Page 5 of Alien Devil's Wrath
She laughed. “Oh, that’s adorable. You can barely walk straight and you’re threatening to carry me?” She spun around, walking backwards so she could watch my face. “Tell you what, big guy. When you collapse, I promise to drag you somewhere shady before the scavengers arrive.”
Her casual confidence should have been irritating. Instead, something about the way she looked at me—like I was the interesting one—made my cock twitch despite the pain. She was small, soft, completely vulnerable. And she looked at me like I was the interesting one.
“There.” She pointed to an outcropping ahead. “We rest there for ten minutes. You need water, and I need to check the next section for patrol patterns.”
The outcropping provided minimal shade, but she was already pulling a canteen from her pack. Not offering it to me, just setting it where I could reach it if I chose.
She unfolded her map again, making small marks with a piece of charcoal. “Two more canyon systems before we hit the true deadlands. After that, it’s just rock and death all the way to your treasure.”
“Not treasure. A mission objective.”
“How mysterious.” She looked up at me through dark lashes. “A Vinduthi warrior on a secret mission to retrieve something from a crashed ship in the middle of nowhere. Must be important.”
I said nothing.
“That’s fine. Keep your secrets.” She folded the map and stood, brushing dust from her pants. “But when those fragments finish working their magic and you need my antivenom to survive, we might need to renegotiate our deal.”
She started walking before I could respond, humming that same irritating tune.
I followed, the tremor in my hand getting worse with each step.
BRONWEN
The boot prints were fresh in the soft dirt near a water seep. Maybe an hour old. Three sets, standard patrol boots but sized for Merrith feet. The smaller species left distinctive triangular heel marks.
I crouched beside the clearest print, examining the pattern. They’d stopped here to rest, thinking the narrow canyon provided good cover.
Such poor tactical planning.
“Oh, this is going to be fun,” I whispered, already mapping out the possibilities in my head.
My Vinduthi companion moved into position behind a cluster of standing stones. Even wounded, the way he moved made heat gather between my thighs. All that controlled power, barely restrained despite his injuries.
A discarded ration wrapper lay crumpled by a boulder. Still had the processing date visible. Standard Merrith field rations, the kind they complained about constantly but ate anyway because the alternative was starvation.
I found what I needed growing in a crevice twenty meters away. Crimson lure blooms, their petals already releasing that distinctive sweet scent.
“Hello, beauties,” I cooed to the flowers, crushing a single petal between my fingers. The nectar stained my skin dark red, the metallic scent of fake blood rising immediately.
The guards would have to pass through the chokepoint where the canyon walls narrowed. I smeared nectar on the rocks there, creating a trail that would drift on the wind to every cave and crevice where hungry things waited.
Then I settled back behind cover, practically vibrating with anticipation.
The Merrith appeared fifteen minutes later. Three of them, their pale translucent skin showing the intricate patterns of veins beneath. They moved in single file, weapons held loosely, complaining in their clicking language about patrol duty.
None of them noticed the sweet scent saturating the air.
But the Stalkers did.
The first one emerged from a cave mouth above, spines already extended. Then another. Then three more, flowing down the rocks like scaled death.
The lead guard looked up just as two hundred pounds of predator landed on his chest. His scream cut short as claws found his throat. The distinctive crack of Merrith bones breaking echoed off stone.
The other two tried to run. It didn’t help.
Stalkers flowed around them like water, attacking from every angle. Their small bodies made them fast, but not fast enough. Within thirty seconds, all three were down, the feeding sounds already starting.
I waited ten minutes for the pack to finish and withdraw, then approached the kill site. Scattered equipment lay among the remains.
