Page 42 of Alokar
When those beautiful gray eyes met mine again, a small smile curved her lips. She took my hand, unheeding the blood dripping from my claws, and placed it over hers where she gripped the bone, our fingers interlacing.
“Together.”
The single word resonated through my very soul, carrying the weight of a thousand promises. This wasn’t just about ending Yaard’s reign of terror—this was about us. About the promise of the life we would build from the ashes of this nightmare. I didn’tknow how, I didn’t know how long it would take, but somehow Hannah and I would be together.
“Together,” I repeated, the word a sacred vow falling from my lips.
As one, we drove the sharpened bone deep into Yaard’s heart. His eyes went wide with shock, then empty as the last breath rattled from his throat. We didn’t just end a monster’s life—we found peace, purpose, and hope for our future written in the silence that followed.
Chapter 17
Hannah
The truck bounced violently over the rutted dirt road—the shocks had long since been worn out, leaving us at the mercy of every pothole and rock. Around us, the forest seemed to hum with an excited, almost electric energy. The leaves rustled with anticipation, as if the very trees knew that the threat was finally gone.
Mostly gone. We'd gotten rid of Yaard's body in the cavern where he should have drowned, but his severed head rested in the bed of the truck, encased in a rough burlap bag that did little to mask the metallic scent of blood. Rather gruesome, but I understood Ewok had to take something tangible back to verify Yaard's death.
He hadn't noticed my worn leather backpack lying in the back of the truck, nestled against the wheel well. Perhaps he thought it was leftover gear from our hunting trip, but I'd packed it anew in the pre-dawn darkness this morning—carefully packing the few precious items I didn’t want to leave behind, like the urn carrying my dad’s ashes and his watch that I wore tight on my wrist. I was going with Ewok.
We'd made love again that morning, slow and deliberate, as though committing every caress, every whispered breath, every lingering kiss to memory, as if saying goodbye.
We didn't talk about our future. In Ewok's mind, he was leaving me behind to protect me, shielding me from whatever danger awaited in the stars, until he felt it same enough to come for me.
Fuck that!
Time was too precious to waste. I'd made my mind up. I wanted to be with him—now.
I'd called Hank this morning and let him know the cabin, along with Jubal and Bertha, were his. I'd left the deed and necessary ownership documents in the desk drawer and told him exactly where to find them. Hank was more than a little skeptical about letting me run off with an alien but said he couldn't shake the feeling that my dad would have genuinely liked the man—fur or not.
Daddy would have loved Ewok. I did too.
The decision to follow him to the stars was easier than I thought it would be. Although I shed tears telling Jubal and Bertha goodbye, my voice breaking as I stroked their familiar coats one last time. My dad was gone. I had no more family left on this world—my absent mother didn't count—and the only thing I knew for certain about my future was that I wanted Ewok in it.
"Stop here," Ewok said, his honey-brown eyes trained on something in the distance, pupils dilated as they tracked movement only he could perceive.
I pulled the truck to a stop, gravel crunching beneath the worn tires. There was a small deer path that led into the forest, barely visible between the dense clusters of pine and cedar whose gnarled branches formed a natural tunnel.
"I will need to walk from here," he said, his voice catching slightly, sadness tinging each word as the weight of goodbye settled between us.
"I'll go with you," I said, pulling the keys from the ignition with a decisive jingle and slinging open my door, which protested with a familiar creak.
"Hannah, it's not...." Ewok began, but I shot him a glare sharp enough to cut through his protests.
"Don't you dare say it's not safe," I insisted, my voice firm as granite. "Yaard is dead, and I've got much more experience in these mountains than you do."
Ewok acquiesced with a small grunt, but there was a hint of relief flickering across his features at postponing the inevitable.
I grabbed my well-worn backpack, its leather soft from years of adventures, taking a moment to pat the old pickup's dented fender in a gesture of farewell. The truck's sun-faded blue paint told stories of countless journeys since I'd first driven it at sixteen.
We maneuvered along the narrow trail, fallen leaves and pine needles carpeting our path. The familiar, comforting silence lay between us as Ewok savored his last stroll through the mountains. I took everything in with heightened awareness of my own—the brilliant tapestry of foliage, the sharp, clean smellof pine mingling with the crisp mountain air. I'd miss it. Of course, I would, but I was gaining so much more.
We didn't hike long, a little over an hour, until the dense press of foliage gave way to a small clearing bathed in dappled shadows cast by the heavy pine canopy overhead.
Ewok pulled to a stop, his chest rising and falling as a weary sigh broke from his lips.
"Is your ship nearby?" I asked, my eyes scanning the seemingly empty clearing. I had no idea what an alien spacecraft might look like, save for the common Hollywood depiction of silver saucers and blinking lights.
Ewok's face broke into a knowing grin as he moved forward a few steps, his fingers seeming to dance through the air caressing invisible controls.
