Chapter 36

CHAPTER 36

Lomax

“S adora, I must stop.” Regan, his face a pale green and twisted with pain, stumbled in my grip and fell to his knees.

I helped him lean against a tree and peeled back his cloak with numb fingers. After Regan passed out, I used my shirt as a bandage and tore Regan’s shirt into long strips that I wrapped around his waist and used to tie the bandage in place.

It had taken me five minutes of shaking and face slapping to bring Regan back to consciousness, and I’d made him drink another bottle of gallberry juice before he could pass out again. That left us with one bottle, but Regan refused to drink it. He’d managed to stand, and leaning heavily on me, we’d started walking again.

I shivered, my teeth chattering as I stared at Regan’s stomach and tried not to cry. Blood had already soaked through the bandage and strips of cloth and was dripping down his skin and into the waistband of his pants.

He panted harshly, his chest rising and falling beneath the cloak, his skin covered in goosebumps like mine. I huddled close to him, using my cloak to cover us as much as possible. It was starting to snow, and Regan smiled at me before using one shaking finger to swipe at the tears sliding down my cheeks.

“Do not cry, small mate.”

“You can’t die,” I said. “Do you hear me, Regan? You’re not allowed to die.”

He nodded, his breath rasping in and out of his chest. “Yes, sadora.”

His eyes slipped shut, and I cupped his face. “Hey, don’t pass out.”

His eyelids flickered open, and I stared into his lovely silver eyes, pressing my mouth against his. “Please, Regan.”

“You need to leave me, sadora,” he said hoarsely. “Follow the river, and it will lead you to the town.”

“No,” I said.

“Yes,” he said. “I am too weak to walk another day and a half. Once you get to the town, contact Madison, and she will send help. You can come back for me.”

“You’ll be dead of hypothermia and blood loss by then,” I said.

“I will not,” he said, stroking my cheek. “I will be here waiting for you, my sadora, I promise.”

He kissed me, his lips dry and cold against mine. “If you do not leave me, both of us will die.”

“Neither of us are fucking dying, Regan.” I fumbled the last bottle of juice out of the bag and opened it. “I know you’re tired, I know you’re in pain, but you’re going to drink this bottle of juice, and then you’re going to get off your goddamn ass, and we’re both walking the fuck out of this forest.”

He laughed weakly. “My bossy little mate.”

“Fucking right I am,” I said. “Drink.”

He drank, and I was relieved when his body didn’t shake quite as much and a bit of colour returned to his cheeks.

“Are you ready to stand?”

He nodded. Grunting loudly, I helped him to his feet. He braced his hand against the tree, his nostrils flaring as he worked to pull oxygen into his lungs. I rubbed his back, ignoring the green blood that dripped into the snow.

“Okay, honey?”

He nodded again, and I kissed his shoulder as the cold air seeped through my cloak and bit into my bare skin. With neither Regan nor I wearing a shirt beneath our cloaks and moving as slow as we were, I figured we would succumb to hypothermia in the next six or seven hours, even if I could get him to keep walking for that long.

I pushed back the panic eating at my stomach. “Okay, let’s take a nice stroll through the forest. What do you say?”

He smiled faintly and gripped my hand before pushing away from the tree. He swayed on his feet, and I put my arm around his waist. “Lean on me, honey.”

Before we could start walking, Regan’s hand tightened on mine as he looked behind us.

“What?” I asked.

“They are here,” he said, weariness and resignation in his voice.

I turned and watched silently as the dozen king’s guard walked through the trees toward us. I stared enviously at the thick fur cloaks they wore as Regan pulled his sword from its sheath.

“Hello, Axen,” he said.

“Regan.” Axen studied him, his gaze dropping to the blood pooling in the snow at Regan’s feet. “I see you did not escape unharmed from the groden attack.”

“A small scratch, nothing more,” Regan said.

A faint smile crossed Axen’s face. “We have been following your blood trail for the last hour, Regan.”

Regan didn’t reply, and I curled my lip at the king’s guard. “You guys will fuck off if you know what’s good for you.”

“Your mate is dying,” Axen said softly. “If you do not return to the castle, he will die in the forest. Is that what you want?”

“Your king is planning on giving me to the Korceans. Is that what you want?” I said.

Regan’s big body stiffened beside me, but I kept my gaze on Axen. “Your king is not the Draax you think he is. If you follow his orders, if you bring Regan and I back to him, he’ll kill us both.”

Axen stared at me. “The king would not give you to the Korceans. He knows what they will do with you.”

“Yeah, he does, and he doesn’t fucking care,” I said. “Trust me, all Eastolf cares about is power. He’ll destroy anyone who gets in his way. He’s giving the humans Vokine weaponry so they’ll sign treaties with your province. He wants them to go to war with each other, wants them to have a greater need for the gallberry juice so he can force them into making the breeding program mandatory.”

A ripple of surprised murmuring went through the king’s guard, and Axen held up his hand before turning to Regan. “Even Eastolf would not do such a thing.”

“My mate speaks the truth,” Regan said. “He worked with the Korceans to kidnap a human female only a few months ago to blackmail her into spying against the western province king. She nearly died at the hands of the Korceans and would have if not for the western guard saving her.”

Axen’s face twisted, and he stared at the other guard. “Regan, I want to believe you, but we have sworn loyalty to the king, just as you have. You are our friend and leader, but you know we cannot disobey our king’s orders.”

