THE ALIEN’S ESCAPE

DRIXONIAN WARRIORS #2

ELLA MAVEN

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2020 by Ella Maven

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means.

Copyedited by Edie Danford

Cover design by Natasha Snow

First edition March 2020

DEDICATION

For anyone who needs an escape…

CONTENTS

The Alien’s Escape

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

The Alien’s Undoing

Acknowledgments

About the Author

THE ALIEN’S ESCAPE

“She will have my babies, but on our terms.”

Valerie: I thought waking up on a spaceship was traumatic. That’s got nothing on returning to consciousness while shackled in a cell. The kicker? I’m supposed to be a breeder for the alien in the cell with me. My mother always told me I had birthing hips, but I don’t think she meant they were for pushing out blue extraterrestrials. I want to hate my cellmate, but he’s a prisoner too, and so far, he’s taken a few beatings to protect me…

Sax: The food sucks but the view has gotten a hell of a lot better since the human female showed up. I know exactly what our captors want—for us to mate so they can take our baby. Over my dead body. I’m willing to suffer their abuse if they leave the pretty female alone, but when they hurt her, all bets are off. Now I’m not only finding a way to escape with her, I’m also taking out every last captor before I leave. And then? I’ll fill her with as many babies as she wants.

The Alien’s Escape is a full-length Sci-Fi Romance novel featuring a curvy heroine with nursing skills and a snarky, devoted hero with a pierced tongue who isn’t afraid of a little pain.

ONE

Valerie

As I sat in a car-like vehicle hovering over the ground of a planet that was definitely not Earth, I experienced some regrets.

My mother’s voice kept filtering through my head. Live a little. Take a vacation. Date a nice man. Give me grandbabies. Every time she’d encouraged me to spread my wings, I’d balked at the idea.

I liked being responsible. “Nothing wrong with being frugal,” I’d said in defense of my simple lifestyle.

I’d never been into extravagance. I bought my purse from Ross for twenty-five dollars, and it had lasted me seven whole years. When one of the zippers broke, I’d fashioned a new fastener out of a zebra-print paperclip and felt proud of my cleverness. I didn’t buy expensive clothes or travel. What little I could, I tucked away from my paycheck as a nurse toward my house savings.

A home was what I wanted—a little rancher all to myself with sunny yellow siding and white trim. Maybe a cat and a dog. But no other humans because dating was terrible, men were liars, and I’d committed to spinsterhood. My mother didn’t understand my attitude, because my father had been her whole world before he’d died of a heart attack when I was twenty-two.

But now? I kind of wished I’d taken that vacation. Or bought that super soft blanket from Kohl’s I’d petted for an unnaturally long time while Christmas shopping. Hell, I wish I would have splurged for an extra shot in my weekly vanilla latte. And actually, I kind of regretted saying no to the man at the post office who’d asked me out for a drink. Another orgasm in this lifetime would have been nice.

And most of all, even though raising a child had never been on my to-do list, I kind of wished I’d been able to give my mother grandbabies before cancer took her life two months ago.

Instead, I was childless, motherless, and the holder of a well-padded savings account which was doing jack all for me as I sat in this … hovercraft-thing.

The body of the vehicle was shaped like a car, but the front end was more pointed like a plane. Circular disks along the bottom pushed out air to elevate us, and judging by the vibration of the craft, some kind of engine motored us forward. My stomach dipped with every small tilt, and if I were a praying woman I would have been confessing every sin in hopes of forgiveness and mercy.

But, since I was a practical woman at home and at work—I had seen some shit as an ER nurse —I needed to spend my energy figuring out what the hell was going on. Starting with why I’d gone to sleep last night in my apartment, but awoke on a spaceship manned by weird, one-eyed creatures.

Apparently, the creatures had been on a mission to kidnap women from Earth. There had been several women on the ship, all of us in various stages of freaking out. After the ship landed, the one-eyed creatures separated us. I’d been shackled and tossed into the back of this hovercraft thing. On either side of me were massive guards, who seemed to be a much different species from the one-eyed aliens. Seven feet tall at least, they wore thick armor and were strapped with weapons. Two guards sat in front of us, one holding a weapon, and the other piloting the machine.

They smelled like wet dog, so I tried to take shallow breaths because I didn’t want to vomit from fear, disgust, and terror.

The one-eyed creatures had put us in skimpy gray dresses made from a scratchy material which irritated my skin.

I clasped my damp palms together as sweat dripped down my neck, wetting the strands of hair which had escaped my messy bun.

I stared out of the large front windshield, trying to process what my eyes were telling my brain. For a moment, I tried to convince myself we were on some part of Earth I hadn’t known existed, but it was time to accept I was truly on another planet. One that sustained life. Terrifying life if the massive hulks sandwiching me were any indications.

Here, the grass was blue, almost teal, and the dirt was a brilliant green. Wispy green clouds hung in the air like cotton candy, and blue-leafed trees grew in clumps of dense forest. Maybe in another circumstance, I would have thought this planet was pretty, but now was not the time to enjoy the scenery.

I thought nothing could shock me anymore. I’d been wrong. So, freaking wrong. I could, in fact, be shocked nearly catatonic by my first contact with extraterrestrial intelligent life. But really, who wouldn’t be?

My eyes welled with tears, and I didn’t bother trying to stop them from spilling over my bottom lashes to wet my cheeks. What would my coworkers think when I didn’t show up for my next shift? Did these guys leave a trace? Was my body still there and I was here, in another one? Now I knew freaking aliens existed, anything was possible. I glanced down at my knees and traced my finger over an old surgery scar from when I tore my ACL playing high school softball. I didn’t feel like I was in another body. This was me with all my scars and lumps and dimpled flesh.

The aircraft lurched, and I slid into the guard beside me. A pained cry left my lips as my hip connected with his stiff armor. With a disgusted sniff, he elbowed me back into place just as the pilot barked some words.

I lifted my eyes to the windshield again and sucked in a sharp breath. Before me was something out of a science fiction movie. Hundred-foot-high walls surrounded what looked to be some sort of city. The sun shone off skyscrapers appearing to touch the clouds. Floating above the skyscrapers were pod-like blimps. And I could make out hovercars like the one I was in zooming between them.

“Holy shit,” I murmured. As we drew closer, massive gates swung open, and we sped through them before finally stopping above a landing zone. Other hovercars were parked nearby, their giant circular disks resting on the ground. We lowered and touched down. The pilot flipped a switch, and the loud motor gradually lessened in decibels with a mechanical whine.

This was more than a city… This was a fortress.

I saw now the skyscrapers sat on massive columns, kind of like beach houses in a flood zone. On the ground level were smaller buildings in varying degrees of disrepair. Creatures bustled about, most of them tall with silvery skin. They walked upright on their back legs, with three fingers on each hand, and two toes on each foot. Their faces were a bit flat, with small holes for nostrils and ears.

“Where am I?”

No one answered. Thick fingers wrapped around my arms and yanked me out of the vehicle. I stumbled on the ground and blinked at the sun. At least the rays warmed my skin, as this dress was about as thick as tissue paper.

One of the silver creatures approached us, and as he drew closer, I had a thought his face looked a bit like Voldemort. He wore pants, boots, and a jacket-type shirt with lapels and shiny badges. He carried himself with an air of authority, and he cast a glance at me as if I were shit on his shoe. They brought me here, and yet I was sneered at? How did that make sense?

The next few moments were a blur. The aliens holding me didn’t speak, but Voldemort issued a few sharp commands, and I was whisked into a small metal structure which looked very official. Voldemort had to open the door with some sort of ring he waved in front of a black panel. Once inside, I was shoved into an elevator-like box and smashed between the two guards while Voldemort had half the space to himself.

The doors closed, and claustrophobia set in. My head spun, and my heart raced. Could they hear the rapid thumping in this tiny space? I was about to ask what the hell was going on when the elevator dropped, and my stomach rose to jam in my throat. The last thing I’d eaten had been Chinese leftovers after my shift. My stomach cramped and I couldn’t tell if I was nauseated, or just starving and thirsty.

I swayed on my feet and nearly toppled over when the elevator came to a sudden stop. Gripping my arms tightly enough to leave bruises, the guards hauled me from the elevator and followed the silver Voldemort as he led us down a series of hallways lit by overhead lights.

Finally, we came to a glass-paneled room. Inside were various tables, instruments, and machines, as well as flat boxes that resembled monitors with rapidly scrolling numbers. As we entered the room, a silver alien spun around on his little chair, then bolted to his feet when he saw me. His mouth stretched into what I could only interpret as glee, but there was a sadistic quality about it that locked up my muscles.

“No,” I mumbled, pulling back on the massive hands holding my arms. “No, no, no, no.” I dug my bare heels into the smooth floor to no avail because they just dragged me. Sweat poured from my temples as they led me over to a long metal table with straps.

“Stop!” I yelled, even though they all ignored me like I wasn’t losing my mind. I thrashed and flailed, but the guards holding me were three times my size and probably ten times my strength. Still, I fought out of sheer terror, my flight instinct sending my heart into overdrive as it drummed a deafening beat in my ears.

“What are you doing?” I cried as they tossed me on the table like I weighed as much as a kitten. “Stop! Please!”

One guard planted a meaty mitt on my chest, holding me in place. Metal hooks rose and locked around my ankles, wrists, and neck. Pinned to the table, barely able to turn my head, I focused on breathing and not passing out. My chest rose and fell rapidly, and as pain streaked through my lungs and down my arms, I wondered if this was what a heart attack felt like.

Then Sociopath Silver leaned over me, blocking my vision from everything but his face. He lowered some metal object to my forehead, and I whimpered as I tried to move away even though I was stuck. I closed my eyes, thinking this was when they would put a bullet in my brain. Did they have bullets here? Tears coursed down my cheeks to wet my hair, and I couldn’t stop the ugly sob from bubbling up my throat. What had I done to deserve this? I was a good person! A nurse for Christ’s sake. I saved lives!

After a few seconds, I heard a beep and the cool metal was removed from my skin. Dread opened like a black hole in my gut as I waited for what was next. I opened my eyes to see Sociopath Silver tap away at a screen. He murmured a few words to Voldemort before shifting back to me with a giant-ass needle. I breathed through my nostrils so I wouldn’t vomit.

“Please don’t,” I whimpered. It didn’t matter. He pricked my arm with the needle, and I gasped, waiting to feel fire in my veins. But as the vial filled quickly with red liquid, I realized he wasn’t injecting me—he was drawing blood.

“W-what are you doing with my blood?” I mumbled. “Is this it? You’ll take me back home now, right? Do you need urine? Spit?” My body trembled and my teeth chattered. I was reaching my limit on what I could handle, and I hated I was this weak. “I’ll give it to you if you just let me go back home.”

Sociopath moved away from my line of sight, murmuring more words to his buddies I didn’t understand. He took the vial of my blood and pushed it into the slot of a metal box. Something hissed, followed by a rapid tapping and the soft whir of a machine. My blood was sucked out of the vial into the unknown depths of the little box.

I closed my eyes. I needed to preserve my sanity for whatever they had planned for me next.

Hands tugged at my hair, and I still didn’t open my eyes. Something cool was pressed against my scalp behind my ear. Agony streaked through my head like I’d been hit with a hammer. My eyes shot open and my back bowed off the table.

“Wh-what is—?” I couldn’t get the words out, and I couldn’t do much of anything but hold my breath and hope this pain subsided. If it didn’t, I was going to die. Right here on this table surrounded by aliens; I was going to die.

My eyes leaked copiously, and Voldemort snapped his fingers in front of my face, frowning at me. “Is she okay?” he asked.

“Humans are not so resilient. She seems to be in a lot of pain. It’ll subside.” Sociopath was completely unbothered I was in my death throes.

Wait, I could understand them? I blinked at Voldemort as the pain began to ease. I opened my mouth, but no words would come out, just a series of dry clicks. He smacked my cheek with a stinging slap of his palm. “Speak, human.”

“Wh-” I licked my dry lips. “What are you doing to me?”

He turned to Sociopath. “Seven rotations?”

“Seven rotations,” answered the asshole who now possessed my blood.

“Toss her in a cell.” Voldemort curled his lip in disgust. “Such a shame this pathetic species is our only hope.”

“They’re not so bad.”

Voldemort poked me in the side. “This one seems a little thick.”

“She’s a bit over the average weight of her species.”

Seriously? I was being fat-shamed by aliens? “I don’t understand,” I sputtered. “What is happening? Why am I here? Seven rotations of what?”

The metal straps loosened, but before I could move on my own, the guards hauled me off the table and dragged me toward the door. I yanked on their hold and yelled over my shoulder. “Why won’t you answer me?”

Sociopath rubbed his hands together and his face split into that awful grin. “In seven rotations you ovulate.”

“What?” I screeched as I struggled. The glass door closed, shutting me off from the two silvers who didn’t seem to give a single shit I was losing it. I turned my attention to the armored guards. “What are they talking about? What’s going on?”

I wasn’t sure the guards could talk. They hadn’t spoken once, and they didn’t speak now. They didn’t acknowledge I was a living being or that my voice had gone shrill with body-numbing fear. “Please,” I sobbed. I hated this side of me, this pleading and begging. I always prided myself on cutting off my emotions when I was working. I followed procedure and worked hard. “Please just tell me what’s going on.”

They didn’t, and eventually I stopped asking. My feet barely touched the floor as they hauled me down a few flights of stairs, deeper and deeper underground. We entered a hallway where barred cells—like there’d be in a prison—lined one wall. They opened one, tossed me inside and closed the door. The echo of the lock clicking into place made me flinch. Without a word, they turned and walked away.

I sat huddled on the cold floor alone. As much as I hated the smelly guards, Voldemort, and Sociopath, being alone was somehow worse. My head spun, and my lungs tightened painfully until I could barely inhale oxygen. Panic set in, and I clawed at my throat as I gasped in air. I hadn’t had a panic attack in years. My head swam as I tried to remember techniques I’d learned to get me through these attacks, but I couldn’t focus. The bars of the cell seemed to close in, and I scrubbed my skin where the dress irritated me. I fingered the area behind my ear and touched a small disk. Tugging on it sent pain streaking through my scalp, so I left it alone. What the hell was it, a tracker? And how had I been able to understand their language?

“C-c-calm d-down, Val,” I stuttered to myself. Hearing my own voice grounded me a little, and my lungs finally loosened. I gratefully sucked in as much air as I could. I collapsed onto the floor on my side, my cheek pressing into the gritty floor.

I was a grown woman, but right now I wanted my mom, damnit. The hole in my heart which had opened like a fissure since her death widened. Maybe it was better this way. If she’d been alive, and I missed our morning texts, she’d be frantic. But now no one would miss me. Not for a while at least. I’d spent the last two years of my life either working or caring for my mom between her cancer treatments as she battled breast cancer. No friends would expect me to go out for drinks with them, and certainly no men were waiting on me.

After a few moments of staring at the empty wall across from me and feeling sorry for myself, I caught the smell of something. I sat up and noticed in the corner of the cell, there was a tray with a cup on it and a bar-like substance which seemed like it might be food.

With trembling limbs, I crawled over to it. The contents of the cup smelled vinegary but looked like water. If they wanted to poison me, they could have just injected me with something, so I decided to take the risk. I was dehydrated as hell, and I didn’t know when they’d offer me something else to drink. I took a sip and grimaced. Yes, a little vinegary, but it was also refreshing. I took a few more sips before setting it down. I didn’t want to drink it too fast and throw it up.

The bar-shaped substance had a peanut-butter scent, but I wasn’t fooled into thinking it was made from peanuts. I lifted it and nibbled the corner. The textured was chewy, and it didn’t have much flavor. I ate it all, too hungry for caution. After the bar was gone, I sipped more of the liquid.

The food and drink did a lot to calm me, so I sat with my back against the wall and tried to analyze the situation. The silver guys knew when I would ovulate. If they had that information, then I could only surmise my reproductive system was of interest to them.

“They want my womb,” I muttered to myself. My heart slammed against my ribs like the Jaws theme. How did they plan to make use of my womb? What kind of sperm did they plan to use?

My gag reflex kicked in as a door somewhere slammed open. Footsteps shuffled down the hallway accompanied by meaty smacks like flesh hitting flesh. I slid back into the corner of my cell and wrapped my arms around my legs to appear as small as possible. As the sounds drew closer, I laced my fingers at the back of my head and tucked into a tight ball. Through my hair, I peered into the hallway to prepare myself for what was coming.

Two guards appeared, and it wasn’t until they turned to face my cell that I realized they had something between them. Well, not something. Someone. Whoever he was, he wasn’t conscious. I assumed he was male as he wore only pants, and his upper body and physique were masculine by human standards.

But this creature was not human. His long black hair hid his face as he slumped forward. Large black horns corkscrewed from his head, ending in wicked-sharp points. And his skin was scaled with a variety of blue tones in patches that resembled cerulean camouflage. His tail hung limply on the ground behind him, a thick, scaled thing that ended in a curled tip. The guards opened the cell doors, and my eyes widened.

I held out my hands. “Wait, wait. What are you doing?”

The guards grunted at me and tossed the creature inside. He landed on his side with a lifeless thud.

“You’re putting him in here with me?” I yelled and jerked to my feet. I skirted the body and slammed my palms against the cell’s bars. “What the hell?”

The guards sneered at me, and then gave each other a look, chuckling. They still didn’t speak.

“Can you talk?” I pulled on the bars frantically. Of course, they didn’t budge. “What is this thing going to do to me when he wakes up?”

“Don’t know,” one of them grunted finally. Then his creepy eyes narrowed to slits from behind his helmet. “But we’ll be back to watch.”

“What?” My knees buckled, and only my hands on the bars kept me upright. “What does that mean?”

They walked away. The assholes turned on their heels and walked away, leaving me with this unconscious horned beast that was three times my size. “Hello?” I called after them. “Answer me!”

The door at the end of the hallway clanged shut, and only my words echoing off the bare walls answered me. “Fuck you!” I screamed as my voice went hoarse.

I didn’t want to turn around. That meant having to face the beast. Ridiculous I’d been so lonely a moment ago and now I wished like hell for that loneliness back.

Willing myself to remain calm, I slowly turned on my heel. My new cellmate’s shoulders heaved with each breath, so I knew he was alive. I was struck by the size of him. The cell, which had seemed rather large, was now crowded with his big blue body. His back rippled with muscles, and his arms seemed large enough to bench an entire gym’s worth of weights. Never taking my eyes off the creature, I took small, shuffling steps around the perimeter of the cell. As soon as I got a good look at the front of his body, I sucked in a breath.

He’d been injured. Severely. His massive chest and ridged stomach were covered in long cuts like whip-marks. They oozed a black liquid which dripped onto the floor. Why had they whipped him on his front and not his back? His massive hands, fingers tipped with sharp black nails, lay still in front of him.

I slowly dropped to my knees to get a better look. Hair covered his face, thick locks of black streaked with silver and light blue, long enough that it likely reached down past his chest when he stood. Speaking of his chest—thick gold rings pierced his nipples. Again, I was struck by how humanoid his body appeared. But of course, he was blue, his scales larger and more prominent in some areas while, in other spots he had tough-looking skin.

I crept closer, my nurse instincts kicking in. I reached out to brush the hair from his face, then yanked my hand back. What the hell was I thinking? I had to assume everything on this damn planet was out to hurt me. Even unconscious, he seemed deadly. But his blood continued to ooze from his wounds. His wrists and ankles bore scars, like he’d been shackled. He was a prisoner, like me, and my heart lurched in stupid sympathy.

After tearing a few strips of fabric off the bottom of my dress, I retrieved my cup and dipped the strips into the leftover liquid. With slow movements, I crawled toward him. When I dabbed at the cuts on his stomach, he didn’t even flinch. Jesus, this guy was ripped. His skin stretched tight over stacked abdominal muscles. Some dirt from the floor had worked its way into the cuts, so I did my best to clean him up.

When I was satisfied with my work, I sat back on my heels. “What did they do to you?” I whispered. “Who whips someone’s chest? That’s crazy. I can’t imagine how badly that hurt.”

His hair fluttered in front of his face as he breathed. I itched to know what he looked like. Did he have weird mandibles like the alien villain in the movie Predator? Did he have gnashing teeth or a snout or a beak?

I slowly extended my arm until my fingers brushed his hair. The texture was surprisingly soft. I sifted the strands over his shoulder and went still at the sight of his face. Good lord, he was certainly not Voldemort. His lips, while cracked and clotted with dried blood, were full. His nose was slightly crooked—probably broken a few times—but it only gave him a bit of a rakish appearance, like a young Harrison Ford. Instead of eyebrows, he had a large, prominent brow ridge that was slightly nubbed. His blue tone was lighter across his high cheekbones and strong jawline. More gold rings pierced the entire shell of his ear.

With his eyes closed, his face at rest, he looked almost peaceful. What would happen when his eyes opened? Would I see nothing but evil?

I drew my hand back and was about to tend to his wounds again when one of his eyes opened to reveal nothing but black.

I screamed.

TWO

Sax

A distant scream hurt my ears, and I winced. Fleck. My chest was on fire, and I worried my left wrist was broken because I’d pulled too hard on my shackles. Those Kulk fleckers had really worked me over this time. Of course, I’d laughed at them until I’d lost consciousness. I’d never let them see me beg and plead. I wouldn’t break.

With a groan, I rolled onto my hands and knees and shook my head to clear the haze of pain. My body tilted as my left wrist gave out, and I nearly face-planted back onto the floor.

Gathering my one good hand under me, I pushed myself up and rotated my shoulders to work out the stiffness. I lazily waved my tail. It was still attached, thank Fatas.

I was in a cell again, which was nothing new. The view was always the same—stone floors and bars. I glanced down at the cuts on my chest and frowned. Had they cleaned me up? That would be a first, but the marks were already scabbing over, and they seemed clear of dirt. My blood littered the floor, yet my stomach was clear of dried blood trails.

It wasn’t sure how long it had been since my brother escaped this hell with his human mate. Maybe three rotations? Time had blurred in a fog of pain. I’d known the Uldani would punish me, but I hoped they would grow tired of the beatings soon. I was over it.

Fatas had a reason for my being here, but as the rotations went on, I was finding it harder and harder to maintain faith. Right now, it felt like my only purpose was to suffer at the hands of the Uldani.

I froze as a sound reached my ears. There was someone in this cell with me. I could hear shaky breathing and felt a slight disturbance in the air. Despite the pain in my limbs, I spun in a crouch to face the source of the sound and lifted my machets. The bone blades rippled out from under my skin all along my forearms and from the top of my head down to the base of my tail.

The small creature in the back of the cell screamed, and I remembered now. It was the sound that had woken me up. I blinked as I got a good look at my new cellmate. Long yellow hair. Pale flesh. Two blue eyes, and a lush pink mouth. My body went still at the sight of her. That scream? The uneven breathing? They belonged to a human female.

She sat huddled with her knees tucked tight to her chest. Her wide eyes took in my machets, and stark fear drained her face of color. Of course, she was terrified. I slowly rose to my feet and let my machets slip back under my skin. She didn’t look any less scared as she tracked my every movement.

Anger roared to life inside of me, swift and scorching. The last thing I wanted the Uldani to possess was a human female. I knew their plans for her, and the one fact that had been keeping me going since waving goodbye to my brother was that the Uldani didn’t have a human female to manipulate and use. Now they did. She sat in front of me, all long hair, pretty skin, and soft curves. The most precious object in the galaxy huddled in a dirty cell in a torn dress.

My machets itched to lift again. I wanted to rage and roar and burn down this entire flecking city to make every last Uldani pay for putting this creature before me behind bars. The human whimpered, and I realized my scales were rippling, the colors shifting and rolling over my skin as a sign of my inner turmoil.

Willing myself to calm down, I lifted my hands, palms out. She wouldn’t be able to understand me, but I hoped my tone conveyed my words. My pain all but forgotten, I focused on her. “I won’t hurt you.”

Her eyes nearly bulged out of her skull, and her whole body jolted. She balled her little fists on top of her knees. “Oh my God,” she murmured. She shook her head. “I-I don’t know what to think.”

