His air-bike’s engine howled as he opened the throttle, flying past the rest of his forces as he barked orders into his comms. The firing died away within seconds, but it was too late. One of his warriors had launched a rocket, and no way could he reach her before it did.
He sped toward her anyway.
Time slowed. The more he pushed the bike, taking the engine up over the red line and making it scream, the more time dilated until it felt like he was swimming through liquidspace.
With every horrible nanosecond, he was aware of the rocket as it sped on its deadly course toward Hardy standing on top of the Terran vehicle. Anyone with eyes in their face could see the weapon streaming toward them and anyone with any sense would get the xarth out of there.
Not Hardy. His suspicion that the little human was insane was now solidified. Even though there was no way she could avoid the fact that both he and the rocket were bearing down on her, she stayed in place and kept firing the big gun on top of the vehicle right at him.
He bellowed a war cry as the bullets hit the shielding on the front of his bike. It wouldn’t last long, not under this rate of fire. Standard issue field equipment was designed to take a lot of punishment, but she was trying to kill him with an antique that looked like it was designed to take drop ships out of the sky. Where had the humans gotten it from? It couldn’t have been left over from the L’crav invasion, surely?
Then it was too late. The rocket hit. He roared as the vehicle below Hardy exploded in a blossom of fiery petals and dirt.
Sliding the bike to a stop a second later, he shielded his face with an arm thrown across it. He didn’t even give his vision time to clear, throwing himself away from the bike and into the chaos where he’d last seen the tiny human.
If she was alive, he’d find her, and she had to be alive. No one was going to kill that annoying, insane female but him.
The air was thick with dirt, smoke, and the reek of scorched metal. The ground was littered with scraps of what had been the rebels’ vehicles, forcing him to move slower than he wanted as he scrambled through the still-smoking debris.
The mask he wore was receiving data, but it was fritzing and unstable, the satellites struggling to get clear readings through all the interference. He saw a flash of green, but it was little more than a blip, gone before he could get a fix on it. He headed in that direction, using all his senses to try and locate the rebel.
Her scent swirled around him, caught on an errant breeze. It was strong enough he knew it had to be her, even though other scents of the battlefield stung his nostrils. A ragged intake of breath caught his awareness next, frustration mixed with the sound of pain.
She was alive.
He moved toward the sound. The breeze picked up, clearing the air enough that his mask suddenly filled with streams of data. He ignored everything but the green dot that was his target. There.
The vehicle she’d stood on had been thrown onto its roof. One tire still spun, but the others had been shredded by the blast. She was caught beneath it, pinned in place and apparently unable to escape.
He flashed his fangs in a victorious grin. He had her.
Rounding the vehicle, he saw… felt… the moment she registered his presence. The pain that had filled her face a moment before was gone, wiped clean as determination washed over her features.
“You! I should have known it would be you!” she hissed as she struggled to sit up.
A quick glance down at the mangled portion of the vehicle that pinned her to the ground assured him this time she wasn’t going anywhere fast. He wasn’t an asshole, though, and even though she was his enemy, he didn’t like to see her in pain. In fact, it was worse than that. A stabbing ache filled the center of his chest as the need to tear the mangled vehicle off her almost overwhelmed him.
“Yes, me.”
He raised an eyebrow as he crouched next to her, studying the twisted hunk of metal. Using his helmet, he analyzed where and how best to lift it to avoid injuring her further.
“Who else did you think it would be? You’re my kill, little human.”
Whatever he expected next, it hadn’t been for her to laugh—a full-on, loud raucous belly laugh with tears streaming down her cheeks. He was right. She was insane, utterly and completely insane.
“Your kill? Ha, are you sure about that, asshole?”
She moved her hand, and he saw it.
The trigger for the explosives that had been under her vehicle and even now were still buried beneath the scrap it had become. Explosives that hadn’t been triggered by the rocket.
Explosives that were still live.
She lifted an eyebrow.
“Checkmate, motherfucker.”
No! He lunged for her and time slowed to a crawl. He moved forward. Her fingers uncurled from the trigger. He reached for her hand. She tried to throw herself farther away from him. His fist closed around hers, clamping down hard and forcing her to keep pressure on the trigger before she blew them both into vapor.
“Fuck you!” Her words shattered the moment and time sped up again.
He locked his fingers around hers. “Interesting offer to make to a male you just tried to kill.”
She hissed and spat like a wild creature, though with her leg pinned, she wasn’t doing damage to anyone but herself. The scent of blood blossomed on the air, enraging his alpha side.
“Stop it,” he snarled at her, letting a bit of his other side flow into his voice.
“Never. Not until one of us is dead.”
She moved her free hand toward her throat. It was the one she’d broken the last time they’d met. He caught her forearm in his other hand, trying to avoid causing her more pain. “You die when I say you do.”
“Asshole!” she snarled in his face as he wrenched her forearm away from her throat and pinned it to the ground. What was it with this female trying to kill him or herself?
He dropped his body weight over her, ensuring she stayed pinned so he could disarm her.
“Warr,” he grunted, using his helmet to figure out the wiring in the switch she had in her hand.
“Yeah… I know it’s fucking war. You fuckers started it.”
She fought him, trying to open her hand under his fist, but her strength was no match for his.
“No… it’s my name.” He pushed more of his alpha side into his voice. The helmet said she was an omega, so maybe it would help. If she was, she should capitulate and become submissive to him.
He realized that wasn’t going to work when she tried to knee him in the balls. Again.
“Will you stop!”
She was going to do herself real harm if she didn’t keep still. And if he couldn’t get the damned trigger deactivated, she might still kill them both. He didn’t understand why she was driven to such desperate measures. Female or not, she was a warrior. “You are my prisoner. But when the day comes, I will grant you a warrior’s death. There’s no need for you to keep trying to kill yourself now. Your honor will remain intact.”
She grimaced. “My honor? You think I’m worried about my fucking honor right now? I don’t want to be raped, tortured, or brainwashed like my sis—my friend.”
He blinked, his bigger frame freezing in place as he looked down at her. Was that really what the humans thought of them?
“I am H’thor,” he bit out. “On my honor, you will not suffer.”