Read Claimed: The Warriors of Nur for Free Online

list.  Indefinitely.
    Avi took two deep calming breaths. 
    ‘ Keep it together Avi.  Beating him into a mushy, pulpy pile won’t change anything…he’ll just be beat… and… mushy…and…pulpy. ’ 
    She could imagine the calm soothing voice of her sister.  Even in this dismal situation, Leo would’ve counseled her to remain optimistic.  She’d always been the calm one, the one able to see the glass as half full, the one able to remain hopeful in the most hopeless instances…all things Avi was not. 
    To look at them, Avi and Leo Zesiro were identical.  They shared the same small frame, the same lush curves, the same creamy caramelo con leche complexion with almond-shaped slanted hazel eyes, and the same thickly curling chocolaty-black hair.  If Avi were to grow her hair to match Leo’s waist- length locks, they would be as mirror images, but physical appearance was where their similarities began and ended. 
    The reality that two people of such contradictory personalities were hatched from the same zygote would have been hard to believe if they hadn’t been so indistinguishable in appearance. 
    Where Leo was open and trusting, Avi was not.  Where Leo was optimistic and forgiving, Avi was not.  Where Leo was everything that was light, caring, and nonjudgmental, Avi was just…not.  Personality wise, there was only one identifiable similarity between the two, and that was their unbreakable love, trust, and understanding of one another.  There was no Avi without Leo…no Leo without Avi.  They were truly each half of one whole.
    “Give me the holo-file.”
    Briggs took a relieved step back.  Though obvious and intense anger still blazed in her eyes, he no longer felt the need to retreat. 
    “Umm…” he started, clearing his throat, “Umm…as to her holo-file; that’s classified and unavailable for…”
    “Mother-Fucker!”  She interrupted.  She didn’t have the patience to listen to him parrot policy to her.  “You’re new, right?” her voice lowered to just barely above a whisper.  “Obviously, because only a new idiot would be dumb enough to let those old idiots, over in FRC send him here to tell me this shit.  Do you realize that we’re standing in R&R?  I know what the fuck MWHR means, don’t parrot that ‘classified’ shit to me!” She glanced at the name emblazoned on the starched uniform shirt.  “Now, Briggs, is it?  The only thing keeping me from detonating is the remembered influence of the woman that you just informed me is for all intents and purposes…dead.” 
    The pain of that acknowledgment lanced through her.  “Give me the fuckin’ file before I beat you to death…and take it.”
    Briggs looked down into eyes that he could only describe as brutal and controlled.  The absolute calmness in them gave evidence to the true amount of danger he was in.  If he’d thought her anger was explosive, this utter lack of emotion was chilling. 
    He felt shivers race his spine, knowing that her words were not a threat, but a simple statement of fact.  His abominably slow survival instinct screamed for him to lower his eyes in submission to the menace reflected in those calm, controlled, green depths.  Silently, he held out his palm with the small holo-file chip.  Avi’Nyla Zesiro was not one to make an enemy of.

    The painful cramping of her stomach shook Leo out of the warm cocooning fog of sleep.  The blazing heat of the sun was gone, and in its place, a cooling breeze caressed the bare skin of her exposed arms and shoulders. 
    Above her stood a thick, lush canopy of towering vegetation, so dense it almost blocked out the blinding, neon rays of the sun.  The last remnants of fog drifted from her mind, bringing with it the clarity of complete wakefulness. 
    Curling onto her side, she pulled her knees tightly to her chest to dampen the intensely painful cramping. 
    “My God…” it came out on a moan. “  What is that smell?” 
    Her stomach