I could understand her words. After they’d kidnapped me, the Uldani had updated my translation implant with all the major Earth languages.

“Did they give you an implant?” I asked, gesturing toward the implant by my ear. “Can you understand me?”

Her fingers grazed her hair, and I was able to see a familiar bulge over her ear. She jerked her hands back to her knees. “I… yes. I can understand you.”

In an attempt to look less threatening, I crouched down on the balls of my feet. She didn’t cringe at my movements, and I considered that a victory. “I’m sorry you’re here.”

Her gaze drifted to my beaten chest before returned to my face. She studied me and seemed to reach some sort of decision. “I’m sorry you’re here, too.”

Her soft voice soothed the rapid beat of my cora and tempered the heat of anger in my blood. Her voice didn’t belong here in this dank and hard cell. What would her yellow hair look like when the sun shone on it? Would her eyes crinkle when she smiled?

“My name is Sax,” I said. “I’m a Drixonian warrior, originally from planet Corin.”

“Those words…” She nibbled her lip. “I don’t know what most of those words mean.”

Of course. My brother Dax had told me humans weren’t aware of any life other than what existed on their Earth. I went with the simplest explanation. “They mean I won’t harm you. What’s your name?”

“Valerie. Well, Val. You can call me Val.”

It was then I realized she clutched bloodied scraps of cloth in her hands, and that the hem of her dress had been ripped. The soothing tone of her voice was all but forgotten as the rage inside me renewed. “Where are you injured?” I barked, sliding toward her. “What did they do to you?”

She jumped at the sharp crack of my voice, dropping the scraps of cloth as she raised her arms to defend herself. “I-I’m not injured,” she stuttered.

I snatched a handful of the cloth and shook it at her. “Then what is this?”

“It’s—”

“Why is your dress torn?”

She slammed her fists down. “Because I used it to clean your cuts!”

I froze with the cloth straps swinging between our faces. Color flooded back to her cheeks, deepening their color with a red flush. Her bright eyes flashed at me like glittering gems. I dropped my hand. “You cleaned me?”

“You were unconscious when they threw you in here with me. I can’t see someone injured and bleeding and not do something. I’m a nurse,” she announced with a slight upward lift of her chin. “That’s what I do.”

“What’s a nurse?”

“Someone who takes care of sick or injured people.”

“A healer?”

“Yes, sure. I’m a healer.”

I narrowed my eyes. “But you didn’t know if I was an enemy or not. I could have woken up and killed you.”

Some of the bravado left her strong gaze. “I never said it was the right choice. But it was the one I made.”

“You can’t trust anyone in this entire fortress except for me. Do you understand?”

Her eyes glistened. “I don’t know that I can trust you.”

“You can.”

She scoffed. “Of course, you tell me I can trust you, but trust doesn’t work that way. You have to earn it.”

“I trust you.”

“Well, then you’re crazy.”

I tossed my head back, wishing I could tie my hair out of my face. “I will earn your trust, then.” My voice came out as more of a growl than I intended.

She flinched and watched me carefully before speaking again. “I’d like nothing more than to trust you,” she said. “But it’s a little hard based on everything that’s happened to me since I’ve gotten here.”

Anger sparked in me. “Tell me.”

“Tell you?”

“Tell me all you remember.”

She took a deep breath, and then she did. She told me about waking up on the spaceship and arriving at the Uldani fortress of Alazar. I explained to her that the silver aliens were Uldani, and the armored guards, called Kulks, worked for them. My machets lifted when she spoke of Borhan prodding her in his lab, the sick fleck.

“They know when I will ovulate next and that terrifies me.” She wrung her hands. “Why do they need to know that?”

“What is ovulating?” I asked.

“It’s when I’m fertile. When I can get pregnant.”

The words were like a punch in the gut. I’d known all along that was why they wanted her, but to hear her confirm it still knocked me down. I collapsed back on my ass and dropped my forehead into my hands. “Fleck,” I muttered. I hadn’t known they had the means to test a human female’s reproductive cycle. They were gaining too much knowledge.

“Do you know what’s going on?” Her voice drew closer, causing me to look up, seeing her crawling toward me on her hands and knees, her breasts swinging beneath the thin fabric of her dress, her round ass flexing.

I imagined my hands on her soft, lush hips. My mouth on her stiff nipples. My tongue licking the cream between her thick thighs.

My cock stiffened, but on the heels of lust rode panic, swift and sick. I skittered away from her, retreating to the far side of the cell, raising my arm to ward her off. “Stay away from me.”

Her mouth dropped open, and the utter devastation on her face took my breath away. “W-what’s wrong?”

I closed my eyes, but I could still see her supple form and pretty lips. “I can’t… Stay away, Val.”

She sucked in a breath at the sound of her name. “Please just tell me what’s going on.” A sob left her throat, and the sound choked me.

I opened my eyes to see large drops leave her eyes to splash on the floor, mingling with my blood. This pretty female who’d known nothing about me but had still risked cleaning my wounds cried… and I felt helpless. She deserved an explanation and to know what was going on, no matter how flecked up the truth was.

“They want to know when you’re fertile, because they want to breed you,” I said.

She pressed a hand over her mouth, but a pained cry escaped her. “The Uldani want me to bear their children?”

I shook my head. “No, sweet Val. They want you to bear mine.”

Val

“What?” I whispered.

He rubbed his eyes and then banged his head on the wall behind him. “Fleck,” he muttered to himself with each thud of his skull on the hard wall. “Fleck, fleck, fleck.”

“Sax,” I murmured.

He went still at the sound of his name, and then his dark eyes focused on me. They weren’t black, as I’d previously thought, but a dark purple. And earlier, when he’d been speaking more softly, they’d lightened to a pretty violet.

“Don’t do that,” he rasped. His lips curled back, revealing a gleaming set of white fangs.

A shiver traveled down my neck. “Don’t do what?”

“Don’t say my name. Or look at me.” His nostrils flared. “Or speak. And whatever you do, don’t touch me for fleck’s sake.”

“But why—?”

“Because you’re making my cock hard, and if one of the Uldani walks in here and sees that, we’re both flecked. Do you understand me?”

I reared back, only now noticing the bulge in his pants. A massive bulge. Oh God. I had more questions, so many more, but he’d told me not to speak. Which was fine because I was too terrified to muster words. He sat with his eyes closed while he rhythmically opened and closed his fists.

I tried to steady my breath and call up the training and experience I’d had dealing with trauma at my job. Yes, this was my own trauma, but God, I needed to try to be objective here or I’d go insane. Quick analysis: I wasn’t dying or seriously injured. That was good news. The bad news? Silver aliens apparently wanted to use my body to breed this blue alien’s children. And he seemed just as overwhelmed by this shitty news as I did. Before I could ask him if his reasons for freaking out were similar to mine, the door down the hall clanked open.

Sax immediately sprang to his feet. Those blades beneath his skin lifted, and I squeezed myself against the wall. At first I’d thought they were some sort of body modification, but now that I got a closer look at the blades that spanned from the top his head to the base of his tail, I realized they were a part of him—bones that could unsheathe from beneath his skin like hidden weapons. His silhouette was scary as hell, backlit by the lights from the hallway.

Two guards appeared in front of the bars. They were followed by two Uldani, as Sax had told me they were called, both wearing those jackets adorned with official-looking symbols.

“You decided to wake up from your nap to meet your new roommate, hmm?” The Uldani on the right wore a green sash across his jacket.

Sax didn’t respond.

“Now where’s that Sax humor we’ve all grown to know and love? I thought I’d at least get a thank you. We rewarded you for not escaping with your brother. There’s a pretty female to take your cock.”

“Fleck you,” Sax rumbled in a deep voice.

“Look, you’re alone. None of your males are here to judge you with those pesky Drixonian morals. You can go ahead and let your instincts go. Take her like a warrior should take his spoils.” The Uldani’s words cascaded down my spine like ice water.

Sax replied with the same words, same tone. I appreciated the basic fuck-you attitude because the Uldani were sickening. But they obviously had all the power. What would happen when they forced Sax to do their bidding?

“We can make you,” the Uldani said.

Sax snarled out, “You can try.”

The cell door opened, and Sax lunged. He didn’t get far. The guards latched poles onto his collar, holding him at a distance so his skin blades and tail were useless. Sax roared as the guards entered the cell, forcing Sax against the far wall. He yanked on a pole, and I thought he was going to get close enough to take a guard’s head off, but than an Uldani produced a metal rod. He flipped a switch on the rod’s side, and a hum filled the air.

“No!” I shouted, just as he plunged it into Sax’s side.

Sax’s blue body went rigid, and his mouth opened in a silent scream. The stench of burning flesh filled the air, and Sax’s limbs trembled so hard that his teeth clattered.

“Stop it!” I yelled.

I ran to the nearest Kulk and pounded my fists on his armor, not that it did much. I kicked, yanked, and pulled. The guard turned to me with a snarl, and, with a swift fist to the gut, sent me sailing into the wall. Pain streaked through my right hip as I crumpled to the ground and gasped for air.

A dull roar reached my ears, and I looked up to see Sax renew his struggles. His pitch-black eyes shifted from me to the guard who had struck me. Wrenching away from the rod at his side, he swung his tail whip-fast against the Kulk’s head. With a sickening crack, the Kulk’s head spun an unnatural one hundred and eighty degrees. The guard went down like a sack of potatoes, hitting the ground in a clash of armor and lifeless limbs.

The other guard gripped the pole that was fastened to Sax’s collar with two hands, struggling to hold Sax at a distance. It was no use. Sax jerked the pole, and as soon as the Kulk was within striking distance, Sax lashed out and sliced his forearm blades across the Kulk’s neck. He slid to the ground as blood spurted from his throat and coated the wall.

Sax whirled around, teeth bared and fangs dripping with saliva. But the Uldani weren’t fools. Both of them entered the cell holding shock-rods and plunged them into Sax’s chest. He arched his back and roared as the weapons coursed a current through his body, making him shake like he’d touched a live wire.

“Stop!” I cried weakly. I tried to stand, but the pain in my hip had made my right leg useless. Tears coursed down my face like tiny rivers. “You’re killing him!”

The Uldani turned to me with a sneer. He pulled his rod back and then plunged it into Sax’s neck. His eyes nearly bulged out of his skull. “You care whether he lives or dies?” the Uldani spat. “Then breed with him.”

They both yanked the rods away, and Sax’s body fell to the ground. His head bounced off the stone floor. Lifeless. I sobbed and crawled over to him. “Sax,” I called out as I drew closer. “Sax!” I touched his hair. His forehead. Sweat coated his skin and his color was a dull gray-blue. The places where they’d shocked him were blackened and oozing. A faint scent of smoke filled the air. “You killed him!” I shouted at the Uldani.

“We didn’t kill him.” The Uldani sniffed at me. “He can take a lot, we’ve learned. And he will. Repeatedly. Until he breeds you.”

As I lay huddled beside Sax’s prone body, the Uldani dragged the bodies of the dead guards out of the cell. One of them placed a tray in the corner, then slammed shut the cell door shut.

“We’ll be back,” the Uldani said. “When he wakes up, he’ll just be ready for more.” He tapped the rod against the cell bars and walked away without a backward glance at either of us.

I slid closer to Sax and laid his head in my lap. I sobbed. And sobbed. I’d never cried so hard. My tears dripped onto Sax’s face, mingling with dirt and sweat. He’d endured so much because he refused to rape me in front of those Uldani fuckers. Would he wake up and be angry with me? Would he decide enough was enough? No way could he survive being shocked like that again, as the Uldani had promised. While I cared for my own future, I found I also wanted to help Sax. He’d been kind to me, and he’d treated me like an actual person rather than just a womb.

I swiped at my eyes, sniffing a few more times before finally getting myself under control. I tested my hip joint, terrified it was broken, but found I could rotate it without screaming pain. Still, I knew I had to be careful with it. I crawled over to the tray they’d left in the corner. There was a large jug of the water-like substance and a few more of the peanut-scented bars. I drank a little and used the rest of the liquid to clean Sax’s wounds as best as I could. They were already clotting and scabbing over, and I assumed his healing abilities were much better than humans’.

I tried to get him to drink something, but he couldn’t swallow so the liquid dribbled from his mouth. God, I couldn’t imagine the pain he’d gone through, and yet he’d still managed to get free and kill two guards. Their bodies sat outside our cell, and I was a little concerned I felt nothing but satisfaction when I looked at them. What was this place turning me into?

I stroked Sax’s face, which was no longer pinched with pain. His lips were slightly parted, and his chest rose and fell with even breaths, rather than the rapid breathing from before. I checked his pulse on his wrist. It seemed fast, but I had no idea what his normal resting heart rate was.

I propped myself up against the wall, Sax’s head in my lap, and closed my eyes. I might have dozed off, but I jerked awake when I felt movement. I glanced down to see Sax’s purple eyes open and alert. Watching me. Pain lurked in every pinched crease of his face.

For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then my body bucked with renewed sobs. “I’m so sorry,” I cried, unable to stop the tears from flowing. Again. Fuck, I had to stop this, or I was going to re-dehydrate.

His eyes went wide, and he struggled to a sitting position. “Ch-ch-ch,” he chanted with an odd purr. He tugged me against his chest, tucked my face into his neck. “It’s okay, sweet Val. It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay,” I wailed. “They almost killed you.”

“They didn’t.”

He’d been shocked into a comatose state, yet when he woke, he comforted me. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d been comforted. I was the strong caregiver. I’d always been.

I glared at him. “They did! It was horrible. Oh God. The way you shook. The smell. Sax, I can’t let you go through that again. I can’t!”

His teeth clenched. “You’ll have to.”

“Why?” I wiped my nose with the back of my hand. Fuck, I was a mess. What value did virtue have in this situation? Nothing. I’d spread my legs if it meant preventing Sax that horrible pain. “Maybe we should just do what they want. I—”

“No,” he barked so loudly that I startled. The shadows of pain had all but vanished from his eyes. “No. We will not give in. You must understand. I will die before they get their hands on any child with Drixonian blood.”

My spine straightened at the determination laced in his voice. “What do they want with this child?”

He sighed heavily. “It’s a long story.”

I glanced around. “Well, I guess we have time. Unless you need to rest.”

He spotted the tray in the corner. “We should eat. I will talk. Then we’ll rest.”

I nodded. “Yeah, sure. Okay.”

Between us, we quickly downed a few of the bars and drank most of the remaining clean jug of liquid, which Sax referred to as qua. Afterward, he leaned against the wall with a wince and prodded at the areas where he’d been shocked.

“I tried to clean them while you were passed out,” I explained. “All I had was the qua. I’d never wished for antibiotics so much in my life, and that counts the time I had a wicked sinus infection and I thought my face was going to fall off.”

He huffed what seemed like a laugh, and his lips curled up at the corners for a brief moment before falling back into a grim line. I wondered what he looked like when he smiled. What was he like when he wasn’t a tortured prisoner?

“They will heal. So, you wanted to know why they want my offspring. Well, my people used to work for the Uldani as guards and law enforcement. Like the Kulks do now.” He gestured toward the dead bodies. “We thought we were respected partners, but we soon learned we were more like servants. And then we learned they were holding some of us without our permission and experimenting on us. So, we led a rebellion and broke from their rule.”

“But why am I needed? Don’t you have females of your kind?”

His eyes closed, and he swallowed. When he focused on me, I saw a wealth of emotional pain lurking behind the purple depths of his eyes.

“A hundred and fifty sun-cycles ago, a virus killed all our females and most of our elder males. We cannot reproduce.”

My heart dropped, and I clutched my chest. “Oh God, that’s terrible.”

He nodded. “It is. That was how the Uldani were able to convince us to serve them. Our civilization had been ravaged by the virus. We agreed to travel to this planet, Corin, and work for them. After the Uprising, the remaining males separated into groups called clavases and live out east. In relative peace.”

“So, the Uldani have new guards, right? Why do they want you?”

He flexed his arms so that the tips of his blades rose from beneath his scales before settling back in. “Because Drixonian warriors are one of the most feared species in the galaxy. One of us is powerful.” His fingers curled into his thigh. “As a unit, we are nearly unstoppable.”

In the back of my mind, I knew the answer, but I needed it confirmed. “So, they want you to reproduce so they can…” I let my voice trail off.

“So, they can raise a new generation of Drixonian warriors who know nothing of our ways or values. Little ones with little minds that the Uldani can shape at their will.”

“Oh no,” I whispered.

“Which is why, sweet Val, I will endure what they do to me.” His words rang through the air like gun shots. “Every day. Until the day Fatas decides to take me from this world.” He bared his teeth, and his fangs glistened. “Because I will never, ever, let them get their hands on a creature with even an ounce of Drixonian blood.”

The reality of our situation hit me. Caving to the Uldani demands didn’t just mean I’d be forced to have sex with Sax. I’d potentially be creating a life that would know nothing but servitude, nothing of the proud ways of the warrior who sat before me. I had to think of more than myself. They didn’t just want my womb, they wanted what my womb would produce. My child. Sax’s words flooded through me and I placed a hand on my stomach. I hadn’t planned on children, but the thought of my baby in their hands sickened me. Sax was right, this wasn’t just about us, this was protecting a future life who had no way to fight.

“They won’t stop, will they?” I said, my eyes blurring with tears. How did I still have tears to cry? “If I give birth, they’ll want more.”

“To them, I’m a cock. And you’re a womb that can produce slaves.”

Oh God, those words hurt. They fell between us like boulders, huge and insurmountable.

“Sax,” I whispered. “What are we going to do? I can’t give them a child, but I can’t watch you go through this.”

He held out his hand, and I tentatively placed my palm in his. He wrapped his blue fingers around mine. “You will, brave Val. You’ll do it for me, for you, and for the life you’re saving. Do you understand?”

I choked out a sob. Fuck, I was tired of crying. “I do understand. But I hate it.”

He pulled me against him, and his chest heaved with a sigh. “I know.”

I lay my head on his scaled pecs. I expected him to feel like a snake, but he was softer, like steel-covered velvet. “Explain this Fatas to me that you mentioned. Is she like your God?”

“A God?”

“Um, someone you believe is the creator. On Earth, a lot of people believe God made people. We have free will, but people pray to him to ask him for things, like health and happiness.”

He frowned. “No, Fatas is not our God. She did not create us. We believe she blesses us or curses us based on our actions.”

“Ah, like karma, then. You’re rewarded for good deeds and punished for others.” I leaned my head against his shoulder. “Now, karma I believe in. I wish she would let me know what I did to end up in this hell.”

He was quiet for a long time, and when I glanced at his face, his eyes were closed. I thought he was asleep, until he said softly, “I wondered that too. And now I think I know why. Fatas put me here and tested my strength so I could be worthy of and blessed with you.”

I jerked back at his words. “What?”

He was asleep. Soft snores left his mouth. I didn’t wake him to ask more questions. He needed to heal, and the best thing for that was sleep.

As tired as I was, sleep didn’t come. I stayed awake for a long time thinking about Sax’s words. I’d been selfishly thinking he was sacrificing himself to protect me. Of course he wasn’t. He didn’t know me. He refused to give the Uldani what they wanted—a piece of him. Still, he’d been kind, and he’d killed the guard who hit me. His rage at my pain had been evident. I’d met a hell of a lot of people in my line of work, and I thought I’d gotten pretty good at being a decent judge of character. Everything about Sax felt pure and truthful. And now he was doomed to suffer.

I had never been skilled at standing up for myself. I’d once worked an entire twelve-hour shift with excruciating jaw pain from an infected cavity, but I refused to stop because that meant letting down my coworkers. But whenever my patients needed me, I was more than happy to stand up to a doctor who wouldn’t prescribe pain meds or the correct dosage.

So tomorrow, I had to think of something. If not for myself, for Sax. For the unborn life he was so desperate to save and the remainder of his people he clearly loved.

Eventually, my eyelids began to close, and I curled up next to my big alien savior, needing the warmth of his body to combat the cold of the stone floor. I fell asleep, the sounds of his roars still ringing in my ears and the smell of his burned flesh in my nostrils.

THREE

Sax

I awoke to the sound of a tray clattering in the cell. Opening my eyes, I saw a Kulk shutting the door. With another guard, he began dragging the dead bodies down the hall. They didn’t look at me, and I was too focused on the smell of food to fleck with them. Normally insulting the big dumb bastards was my favorite pastime, but not when I had sweet Val resting on my lap.

She slept curled in a ball, her head on my thigh. Golden hair surrounded us in a shiny cloud. Her features fascinated me. Her pretty mouth with full pink lips. A slender throat. And her breasts. They were large, bigger than those of my brother’s human mate. In fact, all of Val was bigger, which I found highly attractive. I couldn’t let my thoughts drift that far. There was nothing I could do about my desire for her in this cell.

I leaned my head back against the wall and gave myself a moment to miss my brother, Daz. About a dozen rotations ago, the Uldani captured me while I was out hunting. They held me as ransom in a bid to get my clavas—and my brother, as our leader—to deliver a half-dozen human females. One of the females turned out to be Daz’s mate, so of course he wasn’t going to make the delivery. Once his Fra-kee learned about me, she’d insisted they save me, which only resulted in both of them locked up.

But they’d escaped, thank Fatas. I’d had a chance to go with them, but I stayed. I wondered for days afterward, as the Uldani punished me for Daz’s escape and for his slaughter of their top guard, if I’d made the right decision. At the time, I’d felt Fatas pulling me to stay here. Once I’d learned Fra-kee was pregnant, I knew this would never end. The Uldani would never let us rest. I had to stay and do something to end their reign of flecking with us.

Still, I despaired until I’d woken up from another beating to see sweet Val. I rested my hand on her curvy hip. She murmured something in her sleep and shifted, but she didn’t wake.

Fatas had revealed her purpose to me. Not only did I have to continue the fight to prevent the Uldani from breeding us, but I also had to protect Val from the Uldani. This was why I was still alive, and why I had to stay alive. As long as Val breathed, then so would I, despite what the Uldani put me through.

My lust for Val grew with every moment in her presence. I wanted nothing more than to slip between her thighs, to fill her full of my seed until she was round and full with my chit. I imagined Val round with my offspring in the safety of our clavas. Her smile and golden hair and laughter as we created a new generation of Drixonians.

If we were in another situation, could Val grow to care for me? Daz and his mate had been devoted, but then they were Fatas-blessed. Fra-kee was Daz’s cora-eternal, and they had the wrist markings to prove it.

I didn’t dare to think Fatas would provide another cora-eternal mating, but that didn’t matter. Val was still my purpose. I knew it with every beat of my cora. I’d never forget the sight of her tiny fists hitting the Kulk guard as she tried to get them to stop shocking me, like a fierce salibri protecting her young.

With my tail, I dragged the tray closer and gulped down a little qua. I ate a tein bar. I swore to Fatas I’d never eat another one once I got of here. They’d given me fruit once, but it was so old and rotten I’d thrown it up, along with everything else I’d eaten that day. It hadn’t been much.

Val stirred again, and this time her pretty blue eyes blinked open. She didn’t come awake quickly, like I did. For a while she stared straight ahead—a view that happened to be my stomach. Slowly, her eyes rose and rose and rose until she focused on my face. I went for a small smile. “Hello.”

“Oh, hello.” Her voice was small and groggy with sleep. It was adorable. I helped her sit up, and then offered her some qua and a tein bar. She munched on it with a disgusted look on her face and rubbed her eyes. “I’d kill for a latte right now.”

“What’s a latte?”

She squinted at me. “Um, like a coffee?”

“Coffee?”

She blew a lock of hair out of her eye. “Do you have any food or drink here that has caff—uh, that gives you energy?”

“Ah,” I said. “Yeah, we have a monstra drink that we make.”

“Okay, well coffee is like that. It’s hot and we drink it in the morning. I’m addicted.”

“If I could get you coffee, I would.”

She smiled at me. Fleck, she was beautiful. “Well, that’s more than most of my boyfriends have done.”

“Boyfriends?”

“Men?”

“Males?”

“Yes, males, who I was… intimate with.” Her eyes sparkled with mischief. “If they did nice things like bring me coffee.”

An odd surge of heated anger flared to life in my chest. I frowned in irritation. “Who are these males? You let them touch you?”