“Even if it means harming women?” I asked.

“The king may not be the Draax he once was, but even he would not harm a little female. He knows they are precious,” Axen said.

“Get your fucking head out of the clouds,” I said.

Axen ignored me, turning to Regan again. “You have two options, Regan. You can return to the castle with us to face your punishment for betraying your king, or you can continue to wander the forest until you die of blood loss and your mate freezes to death.”

Regan bared his teeth and raised his sword. “Or I can choose option three and kill all of you where you stand.”

His face a mask of sorrow and regret, Axen said, “You cannot defeat us alone.”

“It is good that he is not alone then,” a familiar voice drawled behind us.

I turned, staring in shock as Krey emerged from the trees. He held his sword and squeezed Regan’s shoulder as he stepped in front of us. “You look like shit, my friend.”

He winked at me as Galan, Henden, Adrix, Thromi, and Ilna joined him and formed a loose circle around us.

They stared steadily at Axen and the others as Galan stepped slightly out of the circle and made a short bow. “I am Galan, head of the king’s guard of the western province of Odias.”

“You are a long way from home, king’s guard,” Axen said.

“We are.” Krey joined Galan and gave Axen a cocky grin. “I am Krey.” He bowed with a flourish, and Axen rolled his eyes before turning to Galan.

“The Draax you defend is a traitor to his king. Sent by your king to be a spy. How does it feel to serve a king with no honour?”

“Oh shit,” I said when Galan, Krey, and the others drew their swords, the ringing piercing the cold air.

“Insult our king again, and it will be the last thing you do,” Henden growled,

“Easy, Henden,” Galan said steadily. “Our king did not send Regan as a spy. But it matters not if you believe me. Either way, Regan and his mate return to our home today, not yours.”

“There are six of you and twelve of us,” Axen said. “Do you think you can simply take him from us?”

“Seven,” Regan staggered forward and joined the circle.

My stomach churning, I squeezed my frozen hands into tight fists and prayed for a damn miracle.

“Galan, do you want the big one at the back, or shall we leave him for Ilna?” Krey said with another cocky grin. “It will be good practice for him if he thinks he is up to it.”

He glanced at Ilna, who nodded. Thromi nudged him and gave him a good-natured smile. “If he is too much for you, just say the word, and I will come to your rescue.”

“Axen,” one of Eastolf’s guard said, “I believe Regan speaks the truth.”

“As do I,” said another.

“And I,” said a third.

“We all do,” said a short and stocky guard with copper eyes. “And so do you, Axen.”

Axen sighed and sheathed his sword. “Fuck.”

Krey grinned. “One of my favourite Earth words.”

Axen rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck before taking a deep breath. “Take your mate and go, Regan. We will tell the king that the groden killed you and your mate.”

Regan pushed past Galan and Krey and limped toward Axen. Axen met him halfway, and I watched in shock as the two Draax embraced before Regan gripped Axen’s shoulder and stared gravely at him.

“You know I must stop Eastolf, do you not, Axen?”

Axen nodded. “I do. May the goddess Krono shine her light upon you, Regan.”

“And you, Axen.”

I leaned against the tree, my legs trembling wildly as Axen and the others disappeared into the trees. Thromi took off his heavy fur cloak and threw it over my shoulders.

“Thank you, Thromi,” I said.

Regan joined us. He was wearing Krey’s cloak, and I didn’t like how the colour in his face had disappeared again.

“Do you have any juice?” I asked Galan.

“On the ship,” he said.

Regan leaned heavily against me as I said, “How did you find us?”

“Your tracking chip. When you did not message Madison yesterday as you were supposed to do, my clever mate suspected you were in trouble. She demanded we take a ship this morning to rescue you,” Krey said.

“Holy fuck,” I said. “I’m going to fucking kiss the shit out of Madison when I see her.”

“She is an excellent kisser,” Krey said so solemnly that I couldn’t help but laugh.

I gasped when Regan dropped to his knees beside me, and panic engulfed me at the paleness of his skin. “Regan!”

“Sadora,” he rasped. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I said as he started to fall over. “Regan, no!”

He collapsed in the soft snow, and I started to cry as Galan crouched beside him and pressed his fingers against Regan’s neck. “He is alive, but we must get him to the ship.”

“How far is the ship?” I asked, that bright panic still thrumming in my veins. Regan couldn’t die now. He just couldn’t.

“Not far,” Adrix said. “Aiden found a clearing in the forest big enough for the ship, not half an hour from here.”

“We need to get moving,” Galan said.

I watched as Henden pulled a steel box from within his cloak. He set it on the ground and reached into his cloak again. He produced a small remote and pushed a button. With a soft mechanical whirring, the box unfolded into a long steel slab and, working quickly, he and Ilna loaded the unconscious Regan onto it.

Henden pushed another button on the remote, and the slab rose until it hovered a few feet above the ground. Using the remote, Henden guided it through the trees.

Krey picked me up, cradling me against his chest before striding through the forest. I strained to see Regan and Krey smiled at me. “Do not worry, small female, your mate is strong, and Galan was clever enough to bring serum with us. We will have him back on his feet before we even arrive home.”

I started to cry and threw my arms around Krey’s thick neck. “Thank you, Krey. Thank you so much.”

He patted my back. “You are welcome, Lomax.”