaller warrior too, like Jaka and Vetok. But he turned to me, Adee, and Jaka.
“You keep them safe here, I will go see what has happened.”
I nodded, but I was worried. What could have caused this fighting?
Chapter Five
Hadley
Iheard the fighting; it went on for hours. Elle and Brooklyn stayed with me and some of the guys. It was strange, actually. Jaka, Jaim, and Adee were with us. I couldn’t believe that even Brooklyn’s mates weren’t here. Tiji… I felt super safe with him around. She told us about how he really liked to use his spear and had hurt poor Makee, her mute mate. He was so sweet, but if he thought Makee was a threat and stabbed him, I imagined he would be worse with a real threat.
Tiji made me feel safe when we first got to Clan Wolf and those Chosen males that followed Jessica basically held us as ransom so I really wished he was here right now. Not that these males couldn’t protect me, just he had this way about him that—I shrieked when a male slammed through the door and fell to the floor, the girls shuffling away from him. Blood was covering him. My hand flew to my mouth to stop myself from screaming at the sight of him.Oh god.
“Aalee?” both Jaim and Adee gasped, leaping towards him as they saw the injured male now bleeding on the hut’s floor. I snapped out of my shock.
“Quick, bring him here,” I called out to them. You could see he had a broken arm from the way it was hanging.Oh shit. Crap. If this was how he looked… Was he on our side? What was going on out there? I didn’t understand why no one had told us. Luna, Quinn, and Jessica were somewhere else. I wasn’t sure where, and we hadn’t heard from anyone.
I was getting scared. I knew we brought a large group with us, mostly unmated males. But why were they fighting? We shouldn’t be fighting each other. We had a bigger enemy to fight.
“This is scaring me.” Elle held her arms around her legs that were drawn up to her chest, and she rocked slightly. Brooklyn chewed on her thumbnail and twirled her hair with her other hand as she hummed a tune. I could see her eyes not focused on anything. I didn’t want her to worry, she looked so scared, and I hated this for her.
I reached out and took one of Elle’s hands and gave it a squeeze before reaching over to Brooklyn, holding hers so she stopped biting her nail, and she smiled slowly, her eyes glassy.
“It’s okay, don’t worry. We’re safe here, our mates will come back.” Brooklyn nodded but I could see her eyes now fixed on the door which had swung shut after Aalee’s entrance.
Aalee spoke fast. He didn’t come to me to help him. He planted himself against a far wall from me, like I would burn him if he was to come any closer. The translator not catching up fast enough to catch his words, I could only understand some of what he said like clan, males, and fight, which I already gathered. But it was then Vetok returned. He was in the hut and on me within a second.
“My Hadley.” He kissed my cheek and stroked my hair. I could see his fist was injured from fighting. But nothing else seemed to be injured. I felt relieved to see him here. Where were Elle’s mates? Brooklyn’s? I was glad to have both of mine here, safe.
“What happened?” Brooklyn asked, scanning the door. She was probably waiting on her mates. Like her “Pinkie” who was such a beautiful shade, like he was mixed with a pink alien and a purple one and… huh? I would have to ask about that. I wondered if he was part Zalli after seeing that pink one. Her mates though, they hadn’t returned. But neither had Elle’s mates as she watched the door as well. I could see the longing on her face, wishing one of her mates would appear.
“There were many of the outcast males that came with us. Something was said to the clan here and a fight started. I don’t even know why, but all I knew to do was protect you. There were too many for me, my heart. You must choose strong, larger warriors to mate. You need someone who can protect you at all times.”
I reached out and cupped Vetok’s jaw, my thumb running over the smooth skin. Poor guy couldn’t grow any facial hair… No Aashi could.
“You always protect me, I don’t need anyone. I have you and Jaka,” I told him. I wanted him to agree like when he had first brought this up once before and I shut down the idea of having five mates. I didn’t need that many, but he shook his head this time, the worry etched into his features.
“No, my heart. You will need more mates. Stronger, larger mates here in this clan. There are too many unmated males. We cannot protect you as we did back in Clan Wolf. Here is different, with many different males from other worlds.”
I understood what he was referring to. The Aashi, but also those Zalli… they might not be the same as Sanza who was sweet and nice. These guys might actually kidnap me if I wasn’t careful and, honestly, that scared me.
I looked over to where Aalee was nursing his arm and actively avoiding my gaze. It was his upper right. I wasn’t sure if that was worse or if he would be okay as he healed. Adee, as I had come to find, was his twin… well kinda. He called them littermates, and with the fact Aashi usually had four kits at once, I guess he was part of a quad? They looked so similar, yet both seemed so different. Adee was a flirt, his brother seemed to hate me.
Adee looked over at me. He heard what Vetok had just told me. He puffed his chest up and smiled at me. Jaim watched me too, with eyes that would melt a heart. Shit, why did he tell me in front of them? I didn’t know what to think. I only just met these guys, and now they heard that Vetok thought I should have more mates.
I wasn’t ready to pick new mates right now, but with the way they both looked over at me, those eyes pleading to be in the running, I felt a pang in my chest. Maybe Vetok was right, maybe now was the time, and if I was going to do it I wanted to do it right. Not rush into anything. I could see these three were close with each other. Jaim wasn’t large, but what he lacked in height his friends had in spades. The brothers were at least seven foot each. They were big. But with Aalee injured… and the fact he seemed to dislike me something fierce, that was going to make this hard.
“I will protect you. I would make a good mate, Hadley.” Adee stood tall in the hut, his hand against his chest as he smiled down at me. I didn’t realize before how large he really was until he was standing like that. And fuck… his abs, all his muscles. They seemed larger than the other Aashi I had seen before. He was huge… in every way. My eyes widened at the bulge in his cloth. Oh boy.
“I…” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I’m not ready to pick mates just yet. But I will let you know when I am.” I didn’t know what to say, Vetok was nodding at me now and looking towards Adee. Did he want me to pick these guys? Why? There were many Clan Wolf males wanting mates, like the three who were always with each other, Xell, Qevin, and Qurx. They weren’t the tallest, but I knew them better than I knew these three.