She lifted her arched eyebrows. “Sometimes humans are intimate because we are looking for a life-long partner and sometimes it’s because it just feels good.”

Yeah, I was pissed. “Intimacy with your mate is the highest form of pleasure.”

Now she looked pissed. “Who have you mated?”

“No one,” I growled at her. “No females, remember?”

She opened her mouth and then snapped it closed. Understanding dawned in her eyes. “Wait, you mean … you’ve never…”

“I’ve never pleasured a female,” I snapped.

She blinked. “That… that makes sense if… yeah. Okay.”

Her squirming and the pretty flush to her cheeks quickly washed away my anger. I crossed my arms over my chest and shot her a smirk. “In case you’re worried, I know how. Drixonians were legendary lovers before the virus. And the males who survived have passed on various techniques.” I stuck out my tongue, so it unfurled down to my chin, revealing the row of ball-piercings in its center. “I know a thousand ways to make a female come.”

“Legend—Oh wow.” She placed her hand at the base of her throat and swallowed. “I wasn’t worried, but that is … that’s all good to know.”

A door clanged open down the hall, and we both stumbled to our feet, the previous conversation all but forgotten.

Footsteps echoed on the stone walls, and I quickly took stock of my injuries. Every muscle was sore. The wounds on my side and neck had scabbed over, but they were still tender to the touch. It’d been so easy to disassociate during all the previous beatings, but now I had Val to worry about. I had to be aware. Present. And that meant I’d feel the pain all the more acutely. I stretched my back and cracked my neck. So be it.

Two Kulks strode in front of Polu Gravit, the new commander of the Uldani army. They hadn’t hid Daz had killed Trupa, the old commander, before Daz and Fra-kee escaped, and the satisfaction over that bastard’s death had been what got me through the resulting punishments. I’d pay for my brother’s sin any day if it meant the death of Trupa.

Polu wasn’t much better. He’d learned from Trupa, after all, but even Trupa seemed to have a mild respect for Drixonians. Polu hated me, and I got the impression he resented not being able to kill me.

Beside Polu was one of his men, a smaller general named Hawn who rarely spoke but was keenly observant. Him, I needed to watch out for.

Polu turned on his heel to face me. His gaze drifted over my shoulder to Val before focusing back on me. “You rested and fed?”

Val’s heat warmed my back, and I knew she’d taken a step closer. Her shaky voice drifted over my shoulder. “I don’t understand. The man in the room with the glass wall said I don’t ovulate for seven days, so why must we mate now?”

Polu narrowed his eyes at her. “Because it’s a window of time. We don’t want to miss it. So, you’ll mate every day until his seed takes or you bleed.”

I felt her shudder. “Please, I don’t—”

“Get to it, Drix bastard.” Polu sneered. “We don’t have all day for you to shoot your seed.”

“You’ll be waiting longer than that. I’m not touching her,” I growled.

Polu’s lips tightened into pale gray strips. “Is this what you want? Day in and day out of pain?” He pulled the shock rod out of his belt and turned it on. The hum made sharp pricks race over my scalp. Fleck, this was going to hurt. “We have many ways to cause you pain. We can rip your machets out one by one, pull your teeth, flay your skin. All I need is for you to get hard, Sax. Don’t underestimate what I’ll do to get you to do it.”

Val sucked in a trembling breath, and her fingers touched my arm. “No,” she whispered.

“Remember what I said,” I murmured to her.

Her hair touched my skin with a soft tickle, and I saved the sensation to focus on when the pain became too much.

“Open the door,” Polu directed the Kulks with a snarl. “And watch your backs this time or you’ll end up like the last two guards.”

Of course, I tried to evade the guards, but in the end, it didn’t matter. They attached their rods to my collar, holding me at a distance, while Polu strolled inside with his shock rod. I stood firm with my feet braced apart and my hands fisted at my sides.

Hawn walked next to him, and I didn’t like the way he kept his eyes on Val.

“You love this, don’t you, you sick flecks,” I spat at Polu and his sidekick, needing to draw their attention away from my human. “It tears at you that you need another species to defend you because you’re all soft and weak. You’d kill to be me, wouldn’t you? Tall. Strong. Machets. And an even bigger cock—”

The first shock stole my breath, as I knew it would. I didn’t bother trying to speak through the scorching agony that coursed through my body. Sound ceased except for the pounding of my cora. Fleck, every time they prodded me, I swore my bones would disintegrate into ash. I closed my eyes and remembered the way Val’s hair felt on my skin, the bright blue of her eyes, and the way her lush body curled into mine.

This was for her. I’d do it for her. She is all.

The rod jerked from my body, and I sagged in the guards’ hold. Sound came back to me.

Chains rattling.

Val crying and pleading.

I tried to lift my gaze to look at her, but my head wouldn’t move.

“V-Val,” I stuttered. Something splattered on the ground beneath me. Drool? “I-it’s o-okay.”

“Nooo,” she wept.

I craned my head enough to see her reaching for me, but Hawn blocked her way. I growled at him, but the sound was pathetic by the time it left my cracked lips.

“You ready to fulfill your duty?” Polu asked. “Or do I have to start pulling out your claws? I’ve never seen a declawed Drix.”

“B-bring it,” I gasped.

“No!” Val cried, and lunged for me. Hawn grabbed her around the waist and tugged her back.

At the sight of his filthy hands on her, I pushed the pain aside and fought against the guards. “Don’t touch her!” I barked, my voice hoarse. The guards held each pole with both hands as I flailed. “Don’t flecking touch her, you sick flecks!”

A sharp clang echoed through the cell, and I stopped fighting to see Polu approach from the side of the cell where he’d hit the rod against a bar. “Hawn,” Polu’s gaze was on me. “Put her down.”

Hawn set her feet on the ground, but he didn’t let go of her wrist. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his three fingers wrapped around her delicate joint.

“So, I think Sax has made it clear he’s willing to be mutilated just to avoid mating this female. But…” His lips curled into a smug grin. “What will you be willing to watch your pretty human go through?”

My stomach sank to the floor. Hawn pulled back his arm and backhanded Val across the right side of her face. The crack echoed off the walls as Val’s head whipped to the side, the blow so strong she fell to the ground.

Pain streaked across my right cheek, and my body jolted like I’d been tossed to the ground. But no one had hit me. That pain I felt… was where Val had been struck.

She lifted her head, and bright red blood dripped from her nose and the corner of her mouth. Gasping, her eyes met mine, and my sweet little Val set her jaw and stared up defiantly at Hawn. Standing over her, he turned on his shock rod.

At the sound of the hum, I pushed through the haze of pain. “No! No flecking way!” I roared. “You’ll kill her. You’ll kill her!”

“Easier to get another human than a Drix warrior,” Polu said. “How much are you willing to watch her take?”

Panic gripped my chest as Hawn swung the rod over her head. Her body shook and tears leaked out of her eyes, but she didn’t make a peep. I lashed my tail and pulled against the rods holding me. I couldn’t do it. I could take all the pain every time, but to watch her body go rigid with shock—

“I’ll do it!” I shouted.

Hawn froze and turned to me. Polu raised an eyebrow. “What did you say?”

I hated this. I hated every flecking thing about this, but I couldn’t be responsible for Val’s death. I’d never live with myself. “I’ll do it. Just… don’t hurt her.”

“No!” Val struggled her feet. Blood stained the front of her dress. The sight of it nearly sent me into a rage spiral. My female bled. She wobbled on her feet. “No, I can take it, Sax. It’s fine.”

“You won’t!” I shouted at her. “I refuse to watch you suffer at their hands. They’ll kill you.” The words were hard to say, but I wrenched them off my swollen tongue anyway. “I’ll do it. I’ll breed you.” I’d never been so defeated in my life. “And give them a child.”

“No,” Val said more firmly. She faced Polu, and despite her battered face and dirty flesh, she tossed her hair over her shoulder with a proud shake of her head. Her intelligent eyes shone bright. “I won’t do it like this. No matter what he says, I won’t do it. So, you’ll have to hurt me every day. You don’t know as much as you think you do about female human biology. Our menstruation cycles are affected by stress. Under extreme duress, we won’t ovulate.”

She seemed to gain confidence as she talked, and even though I wasn’t sure of what she spoke about, I was in awe of the way she stood up to Polu. She stood tall and proud, her back straight. “You want a baby? Then this—” She gestured around us. “—won’t work. You can’t keep us in a cold dark cell with barely any food and expect my body to behave like it’s healthy.” She jabbed a thumb at herself. “My ovaries won’t work like that. So, put us somewhere comfortable. Feed us. And then I’ll ovulate on time, drop a precious egg, and let his sperm have at it.”

For a long moment, no one moved. I had no idea if Val was telling the truth. It didn’t really matter. She found a way to keep herself safe and unhurt and bought us some time. That was all that mattered to me. Maybe they’d accidentally kill me while she was safe and well cared for.

Polu sniffed. “Then we’ll move you—”

“He has to come too,” she said. “I’ll be stressed knowing he’s here possibly getting beaten and not eating. If you want this to work, I need to know my mating partner is also healthy.”

Genius. My pretty Val was a genius.

“You expect me,” Polu spoke through clenched teeth, “to treat him well after all he’s done? The guards he killed yesterday were not the only ones he dispatched. Did he tell you that he helped his brother and his mate escape? His brother went on to kill our commander.” He whipped his finger at me. “He needs to pay for that!”

Val shook, but held firm. “I think he’s paid,” she said, her voice cracking. “I think he’s paid more than you can imagine. And now if you want something from him, you have to compromise.”

“Compromise.” He spat on the ground inches from her bare toes. Rubbing his forehead, he paced the length of the cell. “Compromise with a Drixonian,” he muttered. “Ridiculous.”

“You’re compromising with me. A human.”

“I thought your kind was stupid,” he mocked.

“We might be ignorant of the ways of this planet, but we are not stupid,” she shot back.

“What do you want, then?”

“Clothes. A bed. Better food than those tasteless bars and more to drink than a small jug we have to share between us. A warm room.” She glared at Hawn. “None of those shock-rod things. You hit Sax again with those, and I won’t ovulate for a fucking year.”

Polu reared back. “You can’t do that.”

“Try me.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Your creepy doctor doesn’t know everything about my body. And, news flash, humans are all different. I don’t know what your females are like, but human women are complicated.”

Polu muttered something under his breath. Uldani women of fertile age were large, bulbous creatures. Many males bred them during half a sun-cycle, and then they gave birth to litters of up to ten Uldani. They didn’t mate for life, although some females had males they preferred. The Uldani couldn’t fathom the kind of bonds we had with our females, as they lacked it in their own society.

Polu continued to pace, while Hawn kept his shrewd gaze on Val. I wished more than anything I could rip his eyes out of his head. I didn’t like how he looked at her. Uldani couldn’t mate with humans, but they still had a cock they could use as a weapon.

Finally, Polu stopped pacing and glared at me. “I guess you’re in luck, Sax. Got a little human sticking up for you. Shame because I was looking forward to hearing you scream.”

After spitting a wad of blood on the ground—I was still bleeding from when I’d bitten my tongue—I curled my lip. “I’ll never scream for you, you freak of—”

“Take them upstairs,” Polu cut me off. “We’ll put them in the room next to Borhan’s lab. It’s heated and has bedding. Get them food.” He finally looked at Val with disgust. “Keep the bitch happy.”

If the insult hurt Val, she didn’t show it. “I want medicine for him too,” she said. “Er, healing stuff. Something for the cuts on his chest and the shock-site wounds.”

Polu’s eyes went as round as the moon. “Female, I—”

“Ovulation,” she sang in a lilting voice.

Polu growled and gestured to one of the Kulks. “Get him some medis vials. See that he’s comfortable.” He walked out of the cell and tilted his head at Hawn. “You take her. I’m going to talk to Borhan. If she’s lying, I’ll cut off her lips.”

Val’s face went stark white, and my cora beat like a trapped hunner in my chest. Her eyes met mine, and she somehow managed to offer me a smile despite the fear raging in her blue eyes. The Kulks shoved me out of the cell and I stumbled between them. I turned to see Hawn grip Val’s biceps tightly. He met my gaze and it was clear. If I did anything dumb right now, he’d hurt her, ovulation or not.

Placing one foot in front of the other, I marched forward.

FOUR

Val

I hated this short Uldani who gripped my arm so tightly my fingers were numb from blood loss. He wanted nothing more than to beat me bloody. I was no stranger to evil. I’d seen women walk into the emergency room with black eyes and cut lips. I fell, they’d tell me as their boyfriend or husband looked on with a warning glint in his eye.

This Uldani had that look. The other one seemed to hate Sax more than anything, but this one dragging me up a flight of stairs loathed me and wanted nothing more than to rub my face in the dirt with the heel of his boot.

I didn’t make eye contact with him. I wondered again what Uldani females were like. I assumed subservient based on the disdain I’d received when I’d stood up to these two males. I still couldn’t believe I’d done it. I hadn’t even cared if they beat me, but it was too much to bear to realize that, even despite his earlier vehemence, Sax was giving in just to save me. I had to do something.

I wasn’t completely wrong about what I’d told the Uldani. Women’s cycles could be affected by stress, and it was very likely I’d ovulate late. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I’d ovulate at all. Maybe my body would just not do its job on this planet. I didn’t know. But I had to do something to get us out of immediate danger. I refused to see Sax suffer again, and I was pretty sure the shock-rod thing would kill me on first impact.

We turned down a brightly lit hallway and I recognized the windowed wall of the lab. As we passed, I saw the head Uldani and that Borhan creep in a serious discussion. I sucked in a breath and looked away quickly. Shit. What if they tried to tell me I was wrong? I didn’t have proof. I’d cross that bridge when I came to it. I just hoped they had decent food waiting for me. A blanket would be nice. Was shampoo too much to ask for?

They opened a door and directed Sax inside. The Kulk guards still held him at a distance with the poles attached to his collar. I hated that fucking collar. I wished more than anything I could see Sax in his natural environment. Free. With his brother. Did he have more family?

The shorter Uldani still hadn’t let go of my arm, and I winced as I tried to shrug him off. He shook me so hard my teeth clacked together. Sax growled, and the Uldani glared back. “This is your room,” he announced unnecessarily. In the corner was a mound of bedding that looked like a queen-sized lumpy pillow. “We’ll be back with food, medis, and some clothing.” The Uldani finally let me go with a shove, and I stumbled into Sax. He grabbed me and kept me upright while snarling at the Uldani. After a gesture of his three fingers that I took to mean some variation of fuck you, the Uldani turned and walked out.

The Kulks made quick work of removing the poles from Sax’s collar and scuttling out the door before he could react. He didn’t look like he planned to, though, probably for my benefit. The door closed behind them, and we were alone. Or as alone as we were going to get. Nothing about this space was private. The upper half of the wall facing the hallway was see-through like glass. Anyone could see in.

Hands gently cradled my face and I looked up into Sax’s purple irises. “Are you okay?” He probed my cheek gently and his jaw clenched. “Flecking Hawn.”

“Hawn. Is that his name?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m okay.” I tried to smile, but the skin stretched over my swollen face painfully, and my lips twisted into a grimace. I laid a hand on his arm. “You’re hurt worse. Go sit down.”

His nubbed brow lowered in an almost defensive glare. “I’m fine.”

“You are not fine.”

Males were the same in all species, weren’t they? Never show weakness.

“You smell like burning flesh and your arms are still shaking.”

He dropped his arms from me quickly and looked at them. Sure enough, his fingers were trembling. He quickly shoved them under his armpits and crossed his arms. “It’s just temporary.”

“Okay, but please sit down.”

“Your face—”

“Is fine.” I was actually concerned that Hawn asshole had cracked a bone, but I wasn’t about to tell Sax that. He didn’t move, only watched me carefully like I’d disappear if he looked away. Our gazes locked, and I felt tugged toward Sax like a magnet.

“What you told Polu, is it true?” He asked softly.

I swallowed. “It’s not … untrue.”

He studied me for a long moment before reaching out a hand and lightly brushing my hair over my shoulder. “I’m glad you thought of something before they could hurt you further.”

I shook my head. “That wasn’t why I did what I did. You explained how much it meant to you for them to never get their hands on a child of yours. To hear you give up just to save me pain? I couldn’t let that happen.”

He inhaled deeply and cocked his head to the side. “I couldn’t watch them hurt you.”

“And I couldn’t let them take something from you that you don’t want to give.”

His hand drifted from my hair to wrap around my neck. There, his thumb pressed into the base of my throat and rubbed ever so softly. Despite everything—our situation, the pain in my face—a ball of heat throbbed in my core. I bit my tongue as he caressed me.

“Smart,” he whispered, almost to himself. “Fearless. Cora of a salibri.”

I managed to croak out, “What’s a salibri?”

“A predator that lives in the densest part of Torin. Thick coat. Fangs. Prowls. The females are the hunters and they defend what they consider theirs to the death.”

“Like a lioness,” I murmured.

“Hm?”

“An expression on Earth. We say someone has the heart of a lion. Female lions are lionesses.”

He smiled. An actual, full-on smile. His full lips turned up and parted to reveal his white teeth. His cheeks creased with dimples and his eyes crinkled at the corners in familiar grooves, showing that once upon a time, Sax had smiled often. The act changed his entire face dramatically. The hook in my chest snapped taut as Sax’s reel pulled me closer. He was handsome, beautiful in fact, from his black horns to his purple eyes, to his wide smile.

“My fierce lioness,” he murmured.

My blood heated. Our gazes held. The reel tugged.

A creak split the silence, and I turned at the sharp sound. Through a small hatch in the bottom of the door, an armored hand slid a tray. After that came a bundle of fabric, and lastly was a small metal box.

The tray held a selection of food. Well, not food I recognized, but it smelled edible, and best of all—not a bland bar in sight. My mouth watered. The hatch slid shut, a lock clicked, and the Kulk on the other side walked away after a quick look at us.

The appearance of the guard broke the spell between me and Sax, and I was happy for it. Sax’s low whispered words, my fierce lioness, repeated over and over in my head like a chant. We’d just fought not to mate, but now I was about two seconds away from spreading my legs. What the hell was wrong with me?

A hand touched my arm, and I turned to find Sax still watching me. “Let me grab the medis so every step doesn’t feel like torture,” he said.

I prodded at my swollen face. “That sounds like a good idea. Hopefully whatever they give us works fast.”

He shot me a curious look before he grabbed the metal box and perched it on his lap as he sat on the end of the bed. He waved me over and I went to my knees in front of him to peer at the contents of the box.

He selected a syringe and squirted a clear liquid onto his finger. After sniffing it and poking at it with his tongue, he nodded. “Just checking to make sure it’s medis.”

“You sure?”

“As sure as I can be,” he muttered. “I’ll take it first.”

“But how long—” I squeaked as he jammed the syringe into his side, right below his ribs, and squeezed the plunger. He exhaled, and I was just about to ask him what the hell this medicine was when his wounds began to heal. Immediately. As in, his scales knitted together and regrew before my eyes. The raw marks around his neck under his collar all but vanished. Within a minute, he looked like he hadn’t experienced a series of nearly lethal shocks.

I stared, unable to process what I was seeing. “What?” was all I managed to stutter out.

He plucked the remaining syringe from the box and held it out to me. “Your turn.”

I took it from him and held it like it was the Hope diamond. “I don’t… you have to understand…” I licked my lips and tried again. “Earth medicine doesn’t work like this. It’s almost never immediate. To heal injuries like the ones you sustained would take weeks. Months.”

He cocked his head. “My implant is translating your weeks and months as fourteen to sixty rotations.”

“Uh, yeah, sure. Something like that. This took seconds.” My mind raced with all the ways this medicine would help Earth. “Wait a minute, does this work on humans?”

“My brother said it did. Our biology is surprisingly similar.” I pointedly look at his tail. He slapped it on the ground with a grin. “I said similar, not exact.”

“So, I just...” I uncapped the syringe. “…stick it in anywhere?”

“Yes, all it needs is to enter your body. Your tissues do the work of getting it to your bloodstream and carrying it throughout your body.”

“Amazing,” I whispered. “But how do I know this is the right dosage? I’m like a third of your size.”

“Valerie.”

I jerked at my full name. “Yes?”

“Inject yourself with the medis.” His tone bordered on impatience.

The nurse in me rebelled, but I had to admit I was out of my depth here. The knowledge I worked with on a daily basis didn’t translate to this planet, clearly. I’d trusted him this far, and I’d have to keep doing it. With a deep breath and a quick prayer, I stuck the needle into my stomach and injected the contents into my bloodstream. For a moment, I felt nothing, then heat raced through my body. My face itched, and I could feel the skin loosen as the swelling decreased. I reached up and prodded my lip, which was no longer split. The pain of my injuries fled, and the only reminder I’d been struck was the slight coppery tang of blood lingering on my taste buds.

I touched my face. “Better?”

He tilted my chin upward. “Perfect,” he whispered. More heat raced down my spine, but I knew this wasn’t from the fancy medicine. He dropped his hand and jerked his head toward a curious narrow alcove in the back of the room. “Ready to get clean?”

A shower would be amazing. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

He walked me over to what looked like a shower stall. He called it a “cleanser.” When I asked him where the water was, he’d only looked puzzled. He explained filtered air would enter the stall via nozzles, and I’d be stripped of sweat and grime.

There was no door. No curtain. Anyone who walked by the room would be able to see me. I didn’t have much modesty left but getting clean was just so personal. And damn it, I was tired of feeling like my body wasn’t my own. As a nurse, I’d seen so many naked bodies, but I also understood how vulnerable it made patients feel to be stripped of their clothes. Dignity mattered.

The familiar burn of tears singed the back of my eyes. I blinked rapidly and blew out a shaky breath before turning around to face Sax. Maybe after I ate something I’d have more courage. “Actually, I’m okay,” I said with a wave of my hand and a forced smile. “I don’t need to get clean.” I made to walk around him, and he stepped in front of me.

He lowered his head, peering at my face in an examining way that had me squirming. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

He made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat and crossed his arms over his chest. “Your eyes are wet, and your skin is pale. So, tell me the truth, because I can stand here all day until you fess up.”

Argh, he was frustrating. “There’s no door,” I snapped, flinging my hand at the stupid “cleanser.” I plucked at the neckline of the blood-stained dress I wore. “Whoever brought me to this planet stripped me when I was unconscious and put this on me. It was violating as hell. The last thing I want to do is get naked where anyone walking by can see me.” Heat rushed to my face and I turned away, trying once again to walk around the massive blue hulk in front of me. Sax gripped my wrist firmly, and I had to stop moving or risk pulling my arm out of its socket. “What?” I snapped.

“Calm down, lioness.” His voice rasped like sandpaper across my sharp edges. “I planned to stand at the entrance and block anyone’s view with my body. If you had given me a moment, I would have told you that.”

I glanced up at him, prepared to smack him if he was smirking, but instead his purple eyes shone with nothing but comfort. Damn, he was good.

“You have to turn your back,” I laid out my last demand before capitulation.

“I thought you’d say that. I’ll just close my eyes and imagine.” And then he winked at me.

I hated winking. It was cheesy and creepy, and yet Sax, with his dirt-smudged face and gleaming white fangs, managed to make a wink sexy. Ridiculous. “Sure. Have at it.”

He smirked and let me go. After showing me how to work the controls, he planted himself at the cleanser’s entrance, facing the windows to our room. In one fist, he clutched clothes I could change into after I got clean. My own big blue-muscled door.

As I stripped, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his back. He was like a marble sculpture, all perfect lines and bulging veins. His head moved, and I froze, but he didn’t look over his shoulder. “Everything okay? Do you need help getting it to work?”

“No,” I quickly realized I’d been staring at him too long. “Sorry, I was just, uh, yeah. Sorry.” I removed the dress I never wanted to see again. With a vicious overhand pitch, I whipped it over his shoulder. “I want to burn that thing,” I muttered.

I pressed the button, as Sax had instructed, and air rushed over my body, the warm flow powerful enough to have me gulping for oxygen.

I was too distracted to analyze how the process was working, but when the air automatically shut off, I glanced down at my body. My knees were free of dirt, and even my cuticles looked clean. When I ran my fingers through my hair, the strands were soft and the ends shiny.

