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But not only her. The desperate girls in the bars clinging to all the soldier boys in an all-out bid to escape their fate. The families with children who don’t have a chance to get away. Isa, and Sophia’s mom, just trying to get through each day and giving one another all the support they can.
Good people who don’t deserve to die in a political war over mining rights simply because they’re in the way.
“I don’t get it,” says Freck. “If they turn the citizens against them, they’ll have a long and drawn-out struggle to gain control and get their precious fucking mineral deposits mined.”
“They don’t seem to care about that anymore, friend,” says the Shorcu woman standing to go. “Maybe they’ll bring in indentured slaves to do the work if the humans here kick up a fuss.”
Her words send me reeling. Looks like it’s more imperative than ever to get Sophia out of here as soon as possible. But how?
My comm pings. It’s Kyltic. Meet me in my office. Short and sweet. I wonder what’s going on now.
I push my half-finished meal to Freck, who grins at me and grabs my bowl. I’m not hungry now, anyway. Maybe this will be my opportunity to talk to Kyltic about getting Sophia and her ailing mom away from danger.
“You’re in charge of this unit,” Kyltic says by way of greeting. He holds out his comm and as I touch mine to it, a list of some forty names appears on the screen. “They’re yours now. Wrangle them up.”
“Is something big about to go down?” I ask. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to get useful info out of my CO, but it has to be worth a try.
“Yes,” he says, to my surprise. “I want them all on standby. You’ll be heading out of here within the week.”
“Are we going home or going to fight?” I ask, my stomach turning at the thought of losing Sophia.
Sophia. She’s so delicate, like all humans. I was even worried I might break her during our love making. I want to believe that she’s resourceful and could survive anything. But if there’s any way I could spare her that pain, I need to find it. I cannot leave my jalshagar alone to fight for her life. Not if I can help it.
Kyltic raises a blue eyebrow. “You have your orders, soldier,” he replies. “Do you really think I’m suddenly at liberty to start divulging classified troop movements to you?”
“No, sir,” I say with resignation. “I’m just concerned about Sophia. We are due to be mated, and I want to know she will be safe.”
“You fucking idiot,” Kyltic fumes. “I told you! Don’t get involved with a human civilian. What the fuck were you thinking?”
I’ve never seen Kyltic blow up like that before. “Sir, with all due respect, she’s my fated mate. What was I meant to do? Just walk away from her?” I know I shouldn’t answer back but the words are out of my mouth before I can stop them.
“Get the fuck out of my office before I court-martial you for your insolence,” he hurls at me. “Get your unit prepped for further orders. That’s all you should be worrying about.”
I can feel the blood pounding at my temple as the door slides shut behind me with a quiet hiss. Hellfire, what am I going to do?
I look at the list. I’m relieved to see both Freck and Linus are in my unit. If we’re heading in for a battle, I can’t think of anyone else I’d want at my side. I have a rush of adrenaline flooding my body. I feel like I could take down the entire Trident Alliance single-handedly to protect Sophia.
But first, I have to ensure she can get away if she needs to. I cannot be mated to her too soon. She deserves a big ceremony with all the trimmings, but that will have to wait until we are safely away from Armstrong.
Right now I need to focus on getting an officiant to oversee the proceedings, and I need to talk to Sophia’s boss about having the ceremony at the bar, even if we have to wait until after hours.
I need her to be mine, with all the rights and protections that includes. It isn’t romantic, but this is war.
11
SOPHIA
The door to the bar swings open, and Drex is standing there. For a moment, my heart leaps, but then I see the expression on his face as he searches the crowd. Finally, his teal gaze settles on me, and he relaxes minutely.
Stuck by a sudden shyness, I give him a weak wave. As he crosses to me, his eyes dance around the room like a cornered animal.
Something’s wrong.
Was it something I did? I-I thought last night was…
I shake my head, banishing the thought. It’s probably something work-related. The stress of war must be getting to him.
“Hey, can we talk?” he asks softly but urgently as he takes a seat at the bar.
