Page 53 of Thexan

“It is contained.”

“I’ll decide that.”

He did not argue.

That alone told me how much the fight had cost him.

I pressed my hand to his side, careful but firm, and felt the bond answer between us, not with urgency this time, but with steadiness. He remained upright under my touch, his breathing controlled, his eyes on mine.

“They’re gone?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“All of them?”

“Yes.”

The words should have brought relief.

They did, eventually.

But first I felt the enormity of how close they had come—to him, to me, to the settlement below us that still had no idea how narrowly danger had passed.

I looked down toward the rooftops barely visible through the trees, then back at the alien warrior standing in front of me, bleeding because he had placed himself between my people and the hunters who would have killed us all without hesitation.

“We need to get you back,” I said.

“Yes.”

“And then you’re going to let me treat that wound without arguing.”

His gaze rested on my face for a moment, steady and unreadable in the way I was slowly beginning to understand.

“I will comply.”

“That’s new.”

“No,” he said. “It is strategic adaptation.”

I almost laughed.

Almost.

Instead, I slid my arm around him where I could support him without pressing the injury, and together we started back toward the ridge path.

The settlement was still standing.

Thexan was still alive.

And whatever had begun in my infirmary no longer felt like something I had to survive and understand later.

It felt like something I had chosen.

Something I intended to keep.

Chapter Thirteen

Brynn