Chapter 202

Chapter 202: Chapter 202

Dron moved without thinking.

He stepped in front of Tempest just as Hen reached them, but the human woman didn’t slow down. She stopped close enough that Dron could see the fury burning in her eyes.

"Move."

"No."

"Dron." Tempest tugged on his hand. "It’s okay."

It wasn’t okay. Nothing about the expression on Hen’s face made Dron believe it was okay, but he looked back at Tempest and saw something that stopped him. She wasn’t afraid. She knew exactly why Hen was coming for her, and apparently, she had already decided that she was going to face it.

Dron hated it.

Still, he stepped aside.

Hen immediately turned her anger on Tempest. "You said we could trust you!"

"You can."

"Look around!" Hen screamed. "Look at what happened! We let you in. We let all of them in because you told us they were safe, and now my people are dead!"

"They didn’t do this."

"I know they didn’t!"

The words stopped Tempest.

Hen pointed toward the bodies scattered throughout the settlement. "Your alphas fought. They protected us. Some of them died protecting us, but none of this happened until you came here."

Dron growled.

Hen looked at him.

Tempest grabbed his arm before he could say anything.

"No." Tempest stepped closer to Hen. "She’s right."

Dron turned toward her. "Tempest."

"She deserves to know the truth. I knew this was a possibiltiy before this happened."

Hen’s face changed.

"You knew?"

"I suspected it. We were attacked before we got here."

"And you didn’t think that was something we should know?"

"We didn’t know they were following us!"

"But you knew they existed!"

"Yes!"

Both women were yelling now.

Dron wanted desperately to step between them again, but he forced himself to remain where he was. This wasn’t his fight. Tempest had spent enough time having males decide what she could handle. He wasn’t going to become another one.

Tempest shook her head. "I’m not going to stand here and lie to you, Hen. There is a strong possibility those people were hunting me."

"Why?"

Tempest went quiet.

Dron knew the answer.

So did Tempest.

"I killed their leader."

Hen stared at her.

"He attacked us," Tempest continued quickly. "They came after us first. I didn’t know who they were. I didn’t know what they wanted. I was trying to survive."

"And now they came here."

"I think so."

"You think?"

"Yes, Hen, I think! I don’t know everything. None of us fucking know anything anymore!"

The anger disappeared from Hen’s face so quickly that Dron almost thought something else had happened.

Her shoulders dropped.

She looked around.

For the first time since she stormed toward them, Dron realized Hen wasn’t simply angry.

She was devastated.

"I don’t even know how to rebuild this."

Her voice was barely above a whisper.

Tempest’s expression softened.

Hen looked toward one of the burning buildings. "We spent years building this place. Every wall. Every garden. Every hiding place. We planned for everything we could think of."

A child cried somewhere behind them.

Hen closed her eyes.

"I don’t know where to start."

Dron did.

Maybe he had known since he first stepped outside and saw the destruction.

"We don’t rebuild it."

Both Hen and Tempest looked up at him.

Dron took a deep breath. "Not here."

"What are you talking about?" Hen asked.

"Running has kept your people alive, but it hasn’t stopped anyone from hunting you."

Hen’s expression hardened slightly.

Dron continued before she could argue.

"Tine has a settlement farther from here. It’s protected, but not enough. She has people and no real military. You had defenses but not enough fighters. I have fighters, but after today, not enough of them."

The words tasted bitter.

He looked across the settlement again.

There were too many bodies.

Alphas who had followed him were among them. Humans who had only recently agreed to trust them lay beside them.

Separately, they had all been vulnerable.

Dron was finally beginning to understand what Mexyn had been trying to tell him.

"We keep separating ourselves and making it easier for them."

Tempest stared at him.

Dron nodded slowly as the idea settled more firmly in his mind.

"We go to Tine."

"All of us?" Hen asked.

"All of us."

Hen looked around at what remained of her home.

"What happens when whoever did this follows us there?"

Dron met her eyes.

"Then next time they won’t find a settlement filled with humans trying to defend themselves. They’ll find all of us."

For several seconds, no one spoke.

Then Tempest nodded.

"I’m in."

Dron nearly laughed. Of course she was.

Hen didn’t answer immediately.

She looked at the dead, then at the survivors slowly emerging from hiding. Some were injured. Others had nothing left besides the clothing on their bodies.

Finally, she nodded.

"We leave."

The next several hours passed in a blur.

They gathered whatever supplies survived the fires. Gerax moved among the injured, deciding who could travel and who needed assistance. The dead were covered as respectfully as possible. There wasn’t time for the kind of burials any of them deserved.

Dron hated that most of all.

He promised himself they would come back.

He didn’t know when.

He didn’t know what the world would look like when they did.

But they would come back for their dead.

By the time they were ready to move, Dron expected perhaps forty people.

Maybe fifty.

The attack had taken too many.

He stood at the front with Tempest beside him as the first groups started walking.

Then Dron looked back.

He stopped.

There were far more people than he expected.

Humans filled the center of the group while alphas moved around them. Some carried children. Others supported the injured. People Dron didn’t recognize had joined them.

Then another group appeared from between the rocks.

Locals from Skoq. Soldiers. Merchants. Everyone.

Dron recognized their clothing.

Crilium was directing them toward the back of the formation while Aliq moved between the humans and newcomers, calming anyone who became nervous.

Rynax was somehow everywhere at once.

"Keep moving!" Rynax shouted. "If you can walk, walk. If you cannot walk, find someone large and unpleasant-looking to carry you. Fortunately, we have an abundance of those."

Even from where Dron stood, he heard someone curse at him.

Rynax grinned.

Dron shook his head.

"How many are there?" Tempest asked.

"I don’t know."

He had stopped counting.

Every time Dron thought everyone was assembled, more appeared.

Some were survivors from the human settlement. Others were alphas who had been scattered during the attack. Several had apparently come from nearby Skoq communities after seeing the smoke and hearing about the fighting.

They weren’t all soldiers.

That was what struck Dron most.

There were humans.

Skoq.

Thraqens.

Poor class.

Alphas.

Betas.

Children.

People carrying weapons walked beside people carrying food and water.

Nearly a hundred people.

Maybe more.

All moving in the same direction.

Toward Tine.

Dron felt Tempest’s fingers slide between his.

"This is getting big."

"Yes."

"Are you scared?"

Dron looked at her.

"Terrified."

Tempest smiled.

For once, Dron didn’t feel ashamed admitting it.

He turned back toward the people behind him.

Some of them were looking at Crilium for direction. Others listened to Aliq. Rynax was settling arguments before they could grow into fights.

But every few moments, eyes found Dron.

Waiting.

He had seen that look before.

Back at the gate.

When he stood above the alphas and called them brothers.

Dron had thought he was speaking to a group of fighters then.

He understood now that it had become something else.

Tine wanted to fight the High Royals.

The humans wanted to stop hiding.

Skoq wanted freedom from Thraqe’s interference.

His alphas had already proven they were willing to bleed beside people they had once been taught were beneath them.

For generations, the High Royals had survived because everyone who opposed them had been separated.

That was changing.

Dron turned toward the horizon.

Tine had asked him to bring Tempest back.

He wondered what the woman would say when she saw what he was bringing with her.

Because Dron wasn’t returning with a handful of soldiers anymore.

He was bringing her a battalion.