“Holy shit,” I whispered.

Sax’s body jerked. “Val?”

“Yes, yes, sorry. Everything’s fine.” I swiped the clothes from his hand and stepped into a pair of black pants. They were loose and seemed like they’d fall down, but as the heat of my body warmed the fabric, the material conformed to my skin, becoming a bit like leggings. The shirt was next, and that fit nicely, with short sleeves and a wide neck. I honestly didn’t care about fit or fashion. I just wanted to be fully clothed.

I tapped Sax on the shoulder. “I’m done.”

He spun on his heel, and his gaze quickly traveled from my head to my toes. He met my eyes and grinned, and his eyes sparkling. “Beautiful,” he said softly.

“I don’t know about that,” I ducked my head so he couldn’t see the evidence of my blush. He grasped my chin, forcing me to look him in the eye.

“I do know.”

My stomach flipped. He dropped his hand and stepped out of the way.

Ignoring the stoked flames racing over my skin, I walked past him and was halfway across the room before I remembered he might want me to return the favor.

I turned. “Oh, do you want me to—” The words dried up in my throat. Sax was naked. Completely. Just there in all his big blue glory without a single shred of modesty. My mouth dropped open as he pivoted to face me.

His nipples and ears weren’t the only thing pierced. So was his dick. His massive, girthy, third-leg cock hung between his thighs like a club, a gleaming ring pierced through the tip that looked big enough to wrap around my wrist. Every muscle in me clenched, especially the ones between my legs. My nipples hardened. For God’s sake, this alien was a damn dream.

Sure, I’d noticed he was handsome, but I hadn’t been in the emotional space to actually feel real physical attraction. But now? I was feeling more and more like that lioness we’d discussed earlier. With clean skin and clothes, and the smell of real food in the air, my inner libido decided to rear its head and roar.

Before my eyes, his cock jerked, and I snapped myself out of my daydream to find Sax watching me. Shit. I spun around, but the sight of his naked body was burned into my retinas. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I shouldn’t have… without asking…”

“You can look at me anytime you want, Val,” his voice drifted over my shoulder.

I swallowed and ignored the sexy growl to his voice. “Good to know.” I went for nonchalance but didn’t think I achieved it as a low chuckle followed my words.

The cleanser turned on, the roaring rush of air doing nothing to drown out my internal monologue. “Get it together, Val,” I whispered to myself. “Seriously? Perving on the alien who you definitely cannot, under any circumstances, have sex with.”

I knelt in front of the food tray and stared at the contents but wasn’t sure where to start. I hoped Sax knew what all this food was, because while some of it looked edible, a small hunk of dull yellow slime smeared on top of a leaf scared me.

Footsteps padded across the floor and despite my vow not to perv on Sax, I let myself look. For just a moment. I might have salivated. The clean scales on his chest gleamed in the light. His hair no longer hung in greasy hanks down his back, but now lay in a shiny black braid over one shoulder, the end brushing one of his nipple rings. And that cock swayed between his legs casually—like it wasn’t a damn weapon—while his heavy balls hung like a bull.

There was an interesting node at the base of his cock, and I wondered what its function was. He grinned at me, and for a second, I forgot where we were. He looked like a man walking out of my shower in the morning after a night in my bed, eager to down some pancakes and make suggestive comments over coffee.

“I hate everything about captivity, but I think the worst might be dirty hair.”

His statement caught me off guard. “Dirty hair?”

He wrinkled his nose with human-like disgust. “The other males tease me, but there’s nothing wrong with taking care of yourself. And your hair.”

“Well, you do have gorgeous hair,” I smiled to myself that this big warrior was slightly vain.

He pulled on a pair of pants, stretching it over his generously muscled ass. Because of course he had a perfect butt. “Did you eat anything?” He dropped his big body onto the ground next to me. He reached for a small object that resembled a grape. He leaned his head back and dropped it into his mouth. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his corded throat as he swallowed.

“Val?” he prodded softly.

Were they pumping pheromones into this room? I’d never had a strong sex drive, so this was nuts to me. I shook myself. “Uh no, I wasn’t quite sure what anything was.”

He picked up a leather-like strip that reminded me of jerky. “Dried antella meat. Haven’t had this in forever.” He tore off a hunk with his teeth and offered the rest to me. “Try it. It’s not bad. I make better though.”

I plucked the meat from his fingers. “You do? How so?”

“Nuh-uh.” He wagged his finger at me with that damn cheeky grin again. “You think I’m going to divulge my secret recipe?”

I bit of the end of the strip and chewed. The jerky wasn’t bursting with flavor, but it was miles better than the bar I’d eaten. “Are you worried I’m going to write a New York Times bestselling book and score a show on Food Network with your stolen recipe?”

His brow furrowed in an adorably confused way, and he scratched his ear. “Those words don’t translate for me.”

I laughed, nearly choking on the jerky as I swallowed. My eyes watered, and that only made me laugh harder. Sax continued to munch on his jerky while I sucked down a drink and got myself under control. “Do you have books?”

“Yes,” he said. There was a glint in his eye that made me pause.

“What?” I asked.

He picked at his jerky. “Nothing.”

I squinted at him. “What are your books about?”

“Mostly, uh…” He cleared his throat. “Mating techniques.”

“Oh God,” I muttered. “Yes, legendary lovers would need Kama Sutra texts.”

“Kama—?”

I waved a hand. “Never mind.” Ugh, my face was hot. “So, um, the one Uldani mentioned your brother?” Nothing like talk of his brother to kill the sexually suggestive talk, right?

Sax shoved a few more grape-things in his mouth, and I tried some too. They were bitter, but juicy. A bit like an underripe orange.

“First, tell me more about how you got here. Were you on a ship with other females?”

“I don’t remember much. These aliens with a single eye kept me unconscious most of the time.”

“Rahguls,” he said. “They work for the Uldani.”

“I vaguely remember female voices speaking my language. But I was the only one brought to this specific place. At least, that I know of.”

He frowned. “That doesn’t make a lot of sense. None of this does.”

“How did you end up here?”

He huffed out a laugh. “I was out hunting alone. A mistake, but I was impatient and tracking a salibri. They are some of the most valuable game because of their thick coats. Their meat is a little tough, but as long as we cook it for a long time, it’s good.” He picked up a canteen and chugged the contents. “They brought me here and told my brother he had to deliver a Rahgul ship’s cargo in exchange for my release.”

My heart sank. “Let me guess. The cargo was human females?”

“You guessed right.”

But that didn’t make sense. Unless his brother wanted the women to himself. I shivered. “He wouldn’t give them up in exchange for you?”

Sax’s expression twisted with displeasure. “Give up human females? No way. We knew the Uldani would harm them. Drixonian warriors do not put females in harm’s way. Our creed is She Is All.”

“But they were strangers. Another species—”

“Doesn’t matter.” Sax speared me with a determined stare. “They still must be protected. Then one of the humans turned out to be my brother’s cora-eternal.”

“Cora what?”

“His mate,” Sax said. “His other half.”

“How did they know?”

“Fatas chose them for each other.” He explained how his brother, Daz, and his female mate had tried to rescue him, but ended up captured themselves. In the end, Sax chose to ensure they escaped and sacrificed himself to remain behind. “I’d make the same choice over and over again,” he shifted closer to me. “I felt Fatas tugging at me to stay, and now I know why. Because of you.”

“I don’t know about that,” I said. “All I’ve done is cause you more pain.”

He smiled. “No, that’s not all you’ve done.”

I bit into more jerky. “Well I guess I got you a bed, clean clothes, and food.”

“Yeah, those were nice too.” He handed me the canteen. “Drink up.”

While Sax stuffed his face, moaning every now and then while talking to himself about finally getting to eat good food, I thought about his sacrifice. He’d been willing to endure insurmountable pain not just to save his brother’s life and that of his mate’s, but also their unborn child. The future of his species. I’d like to think I would have made the same choice, but selfishness and survival were one hell of an instinct. He’d bucked that, suffered, and still found a way to find things to smile about. Even now he happily licked seasoning off his fingers with his pierced tongue. He grinned at me, all charm and fangs, before chugging some qua.

I’d never thought of having children, mainly because I wasn’t the maternal type, and I hadn’t had a relationship with anyone I considered father material.

Sax screamed Dad. Or Cool Uncle. I imagined him with a little blue rugrat on his shoulders, pulling his braid and screeching while Sax pretended to be a horse. Or maybe a bike. Just the picture in my head brought tears to my eyes. He deserved that in his life, to create a family with a woman he loved. She’d have to be human, or some other species that wasn’t his own, but he’d said there were more at his home who’d arrived with his brother’s mate.

An odd pang twisted my heart. In my imagination, I’d been there with Sax and his little child. I’d been there because I’d been the mother.

I shook my head. He would surely have his pick, and he’d charm the most gorgeous woman with the best personality. He flirted with me here, but surely it was just something to pass the time. I wouldn’t be his choice of a mate. The situation had bonded us as friends. If we ever found a way out of here, I’d have to ensure he got home to his family. I doubted there was hope for me to ever go home, but if there was any way I could play a part in Sax’s escape, I’d do it in a heartbeat. He’d done enough for me. I could do my part too.

FIVE

Sax

“Can you tell me about your brother’s mate?” Val asked.

We sat on the bed together, having eaten our fill until our bellies bulged. My back was propped against the wall and Val had curled up onto her side at the foot of the bed.

“Her name is Fra-kee,” I said.

“Do you mean Frankie?”

“Yes, I think she pronounced it like that.”

She nodded. “What’s she like?”

“Brave. Dark hair. Smaller than you.”

Val’s brows drew together, and she plucked at the bedding fabric. “Well, a lot of women are.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I’m a little larger than most. Plus-size. Big-boned. Whatever.”

“I don’t understand. Is this a bad thing?”

“Not in my opinion. But in Earth society, I’m considered a little fat.”

My back stiffened. “You are made to feel bad about the size and shape of your body?”

“Sure, sometimes. We’re often told men won’t find us attractive or want to have sex with us.”

“Your worth is tied into how attractive you are to a mate?” I was puzzled. “But you said you were a nurse. You heal people.”

Her lips parted and for a moment, she did nothing but stare at me. Finally, she stuttered out. “Y-yes, I do.”

“And you stood up to those Uldani flecks like a brave lioness. You would make a good friend. Fra-kee would like you.”

She blinked rapidly, and her pretty eyes shone. “My God, who knew aliens were feminists?”

“Femi-what?”

She rose on an elbow and wiggled until she was closer to me, until her breath warmed my thigh through the thin material of my pants. “Tell me about your women. Do you remember them?”

“Not much. Dax does. He was the oldest of us. I was the second oldest.”

“You have another brother?”

“Had. Rex died in the Uprising.” The pain was still fresh. I thought it always would be.

Val’s pretty face collapsed, and her eyes filled. “I’m so sorry to hear that.”

“Daz killed the Uldani responsible, so that’s some revenge.”

“I’ll say.”

“Our females…” I leaned my head against the wall and closed my eyes. I’d been so young when the last of our females had died. “They looked like us, although smaller. When they came of age, they could choose a trade instead of joining the warrior ranks like the males. Some went into government, others studied how to grow crops, and others learned to make goods. They decided their worth, just like us warriors decided our own based on our skills. Not all males fought well, and those that didn’t worked on managing our fleet of bikes and weapons.”

“Oh wow,” Val said. “A matriarchal society. I would have loved to study how you lived.”

I nodded. “Our way of life was coveted in the galaxy, and we defended it well until the virus. No one had prepared us for fighting an airborne enemy.”

“How do you live now?”

“We separated into clavases, groups of males who fought together.”

“Do all clavases get along?”

This was a sore spot for me and for Daz. “Unfortunately, no. After the trauma of losing our females and what the Uldani put us through, there are some clavases who have turned their backs on our ways. Most Drixonians can be trusted, but not all. Not anymore.”

“Well, that’s like any society, I guess.”

I nodded. “When we worked for the Uldani, we were issued bikes to travel on. We kept them during the Uprising and after, and that’s how we get around. We have access to fuel deposits to feed them.”

“Bikes? What do you mean by bikes?”

I held out my hands as though I were gripping my handlebars. I missed my bike like crazy. I’d modified her to be the fastest in our clavas. Daz thought I was crazy. He drove a massive beast, while mine was sleek and light. If I would have had her when the Uldani found me, they never would have been able to catch me. My only consolation was that she was back at the compound, safe and sound. “A bike. Glides in the air.”

Her eyes went round. “Glides in the air? So, no wheels?”

I shook my head. “Disks along the bottom push out air that raises us off the ground. An engine at the back propels us forward.”

“Wow,” she murmured. “I’d like to see one. And how do you all get along in a clavas? Do you elect some sort of council?”

“Each clavas elected a drexel, and my brother is ours. He is a good leader. Fair. I’m his sub-drexel, so I’m his second in command.” In my absence, he’d likely relied heavily on Ward and Gar. Fleck, I missed those grumpy brothers.

“You miss him.” Val’s soft voice floated in the air.

I felt a warm hand on my stomach and opened my eyes. “Very much. It was amazing to see him one last time, even if we were in separate cells. It felt like old times, us working together to do what we thought was right. He and Fra-kee got away, and now the entire clavas will protect her and the other females.”

For a long time, she examined my face, and I watched her right back, nothing to hide. Finally, she spoke. “You’re a bit too good to be true,” she said. “I’ve seen all kinds at my job, so I feel like I’m a good judge of character. You’re so sincere, but it’s hard for me to believe that out of all the species on this planet, I’m locked in a room with one that has your beliefs.”

I reached out and rubbed her hair between my fingers. Some strands sparkled in the light. “What is the color of your lionesses?”

“Lions? Uh, I guess like a golden tan.”

“Golden,” I whispered. “Like you.”

She tossed her hair back and rolled her eyes at me. “I’m not golden, and I’m not a lioness, Sax. I’m a terrified human female under control of an alien species who wants nothing but my womb.”

“That’s how you see yourself, but I see you different.”

“And how do you see yourself?”

“I’m a fleck-up and if anyone was going to be taken by the Uldani, I’m glad it’s me. My only regret is my brother has to live with the pain of losing Rex and me.”

She nibbled on her lip. “You don’t think you’ll see him again?”

A black hole opened in my cora, pulling the oxygen from my lungs. I inhaled sharply. “If Fatas chooses.”

She huffed out a little noise which was more cute than annoying. She laid her head down on the bedding beside my hip, curling her knees up against my legs. I wondered if she realized how much she touched me, sought out comfort in our physical connection.

“What are we doing to do in seven days?”

“I don’t know yet,” I said. “But we have seven rotations to figure it out.” I laid my hand on her shoulder, and she nuzzled into the touch. “Sleep, my lioness. We’ll wake with fresher minds.”

“I hope,” she whispered.

“Me too,” I murmured back.

Her breaths evened out quickly, but I stayed awake. I’d scoured the room for recording or listening devices and found none. I still couldn’t be sure they weren’t listening in, but I also didn’t think they’d bother. They didn’t care what we talked about because they were confident in our inability to escape.

Since I’d been taken, my mind had dulled. In order to get through the pain, I’d turned myself off, but by doing so, my senses weren’t as sharp as they’d been. I’d managed to kill a couple of Kulks earlier, but my kills had been sloppy and brutal. I’d vowed they wouldn’t break me, but slowly I’d been shifting into the animal they wanted me to be.

But Val’s presence was bringing me back. My eyes were more focused, and I listened more carefully. I had to be at my best for her. We only had a few rotations before they expected us to mate. I couldn’t afford to do nothing.

As much as I wanted to remain on the pallet with Val’s soft body pressed against mine, it wouldn’t do either of us any favors. I eased myself from her side and stood. After jogging in place to get my cora beating, I went into a series of exercises. The familiar movements came back to me even though my muscles protested at being worked hard after so long.

I smiled as I dropped to the floor for pushups. I couldn’t do much, but I could do this. Stay strong. Stay sharp. I had to believe Fatas would reveal her plan to me soon and show us the way out of here. I hadn’t accepted defeat yet, and I wouldn’t until my last breath.

Val

I woke to the sound of grunts. From my curled position on the bed, I saw Sax’s body glistening as he rapidly performed a series of pushups. Two hands. One handed. Other hand. His muscles rippled down his back, and his biceps were impossibly big.

I didn’t move, content to watch him work out, because in this hell hole, I was going to take whatever pleasure I could get. A work of art, this guy. His tail lashed the floor, steadily sweeping little clouds of dust.

He rose to his feet and went into a series of squats which severely tested the seams of his pants. I kept expecting them to split, but they held on by a miracle. He jogged in place for a while before going into a complicated maneuver that resembled a burpee. He repeated that over and over again. I lost count at fifty.

I rose to a sitting position, my bladder screaming, and he stopped when he realized I was awake. “Val,” he murmured, he panted a little, but not nearly what I would have expected after that level of exercise. “You all right?”

“Um.” Wait, what did I need to do? A cramp squeezed my gut. Oh right, pee. “I need to pee.”

He cocked his head before nodding. “The expeller. I’ll show you how it works.”

Turned out, a seat descended from the side of the cleanser. He instructed me to sit on it, pee, and then a jet of air would clean me. I followed his instructions, despite how odd. Peeing here was like using a water-less bidet.

Afterward, a Kulk walked down the hallway holding a tray, and I got excited at the idea of a meal until I noticed the two Uldani following behind him. Polu and Hawn. Those motherfuckers.

The door opened and the Kulk walked through first. He dropped the tray on the table and stood by the door. Polu and Hawn sauntered inside, each brandishing a shock rod in clear view.

“I see you’re both settled in,” Polu said. “Happy, human?”

“Delighted,” I spoke through clenched teeth.

Polu shot me a withering smile. “I spoke to Borhan, and while he couldn’t confirm your claim that ovulation is affected by stress, he also couldn’t deny it. So, I guess you’re in luck.”

“Oh yeah, super lucky,” I deadpanned.

Hawn tapped his rod on the ground in warning, and I flinched. Sax fisted his hands at his sides and took a step forward, a menacing growl rumbling from his throat. The colors on his skin shifted rapidly to show his ire. Coupled with his workout-induced muscle swelling, he was a sight to behold. Even I was scared a little, and I knew he wouldn’t hurt me.

A flicker of wariness passed over Hawn’s face before he covered it with a sneer.

“But I’m making this super clear,” Polu said, his gaze drifting between me and Sax. “When she’s ripe, you’ll stick your cock in her. As many times as we say. As a Bakut, you’re our first choice, but if you don’t do it, we’ll find a Drixonian who will. And I’m sure the next one won’t bother to be gentle. Understand?”

Sax’s nostrils flared, his scales rapidly shifting like a crashing wave. His lip curled. “Fleck you.”

“Nah, fleck you,” Polu said. “Hopefully. You’d think you assholes would be grateful to get cunt for once in your lives.” He gestured to Hawn as they backed their way toward the door. “Until then, you’re going to earn your keep for all the trouble your family has caused us. And because princess needs something soft to lay her head on.”

I glanced at Sax, but he wasn’t paying attention to Polu. His attention was on the window, his body coiled tight like a predator. What was out there?

“Wait, how—?” I was interrupted by the sound of a female voice coming from somewhere close.

A large silver alien appeared outside the room’s windows. By large, I meant about three times the size of Polu. She wore a long, flowing cape in a bright purple and nothing else. Four massive breasts hung from her chest, and they swayed, drooping down to her thighs, as she shuffled. Her stomach was a large flap of skin that nearly reached her feet. Intricate braids of white hair were twined on top of her head, and for lack of a better term, her skin was bedazzled. Piercings covered her ears and massive hoops pulled her earlobes down to her shoulders. Her breasts were each tipped with gleaming jeweled stars surrounding her nipples. Strands of different colored necklaces hung from her thick neck

“Jesus Christ,” I whispered. I skittered off the bed and raced to stand behind Sax.

“Eek! There she is!” She screeched in a voice like nails on a chalkboard. She clapped her meaty hands together. “She’s hiding now. I was promised unlimited viewing!”

She turned to the three Uldani men behind her. They were almost as decorated as she was. They wore long gowns that covered them nearly from head to toe. Their white hair sparkled, and each hand bore massive rings on each finger.

Hawn tapped that damn shock rod on the ground again. “Come out from behind the Drixonian, human.”

“What the fleck is going on?” Sax hissed.

“The wealthy are more than happy to spend some money to see a Drixonian warrior and his human bitch,” Polu said. “And they will see it. You show yourselves or we will just drug you for the next few rotations. How would you like that?”

“I won’t—” I began.

“Your body will eventually do what it’s supposed to do,” Polu said. “So, either smile and display for our guests, or we’ll stick a needle in your arm.”

My stomach rebelled and my mouth watered with the need to throw up. The female outside continued to screech, and Sax’s body was so tight, I thought he might go into a whirlwind of destruction any minute. I couldn’t let that happen. They’d hurt him. Kill him. And use me to do it.

I gripped his arm, squeezing slightly, before stepping out from behind him.

“She’s there!” She plastered herself to the window. “A golden-haired one at that. Pale flesh. Blue eyes.”

Her eyes raked over me, and despite my clothes, I felt naked and violated. I was just a zoo animal to her.

“Am I allowed to enter and touch the Drixonian?”

This time, my body went tight. Touch Sax? Like he was some blow-up doll? Oh, hell no.

A low growl rumbled from Sax, and even as Hawn tapped his shock rod on the ground, Sax didn’t stop his audible warning.

“No, Bura,” said one of the robed Uldani with her. “We cannot enter their room.”

“But why?” she cried. “I paid ten thousand rezes for this, and all I can do is look?”

“This isn’t a petting zoo,” I groused, and Hawn shot me a death glare.

“What did she just say?” the female—Bura—said.

Polu cleared his throat. “She said she’s honored to meet such a revered member of the Uldani society.”

The woman laughed, and her breasts jiggled. “As she should be.”

“And I’m sorry,” Polu continued. “For their safety and yours, this is observation only.”

“For everyone?” She sniffed.

“Absolutely. If we could allow anyone inside, it would be you,” Polu cajoled.

I wanted to hurl.

“Have him do his weapon thing,” Bura said. “I want to see. Maybe he can take off his pants?”

Now I wanted to cry. I couldn’t take this. Sax was so strong, so powerful, so proud. And he’d been reduced to this, an animal in a cage only wanted for his sperm. I wished more than anything I could see him free. The wind in his hair, the sun on his face. I bet he smiled a lot out of here. I could tell from the crinkles around his eyes.

“You don’t want to see that.” Another of the robed men frowned. “We more than satisfy you, don’t we?”

Another caressed her breasts, and for the first time in my life, I was grateful for jealousy.

“Fine,” Bura huffed. “But I’d like to see his machets please. I’ve heard of these. Maybe we can give him a basser youth to slice open.”

What the hell was a basser youth?

“After that, the human can disrobe. You won’t be jealous about that, will you Hima?”

“No,” the one pinching her nipple said with a sick smile aimed at me. “I’d love to see how her cunt differs from yours.”

Sax hadn’t stopped growling beside me. “Step back,” he muttered out of the side of his mouth in two gritted words.

Instinctively, I stepped away. “What—?”

With a roar, Sax unleashed the blades beneath his skin. With one fluid motion, he crouched and then leapt into the air. He landed in front of the wall, bringing his fists down to slam them against the glass. The entire panel rattled, and I screamed, ducking into a crouch with my hands over my head because I swore the whole thing would shatter.

The Uldani female screamed. The males shrieked. I peeked between my fingers to watch them shuffling her away from the window quickly as Sax continued to rage and pound at the glass, his form terrifying with his blades whistling through the air and his tail whipping the ground.

A Kulk grabbed me off the floor and held me with my hands behind my back, I kicked and tried to get free, but there was no use.

I watched in horror as Polu and Hawn descended on Sax. They shocked him in the back, the thighs, repeatedly. He was in some sort of trance as he still roared and battled. His eyes were two black holes of agony as he advanced, swiping at them. I couldn’t believe he still stood with the number of volts they inflicted on his body.

“Sax, please!” I hollered. “Just stop!”

