“Fuck,” Rett swore. He was already on the move, heading back the way he’d come as Warr hit the wall on the opposite side of the small alley. He melted into the darkness and froze just as he suspected Rett was doing on the other side. They couldn’t afford for the drones to spot them. It didn’t matter which side they belonged to. No one could see them out here or there’d be too many questions.
“We’re coming for them,” he said into the darkness. “Be ready.”
But the shadows opposite were empty, the spy already gone. He waited for the air to clear and then slid away himself.
He had a war to prepare for.
This ambush wasn’t going according to plan. The moment Warr’s warriors unleashed their attack, the human forces had scattered. To his frustration, there were no clear commanders, no central formation, and no apparent pattern to their movements. The vehicles had offloaded a surprising number of soldiers and simply abandoned them to fight on foot. The troops vanished into the ruins, popping up here and there to take out a target and then fading away again. He seethed to himself. The humans didn’t fight with honor. These were guerilla tactics, and the xarthing humans used it to their advantage.
Even the new technology S’jaxx had given him wasn’t working right. The heads-up display system was built into a mask that covered half his face. It let him see the entire area in real time, but it was glitchy. It had to be because the damned thing kept identifying every human soldier as a female. And an omega. Which was impossible.
He growled and smacked the damn thing, trying to make it register correctly. These weren’t omegas. There were women here, yes, but their scent proclaimed beta.
He froze, his head tilted to the side as he took a deep breath. Just for a moment there, he thought he’d caught a familiar scent. The one from the female in the citadel.
Hardy.
With a growl, he scented again and then roared. It was her. She was here, somewhere on the battlefield.
His heart pounded as he took off at a run, an odd combination of the need for battle competing with the need to find her. It was just because she’d made him look a fool, he told himself, dropping into cover to exchange fire with a concentrated knot of guerillas behind an overturned bus. He just had to find her and prove to himself that it had been a fluke. She hadn’t gotten the drop on him through skill but luck and chance.
There. A faint breeze carried her scent to him again. It was stronger now. He was getting closer. Another flurry of shots kept him pinned down where he was, and he growled in frustration.
He wasn’t interested in these humans. He wanted her.
Again he fired, but this time he used those precious seconds while the humans ducked to break cover and continue the chase. Bullets whined past his head, some of them slamming into the walls and sending sharp blasts of debris into the air.
He was fully shifted now, his armored skin protecting him from the shrapnel. He ducked and wove, using the display to show him where the enemy was and how to get around them.
The display flickered as he rounded a corner and a new target registered. This one was alone and had managed to find partial shelter in the top floor of a ruin up ahead. It gave enough cover that the blip flickered, the reading faint and unsteady.
Every cell in his body screamed that this had to be her.
His eyes narrowed behind the mask. He’d thought she was a scout, but the position she’d taken was that of a sniper.
He slowed, using cover to get closer to her without her noticing him. Her focus was on the battle a few streets over and he watched as she selected her targets with care, operating a lethal-looking rifle almost as big as she was with skill and competence. A part of him, the warrior part, paused for a moment to admire her movements. She was good at what she did. Then he recalled that every target she put down was one of his warriors and he roared in fury and challenge.
A bullet slammed into the wall just behind him and he dove for cover, the bloodlust singing through his veins. He scrambled to his feet, scanning the area. Where were they?
There…
His mask picked up his target a split second after his eyes detected movement in the shadows across the street. He couldn’t hit his target from here. They were too well-shielded by the abandoned shell of a human vehicle. He’d have to move into a better position. He couldn’t move on Hardy until he brought this rebel down.
The mask updated and the target in the display changed color. Now it showed the target was male and an alpha. The damned tech was acting up again, and he slapped at it. Now the piece of junk couldn’t tell friend from foe.
Then the target raised his hand, fingers flashing in battle signs no human would know. A’rett was here. Fighting against his own. It didn’t sit well with him. It felt like a damned betrayal, even though the other warrior had clearly fired and missed as a warning. More targets appeared on his display coming his way. Human females. If he could trust the tech, which he doubted.
He fired back, making the other male duck. Warr growled as he moved, turning away from Rett and hoping the xarthing Alpha got the hint. Otherwise, he’d have to shoot him for real. A small part of him would enjoy that.
He pinpointed his target again and hissed in frustration. She was already moving. The big weapon was slung over her shoulder as she disappeared into the shadows of the ruined building. With a snarl, he went after her.
The fucking aliens were relentless. Max had kept the entire camp on the move for weeks, staying out of sight and not going after even the juiciest of targets in case they turned out to be a trap. They should have left these assholes behind long since, but somehow they’d managed to find them. Either they were the luckiest sons of bitches on the planet or something else was in play here. Had she made a mistake? Left a clue somewhere? She couldn’t believe it was one of her people. They knew what the cost would be if the alphas caught them. No omega wanted that.
She grimaced. None of them but her sister.
The weapon on her shoulder was heavy and awkward, but she still made good time. She was covering her troops as best as she could and would keep at it until this skirmish ended and they could fall back and regroup.
She carried a mental map of the place in her head.
This had been a city once, but now it was nothing more than dusty ruins. Just like the humans who had built it, its best days were long gone.
She made it to her next location without running across anyone. The fighting was all behind her, for now. Her soldiers would draw the enemy this way a little at a time, picking them off and doing as much damage as they could without open confrontation.
She was tugging on the warped and aging door inside when some instinct told her she wasn’t alone. The silence had changed, the air crackling with something dangerous.
She slid the weapon off her shoulder and placed it on the ground. It wasn’t going to help her in this situation. Whoever, or whatever was here was already too close.
Backing up, she positioned herself in the remains of a corridor. It wasn’t much, about ten feet with walls and a ceiling, but it was enough to ensure they could only come at her from two directions. Pulling a pistol and her blade free, one in either hand, she stood side on, covering both directions.
“Come on then, asshole,” she snarled to the surrounding air. “If you think you’re man enough.”