The fat alien pushed himself off the floor, grabbing Mya by the arm and pulling her up with him.
I locked eyes with her and she sobbed with relief.
“When I get you back in my arms, little human, you’re going to get the punishment of your life. You’ll regret ever thinking you could escape us,” I said, using our telepathic connection. I knew she could hear me. She stilled, still staring right at me and nodded, just a little bit.
“Please. Just get me away from here,” she replied back.
I searched her surroundings for something, anything she could use.
“Can you break out of his hold? There’s a knife on his waist. Grab that and put as much distance between the two of you as you can,” Talor murmured.
She twisted against him, throwing her body against his hold and breaking free. Quickly, she twirled and grasped the knife around his belt, dropping low and rolling away.
He roared and rushed toward her, but she feinted in one direction before switching gears and heading in the other. He growled with frustration.
She looked confident though. A natural with a tool as simple as a knife. In almost a dance, she avoided his capture, but I knew what she was doing.
She was looking for an opening. A chance to attack.
I studied him too. He was clumsy and extremely out of shape, unused to his opponent fighting back rather than just lying there and taking it just because he said so. She was a strong little thing. I was proud of her.
“His name is Prince Radock. According to Mya’s files from the Celestial Mates Dating Agency, he was her match. In their systems, her fated mate, but there’s some irregularities in the algorithm. It’s been messed with. Someone hacked it and erased the original file, replacing it with this bastard instead,” Dex said.
My eyes were focused on Mya and Radock. I noticed he had a slight limp on the right side.
“Right ankle, Mya,” I suggested.
Her eyes dropped, constantly analyzing. She ran circles around him, feinting this way and that and the frustration was clear on his face. He couldn’t keep up with her.
“Stop running, you little bitch,” he roared. He whirled and almost stumbled in his efforts to subdue her.
“Prince Radock,” Talor began and that startled him. “I’ve got our vaporizer trained on you right now. With two blasts, we could destroy you.”
Radock stilled and turned in the direction of our ship, distracting him long enough so that Mya could swoop down and attack. With natural skill, she sliced the back of his ankle and the sound of his Achilles tendon snapping in two echoed throughout the room.
He screamed in shock.
Blood poured from his leg as he stumbled back and forth, losing all strength with each passing moment. He wavered, trying to hold his weight on the opposite leg, but he was struggling to keep upright. I grinned with pride for our little human.
“Mya, we can kill him. You don’t have to,” Talor said, out loud so everyone could hear.
Radock screamed with horror and anger, glaring in the direction of our ship, but even I knew this wasn’t over.
“I know you can do it, my little human. Let us take the burden for you. Let us have his death on our conscience. Take the knife and go into the next room,” I said.
“He threatened to kill my sister,” she said angrily.
“My warrior human. Will you trust me?” I replied, my eyes boring into hers through our connection.
For a long moment, we stared at each other, before she nodded once, quickly. I breathed a sigh of relief. Death was hard and even though I recognized how strong and fierce she was now, killing someone always weighed on your conscience, no matter who it was. She slowly moved away, opening up a side door and sliding into the bedroom nearby. Radock didn’t even look her way, he was too preoccupied with the state of his leg.
“Now,” Talor commanded.
I powered on the laser gun and sent one large blast straight toward the man’s apartment. The windows and outer wall vaporized in an instant, and the vortex of force pulled him right out into space with us. He roared and at once, transformed into a massive red dragon.
His limbs lengthened, expanding and widening with surprising quickness. Dark red talons burst out of his fingers and his teeth sharpened into long, tight bladed weapons. His right leg hung at an odd angle, but he didn’t need that anymore. He had wings. Smoke emerged from his nostrils as he roared, swaying back and forth in space. His slightly scaly leathery skin brightened in color and in less than thirty seconds, he was a third of the size of our ship. Had he not been my enemy, I would have been impressed. He was bigger than any Drugan I’d seen before.
Ejan powered up our defense shields immediately, protecting us against physical and laser damage before the battle even began. Our shield was strong. Even this Drugan couldn’t break through it. Talor and Dex sat beside me, each of them taking over a segment of our offensive