He halted and finally, his eyes glazed over. He stumbled, and his big body crashed to the ground in a heap. The Kulk shoved me away, and I slammed to the floor on my hands and knees, sending bolts of pain through my limbs. The door clanged shut, and I barely registered we were alone as I scrambled over to Sax. I picked up his head, cradling him to my stomach as my tears wet his skin. “I can’t keep watching you go through that,” I sobbed. “Please.”

“Did it … for you,” his lips barely moved, and his words were indecipherable.

“What?”

“So … you didn’t … have to … show those … assholes … your body.”

“But I would have done it. I would have saved you this pain!” I cried.

“Your body … is mine.” His eyes opened, and they were still completely black, spearing through me like lasers. “They don’t get … to see.”

His eyes closed, and I held him in my lap, stunned, as his body trembled with pain. And that was when I knew, with a choking dread, we were never getting out. They would never let us. We would die here.

“You can’t keep sacrificing yourself for me” I whispered, but he was unconscious now, his head a dead weight in my lap. “Because soon there won’t be anything left to sacrifice.”

SIX

Val

For a long time, no one bothered us. At least, it felt like a long time. I had no way to tell how many hours had passed, and the overhead lights never dimmed. It was like being stuck on a never-ending hospital shift.

I rubbed my eyes and adjusted Sax’s head on my lap. After he’d collapsed, I’d dragged his body over to the bed. I still wasn’t quite sure how I’d gotten him onto the soft bedding, but with a lot of grunting and sweating, I’d been able to get him on the more comfortable surface.

I’d yelled for more medicine, but no one had come. Sax’s injuries seemed to be healing fast—at a faster rate than a humans for sure. The shock sites remained angry but were no longer open wounds.

I’d rebraided his hair. I told myself it was because I was bored and needed something to do, but I couldn’t seem to stop touching him. At first, his breathing had been choppy and pained, but eventually it had evened out and now he just seemed to be sleeping rather than passed out.

I missed him—missed him being awake and fully aware. His watchful presence and easy nature kept me sane. Now my mind spun and spun with all the possible torture our captors could inflict on us.

I willed myself to think of something else, but my mind didn’t feel strong enough. I was tired. Bone-fucking-tired. I felt like I hadn’t slept in years. When my mom was diagnosed with cancer, she’d attacked treatment with vengeance, and I’d launched into caregiver mode. No one warned me how our relationship would change. How she’d shift from my mother to my charge. How I’d lose my best friend, because I couldn’t vent to her about how scared I was of losing her, or how much it killed me to watch her waste away.

Sax twitched in his sleep, and I smoothed my hand over his chest to soothe him. The only positive out of this entire experience was that I’d had the chance to meet him. I couldn’t imagine being locked in a room with anyone else. Hell, even my mom would have gotten on my nerves long ago. But Sax? He was so strong, so proud. I’d never met anyone with a conviction as strong as his. And his commitment to protecting me at the cost of his own suffering was out of this world.

I’d never known a man like him. Hell, I didn’t know anyone like him. Did they exist? Probably, but I surely hadn’t met them. With every fiber of my being, I hated that a male like him was wasting away in this fucking place.

He stirred again, and this time his eyes opened, his gaze immediately alert. Unlike me, he didn’t need three presses of the snooze button and two cups of coffee to form a complete sentence in the morning. He raised his hand and grimaced.

“Don’t move.” I gripped his hand and lowered it back to his side. “You need to heal.”

He squeezed my fingers. “I’m okay.”

“I’m pretty sure the number of volts they gave you would kill a rhino. Just relax.”

He raised a nubbed brow. “A rhino?”

“It’s an Earth animal. They’re big and they have a horn.” I cupped my fingers against my forehead to mimic the bone shape. “Their hides are tough, and when they’re mad, they’ll charge anything.”

He grinned. “I’m big with horns. I have tough skin too and if anything threatens my female, I’ll charge. Are you saying I’m a rhino?”

“You’re cuter than a rhino.” I was flirting with him. How did he manage to get me to flirt in this hell? But I’d do anything to keep that grin on his face after what he’d gone through.

His mouth dropped in exaggerated defense. “Cute? I’m terrifyingly handsome.”

I shook my head. “Fine, I concede.”

He laughed, but the sound cut off on a wince as his face paled. “They really flecked me up this time.”

At the reminder of what happened, all amusement between us vanished. “Sax, that was fucking horrible.”

He struggled to a sitting position, and I hovered my hands over him anxiously. He batted them away before plopping next to me on a moan, his back against the wall and his legs stretched out in front of him. “Fleck those assholes.”

“Look, I know you’re strong, but there is no way your body can keep taking that punishment.”

He closed his eyes and his shoulders heaved. I expected him to brush off my words or deny it, but instead he spoke a resigned, “I know.”

His acknowledgement of his own mortality hit me like a slap. “Then why did you do that?”

“I wasn’t thinking. I couldn’t stand the thought of you stripped in front of them.” He turned his head and locked gazes with mine.

“Who were those Uldani?”

“The elite,” he said. “Wealthy. You said you saw some of Alazar when you arrived here—remember the small pods floating above the tall buildings?”

“Yes.”

“That’s where the wealthiest Uldani live.”

“What’s their society like?”

“She mentioned a basser youth, remember?”

“Yes, what did she mean?”

“The poorest of the Uldani. They live underground and mine for garmin, which they use for construction. The class above that lives on the ground in small homes. Then the business class live in the tall buildings, and the elite, which is mostly just inherited wealth, live in the air pods. The classes do not mix.”

“So, this elite … female paid to see us?”

“I’m sure none of them know the military and Borhan have launched a breeding program. It’s why this is all done quietly underground. But they need funds, and what better way to make some money than let some Uldani bitch ogle us?”

I shuddered. “I hope they don’t come back.”

“I’m thinking they won’t try that again. It wasn’t exactly a success.”

“I’ve been wondering. Haven’t they found a way to harvest your sperm and impregnate me another way that doesn’t involve mating? On Earth, we can collect sperm, store it, and inject it into the female.”

“No,” Sax said. “I hear them talking about how they’ve to collect seed from Drixonians before the uprising, but they were never able to keep it viable. I’m sure Borhan is working on it, though. The longer we’re here and refuse to do their bidding, the more they are pushing Borhan for an alternative.”

“Is he capable of developing something?”

Sax sighed. “Before you got here, Borhan was working on a drug for me, one that would turn me into a beast who wanted to do nothing but mate. He thought he was successful, but I only acted like it worked, so they wouldn’t develop something that actually did.”

“That’s horrible.”

“Yeah, they figured out I was acting. That did not make them happy.”

“How did they find out?”

“They wanted me to mate with Fra-kee. They shoved me in a cell with her, and even though I pretended, they found out. After Daz and Fra-kee escaped, my acting was just one of many things they punished me for.”

“Sax, this has to end.” I had seen so many people in pain, I thought I was fairly good at handling it. But watching Sax groan and wince, his body littered with wounds, nearly killed me.

He brushed his fingers over my cheek. “The good news is they usually let me heal before they beat me up again.”

“In what world is that good news?”

He laughed, and I could barely believe he found humor in this. “This world, Val.”

“I don’t like it,” I huffed.

“I like it a fleck of a lot more now that I’ve met you.”

He smiled at me, and I waited for the flush of heat in my cheeks to die down before speaking. “Tell me about your life before you were taken by the Uldani. I’m tired of our identities being nothing but victims.”

“I had a good life. As good as it can be knowing you’re the last generation of your species to live. Or so we thought.” He glanced at me before continuing. “Our clavas is profitable because my brother is a good drexel. We farm, hunt, and trade with other clavases. Everyone has a job, which keeps us out of trouble. Usually.” He grinned, his focus going a little hazy as he retreated into his memories. “I love to ride my bike with my friend Xavy. He’s got a fast bike like mine, and we race each other or just fleck around and make agility courses.”

I liked thinking about Sax racing with his friends or sitting around a fire with a good meal. I twisted until I rested on my hip, my elbow in the bed and my head propped on my fist. “I picture you being the one that makes everyone laugh.”

He grinned. “You are picturing right. My brothers were the solemn ones.”

I sobered, remembering he told me his one brother died. “So, you … you’re the only relative your brother has left?”

“Correct.” His voice went hoarse, and I had to swallow around the lump in my throat.

He coughed once. “Tell me about you. Your life on Earth.”

It didn’t hurt as much anymore to remember my life. I didn’t want to forget and talking helped me retreat into good memories. “Well, you know I’m a nurse. I work long hours, but I love my job, so it’s not so bad. My, uh, my mom was my best friend, but she died a few months ago.”

Sax slid down so he rested beside me. He brushed my hair over my shoulders and his fingers tickled the rim of my ear. The sympathetic look on his face nearly broke me. “I’m sorry you lost your mother. I didn’t know mine for long, but I hold onto the memories I do have of her. I wish I had more. What about your father?”

“He died about seven years ago.”

“Fleck,” he muttered and dropped a kiss on my forehead. “I’m sorry.”

I sniffed as I fought to keep the tears at bay. “I’m never getting home, am I?”

Pain burned through his purple eyes. “No, sweet Val. Even if we got out of here, we have no ships at all, let alone ones that travel that far. Only the Rahguls do, and they’d bring you right back here.”

I nodded and let the tears fall. “I knew that,” I whispered. “In my heart, I did. But hearing it feels like a death sentence.”

“I won’t let it be a death sentence,” he said, his jaw clenching. “You will not die here, Val. I vow it.”

I wanted to believe him, and I was sure he believed himself. But I couldn’t help but feel like he was making a promise he couldn’t keep.

Sax

One rotation passed. Then two. Then three and four. We were in an endless cycle of eating, sleeping, and talking about anything that would take our minds off the fact that we were trapped. Whenever I could, I exercised. My muscles were no longer sore, and I felt my body return close to its fighting form.

Yet, I had no plan. I couldn’t tear through these walls with my machets. Every day, the Uldani came to take Valerie to the lab to draw her blood and take her temperature. She said they never hurt her, and barely even talked to her, but I paced the room like a caged salibri the entire time she was gone. Other than that, the door never opened; Kulks delivered whatever we needed through the door’s hatch.

Being so close to Valerie but not touching her was beginning to drive me out of my mind. I allowed myself small brushes of her plush skin with my fingers. I leaned close enough so her soft hair brushed my scales. At night, it took all my strength not to reach for her and draw her softness against me, especially when she woke up tucked into a little ball plastered against my side.

I knew her nose twitched when she was about to wake. She dropped food on her tongue before drawing it into her mouth to chew and the sight made me hard every damn time. One morning she spilled qua down her front and I nearly came out of my skin when her nipples peaked through the thin fabric of her shirt.

When I could make her laugh, which was rare, I felt like I’d been crowned king. Her face lit up and her eyes sparkled. Her mouth spread into a wide grin, showing off her little white blunt teeth. Her right bottom front tooth was a little crooked, and I loved it. I wanted to rub my tongue along the top and then delve into her mouth.

Sometimes she’d watch me, but she’d look away quickly when I caught her. For a while I’d make a joke to ease her embarrassment, but eventually I returned her longing stare. It was during those moments that I dared to let myself imagine a future where she was my mate and where her belly grew heavy with our child who we’d raise together.

I didn’t show her my despair, but I had begun to think Fatas had deserted me again. I wanted to scream Why? and pound the door until my fists were bloody. Instead, I prepared my body for an unknown future and never let my flagging confidence show to Val.

Time blurred, and I didn’t realize our reprieve was almost up until our door opened with a soft click. Valerie, who lay on the bed recounting the summary of her favorite book to me, shot to a sitting position. I slowly rose to my feet and flexed my arms as Polu, Hawn, two Kulks, plus a young male Uldani entered the room. I’d promised Val I wouldn’t rush the Uldani again because she didn’t want to see me hurt, but all I wanted to do was smash their faces in or die trying.

This was a different group from the one that escorted her to the lab each day. The young Uldani accompanying Polu and Hawn shifted nervously and flexed his jaw. He wore a medis coat like Borhan, and he never took his eyes off me.

“Your time is up,” Polu announced to Val, ignoring the low growl rumbling from my chest. I couldn’t help it. “Gram here is studying under Borhan, and since Borhan is busy, he’ll perform your last test. If it’s as we suspect, then you’re entering your fertile period.”

Val’s pretty face paled, and she shifted to sit at the end of the bed. Her gaze immediately sought me out, and the trust in her eyes, the naked hope I could fix this, nearly killed me. But with Polu and Hawn crowding me into a corner with the shock rods, I could do nothing but watch helplessly.

The young Uldani approached her warily and then knelt down at her feet. Even on his knees, he towered over her. My tiny human. Her hand shook as she held out her arm for him to draw blood. Once he filled a vial, he passed a device over her forehead and noted the time.

He withdrew a small packet from the pocket of his coat, and I noticed him swallow several times before he held it out to her. “This is to be taken immediately after mating,” he said, lips trembling. “This is a protein to ensure the health of you and the new life.”

For a moment, she only looked at him, and I thought she’d refuse the package. Finally, her lips thinned, and she snatched the package out of his hand before placing it on the bed next to her, handling it like it was poison. She nodded without a word and without looking him in the eye.

“Don’t open it until after,” he said. “It needs to remain sealed for preservation purposes.” His hands were shoved in his pockets, and his fingers tapped a rhythm against his thigh. I’d seen him around Borhan’s lab, but he’d never worked directly with me. I didn’t like this change of pace, although I knew from experience Borhan wasn’t any better.

He turned away from her and met my gaze. “You can help her take it,” he said. Then, with a nod to Polu, he made his way to the door with short, swift footsteps.

“She’s fertile?” Polu asked.

Gram met his gaze with a blank look on his face. “Yes,” he said softly. His gaze shifted to me before dropping down and away.

That one word felt like a death sentence. I wanted to rage. To kill. I looked at Val, hoping she’d give me the okay to lay waste to everyone else in this room, but she was turned away from me, facing the wall. Her shoulders shook and muffled sobs filled the silence of our prison.

Polu pointed to a screen in the corner of our room. It had been blank for days but was now lit up with numbers. “You have thirty yoras to mate. Lucky for us and unlucky for you, this will be your last chance. Borhan believes he has found a stimulant that means we can milk you and impregnate the human.”

I willed myself not to show emotion even as my blood ran cold. That was what I’d been dreading.

“Make it easy on yourselves,” Polu said. “Do what we ask.”

With a final warning tap of his shock rod on the ground, he turned on his heel and left. Hawn twirled his rod, and as he walked past Val, he whispered something to her. Her entire body went tight, and I lost all control. I rushed him, but he made it into the hallway and bolted the lock before I could reach him. I threw my body against the door, roaring at him. “Fleck you!” I shouted. “I will kill you. On my mother’s life, I will flecking kill you!”

I pounded on the door as Hawn sneered at me through the clear panel. “I hope you don’t stick your cock in her,” he said. “I’ll enjoy ripping out your machets one by one as punishment.” He grinned, baring his blunt teeth, before disappearing from view. The last thing I saw before I turned around to comfort Val was the round black eyes of Gram, the young Uldani.

I rushed to Val’s side where she sat staring at the wall. Tears streaked her face, but she no longer cried. She didn’t say a word when I gathered her into my arms. She did nothing but stare blankly ahead.

“Val. My lioness.” My body began to prush, an action I’ve never been aware of doing before. It wasn’t conscious, but my body seemed to know my human needed comforting. The rumbling vibration emanated from my chest and soon Val’s eyes closed, and she nestled into me, her nose buried in my chest.

“What did that fleck say to you?” I asked.

She shook her head.

“Please tell me. And then we’ll speak of other things.”

“He said…” A shudder wracked her body. “He said he couldn’t wait to fill my holes while you watched. He’s evil, Sax. Fucking evil.”

My blood boiled so hot I swore my scales would melt. Hawn could not live. No matter what, he could not live.

“I can’t make a lot of promises to you, Val,” I said through clenched teeth. “But I will make you this one promise. I will kill him.”

She burrowed into me as if she wanted to crawl under my scales. “I’m scared, Sax. I’m so fucking scared.”

I closed my eyes and drew us down onto the bed. I didn’t know what the right decision was. “Tell me what you’re thinking,” I asked as I slipped my fingers into her hair and pressed a kiss on top of her head.

“I’ve mulled our choices in my head. Over and over again. We could mate, but Sax, I can’t bring a child into this world knowing how cruel they are.” She withdrew her head and flattened her palm against my cheek. Our foreheads touched. “I feel crazy saying this, but this child would be conceived out of love. As much love as I’m able to feel in this place. So no, I can’t do it.”

“Love?” I asked. “What is that?”

She drew her head back so I could look her in the eye. “It’s what you feel for someone you care about. But it’s an extreme feeling. You can love friends and family. And your mate. Your lover.”

“You see me as a mate. A lover?” I could barely believe this perfect human felt that way about me.

She smiled, but sadness dulled her expression. Her fingers grazed my forehead, cheek, and jaw. “I wasn’t going to tell you, but with our future so uncertain, I figured, fuck it. You deserve to know how much I care about you. You’d be a wonderful mate and a great father.” Her tears renewed, dribbling over her bottom lashes. “I don’t have to have sex—er, mate—with you to feel this way. You’re everything I would have wanted in a partner back on Earth. I never realized I was waiting all my life for a blue-scaled alien with a tail and bone blades.”

Her lips grazed mine, the barest touch, and my entire body detonated like an explosion. My blood roared in my ears and my cock thickened into a long rod in my pants.

She pulled back, and her blue eyes blinked at me in wonder.

“Valerie,” I whispered.

“Yes?” she rasped back.

She was beautiful, and for once—and maybe the only time in my life—I wanted some beauty all to myself. “Let me taste you. If this is the last time I’m alone with you, I want to commit the taste of you to my memory. We can mate in other ways that won’t result in me filling you with my seed, even though I want to do that more than anything.”

Her body jolted with a suppressed sob and her eyes glistened. “Yes, Sax,” she murmured as she leaned in to once again press her lips to mine. “I want that too.”

SEVEN

Val

I’d gone stir crazy, or maybe this was one of those frantic moments where I knew I didn’t have much time left so I was going to take pleasure where I could.

And what I wanted was Sax. His lips gave way beneath mine and his tongue stole inside my mouth. Over our days in captivity, I’d seen the row of metal-ball piercings in his tongue and imagined what they’d feel like on my skin. Now I knew. He licked into my mouth and ran those balls across my tongue. The feel of them sparked an erogenous zone somewhere in my mouth I didn’t even know I had.

I moaned as he devoured me with his big hands cradling my face. He broke off the kiss only long enough to haul a blanket over the top of us, so we were cocooned in a fabric tent. With a sizzling grin, he shoved my shirt off and lowered his head to draw one of my nipples into his mouth. I arched my back on a cry as the wet heat enveloped my pebbled flesh. Goosebumps raced over my skin as he raked the metal balls across the sensitive peak.

“Sax,” I murmured. “That feels so good.”

He palmed my other breast, and despite my size—I’d always been top heavy—he could envelope the entire breast in his hand. He flicked his thumb over that nipple and the dual sensations had me thrusting up to seek out his firm length.

“Let me taste you,” he said as he released my nipple after a love bite.

“What?” I blinked at him, my brain not processing words since all the blood had rushed to my core.

Beneath the blanket, he rose above me on his knees like a blue god. He stripped my pants from my body in one fluid motion, and I squeaked, closing my legs on instinct. He braced a large palm on my thigh, and his swirling violet eyes, full of lust and a bit of danger, locked me in their hold. My breath shuddered.

He licked his lips, and his fangs glistened. “I want to see my cunt.” His voice was ragged, and every nerve in my body pulsed with heat.

His cunt. Slowly, I spread my legs and he settled his bulk between them. His horns rested on my thighs, essentially pinning me in place. I would have panicked if the body above me belong to anyone but Sax. My trust in him had seeped into my very bones.

He slid his hands up the outside of my legs, his touch surprisingly delicate, and settled them on my hips. He squeezed, his fingers digging into the soft flesh there. “These hips,” he growled, “have taunted me for days. Your figure is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” His nostrils flared, and if I didn’t know him better, I’d think he was ready to do battle. “Made for me,” he rasped.

“Yes, Sax.” I spoke the only words that felt right. “Made for you.”

He bent his spine, threw my legs over his shoulders, and dove in like an Olympic swimmer. His mouth latched onto my pussy, enclosing me in his wet heat. His tongue lapped over my entrance before he slid it up to swirl those amazing metal balls over my clit. Pleasure rocketed up my spine to explode behind my eyes like fireworks. I stuck my fist in my mouth to muffle my scream as he ate at me like a starving man. His tongue left no place unexplored as he sought to learn me better than I knew myself. When his fingers slid inside me, I saw stars.

Grasping for purchase, my hands landed on his horns and he muffled a growly groan. His fingers left my body and I mourned their loss until something else probed at my entrance. Something long and wet. I glanced down to see his purple eyes swirling as he gazed up my body from his position between my legs.

When he plunged his tongue inside me, I nearly came on the spot. The metal balls caressed the sensitive tissue of my inner walls. When his tongue began to vibrate, I couldn’t hold back anymore. I screamed and thrashed as I squeezed his head with my thighs. My heels dug into his back as I rode his face and his tongue like I wouldn’t see tomorrow. Maybe I wouldn’t.

Nearly out of my mind, I mumbled his name and thanked the universe along with other nonsense while he cradled my ass in his palms like I was a dessert plate he had to lick clean. When the orgasm hit me like a speeding bullet, my entire body shuddered as heat seared me from within. I thrust against his face, fists still gripping his horns. I shook as my brain short-circuited, and flames rushed through my blood until every one of my extremities tingled.

As the aftershock of the orgasm continued to shake my weak limbs, Sax rose from his position like a successful conqueror. That long tongue licked down to his chin and around his mouth as he cleaned me from his skin. His mouth was stretched into a wicked, self-satisfied grin. He palmed my pussy, and his thumb rubbed over my clit. I whined at the touch to my sensitive flesh. “Did I satisfy my female?”

“Yes.” I flopped a hand over my eyes as I fought to catch my breath. “Understatement of my life,” I muttered.

He nuzzled under my arm to get to my face and kissed my lips. “I don’t know what that means.” He smelled like me, and the taste of myself on his tongue was surprisingly smoking hot. I wrapped my arms around his neck and tried to roll us, but it was impossible to move him when he didn’t want to be moved.

“It means I’m more than satisfied. Now roll on your back so I can return the favor.”

He lowered his nubbed brow at me in confusion, and then sadness streaked through his pretty purple eyes. “But we aren’t mating,” he said. “We can’t.”

I pushed on his shoulder. “There will be no penetration, big guy. But there will be blowjobs.”

“Blow jo—?”

“Roll over before I leave you with blue balls. Or… green balls. I don’t know, whatever. Just roll over.”

He still frowned as he shifted onto his back beside me. At first, he lifted his hands to touch, but then he dropped them to his sides like he wasn’t sure what to do with them. He’d said the Drixonian warriors were legendary lovers, but were they not aware there were more ways for them to get off than penetrative sex? How the hell did Drixonian women manage to rule these guys without a blowie every now and then? I wanted to know their tricks.

“Pull your pants down,” I said. “Let me see you.”

He obliged quickly, reaching behind his back to unfasten his pants at the top of his tail. Hey, if I was naked, he could be too. It felt so damn good to be naked by my own choice. And achieving orgasms without sex for procreation felt like a big fuck you to the Uldani.

He shucked off his pants, and I pushed them off to the side. His cock rose between us, hard and proud, the tip leaking a copious amount of slick fluid. The ring in the tip glistened. I wrapped my fingers around him, and he immediately jerked, eyes wide.

“How does it feel?” I asked

He only stared at me. His mouth gaped open and he finally said, “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?”

His gaze ping-ponged between my fist over his dick to my face. “After our females…” He swallowed. “Our libidos were dormant. I could only achieve hardness once every few sun-cycles and I ignored it until it went away.”

I knew that, but I figured they were just intimately acquainted with their hands. I didn’t realize they didn’t get erect. “What? Are you telling me you’ve never…?”

“I’ve never released my seed.”

