Page 75 of Destined For Her Alien Daddy

I realize I am still holding her too tightly.

I force my arms to loosen.

She does not immediately pull away.

“You sounded…” Her voice falters, and she swallows hard. “You sounded like you thought I was gone.”

“I did.”

The admission comes out before I can armor it.

Her lips part slightly.

I hear Brakk shout from several meters away. “As touching as this is, I am running out of ammunition and patience!”

The ramp shudders again. I roll off Anita and drag her fully behind the support as another volley strikes the stone above us.

“Can you move?” I ask.

She nods, though her face remains pale. “Yes.”

“Can you run?”

“Probably badly.”

“I will accept badly.”

Sira slides into cover beside us, one sleeve torn and silver-white skin scraped along her forearm. “The gravity pulses are tied to the defensive lattice. The Choir fire may be triggering instability.”

Brakk scrambles in after her, breathing hard. “Great. Their bullets are arguing with the room.”

Anita clutches the archive case and points toward a lower bridge crossing the shaft. “The inscription panel showed a transit spine two levels down. If we can reach that bridge, it should connect to the deep archive column.”

I stare at her. “You read that while being shot at?”

She gives me a shaky, defiant look. “I’m very annoying under pressure.”

“Yes.”

“Was that admiration?”

“It was tactical despair.”

Brakk snorts. “Romance is alive and deeply unhealthy.”

A new sound echoes from above, heavier than rifle fire. The Choir is deploying climbing anchors down the shaft. I see the first cable unspool from the upper threshold, then another. They mean to descend after us instead of holding the entrance.

I check my remaining charge count. Two flash charges, one smoke, half power in my sidearm. Not enough to win. Enough to move.

“We fall back by bounds,” I say. “Brakk, smoke the upper angle. Sira, stay with Anita and keep her low. Anita, if you stop for another inscription, I carry you.”

Her eyes flash despite the fear still shaking her. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“I am finished proving restraint.”

Brakk laughs and throws a smoke capsule upward. “I believe him, scholar girl.”

The capsule bursts against the upper ramp, flooding the line of sight with dense gray vapor. I fire through it twice to keep the Choir’s heads down, then signal everyone forward. We move in short bursts between cover points, descending along the ramp while the shaft continues to pulse with unstable gravity. Twice the floor tilts under us. Once the central void seems to move closer even though the ramp remains fixed. The ruins are no longer passive architecture. They are a system waking under assault.