Page 113 of The Huntmaster

Tyler shook his head immediately, his jaw set stubbornly. "No. Not happening." He glanced back toward the slab where Sora was whispering frantically to her unconscious brother. "I'm staying right here. If that stubborn alien wakes up, I’m going to be the first thing he sees so he knows his sacrifice wasn't for nothing."

I opened my mouth to argue, but Kaelen gave my hip a gentle squeeze. "Let him stay, little star. The bond of battle is not easily broken."

I sighed, accepting it, and looked past Sora to Toren’s pale, motionless face. The heavy air of the medical tent felt thick with uncertainty, and for all my scientific training, logic felt entirely useless against the dread pooling in my stomach.

I turned my face up toward Kaelen, looking into his steady, golden eyes. "Kaelen... how do you pray to the Aluun? I want to pray for Toren's recovery."

A deep, profound warmth softened Kaelen’s features. He reached up, his large, rough hand covering mine over my scar. "You do not need grand words, temple altars, or ancient roots, Lyra. To pray to the Aluun, you simply speak whatever is inside your heart as you call out to them. If the Aluun wish it, you will be heard."

"Then I'll do it as soon as we leave here," I whispered, holding his gaze.

Kaelen nodded solemnly, though his expression shifted as a dark, dangerous edge crept back into his jawline. "Good. Because while you offer prayers for Toren, I have another matter to settle before the sun sets."

"What matter?" I asked, picking up on the sudden spike of cold intent across our link.

"Vahn," Kaelen growled, his voice dropping into a lethal, low rumble. "While they took you into the dark, Vahn used the chaos of the attack to turn his blade against me. He tried to end my life."

My heart stopped. The air left my lungs in a sharp gasp as I stared at him, my mind scrambling to process the words. "He... what?"

"He failed," Kaelen said coldly, his grip on my waist tightening. "After I overpowered him on the upper bridges, I forced him to the outer perimeter to defend our borders against the attacking Vakra while I came for you. That was the last I saw of him, but he is still breathing within our territory, and a snake in the roots cannot be left to coil. I will track him down and snuff him out."

The sheer outrage hit me, heat surging straight through my chest and down our bond. Mara’s betrayal had been born of twisted grief, but Vahn—Vahn had tried to murder Kaelen in cold blood while the Nest was under siege.

"He tried to kill you," I repeated, my voice shaking with a sudden, fierce anger that made the gold in my scar thrum hot against my skin. "Kaelen... he didn't just break an oath. He tried to take my mate."

Kaelen’s golden eyes flared, a dark, primal satisfaction flashing through them as he felt the fierce, protective rage roaring in my mind.

"Yes," Kaelen whispered, leaning down to press a hard, possessive kiss to my temple. "And for that, little star... there will be no mercy."

Chapter 71

Kaelen-Thul

Leaving Lyra down near the lower roots—where she had insisted on staying to help the healers and tend to the terrified Vakra captives—felt like tearing a piece of my own flesh away.

Even with our bond restored—throbbing strong, warm, and golden against the back of my mind—the instinct to stay pinned to her side was a roaring fire in my blood. I had held her lifeless body in the dark. I had felt the world end. Every alpha urge screamed at me to haul her up the winding stairways to our quarters, wrap my arms around her, and lock out the rest of this broken planet.

But she had refused to rest while others bled, and a Huntmaster could not hide in the furs while rot festered in his roots.

My broadsword felt heavy against my hip as I strode toward the southern wall. My mind was narrowed to a single, lethal focus: Vahn.

I caught the broad-shouldered silhouette of my former lieutenant near the edge of the southern perimeter. He was hauling heavy timber to reinforce a damaged palisade, his chest armour spattered with dried blood. He had defended the wall just as I had commanded when I left him, but a traitor within the perimeter remained a blade waiting to be drawn.

A dark, feral heat roared down my spine. My jaw set, my knuckles white as my hand dropped to the hilt of my broadsword. I took a heavy step forward, intent on ending it⁠—

"Kaelen."

The voice was thin, raspy like dry leaves scraping over stone, yet it cut through the red haze in my mind with effortless weight. I checked my stride, forcing my breathing to steady as I turned toward the shadow of the ancient archway.

Elder Valra stood leaning heavily on her carved wooden staff. Her milk-white, blind eyes were turned directly toward me, her ancient face lined with deep, weathered furrows. Despite her sightlessness, she looked at me as if she could see every drop of venom blackening my blood.

"Elder," I growled low, my voice gravelly with unspent rage. "I have duties to attend to on the southern wall."

"You have vengeance to attend to, Huntmaster," Valra corrected softly, the brass rings on her staff clinking as she took a slow step forward. "Do not mistake the two."

I narrowed my eyes, keeping my body angled toward the wall. "He turned his steel against me while our home was burning, Valra."

"And yet, when you forced him to the outer boundary, he stood his ground," Valra countered quietly. "He bled beside our vanguard. He held the perimeter so that you could run into the dark to fetch your mate. He protected our people, Kaelen."