I immediately looked at his balls. They were large, like the rest of him, but they didn’t look painful. How the hell…? Their biology must have altered when there were no females to breed. That sounded a little crazy, but then, my entire reality right now was crazy.

Suddenly, excitement fizzed in my brain like a spiked punch. I got to be the first to taste him, to give him this experience. I grinned at him and licked my lips. “I’m going to blow your mind.”

He sucked in a breath just as I lowered my head and licked the tip of his cock. His stomach contracted and I flicked the ring with my tongue. I slipped the tip through it and tugged. He moaned a low, tortured sound. He tasted sweet, and the slick fluid coating his cock eased my way as I did my best to take as much of him in my mouth as I could. I only made it halfway before I hollowed my cheeks and pulled off with a strong suck.

“Holy Fatas,” he said in a breathless gasp.

I smiled and did it again. I set up a rhythm, bobbing my head in time to the pumps of my fist. His massive thighs shook, and his body trembled. He fisted the sheets in a white-knuckled grip, and a couple of times, I swore his bone blades were going to lift from his skin. Somehow, he got himself under control, just in time for his cock to swell impossibly large in my mouth. I knew what was coming, but nothing prepared me for the torrent of come to erupt from the tip of his cock.

As he came, her roared and nearly sat up as his body bucked uncontrollably. His large cock throbbed against my tongue. I tried to swallow as much as I could, because he tasted sweet, but soon it became too much, and I had to pull off, allowing the rest to splash onto his taut stomach.

I panted, and Sax collapsed back onto the bed, eyes open but unfocussed. I reached for my shirt and carefully dabbed at his stomach. A hand in my hair made me pause my task, and I glanced up to see Sax watching me, his eyes half-lidded. I’d never seen him this relaxed, this satisfied. His lips curled into that grin I’d come to love so much. After tossing the shirt off the bed, I curled up against him. Beneath the blanket, no one could see us, and for a moment I could pretend we weren’t locked in a sterile room.

His hand sifted through my hair. The purple of his eyes was so vivid, his irises nearly glowed as he stared at me in what I could only interpret as awe and reverence.

“I’m not often speechless, but there aren’t words for what we just shared.” He sucked in a breath. “Holy Fatas, your mouth. My fierce lioness has a perfect mouth.”

I rolled my lips between my teeth. No one had ever looked at me the way Sax currently stared into my eyes. Like I was his everything. I drifted my fingers over his damp brow. “Well, your tongue is a work of art.”

He stuck out said tongue and curled it under his chin. I squirmed as the echo of its abilities still throbbed between my legs.

“I didn’t know that type of pleasure was possible. The way it felt to release in your mouth.” He shivered, and his thick black lashes fluttered. He palmed my ass and squeezed as he nudged my nose with his. “I can only imagine what it will feel like to sink into your cunt.”

He was hard again, the tip of his cock once more making a mess on his stomach. Sax’s libido might have been dormant for most of his life, but it was returning with a vengeance. I wished more than anything that I could give him my whole body, to show him what it felt like to be connected while he plunged that thick cock into me until he found his release and I found mine. He spoke with such certainty that it would happen, and I wished I had that confidence.

I cupped his face and pressed a kiss on his lips. “When that happens, it’ll be the best day of my life,” I whispered.

He hummed under his breath, and then his chest began to vibrate in that soothing purr of his. I rested my ear near the steady beat of his heart and closed my eyes. I thought I heard him say, “It will be mine too,” before I fell asleep.

Sax

Fatas had been dropping me hints, urging me to stay alive, telling me I had a purpose here in the Uldani fortress of Alazar. When I’d first seen Val, I’d assumed my purpose was to protect her from as much suffering as I could for as long as I lived.

But now that I’d tasted her, and felt her body melt into my hands, I knew my purpose was much greater than protection—it was to save her. My reason for being taken and kept alive through all the pain and torment was to escape with Valerie. She was meant to live a long, happy life, to meet the other women, and to see how beautiful this planet could be.

She would not die here on the hard floor and harsh lights. She’d see the sun again. I would make sure of that.

Val slept, her head resting on my biceps and her hair tickling my forearm. I still couldn’t believe the pleasure she’d been able to give me. The way she wrapped her lips around my cock. The heat of her mouth. The undulation of her body as she bucked against my tongue with a strong grip on my horns. Fleck, I was already hard again.

I had to focus less on merely staying alive and more on securing a future for myself and Val. I scratched at my forehead, then frowned as something poked me in the back. I reached under me and withdrew the package that the young Uldani had given Val. With a curl of my lip, I raised my arm to hurl it across the room, but something—maybe Fatas—made me stop. As carefully as I could, I extricated my arm from under Val’s head. She murmured something in her sleep, but didn’t wake, only curled into a tighter ball against my hip. I sat up and placed the package on my lap. With a slash of my claws, I cut the string holding the folded fabric together.

I’d expected to find some flecked-up syringe of medis for Val, but a scrap of paper slid out along with a metal tool. With a frantic glance at the room’s glass panels, I confirmed we were alone. I exhaled slowly.

Whoever this Uldani named Gram was, he had just given me the most precious gifts. Was this a trick? Why would he provide me with a key to my collar? The writing on the paper was a hasty scrawl. I will free you if you kill Borhan first. You’ll know when it’s time.

There was nothing else in the package—just a key to my collar and a kill note. This Uldani was hilarious if he thought I was going to leave here without killing Borhan, even if he hadn’t asked me. Because it was clear what Fatas wanted me to do—escape with Val and take out every one of these flecks from the breeding program.

You’ll know when it’s time.

Well, that was vague as fleck and frustrating. I could only be wary. Why would he be helping me? I’d seen too much to believe anyone on this planet was purely altruistic. Except Val. My fierce lioness had the biggest cora of anyone I knew. I smoothed her hair off her face, and she stirred. Her pretty eyes opened, hazy and unfocused before she yawned and stretched.

Her bare breasts jiggled, and I couldn’t resist leaning down and teasing one of her nipples with my tongue. She scratched the sensitive skin around the base of my horns, and I moaned.

I lifted my head and kissed her, eager for another taste. She opened for me, her tongue dueling with mine until I pulled away with a frustrated growl. “One day, I will mate you,” I said, looking into the pretty blue depths of her eyes. “I will enter your cunt with my hard cock and hear you scream my name over and over until I fill you with my seed.” I placed my hand on her belly. “I’ll see you round with my child. But not here.”

Her eyes watered, and she rubbed them before dropping her hand to rest it over mine. “Sax, it hurts to wish for what we can’t have.”

“Before you got here, my goal was to survive as long as I could and kill as many Uldani or Kulks in the meantime. Just so they wouldn’t try to take more of my kind.”

Her nails dug into the back of my hand as her eyes flashed with anger.

“Then you came. And now it’s all changed. I have to be smarter because I can’t die. I can’t, because I know my purpose is escape with you.” I bent my head to brush my lips across hers. “You will not die here, lioness. Not while I breathe, and I don’t plan on my lungs quitting anytime soon.”

“But how?” she asked. “There’s no way out—”

“The package the young Uldani gave you. I opened it.”

“You did? But he said—”

“Fleck what he said. And it doesn’t matter anyway. There’s no medis inside.”

“What?” Her pretty arched eyebrows rose up her forehead. “What’s in it?”

I held up the key. “A key to my collar.”

Her mouth dropped open. She stared at the key as if it might disappear if she looked away. “What? How? Why?”

“I’m not sure. All I know is he said he will help you escape if I kill Borhan.” He didn’t actually specify Val in the note, but she was the priority. She had to be saved.

“Help me? But what about you?”

“I don’t know yet. But it’s not about me—”

“Of course, it’s about you!” she shouted. Her gaze darted to the glass panel before meeting mine. “Of course, it’s about you,” she said again, softer. “What am I going to do on this planet without you?”

“You’ll go to my brother. He’ll protect you until I can get to you.”

“Th-this,” she sputtered and bolted to a sitting position, grabbing the blanket to cover her bare breasts. “This is insane. It’s a whole planet and you expect me to find your brother?”

“Gram said he’d get you to safety—”

“I don’t know Gram! And I don’t want to live peacefully with your brother.” She was full-on crying now, not even bothering to wipe away the salty tears that streaked down her face. “Sax, I know this is crazy, but I don’t want to be here without you. Please. You have to come with me.”

I wanted that too. Fleck, I wanted that. “You won’t have to live on this planet without me. I’ll get out too. I’ll find a way. Fatas has chosen us for each other; I know it.” Val was meant for me. She might not be a my cora-eternal like my brother had with his Fra-kee but finding such a mate was rare. Once in many generations. Still, Val was mine. I knew it with every beat of my cora and with each breath in my lungs.

“How do you know for sure?” she asked. “Fuck, I hate this. I hate crying. I hate feeling weak.”

I gripped her chin. “You. Are. Not. Weak.”

“You make me strong,” she whispered. “Without you, I’m not sure I can be.”

“That’s a lie.” I shook her softly. “A flecking lie. You’ll be a fierce lioness with or without me.”

“I wish I believed in myself as much as you believe in me.” She sniffed.

I pressed my lips to hers, pouring as much as I could into the kiss—how much I cared for her, and how brave I thought she was.

We only broke apart when a faint knock echoed around our room. I whirled to face our intruder but froze when I saw Gram’s silver face in the clear panel on the door. He glanced up and down the hall nervously and waved me over.

I slowly rose to my feet and didn’t bother with my pants. He wasn’t fazed by my nudity. He’d seen it before.

I stopped at the door, and Gram met my gaze before beckoning me even closer so we could speak through the thick door. “Drixonian.” He wrung his hands and his eyes darted up and down the hallway repeatedly.

“Yes,” I said.

“Did you get my package?”

“I did.”

He licked his lips. “So? Will you?”

“Why are you helping us?” I asked. “What’s your motive.”

“I want Borhan to die.”

I cocked my head. “Why?”

Anger replaced the nervous twitch to his eyes, and he stood straighter. “I’ve worked my whole life to make it into his lab so I could kill him, but I know now that I can’t do it alone. I’d get caught. And if I get caught, my whole family is punished by Uldani law.” His hands fisted at his sides. “My mother favored my father over Borhan, and Borhan’s jealousy caused him to set my father up for a crime he didn’t commit. My father was convicted and died working in the mines after cycles and cycles of abuse. I fled after my dad was sent away, and Borhan doesn’t remember me. He has no idea who I am. But this is my life purpose.” He gritted his teeth. “He has to die.”

I studied him for deception, but despite his nerves, Gram held my gaze with a lifted chin and determination. I decided Gram told the truth. I could see it in every line of his body. I knew a thing or two about purpose. I glanced back at Val, who had dressed quickly and stood beside the bed watching us.

I turned back to Gram. “I’ll do it. But you have to get Val free. She’s the priority.”

“Of course—”

“Sax too,” Val said, standing beside me. “You want him to kill for you. You have to save him too.”

Gram nodded. “I can get both of you out of here. But you have to do exactly what I tell you. Understand?

We both nodded.

“I don’t have much time. I risked a lot coming here. So, listen up, and by tomorrow at sundown, you’ll be free.”

He told us the plan in a rushed voice. His nerves were evident, but in the end, I knew he offered the best chance we would get. I hated relying on an Uldani for anything, but I’d do whatever it took to free my fierce lioness from this cage.

EIGHT

Val

The numbers on the countdown clock didn’t make sense to me, but Sax said we were three-quarters of the way through our time to mate. Soon, we’d be joined by Polu, who would march us to Borhan’s lab for the initial tests. At some point between our arrival in the lab and getting the test results, Sax would kill Borhan and Gram would help us escape.

Gram’s plan had a lot of variables that could go terribly wrong, but Sax and I had agreed this was our best shot. We certainly wouldn’t get another Uldani eager to help us. I was starting to believe in Sax’s Fatas. I’d started to view her as karma’s sister, even if I held a bit of a grudge against the ol’ girl for letting me get kidnapped by aliens. Seriously, what the fuck?

I looked over at Sax. He had just come from the cleanser, so his muscles gleamed under the lights. His hair shone as he deftly braided it with skilled fingers until it rested over one giant shoulder.

If karma was going to make me a human breeder, at least she’d given me him. I wished my mom could meet him. I knew she’d like him. Once she got past the horns. And tail. And uh, built-in weapons, she would’ve seen he was a good person. He had all the qualities I’d looked for in a partner but had never found on Earth. I wasn’t sure what karma and Fatas had planned for us, but I’d begun to hope. Like a rising sun in my chest, that hope grew brighter and brighter with every minute. I wanted to believe Sax and I were thrown together for a purpose. And that purpose wasn’t to provide a child to these assholes and then die here. No way.

We’d unlocked Sax’s collar, but kept it latched around his neck so it appeared to still be locked tight. The ruse he could still be controlled by Kulks bearing poles was necessary to get into the lab and near Borhan. Gram has been very specific in his instructions—if we didn’t kill Borhan, the deal was off. We’d be left here to rot. I didn’t fault him for not being altruistic. It was a trade for a species that struck me as self-serving and cruel.

I sat on the bed with my back to the wall, my knees tucked against my chest. I’d bit my lips to hell, and my head pounded from a stress headache. I felt like I was one step away from another panic attack, which I couldn’t afford. I had to remain alert. Sax had enough to do without me losing my shit.

He was exercising again, pushing his body to its limit. If I wasn’t absolutely terrified of what was to come, I might have enjoyed the show as his muscles bulged beneath his sweat-slicked skin.

He finished his last rep of some complicated leg exercise before grabbing a bottle of qua and plopping down on the bed. He still smelled good. How was that possible? He clearly didn’t have the body-odor gene. I sniffed my armpits self-consciously.

He placed a hand on top of my foot, his thumb caressing the arch in way that sent shivers up my leg. Great, and now I was turned on. My body didn’t know what to do.

“I can tell you’re nervous,” he said, and then grinned wolfishly. “I wish I had time to distract you.”

“Seriously?” I huffed. “You can flirt at a time like this?”

“What’s flirt?”

I waved a hand in the air as I wracked my brain for a definition. “Teasing someone because you like them. Or making suggestive comments.”

He took a gulp of qua, and I had to force myself not to stare at his corded neck. “Makes sense. I enjoy both of those things.”

“I’m sorry I’m not much fun right now,” I said. “I feel like I’m going to throw up.”

His expression sobered. He tapped a black claw against the container of qua. “When we get to the lab and I give you an order, you have to listen to me,” he said.

“Of course,” I said. “I’m not trying to go rogue here.”

He nodded. “I know, but what happens in there might not go as smoothly as Gram would like.”

“I’m sure it won’t, but why do you say that? Do you know something I don’t?”

His eyes darkened to nearly black, I could almost feel the anger simmering under his skin. As jovial as he could be, his rage was tangible and potent, especially when I was threatened.

“I’m not just killing Borhan. I’m taking out Polu and Hawn too. Then I’m flecking up their entire lab. All their machines, all their research. I’m sure they have the raw data backed up somewhere, but without Borhan, it’ll be nearly useless. I can’t leave here knowing they’ll replace him with some other sick fleck and carry on. It’s all gotta go.” He squeezed my thigh. “Fra-kee is pregnant. They know and they have her blood samples. Her biological information. My gift to my brother and the rest of the warriors is to destroy it.”

I cupped his face. “Don’t you think you’ve given your species enough by refusing to do what the Uldani ask?”

“My species? Yes. My brother? Never,” he said. “After the virus, he made sure the three of us stayed together—him, me, and Rex. He held us together when we were chits, and I’ll never forget that. During the Uprising, he was one of the leaders. He put himself on the line every day. He made many right decisions, but he also made some tough calls that resulted in the deaths of Drixonians. He did his best, but the guilt weighs on him heavily. Knowing his genes will be in the next generation of Drixonians is what’s been getting me through since I saw him last. Until you.”

I rubbed my thumb over his cheek. “Okay, Sax. I’ll listen to you.”

“And do what Gram says.”

“I will.”

“My fierce lioness is being agreeable.”

“Because I understand this plan isn’t foolproof. A lot can go wrong, and I want to do my part to make it as successful as it can be.”

He frowned. “You’re worried?”

“Of course, I’m worried.”

He sighed. “We’ll get through this.”

“We’ve made it this far.”

He nodded and reached for the food tray. “Eat up. We’ll need our strength.”

We were polishing off the last of the food when the door clicked open. Two Kulks stood in the entrance, holding the poles connected to Sax’s collar. He rose to his feet and stood with his shoulders back, arm muscles flexing.

Standing from the bed, I fought to inhale deeply as my lungs tightened, fear constricting them and sending my heart into overdrive. I pressed myself against Sax’s back and peered around his bulk. Polu and Hawn strode inside, and I didn’t miss Hawn’s evil gaze immediately found me. Sick fuck.

“Time’s up,” Polu announced, cracking the tip of his shock rod on the floor. “Did you follow instructions?”

I didn’t speak. Sax heaved a breath but remained silent.

Polu narrowed his eyes. “I made the consequences clear, right? We’ll get what we want from the human, Sax. We made concessions and allowed you the use of this room. But now the human is ripe, and she’ll get bred by the time the sun goes down today.”

Sax shifted his weight, but still didn’t make a noise.

I wouldn’t call Hawn’s expression a smile, but the curl of his lip and the glint in his eye screamed satisfaction. He wanted to see us suffer. Call me bloodthirsty, but I wanted to see him die at the end of Sax’s blades. Maybe after a tail whip to the face and a few broken bones.

Polu snapped his fingers at the Kulk guards. “Bring them to the lab. Let’s see what Borhan has planned.” He grinned at Sax. “I will hear you scream before this rotation is over.”

Sax finally spoke through clenched teeth. “Don’t bet on it.”

I curled my fingers into the waistband of his pants, reminding him not to rile Polu. We couldn’t afford Sax getting injured before we got to the lab.

The Kulks stepped forward and connected their poles to Sax’s collar. I hated watching him like this, being walked like a dog, but I had no choice once Hawn gripped my arm and hauled me out of the door behind Polu, the guards, and my only hope.

Sax’s tail swished against the ground angrily, but he walked without struggling, the heavy tread of his bare feet slapping the metal floor. They refused to give us shoes, which was going to suck if we ever made it out of here.

Don’t think that far ahead, Val. One step at a time.

We approached the lab, and inside Borhan sat next to two cots, smiling at us with that creepy-ass grin. Gram stood nearby with his hands clasped in front of him, looking for all the world like a dutiful assistant. But I didn’t miss the way his eyes locked onto Sax and then me. He scratched his left ear, and I let out a small relieved breath. That was the signal the plan was a go.

If Sax was nervous, he didn’t show it. If anything, he looked the most relaxed I’d seen him since we’d met—other than after an orgasm. I could picture him now after I’d gone down on him—the way his lips had curled into that lazy smile and his fingers drifted up my side with featherlight touches. Fuck, I needed to pay attention to what the hell was going on.

We shuffled inside, and although the lab was pretty large, it felt cramped with me and Sax, four Uldani, and two Kulks all taking up space. And everyone was taller and stronger than me. Goddamn it. Was I predator to anything on this planet? I just wanted to see one thing smaller than me for fuck’s sake.

“We’ll check her first,” Borhan watched me happily, like this was a fun little checkup. He patted the cot. “Put her here.”

Nothing about how Hawn handled me was gentle. He picked me up and slammed me on the cot with so much force, the breath rushed from my lungs. I had just sucked in enough oxygen for my brain to work when straps wrapped around my ankles, wrists, and neck. Fuck, I remembered these things now, and I hated them.

A steady growl emanated from Sax, but that was to be expected and wouldn’t cause suspicion. Him being protective of me was nothing new, and I was pretty sure Hawn liked dominating me just to shove it in Sax’s face, the prick.

“We’ll start with a blood draw. Did they mate?” Borhan asked.

“They aren’t talking, so I’m going to assume no,” Polu answered.

Borhan just hummed under his breath. “Well then, I’ll go ahead and sedate her before we start the exam.”

“Don’t bother,” Hawn said. “She should suffer for her refusal to follow our directions.”

Borhan slowly turned to Hawn. “I said sedate. Not numb. She’ll feel everything and won’t even be able to scream.”

I clamped my lips between my teeth so I didn’t start hollering about how he was a sick fuck and I couldn’t wait to watch him take his last breath. If this didn’t work… If Sax couldn’t get us out of here… Tears pricked at my eyes, and I sucked in a deep breath, willing myself not to cry. Not now. Not yet.

A shadow fell over me, and I looked up in Borhan’s face. He held a syringe in his two-fingered grip and tapped as a drop of liquid beaded at the tip. He peered down at me with a gleeful gleam to his eye.

And that was when all hell broke loose.

Sax

The machets rippled to attention on my arms and down my back, power surging through me. This was the moment I finally had some control. I flexed my fists and licked my lips, the taste of revenge sweet on the tip of my tongue.

I ripped off my collar, and the Kulk guards stood dumbfounded for a moment as the ends of their poles clanked to the ground. I glanced down at the now useless hunk of metal that had circled my neck for what felt like a hundred sun-cycles. Their hesitation was their downfall.

I slammed my machets through the eye slits in the armor of the first Kulk. Blood sprayed as I gripped the pole of the other Kulk, bringing him closer so I could punch his head back and rake my machets across his exposed neck. He gurgled, spitting blood at me with wide eyes before stumbling to his knees. When he hit the ground face-first with blood pooling beneath his body, I turned away.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gram discreetly press a button to release Val’s restraints. She immediately rolled off her cot and hit the ground with a smack before slithering under a table and covering her head. Scanning the room for my next victim, I sneered as Borhan cowered behind Polu, who brandished his shock rod with a crackle.

“Kill him!” Polu shouted to Hawn as he and Borhan backed into the corner, leaving Gram to fend for himself. If this all worked out, they’d die without ever knowing Gram had a hand in this.

Hawn twirled the shock rod in his hand and braced his feet apart. He didn’t rush me like the stupid Kulks would have done. He approached me on steady feet, never giving me his back, and keeping a wide enough berth that my tail couldn’t reach him.

“Get the human!” Polu shouted at Gram.

Gram seemed to be frozen in fear. He might not have been acting.

Hawn swung the shock rod with both hands, his intention clear. He didn’t want to subdue me; he wanted to beat me. He’d been waiting for the moment when he could end my life. He swung. I bent backward, and the rod sailed over my face, missing me by a clawtip. The crackling energy tickled my nose.

Hawn growled and advanced now I was off-balance. But he’d never battled a Drixonian hand to hand, and it showed. I swung my tail, taking him off his feet. He crashed to his back and the shock rod went skittering out of his reach.

I strode toward him as he scrambled backward on his hands. He panted, black eyes rolling in his head wildly as he learned quickly that without his precious weapon, he was far outmatched. With a panicked grunt, he pushed a cot in my way, and I easily shoved it to the side. Next, he kicked a chair at me, and I batted it away.

“Polu!” he shouted. “Help me!”

Polu had no intention of moving. He continued to guard Borhan as they slowly shuffled their way toward the door. They thought they could escape? In their flecking dreams. I had to finish Hawn so I could end them too. This wasn’t the time to savor a victory over the cruel Uldani who’d hit my Val, as much as I would have liked to.

With a growl, I pounced and landed on Hawn’s chest in a crouch. Bones cracked beneath the soles of my feet, and he gasped for breath as blood bubbled from his lips. “You’ll die knowing your threats were empty,” I snarled in his face. Rearing back my first, I slammed my knuckles into his temple. Again. And again. And again. Blood sprayed. Bones crunched. Hawn’s head lolled to the side. When I rose, his chest didn’t move.

“Sax!” Valerie cried.

I turned to find Polu and Borhan sprinting for the door. I picked up a nearby cot and heaved it at them. The heavy object slammed into Polu, sending him crashing to the wall. His hip hit first with a thud, and he collapsed to the ground with the cot pinning him in place. Borhan squeaked like scared vermin and waddled away to cower behind his table of machines.

Polu shoved at the cot and managed to throw it off. He struggled to get up, but his ankle was bent at an odd ankle. These flecking Uldani. So fragile. He pointed his shock rod at me as I approached, his eyes wide and filled with pain. “Stay away,” he said. “You’ll never make it out of Alazar. If you submit now, I’ll make sure your death is quick instead of drawn out.”

