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“You just worry about you,” I say, pulling her in close and kissing her. “Promise me you’ll wait for me here. I will get back to you. I’m not sure how long I’ll be, maybe a couple of weeks. But if I don’t follow their orders, the military will not be inclined to help me get you guys out of here.”
“Of course,” she replies, smiling wanly. “I completely understand.”
I can’t look back as I walk away. I know if I do, I’ll never leave. And I have to find a way to get her off this fucking planet, so I have to go back to my post and use military channels to make that happen. Being considered a deserter now would only leave us all abandoned here in what is rapidly heading toward an untenable situation.
I jog all the way back to the military base, my chest aching more and more with every step further away from my beloved Sophia.
The base is in uproar. Soldiers are running with purpose back and forth, carrying crates and weapons to be loaded onto the transporters. Hell, this is a big operation. I need to find Kyltic and find out what’s going on.
“Where the fuck have you been, soldier?” Kyltic roars from behind me, making me jump.
Turning on my heels, I look into his furious face. “I was mated last night. I had to return Sophia to her home before I came back,” I tell him, even though I know he doesn’t want to hear it.
“You did what? I told you to dump her, not get hitched. What were you thinking? No, don’t tell me,” he says, raising his fists in the air in despair. “Check in with your unit and make sure they’re ready for dispatch right now. We start leaving in fifteen minutes, and you’re fourth wave.” Then he turns and marches away.
Fifteen minutes, shit. That’s not long enough. I put out an alert on my comm, mustering my men. The moment I have them all gathered together, we start watching the flyers taking off and murmuring about what comes next. No one seems to know for sure, even when we are called to our own flyer.
“Where’s the battle going to be?” I ask the guy loading. “It must be big. The whole base is being mustered, it feels like.”
“You’re not going to battle, you’re being evacuated. The war is lost. We’re pulling out,” he informs me curtly.
“No. I can’t just leave, I have dependents here,” I tell him, turning to shove my way back out of the door.
“Sorry. You should have made arrangements for them weeks ago. The Coalition went around talking to the mated guys about this like a month earlier,” the guy replies, blocking my way. “My orders are to get your unit aboard and get you to the mothership, now please sit down.”
“I can't, I have to be with Sophia,” I tell him emphatically. But just as I say it, the ship vibrates as the engines power up. “Fuck!” I collapse into my seat. How the hell am I going to look after Sophia and her ailing mother if we’re evacuating?
15
SOPHIA
Twenty-Four.
In twenty-four hours, I don’t even recognize my life.
“You can’t run away from this!”
I run my hands through my hair, pulling out more strands before slamming them against the kitchen counter. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“How about the truth?” Isa snaps, and I whirl around as heat flushes to my face. Anger masks her expression, but I still see the hurt that flits in and out of her eyes.
“You know the truth!” I throw my hands up, officially losing it. “I married him, okay? What else is there?”
“You fucking lied to me, Sophia.”
I clench my jaw. “I did what I had to. You’ve been jealous, Isa.” Her jaw drops open, but I push on. “I found my fated mate. I got married. And you’ve just had to sit there and watch as I was offered the opportunity to finally get off this planet!”
Isa’s eyes widen, and for a moment, I wonder how close I am to the truth. I know she doesn’t trust Drex, but has she really been jealous of us?
But then her lips curl up in a deranged smile. “Oh, really? I’m jealous?” She snorts. “If you’ve got yourself a ticket out of here…” She opens her arms, gesturing dramatically around me. “Where the fuck is he?”
I don’t have an answer as I feel my heart crack, and I storm out past her. I make it to my room, face-planting on my bed and letting out a scream just as something shakes the ground.
I’m on my feet instantly, rushing back out of the door. Isa is on my heels as I burst out of the house, and while the tension between us is still strong, what I see before us is too much to bother with this fight any longer. We are going to need each other to get through this.
“What the fuck?” she breathes as another blast of wind shakes the ground, sending us crouching as we fight to keep from falling over.
I stare up at the ship that’s just taken off. It looks to be a military ship, and my heart drops. There are screams to my right, and I turn to see a small crowd rushing toward the city’s center and another ship takes off. It seems that the soldiers are abandoning Armstrong at an unprecedented speed.
