Page 44 of Mated to the Alien Warlord

"The gods have mercy on us! Get up, Dani," Lynette cried, scrambling to her feet.

"What is happening?" I groaned. My entire body felt on fire from the long march and travels I had endured.

"The enemy has found us. Come, we need to get out of here," Lynette screamed, nearly hysterical.

My heart pounded heavily inside my chest. The enemy. No, whoever was coming was this army's enemy, but not mine!

At the thought of seeing Vandor, I became nearly delirious with joy and sprang to my feet, rushing outside. I almost expected to see him riding straight at us, but what I saw instead froze my blood.

It was chaos, utter chaos.

Warriors, some wearing the khazar's colors, were fighting Fionbyr' and Grobhan's men. The khazar's troops must have surprised them while they were still sleeping. Not an honorable attack, but effective.

Riders galloped through the camp, mercilessly taking the enemy warriors down. The sound of metal hitting metal was as deafening as the screams of men and women in the early morning air.

My head whipped around. How in the name of Thyre was I going to find Vandor in this chaos?

"Dani, have you lost your mind? Down!" Lynette screamed as a warrior wearing the khazar's colors spurred his horse on straight for us. His sword was lifted high in the air, and I realized he was about to take my head off.

Only Lynette pulling me aside saved me, and I stared at the rider in bewilderment before he turned his horse to come back for us.

"Run, Dani!" Lynette screamed.

I still couldn't believe that the khazar's warriors would ride innocent women down, or me for that matter, but this was what was happening.

Lynette tugged my hand, and I followed her through the rows of tents as we scrambled up a short hill. The warrior thankfully finally gave up on us and engaged one of Grobhan's men instead.

"Syseann, over here," Lynette waved our friend on when she noticed her ducking between the tents.

"Where can we go?" Syseann panted when she reached us with panic filled eyes.

I wasn't much help because I realized I had a much better vantage point from the short hill, and my eyes scanned the battling men for any trace of Vandor.

"There isn't anywhere to go," Lynette said in a defeated voice. "We can only hope to survive up here."

"They will rape us tonight," Syseann cried.

"That willnothappen," I turned to my friends. "I promise you that!"

Wefinallyhadthem.The enemy was in sight and our three armies met right where I had planned.

While they camped for the night, the three of us, Kendryx, Gryck, and I, made plans.

None of us liked it, but our best option was to surprise the enemy while they slept. It wasn't Fionbyr' and Grobhan's warrior's fault that they had been pressed into fighting against their khazar, and if we wanted to keep the casualties as low as possible, an early surprise attack seemed much more preferrable than a many hour-long, drawn-out battle during the day, which could cost thousands of lives.

We hoped that an attack during the early morning hours would be demoralizing enough for many of the warriors to yield.

The wagon train with their provisions was also close enough that an attack would destroy any of their resources, stopping any stragglers from forming another army to fight on.

This would be it. This battle would put an end to Fionbyr and Groban once and for all. It would be bloody, but not as bad as it could have been.

I gave strict orders to watch out for the camp followers and to not let any harm come to them. They were defenseless and mostly kallinies, but some of our warriors were becoming overzealous as Myrca reported to me in the middle of the battle.

With a curse I swung Mordakay around. I had hoped to spot Fionbyr or at least Grobhan within the fighting masses but protecting the women of the wagon train seemed more pressing. I was sure the two rebels would find their just end.

Myrca and a legion of men followed me as I galloped away from the fray of the battle to protect the women from my own men and cussed some more.

It was worse than I had feared. Warriors were riding other warriors and kallinies down indiscriminately.

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