I snorted. “Your demands mean nothing. They never did. And especially not now.” I slammed my tail into his wrist, and he cried out as his snapped back. The shock rod flew from his fingers.

His cradled his broken wrist to his chest and began to blubber, “I’m Polu Yannis, commander of the Uldani—”

I picked him up by the throat, cutting off his words. His legs kicked, but he was too weak to do any damage. “No,” I snarled in his face. “You’re dead.” I released his throat and slashed my forearm machets across his neck. He was dead before he hit the floor, his head nearly separated from his body.

I cracked my neck. “Fleck, that felt good.”

I turned to my last victim. Borhan.

His entire body shook as I strode toward him. I flexed my hands, and his black eyes bulged out of his skin, which had gone from silver to sickly gray. “Wait,” he called out as he shuffled around the table to maintain the distance between us. It wasn’t going to work. “I’ve only been trying to help you!”

“Help me? Do you think I’m flecking stupid?” I roared and, with a swipe of my hand, cleared half of his precious machines and screens off the center table. They crashed to the floor in an explosion of sparks and mechanical whines.

“No!” he screeched, way more concerned about his work than the Drixonian about to slit his throat. “Gram help me. Shock him!”

Gram no longer looked afraid. Instead he walked forward, his eyes locked on Borhan. “No, I don’t think I will. I think I’ll watch you die. Like you let my father die. Remember Hayuna Parrula?”

Borhan’s mouth fluttered like hunner’s wings. His brow furrowed. “No, that… you…”

“I’m still alive.” Gram lifted his chin. “And I’ve waited all my life to see yours end.”

“Fuck you!” came a war cry from behind me, and I spun around to see Val pummeling Hawn like the lioness she was, her little fists smacking his face. Hawn’s eyes were open, one hand grasping for his shock rod. With a grunt, his fingers closed around it. I didn’t have time to react before he lifted it with a triumphant gleam in his black eyes.

He plunged the rod into her chest. The sight of her mouth opening in a silent scream and her small body flying off Hawn from the force of the jolt would haunt me forever. She landed with a lifeless thud on the floor.

“Val!” I roared just as something sharp slammed into my thigh. I whirled to see Borhan skittering away from me, and a needle sticking out from my leg, the plunger depressed. I tore it out of my skin and lunged at Borhan. There was no time to draw this out. I took him off his feet with my tail and raked my machets from his throat to his groin. His skin split open like a swollen bladder, and I turned away at the gruesome sight. No medis would fix that.

Hawn stumbled to his feet, blood bubbling from between his lips. Gram rushed over to Val with a vial of medis. I had to trust he’d heal her. One of Hawn’s arms hung limp at his side, the bone bulging awkwardly. With his one working hand, he held the shock rod.

“You really think you’re going to do something with that?” I gestured toward his torture device. “It’s over, Hawn.”

“I know it’s over for me.” His breath was ragged. “But at least I took her out with me. Humans can’t sustain a blow from one of these. You knew that, right?”

I glanced over at Gram, who was bent over a still Val. He didn’t look up at me, but his hands shook as he worked over her, and for the first time since entering this room, dread slithered up my throat.

“She’ll live,” I said.

“Don’t be so sure,” Hawn said. “Is she breathing, Gram? Or should I call you traitor?”

Gram didn’t react to the insult. His eyes met mine, and he didn’t need to speak to tell me the answer.

“No!” My legs threatened to give out as I stared helplessly at Val’s motionless form. Her pretty hair spread around her pale face, and I ached to see her pretty blue eyes one more time, to see the lines around her mouth when she smiled at me.

I’d failed to protect my human. My Val. My fierce lioness.

The agony of my failure morphed from sick despair to white-hot rage. Fueled by retribution, I homed in on Hawn, the one responsible for the crippling pain tearing my cora to shreds. I roared out my fury as I flew at him with fists and teeth and machets.

He managed to stick me with the shock rod, somewhere, and I only knew because the pungent smell of my burning flesh filled the air. I was beyond feeling anything but the satisfaction of Hawn’s bones giving way beneath my pounding. I slashed him, again, and again, and again. His body, his face, his limbs. I didn’t see, my eyes blinded by the blackness of his blood and the red haze of my wrath. My machets scraped the floor, and that was when I finally stopped, chest heaving, to see Hawn scattered around me in bits of unrecognizable pieces. I reared back, stumbling to my feet as I held my hands out in front me. They were coated in Uldani blood. My scales reeked of death, and my machets dripped with the remains of my enemies.

But it was all for nothing.

I fell to my knees and crawled to my human, gathering her body against me. I wished for her arms to circle me one more time, for her to draw me to her breasts. I buried my face in her hair and inhaled.

I didn’t feel anything. Not the pain in my thigh or the ache in my muscles. Distantly, I registered an odd tingling in my wrists, but I ignored it. But within seconds, the tingling became an intense burning. I lifted my hand, trying to detect what was happening. Two parallel white lines encircled my wrists. A pattern began to emerge between them as the lines shifted from blinding white to a golden hue.

I knew what these were. I’d seen them on my brother and his mate. His cora-eternal. I gasped and nearly dropped Val. But then I raised my eyes to hers—her open eyes—which were staring right at me.

NINE

Val

I stared at Sax, wondering why I was lying on the floor, and why he looked so shell-shocked to see me. The last thing I remembered was Hawn. And pain. Lots and lots of mind-numbing pain.

Shit, what had he done to me? My body was wracked with tremors. And my wrists—they burned.

“S-Sath?” My tongue felt too big for my mouth, and I couldn’t form all my consonants.

I swallowed as the burning on my wrists intensified and raised a weak arm. I got a good look at my wrist and blinked. Was I hallucinating? Etched into the skin of my wrist were two golden parallel lines about two inches apart. Between them, like a thick bracelet, a pattern looped and curled in loose waves. I raised my other wrist—it had the same curious markings.

Sax raised his arm and gently pushed my hair away from my face. With a gasp, I grabbed his forearm. His wrist had the same bands, the same golden glow, and the same pattern. I met his gaze. “What—?” I swallowed. “What happened?”

My brain felt too big in my skull, like I had head trauma, but there was no pain. A distant glow crept along the edge of my mind like a violet panther.

“You’re okay,” he murmured, and that panther in my mind stood tall, sniffing the air.

“When wasn’t I okay?” I was thoroughly confused.

His breathing was off, and his voice shook. “Hawn shocked you,” he said. “I’ve never seen… Your body flew through the air and then you hit the floor hard.” His throat worked as he swallowed, and his eyes burned with an indigo intensity. “I didn’t think you’d get up again.”

“Well, let’s not be hasty.” I winced as pain shot through my hip. “I’m not exactly up.”

“I’m sorry,” Gram said from somewhere behind us. “But if you want a chance to get out of here, we have to leave now. Someone can walk by any minute and see… this.” He appeared over Sax’s shoulder, wringing his hands and glancing about nervously.

I looked around the lab. My breath stalled in my lungs. Blood. Blood everywhere. At least, I thought it was blood. Two Kulks lay in a green puddle. Polu and Borhan lay near each other, Borhan’s head connecting to his body by only a slim strip of skin. And Hawn… I only knew it was him because of his jacket. The rest of him was unrecognizable, like Jack the Ripper had returned from the past and traveled to a distant galaxy to rip a victim to minute pieces. I turned away from the decimated body to Sax’s hard gaze. Had he done that?

Sax seemed to know what I was thinking. “He hurt you.” He spoke slowly, each word gutted out like it cost him greatly. “I thought he killed you.”

“Guess he didn’t succeed,” I murmured.

“Drixonian,” Gram pleaded.

Sax gathered me into his arms and rose to his feet. “I think I can walk,” I protested.

“I’m sure you can,” Sax said. “But I’m faster.”

I didn’t even bother arguing. His legs were twice the length of mine, and he had super-human strength. Fuck my pride; our lives were on the line.

Gram handed Sax a metal ring, and he slipped it down to the first knuckle of his index finger. “Use the guard’s lift,” Gram said. “Take it to the top floor and there’ll be a transport vehicle there. It has access to leave the rear entrance of Alazar but ditch it as soon as you can. There’s no way I can turn off the tracking, and they will know soon you’ve escaped.”

“You sure you don’t want to come with us?” I’d hoped he’d changed his mind.

Gram shook his head. “This is my home, for better or for worse. And the worst is dead.” He lifted his chin and met Sax’s eyes. “Thank you, Drixonian.”

Sax merely gave him a short nod in response. It struck me that Gram hadn’t used Sax’s name not once. He was merely a Drixonian prisoner, and a means to an end Gram had wanted all his life. We were using him too, so I didn’t waste my time speaking up for Sax.

Gram extended his hand, and in his palm lay a small silver square. “Borhan kept all his research and files stored locally. The remote access files on the Rivian server are password protected. The only one who knew the password was Borhan. He’d told me once but I’ve—” His eyes flashed as he grinned. “—forgotten it.”

Sax snatched it from Gram’s hand and slipped it into his pants pocket. “Thank you.”

Gram’s smile faded. “They won’t stop, you know. I don’t know how far this goes up the chain of command, but Borhan and Polu, they answered to someone.”

Sax nodded. “I know, but with this information—” He patted his pocket. “—maybe we can get a better idea of what we’re up against.”

“Good luck.” Gram swallowed, and his arms flexed at his sides. “You gotta hit me now.”

This was the part I wasn’t looking forward to, and from the clench of Sax’s teeth, he wasn’t either. “Can you just pretend to be knocked out?” he asked.

Gram gave him a suffering look. “You massacred everyone else and chose to spare me without a scratch? That’s not going to be convincing to anyone.”

I reached out and squeezed Gram’s hand. “Thank you. For everything.”

His eyes flickered before he steeled himself. “Just get out of here. Survive.” He looked to Sax. “Come on, Drix. Hit me.”

“I’ll never forget what you did for us,” Sax said, balling his fist. “If you ever need anything, come find me at the Night Kings clavas.”

A small smile passed over Gram’s face. “Will do.”

“See you in another life, Uldani.” He cocked back his elbow and cracked Gram across the face. He crumpled like a doll, and his face had already begun to swell before he hit the floor. I flinched. “You didn’t kill him, did you?” I wiggled out of Sax’s arms and tried to check for a pulse. I finally felt a dull throbbing in Gram’s neck. I looked up at Sax. “Still alive.”

“I didn’t hit him that hard.” He frowned.

“Okay, we’ll talk about your definition of hard some other time.” I stood and wobbled on my feet. My limbs still hummed and trembled from the after-effects of Hawn’s wicked shock pole. I could taste a bitter metallic coating at the back of my tongue.

After stealing a pair of boots from one of the dead Kulk’s for himself and Gram’s for me, Sax scooped me into his arms. “Ready to get out of here, human?”

I laced my hands behind Sax’s thick neck and held on. “Ready.”

He burst out of the lab and took an immediate right, sprinting down the hallway. He ran so fast, the walls were a blur. No wonder he’d wanted to carry me. I could maybe run at one tenth of his speed. He slid to a halt before a door with a small black panel beside it. He passed the ring over the screen, and the door slid open, revealing an elevator. He jumped in and as the door slid shut, he pressed my head to his chest. “Brace.”

“What?”

In the next second, the elevator shot up so fast that I swore we left my organs behind. I gasped for breath, feeling like I was at an amusement park on those towers that shot into the air. Sax’s arms held me tight, which was great, because if I had been standing on my own, I swore I would have splatted to the floor like a swatted fly. The elevator finally slowed before slamming to a halt. If Sax hadn’t been holding me, I would have been smooshed on the ceiling.

The door didn’t open right away, and Sax’s chest heaved. I glanced up at him. The blue panther in my mind paced, its tail flicking restlessly. “Are you okay?”

He didn’t look at me, but the muscles in his neck bulged. “Yes,” he spoke through gritted teeth.

The door flung open, and I blinked into sunlight. Sitting there in the green dirt, right as Gram had promised, was an Uldani hovercar. Sax exhaled, his shoulders falling. He’d been nervous, and he hadn’t wanted me to be nervous too. Little did he know I’d wanted to do nothing but throw up since we’d entered that lab.

I didn’t get a good look at what was around us, because Sax opened the door to the car and shoved me inside. I crawled to the passenger side where he directed me to stay low and out of sight. I huddled on the floor in front of the seat, ignoring the odd, unpleasant smell. Sax shoved his arms into a robe that had been waiting on the driver’s seat, pulling the hood over his head as far as he could. The robe didn’t do much to disguise his color and bulk, but it wouldn’t draw the attention of anyone glancing through the vehicle’s tinted windows. We hoped.

He turned on the vehicle, and it rose into the air. When he turned his head to face me, his mouth split into a wide grin. “What’s are you so happy about?” I asked.

“Been a long time since I’ve driven one of these.” He gripped the steering wheel with pale blue knuckles. “When I worked for the Uldani, my job was to track down fugitives in one of these bad boys.” He patted the dashboard and licked his fangs. “Never missed a bounty. You’re in for a treat, lioness.”

He maneuvered away from the huge building and into the maze-like surrounding area with deft turns of his wrists and alternating shifts between the accelerator and the brake. His muscles clenched as he moved with the car, his jaw jutting firmly from the hood’s shadow. To be honest, it was kind of hot, and I wished I wasn’t absolutely terrified for my life so I could enjoy the sight of him.

We reached a busy area of town where voices drifted into the sanctuary of the car, and buildings rose tall outside the windows. I peered up, up, up, to see the floating pods above the skyscrapers. I wondered where the Uldani female lived who had been so eager to see us naked. I shivered and clutched my knees to my chest. My muscles still ached, and when I wasn’t staring out the window in awe, I was touching my wrists. The golden tattoos shimmered in the filtered sun creeping through the tinted windows. The muscles in Sax’s arms shifted as he drove, so his matching marks danced on his skin like decorative bangles. In the rush to get out of the lab, I’d forgotten all about our matching wrist markings.

I wanted to ask him what the hell they were, but now was not the time. His jaw was clenched, eyes focused on his driving. The purple panther in my mind was turned away. Occupied.

When I’d been in one of these cars before, I hadn’t paid much attention to the inside, as I’d been more focused on the fact that outside the windows had been a planet other than Earth.

The dashboard looked more like an airplane’s cockpit—various knobs and switches littered a slanted panel while a screen displayed a green grid that seemed to be a kind of map. A small dot flickered, signaling our location as we moved through the fortress’s maze.

He pressed a button on the console. “Alert scan.”

A voice—it sounded female but who really knew on this planet—answered him from a speaker near my head. “No alerts at this time.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“That’s Yuli. The Uldani artificial intelligence system. She can only be accessed within the Alazar walls or through an Uldani vehicle like this or an aircraft.”

“Why did you ask her about alerts?”

“If they know we’re missing, they’ll send up an alert. She’ll know immediately.”

Okay, so Yuli was our friend. Except there were hundreds of other Yulis in other cars.

Sax blew out a breath, and his gaze flicked to me before focusing back on the road. Or air-path? Whatever it was. “You okay?”

“I’m fine,” I hadn’t taken one good breath since walking into that fucking lab.

“We’re going to get out of here, Val,” he vowed.

I didn’t answer, because while I trusted him, I didn’t trust anyone within these walls. I still wasn’t sure I trusted Gram yet, even though he’d come through for us this far. I crossed my fingers, toes, and eyes.

He frowned at me. “What are you doing?”

“Crossing everything I can.”

“Crossing … what?”

“It’s a sign for good luck. When you want something to happen. You cross your fingers.” I held up my hands. “See?”

“Humans and your good luck symbols,” he muttered.

“Alert for stolen vehicle I-119. Guards in pursuit,” Yuli said in a calm voice as if she wasn’t notifying us of our imminent death.

“Sax…” I cried just as shouts went up outside our car. Something slammed into our rear, sending the whole vehicle on a forward nose-dive until Sax regained control. My head cracked on the panel above me, and I cried out.

“Fleck,” Sax muttered, whipping his head around to stare at the back window. “Fleck you!” he shouted.

Another jolt, this time from the side, and I screamed. “Sax!”

“I thought we had more time before they found us,” he grunted.

My heart sank as my skin broke out into terrified goosebumps. “No,” I whispered. “I can’t go back. I can’t go—”

“You’re not going back,” he shouted. He threw his hood back and his hair, which had come free of his carefully braided plait, swirled around his shoulders in a glossy black mane. His nostrils flared, and the rings in his ear glinted. “Because they won’t catch us.” Another jolt, and my shoulder slammed painfully into the side of the car.

With one hand, Sax hauled me into the passenger seat by the back of my shirt. He pressed a button and two shoulder straps crossed my torso in an X, locking me into place on the seat. “Hang on,” he said, his eyes glinting dangerously. “Ride might get a little bumpy.”

He jammed down on the accelerator, and we shot forward like a rocket. I thought the elevator had been an amusement park ride. It had nothing on Sax’s driving. I craned my neck to see out the back window and made an undignified squeak. At least five hover cars were on our tail, bearing down on us with lights and sirens blaring. Buildings rose on either side of us, so close I swore if I stuck my hand out the window, I could touch the shimmering structures. I felt like I was in an alternate universe in the Fast & the Furious movie franchise. Vin Diesel was great, but he had nothing on the blue hunk sitting next to me.

Sax weaved among the buildings. I couldn’t tell how fast we were going, but I had to estimate at least seventy miles per hour on streets that looked the width of an elementary school hallway. Below, Uldani huddled in groups, pointing at us as we sped past.

I remained braced for another jolt, but Sax kept just far enough ahead. He turned the wheel like it was an extension of himself, and his feet moved so fast—he drove with two feet—that his limbs were a blue blur.

“Fleck,” he muttered. “If I had my bike, we’d be out of here by now. Flecking car. I can stay ahead of them, but I have to lose them.” He sped between two buildings and into what seemed like a dead end. A building rose in front of us, tall, imposing, and most of all solid.

“What are you doing?” I cried as we raced toward the building at a breakneck speed. Why wasn’t Sax slowing down? We were going to crash. “How do you plan to—?” My words broke off on a shriek as Sax pulled back on the steering wheel and the car went from parallel to the ground to perpendicular to the building, defying all laws of gravity. I gripped my seat with white knuckles as my stomach revolted.

“Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God,” I chanted as green, wispy clouds drew closer. I stopped breathing just as we crested the building. But the ride didn’t stop. Oh hell no, because Sax slammed on the brakes, pushed on the steering wheel with a violent shove, and then stomped on the accelerator so we went zooming down the other side of the building.

I slapped one hand over my mouth as we plummeted straight down. I’d left my stomach and most of my organs back there on the roof. The ground drew closer. Closer. Little dots on the ground grew into big dots, then into tiny creatures, and then into Uldani. We were going to hit them. We were going to smash into the ground at an unbelievable speed and disintegrate into a million pieces. There was no way Sax could right this hovercar.

“Sax!” I croaked out of a dry throat.

“I got this!” he growled.

The Uldani on the ground pointed and then scattered as we raced toward them. My head spun. My feet jammed as if I had my own brake. The ground rose to meet us, and I sucked in a breath before sending up one last prayer to karma. And Fatas. And whoever else was listening.

Sax yanked the steering wheel. The nose of the car reared up. The car jolted as the back end scraped the ground, and then we were up and off again. I glanced behind me and saw we’d left the large buildings behind. Out the side, I saw a series of smaller homes, most of them in a dilapidated condition. And these Uldani? They barely glanced at us as they plodded along with hunched, overworked postures in drab clothes.

Sax glanced in the rearview mirror and swore. I didn’t like when he swore. I whirled around to see one hovercar behind us, a determined Kulk at the wheel.

“We lost the rest of them?”

“Yeah, most wouldn’t risk that type of maneuver,” he said. “Fleck, how am I going to lose this guy?”

“Is there a weapon in here somewhere?”

“What?” He glanced at me as he took a hairpin turn.

“A weapon? Rocket launcher?” I mimicked a gun with my fingers and made a pew pew sound. “Do you guys have guns here? Something that shoots, uh, killing … balls?”

Sax’s eyes went wide before he snorted. “Killing balls?”

“Yeah, on Earth we have guns. They shoot metal balls at a high velocity that enter your body and wreak havoc inside.”

Without answering, he reached under the seat and produced a wicked gun-like object. “This doesn’t shoot balls of metal. It shoots light pulses. Heated energy. If you—”

The entire car rocked, and the lights on the dashboard lit up like Christmas. “Weapon damage to left rear. Leaking fuel,” Yuli said.

We looked over our shoulders to see one Kulk hanging out the window of his car, the same gun-like weapon in his hand. “Mother-flecker,” Sax snarled. Another blast hit us, and I braced my hands on the dashboard so I didn’t hit it face-first. Sparks flew past Sax’s window.

“Weapon damage to left—”

“I know, I know!” Sax roared, drowning out the voice. He glanced at me, eyes wild. “I need you to drive.”

“What?” I screeched. “I never go more than seven miles over the speed limit. I drive a Prius!”

“You’re my lioness,” he yelled, his hair flying as he pounded the wheel. “You will drive this car so I can get these Kulks off our tail! Do you understand?”

I didn’t have a choice. He was right. I had to step up rather than sit in the passenger seat like a scared rabbit. But oh God, I was totally a cowering baby bunny right now.

I swallowed and steeled my spine as best as I could. “Okay,” I said, just as another blow nearly sent our car rolling on its side. “I’ll do it.”

Sax hauled me into his lap and showed me where the gas pedal was. “Just keep going straight,” he said. “We’re heading to the back wall where we have access to leave the gate.”

I gripped the steering wheel as he slid out from underneath me and threw his bulk into the passenger seat. As sweat dripped down my temples, I nodded. “Hands at ten and two,” I whispered to myself. “Foot on the gas. I can do this.”

I’d been talking to myself, but Sax answered anyway. “You can do this, Val. You can.”

With a closed fist, he punched out the passenger side window. Air rushed into the car, taking my breath away and sending my hair swirling around my shoulders. Something sharp sliced my cheek but I ignored it, even as something wet and hot slid toward my jawline. Sax and I must have looked a sight, his black hair nearly alive around his head, and my blonde locks whipping and twisting in the wind.

Gripping the top of the window frame with his right hand, he swung his torso out of the window and took aim. I nearly screamed at him for making himself so vulnerable, but we both had to concentrate, so I clenched my mouth shut.

He fired and a split second later came the blast of his direct hit.

“Bingo,” I whispered.

“What?” he asked as he ducked back into the car.

“Oh, it’s, uh, something we say when we succeed at something.”

He grinned. “Hold that ‘bingo’ until we actually lose them.” With that, he swung out the window again and fired three times in quick succession.

He was either a better shot or he had a better weapon, because when I risked a glance behind me, fire and smoke were engulfing the car behind us.

I whipped my head back to the windshield, concentrating on not crashing. A blast rocked the rear of the car, and I heard the sound of metal shrieking as the car behind us no doubt hit the ground.

Sax reached over and steadied the wheel with a giant hand. He grinned at me, all fangs and flushed cheeks. “Binggg-ooo,” he sang.

TEN

Sax

After switching places with Val, I gunned the accelerator, speeding toward the back gate. We weren’t out of Alazar yet, but my blood hummed and my skin itched as freedom was just beyond the reach of my clawtips.

It was only a matter of time before the Uldani unleashed as many Kulk Defens as they could to hunt us down. The fortress walls rose high and forbidding in front of us, but I focused on the small car-shaped gate we were racing toward.

I pressed a button on the dashboard. “Open rear gates.”

The voice crackled to life. The damage sustained to the vehicle must have rattled something loose because she was sounding a little hoarse. “P-permiss-shhhhhon d-d-d-denied.”

“Denied?” I hollered and slammed my fist on the wheel. The vehicle shuddered and Val’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head.

“Denied?” she echoed my words. “What does that mean? We can’t leave?”

“Gram said he gave us access.” I tapped my fingers on the cracked screen.

“He wouldn’t do this to us,” Val murmured. “I looked in his eyes. He was honest!”

I didn’t have the cora to tell her that no Uldani was honest. “Access permissions,” I said to the car. “What is our access level?”

“Access l-l-level is a fi-i-ive.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “A level five means we should be able to open the gates. I know this. This was my flecking job!”

“Rear g-g-gate access has been clos-s-s-s-ed to all levels b-b-b-ecause of internal emergen-gen-gency,” the voice crackled.

“Fleck!” I roared. “They can’t remotely deny an individual car’s access, but they can change the permission levels on the exits.” Panic welled in my chest, squeezing my lungs until I could barely breathe. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Val reached for my biceps, her wide eyes peering up into my face. “It’s okay, Sax. We did everything we could.” The resignation in her voice cracked my cora wide open.

Ever since the cora-eternal loks had appeared on our wrists, I’d felt her in my mind, a golden salibri with black stripes standing proud and quiet. But now that salibri lay down, its belly flat on the floor, nostrils wide and flaring. No way would my lioness give up. I wouldn’t let her.

“What?” I whipped my head to her. “It’s not okay. I haven’t done everything I can. Not yet.”

“Can I override gate permissions?” I asked the car.

“Only with e-e-elite level access-s-s-s. Scan if in your p-p-p-possession.”

“Elite level what?” Val asked.

I let out a long, low breath of relief and didn’t slow down as we approached the gates.

“Sax, slow down!”

I waved my hand in front of the screen, the key ring Gram had given us shining on my first knuckle. “Here’s your elite level, you fleckers.”

The sweet, sweet words of “Access-s-s-s approv-v-v-ed” fill the car, and the gates flew open. We soared through them, the edges of the doors scraping the sides of our car with an animal-like shriek on our way out.

“Holy shit.” Val whirled around.

I glanced over my shoulder to see the gates closing. We were out from behind the walls. Away from the Uldani. Free. For now. We still had several more obstacles, and I wasn’t looking forward to any of them.

I pushed the car to its limits across the open plain and immediately began to swerve in a zig-zag pattern. Val slammed her hands on the dashboard to brace herself. “What are you doing?”

“Avoiding the long-range solar bombs.”

“The what?”

An explosion to the right of the car sent dirt and rocks scattering across our windshield. I avoided the shock of the blast, but not the debris. Val screamed.

“That,” I muttered, whipping the wheel to the left to avoid another shower of grass.

“Where the hell are they coming from?” Val cried.

“Get away from the window!” I grabbed her shoulder and pushed it down. “Cover your head. They’re shooting at us from atop the fortress. Once we get to that tree line, we’re out of their range. We just need to—” Something hit us, and the entire vehicle went haywire. I licked my lips. “We need to avoid, uh, that.”

“Oh my God,” Val sobbed in the passenger seat. Her salibri cowered, and I loathed my proud fierce lioness being this afraid.

I gripped the steering wheel. There was still power, and we were still in the air. The tree line was approaching. Just a little bit more time. Just a little more—

“L-l-ow f-f-uel,” the car crackled to life.

“Oh fleck your fuel,” I spat. I pulled back the steering wheel. If we had any hope of getting to the tree line, I had to get this thing as high as I could. Fast.

I punched a button on the ceiling and a fabric pack landed in my lap. I’d just put my arm through one of the pack’s straps when another explosion hit the front corner of the vehicle, sending us into a spiral. I eyed the tree line. Close enough.

I jammed the accelerator to the floor and locked it into place. After disengaging the belts on Val and myself, I faced the vehicle’s front, tensed my legs, and kicked them up and out, sending the windshield flying. Val screamed, and I hauled her into my arms. I scrambled onto the front of the vehicle, readjusted my grip on Val, and whispered, “Hang on, lioness.”

She gripped me hard, her legs locking around my waist. I took a deep breath, and using every last ounce of strength I possessed, leapt toward the edge of the tree line.

Val clung to me, her nails digging into my skin as she opened her mouth in a silent scream. I prayed to Fatas we were out of the range of the solar bombs. Once we hit this tree line, we were home free. The rough terrain of Corin was my element. Until then…

I yanked on the pack’s cord. Fabric unfurled above us, breaking our fall right as we reached the tree line.

Val burrowed her head into my chest as branches whipped at us on the way down. I took a trunk to the face before we jerked to a halt, our legs dangling. The fabric was stuck on a branch, preventing us from falling further. I wiggled out of the pack and we dropped the rest of the way to the ground. I’d twisted at the last second to protect Val, and pain streaked down my back, breath leaving my lungs in a painful rush. I lay gasping on my back while Val immediately rolled onto her hands and knees and threw up.

She wiped her mouth and crawled over to me, her hands patting me everywhere she could touch. “Are you okay? Can you breathe? Can you move your legs?”

I waved her away as I sucked in air. “Fine. Just… give me a moment.”

“You sure?”

I swallowed and licked my lips. “Yeah, positive.”

She sat back on her heels and squinted up into the tress. “I, for one, never want to do that again. Ever.”

“Really?” I grinned at her. “I don’t know, it was kind of fun.”

Her nostrils flared. “If I wasn’t so grateful to you for saving my life, I’d hit you right now. That was not fun. Not at all. Opposite of fun. So opposite of fun that there isn’t even a word for it.”

Her fury was a sight to behold. Her salibri snarled. After everything that had happened since we walked into Borhan’s lab, I welcomed her anger.

“Okay, I promise we won’t do it again.” I hauled myself to my feet and stumbled when pain shot up my leg. The same leg Borhan had plunged a needle into. I hadn’t let myself think about what he’d injected me with. I pressed on the skin, and winced at the sore, swollen flesh.

“You okay?” Val asked. She jumped to her feet and immediately ran her hands over my body. “Anything hurt?”

I straightened, not wanting her to worry. Whatever Borhan gave me, I’d get through. I’d done it before. He’d never found anything that had affected me enough to be worried about. “I’m fine.”

I glanced at the open plains surrounding Alazar through a break in the trees. We were too close to the fortress to rest. “Come on, we have to move. We can rest when we’re farther away. Any minute now, those gates are going to open, and they’re going to send Kulks out in droves to hunt us down.”

Val took one last look at the walls where we’d been held. “I can’t believe… we’re out.”

“We’re out, and we’re not going back.” I shook off the odd aches and pains in my body. “Climb on my back. We need to move.”

“I can ru—”

“I know you can run, and sweet Val, I’m sure for a human you can run fast. But not for a Drixonian, and we don’t just need to move. We need to move.”

She swallowed and nodded her head. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Val

We were maybe a mile away from Alazar, Sax’s strong legs powering up a hill, when the gates to Alazar opened and a stream of Kulks emerged on foot. I could see them, like little ants emerging from an anthill, but I knew they were no ants. Up close, they were scary as shit. Goosebumps rose on my arms, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I shuddered just thinking about those smelly massive aliens.

I’d seen Sax kill four Kulks since I’d met him, but the amount of Kulks emerging from the gates? Dozens. I looked away and tightened my grip on Sax’s back. He’d seen them too. I hadn’t thought it was possible, but he picked up his pace.

“Why aren’t they all in those car things?” I asked. “Wouldn’t they be able to find us faster?”

“The terrain is too rough for the vehicles. It’s one of the reasons we stay on our side of the continent and they stay on theirs. Even so, their resources are finite. They don’t have enough transport vehicles to supply all their Defens, and even if they did, the fuel cost would be astronomical.”

I nodded because that made sense. Suddenly, Sax faltered, like he’d stepped in a hole, but he righted himself quickly. I frowned. His gait was off. I didn’t want to draw attention to it, but I could tell he had some sort of injury. At first, it wasn’t noticeable, but as time drew on, and he continued to run, I could tell he was favoring his left leg.

“We need to rest,” I said into his hair.

“Are you tired?” he panted.

“No, you are! We need to get you something to drink. And eat.”

“I’m fine.”

“Sax,” I pleaded. “You can’t act like this is some Drixonian talent where you can run for miles and miles without stopping. I know you need to eat and drink.” Then I went with the thing I knew would get to him. “What will I do if something happens to you?”

That made him slow down, but only slightly. “We’ll rest at nightfall. I’m heading to a place we won’t be spotted. If we rest before we get there, we’re as good as dead. Or as good as prisoners again.”

I patted his chest. “Okay. I’ll accept that answer.”

I was slowing him down, but I also knew, without a doubt, I’d slow him down a hell of a lot more if I was running with him. His pace was blistering, a near sprint even though he breathed like he was out for a morning jog.

“Can I ask a question?” I said.

“Yes.”

“You’re faster than the Kulks, right?”

His ears lifted, and I could tell he grinned. “Absolutely. At least twice as fast. They’re slow to begin with, and then they have all that armor because they can’t fight without it.”

Satisfied at that answer, I breathed easier. Just a bit. “That’s good news.”

He ran for what felt like hours. At the beginning, he powered to the peak of the mountain in an all-out sprint. After that, he settled into a jog as he maneuvered through a semi-plateau of rocky terrain. We went up, down, and sideways. I wanted to ask more about the planet, but I worried about taking away his concentration. His eyes were a bit glazed, like he’d settled into cruise-control mode. So, I clung to him, clenched my teeth against the jarring pace, and remained silent.

As I’d noted upon first landing on the planet, the foliage was a brilliant blue color, as well as the grass. The dirt was green, kind of like matcha powder, and puffed up in spurts under Sax’s feet. Every so often, I caught glimpses of wildlife—some winged bird-like creatures, massive flying insects the size of my palm, and even a hoofed four-legged animal about the size of a deer with antler-like growths emerging from its head and wrapping around its slender neck.

Through gaps in the overhead trees, the sun shone close and hot, causing sweat to drip down my back. Of course, it wasn’t my sun, the sun I was used to, but it was a sun nonetheless, and I basked in its warmth. There had been many times in the Uldani fortress I thought I’d never feel sunshine again. On the other side of the horizon, a large planet rose, swirling blues and greens, and I remembered Sax had said that it was his home planet—Corin.

As the sun began to dip, Sax’s breathing finally grew labored to the point of wheezing. “Can we stop yet?” I asked him.

He shook his head. “Not much longer. Almost there.”

By the time he slowed, I swore my bones had rattled apart and everything ached from holding onto his body. Fuck, I was tired. But I didn’t dare complain. He had run almost the entire day. Between the two of us, he was the one who deserved to whine. But he didn’t say a word.

He drew to a stop in a non-descript spot that looked like a million other spots we’d passed. He set me gently on my feet, and I wobbled as feeling came back into my legs. I braced myself on a tree and listened for the stomping of Kulks. In the far distance, I could hear rustling, but it didn’t seem to be close. What did I know though? I wasn’t a tracker.

Sax had approached a dense-looking bush and appeared to be looking for something in its branches. He knelt, and for a moment I thought he was pulling on a root. I gasped as the tree root turned out to be… not attached to a tree. It was a handle to some kind of door embedded in the earth. With a jerk, Sax opened the door all the way and gestured toward a dark opening in the ground.

“What is that?” I muttered, stepping closer.

“I’ll explain once we get inside.” His voice was low, urgent.

“We’re going in there?” I squeaked. Oh God, I was claustrophobic. The elevator had been bad enough, but now he wanted me to climb into dark hole in the ground? Lord, kill me now.

Sax grabbed my hand and looked me in the eyes. “We have to Val. I can’t outrun them the entire way to safety. We have to hide, so I can rest.” His fatigue was stark in the pale lines of his face and the cracked skin of his lips. He was dehydrated, hungry, and exhausted. I had to buck up and crawl into this pit of hell. For him. I could do it for him.

I nodded with gritted teeth and tried to hide my full-body tremors. “Right. So, I just…”

“There’s a ladder. You have to go in first so I can shut the hatch.”

Of course. Fuck me. “Okay.”

He showed me the first rung of the ladder and after counting to ten, I descended. I tried not to think about the darkness below, but instead focused on Sax above me. That is, until he stepped in after me, shut the hatch, and plunged us into complete darkness.

“Sax!” I whisper-shouted, just managing to curtail a scream. Suddenly, a click echoed in the inky blackness, and I froze in fear until a light appeared above me. Sax held a flashlight-looking device in one hand and shone it into his grinning face. “Solar light. It was hidden in the numa bush out there. It’s fully charged, so we should be good for a while.”

A light. Okay that was good. Fantastic, even. The tightness in my chest eased now that I wasn’t descending into total darkness. I’d seen the movie Descent. Darkness was not my friend.

I continued down the ladder until my feet touched solid ground. I stumbled and scooted out of the way so Sax could jump the rest of the distance. He landed with a thud and swung the flashlight around the space.

I caught a glimpse of some crates and a few other unidentified objects before Sax’s light settled on a translucent round sphere on a pedestal in the corner. He sat the light inside, and a dull yellow glow filled the space, amplified by sphere like a lamp.

I performed a slow turn, taking in the details of the room. We were in what I could only describe as a roughly dug-out bunker. A few crates sat on the floor next to some dusty jugs of liquid. There was a lump of fabric that I assumed was a pallet for sleeping. The walls and the floor were nothing but green dirt, but it seemed safe, and not too cold. And by God, was that food?

Sax had already descended on the crates, clawing through them like the starving man he was. He pulled out a couple of bars, and I practically inhaled one. I didn’t even care that they tasted a bit like cardboard. It was the most delicious cardboard I’d ever eaten.

He ate two in quick succession before he finally spoke. “We built several of these bunkers during the Uprising. The Uldani were never able to find them because this area is too difficult to map. This strip of land between the western and eastern half of the continent is generally considered a neutral no-man’s land. But the Uldani know if a battle occurred here, we’d crush them. They rarely leave the safety of their fortress, and their battle strategies rely on tech and planning. They need space for their weapons. Close combat is a no-go.”

He ripped open the top of a jug and poured some into his mouth. He handed the rest to me. “It’s stale qua, but it’ll do.”

I glanced at the other five jugs. “Should we ration it?”

He shook his head. “Don’t plan to be here long.”

“You need to rest,” I urged him.

He nodded. “I know.” After downing another tein bar, he stood up. His left thigh faltered before he regained his balance. I noticed a rip in his pants and a bit of exposed skin underneath that was darker in color.

“Is your leg okay?” I reached for him, but he shuffled away. I drew my hands back, alarmed. “Sax?”

“I’m fine,” he muttered. “Just got stuck with a branch while running. It’ll be fine. I just need some rest.”

“Is there medis here?” I asked.

“No, and it’s okay. I don’t need it.”

He peeled the dusty top layer from the pallet and fell face-first on top of it. A swirl of dust kicked up, and he coughed. Through slitted eyes, he mumbled, “Come, lioness, keep me warm.”

I smiled as I crawled into bed beside him. “Isn’t it the other way around? You keep me warm.”

He slung a heavy arm over me, his eyes now fully closed. “Keep me company, then.”

I smoothed back his sweaty hair just as his breaths evened out. “Always,” I murmured. I curled onto my side, shoved my face into this shoulder, and fell asleep in seconds.

ELEVEN

Val

I blinked my eyes open and all I saw was blue. A beautiful blue hue. I slowly lifted my gaze to see Sax still asleep, his full lips parted, and the fatigued lines erased from his face. The light in the sphere still glowed, showing me that Sax’s color had returned. A relief after he’d been so pale last night.

In sleep, we’d both migrated onto our sides facing each other. Sax’s arm was wrapped around my waist, his other tucked under my head so my temple rested on his biceps. His tail lay across my legs, thick and heavy. I didn’t dare wake him. He needed his sleep, and I had to admit, I was enjoying this unencumbered study of my big alien.

At least, I wanted to think of him as mine. I still hadn’t talked to him about these wrist markings, but they tied us together somehow. Had Borhan done something to us? I shuddered. I didn’t want to think about Borhan now. He was dead, and the lab was destroyed. Sax held some sort of information chip in his pocket, so the whole Uldani race could fuck off. Except Gram. He was the only Uldani not on my shit list.

Sax stirred, his mouth opening on a yawn that displayed his fangs like a cat’s. His eyes blinked open, instantly alert. How did he do that? He grinned at me immediately, and I knew for a fact I was starting to crave his smiles. His grin could get a dozen women pregnant all while repairing the Great Barrier Reef and curing world hunger. It was that potent.

I cupped his cheek. “Morning. Or at least, I guess it’s morning.”

“It’s morning to us,” he said. His voice still held a hint of a sexy rasp from sleep. His eyes were beautiful, a soft purple that nearly glowed. My breath caught in my throat. His tail flicked the backs of my thighs, and goosebumps raced over my skin.

“Hey,” I murmured.

“Sorry. He has a mind of his own,” Sax said with innocent eyes.

“Uh-huh.” I smiled. “Sure.” I rubbed my thumb along his cheekbone. “You feel rested?”

He yawned again and rolled onto his back, stretching his arms over his head. “Fleck, yeah. I haven’t slept like that since before I was taken. Maybe never. I sleep the best with you next to me.” The panther in my mind stirred and began a steady purr.

“I can’t believe you ran for that long. Humans can’t do that. I mean, some run marathons and stuff like that, but they train for it for months. Years. And that’s only running for a few hours. Maybe five. You ran for a solid day it seemed.”

“Drixonians have outstanding endurance. Our bodies shut down most other functions and only focus on the act of running. If you’d tried to talk to me, I probably wouldn’t have been able to answer questions. My brain and cora concentrate on moving my body and that’s it.”

“So, you have like a running mode? Like a machine?”

“I guess. In a way.”

“On Earth running is for exercise and a hobby. Runners are a crazy cult too. If they knew you had this running mode you could switch into, they’d do everything to try to do it themselves.”

He laughed. “Well, they’d need Drixonian blood, so good luck to them on getting that.”

My eyes fell on his wrists, and I reached over to slip my fingers between his. I held up our linked hands. “Can we talk about these now?”

He ran his fingers over the markings. “I can barely believe it,” he murmured. “The whole time we were escaping, all I could think about was that Fatas meant for us to survive. Every single thing the Uldani put me through, all the pain and starvation and humiliation, it was all worth it.” His pretty purple eyes locked with mine. “Because she gave me you as my mate. My cora-eternal.”

My brain had begun to process things faster since the whole aliens actually exist realization, but I was still struck dumb at his statement. My implant roughly translated cora-eternal as forever heart. “Mates?” I said in a hushed whisper, as if speaking it too loudly meant that he’d tell me it was all a joke.

“Back when we lived on Corin, cora-eternal pairings were rare. Like once-in-a-generation rare. But then my brother showed up with his human, and they had their loks. That’s what we call these matching wrist markings.”

“But what does it mean?”

“It means Fatas has chosen you for me. And me for you. It means we’re meant to be together and we can feel each other’s emotions… I can feel you—your aura—like a fierce salibri in my mind.”

“Your aura is a purple panther.”

He rolled onto his side and propped his head on a fist. “What’s a panther?”

“A big cat…” He still looked confused. I bit my lip and tried again. “A large furred predator. With fangs. They are stealthy and smart.”

“A panther,” he murmured. “I like that word. You know, I was hunting a salibri when the Uldani overpowered me. We use them for their pelts, but I’ve decided I’ll never kill another. They are sacred to me now.” That wicked grin split his face. “Fatas put that salibri in my path so I’d find my lioness.”

I couldn’t stop staring at our wrists. “But why did they appear when they did?”

“My brother told me the bonding process starts the first time we meet.”

I remember how I’d felt gazing at his big unconscious body in the cell. How I somehow felt like I could touch him and that he wouldn’t hurt me. I grazed my fingers over his side. “Maybe that was why I felt so compelled to clean your wounds. To take care of you.”

“Something in me recognized something in you,” he murmured. “Daz said that once a mate kills someone who spills his mate’s blood, the loks appear and complete the bond. That’s when we gain our auras.”

“Hawn,” I said. “He made me bleed.”

Sax nodded. “I didn’t think there’d be another cora-eternal in this generation. I don’t know what this means or what Fatas is trying to tell us, but this bond and you… means everything to me.”

His words sent tingles down my spine. “Me too. This is the last thing I expected to happen. So, what does being mates mean?”

“It means we’re connected.”

“I get that, but in what way?” I bit my lip. “I’m sorry. This isn’t a concept that’s a reality on Earth. I guess some people believe in soul mates, but I never did. And on Earth, we certainly don’t feel each other’s emotions in our heads or develop magical tattoos.”

He grasped my hand and tugged it to his chest, over where his heart beat strong. “Don’t think so hard. Feel.”

He spoke the command so simply, like it was easy. But it wasn’t for me. I didn’t open myself up to friends, patients, or coworkers. Only my mom had gotten the whole of me and even then, there were things I kept from her. Because there were just some things you couldn’t share with your mother. I swallowed and the panther in my mind climbed as high as it could go and surveyed my jumbled thoughts like a king. Warmth spread through me from the center of my chest to every limb and digit.

“Tell me,” he said softly. “What do you feel?”

I spoke without thinking first. “Warm. Safe. Protected.”

A kind smile spread across his face, not the normal cocky Sax grin. “I feel complete.”

I closed my eyes at his last word, because yes, I felt that too but hadn’t been able to put it into words. Sax said it so simply, so easily. Every part of me wanted to trust these feelings, but there was a small voice in my head that kept telling me to be reasonable. He felt this way because he believed he was supposed to. I’d always considered logic my greatest strength, but now it was making me second-guess myself.

“You are my cora-eternal,” he said. “I will protect you and care for you until my last breath.”

“Because Fatas chose me?” I asked.

He studied me closely before answering. “No. I would have chosen you from the first moment you stood up to the Uldani for the both of us.”

“But Sax, that’s not really me,” I said. “Normally I’m closed off and quiet. I don’t stick up for myself like that. It was an extreme situation, what we lived through in those cells.”

He cocked his head. “I don’t think that. I think extreme situations bring out who we really are.”

“Maybe so, but I’m terrified that sticking up for myself is going to backfire one day. Sure, Polu did what I wanted and improved our living situation by a small increment, but what if they hadn’t? There are just too many variables, and when faced with a decision, they cycle through my head until I—”

“Val,” he interrupted me with a firm tone.

I bit my lip.

He smiled, and it was a tad patronizing, but I let it go. “Trust your instincts.”

“My instincts are typically to hide or flee for self-preservation.”

He shook his head. “No, they aren’t. They aren’t because so far your instincts have been to protect us.”

No, I wanted to scream. My instinct is to protect you.

“And if your actions ever backfire,” he said. “I’ll be there to save you from the fallout. We’re a team, you and me. We were a team without these loks.” He held up my wrist and shook it. “And we’ll be a team afterward. Don’t you see? You were meant for me, and that was why Fatas gave us the loks. Not the other way around.”

When he put it that way, it made a little more sense, but this was still a foreign concept to me.

He frowned. “Do you doubt how you feel about me? Do you think I don’t deserve you?

“What?” I gasped. “No, Sax. That’s not at all what I think.” My eyes pricked with tears, and heat rushed up my neck to flush my face. How could he think he wasn’t worthy? “I could live a thousand lifetimes and not deserve you.” The tears spilled out, slipping down my cheeks as I sniffed.

Sax sat up and gathered me into his arms. I tried valiantly to stop the tears, but they kept coming, so I let them go. In a way, it felt cleansing.

“Val,” he murmured into my hair. “Sweet Val. I’d live a thousand lifetimes of agony just for one with you.”

I held onto him for a while and cried until I felt my tears taper off. I wasn’t even sure why I cried. Maybe it was the drop in adrenaline from the terror of the escape, the fear we weren’t going to live, and the muscle-deep ache in my bones. Then there was our unknown future and the fact I’d just learned I was mated to an alien.

He petted my hair and made a soothing vibrating sound in his chest that nearly lulled me to sleep. He didn’t go in for a kiss or try to push for intimacy. I probably would have given in, because my body responded to him no matter what he did, but my head wouldn’t have been in it. Not now.

With a smile that said he knew exactly what I needed, he rose from the bed and picked up the lighted sphere. He tugged me from the pallet, gripping my hand tightly. I let him lead me down a small tunnel I hadn’t noticed before at the back of the bunker.

I had to crouch to not hit my head on the dirt ceiling, and Sax was nearly bent double. But I didn’t worry. I’d followed him. This tunnel felt like a breeze. As we drew closer, the walls seemed to drip, and my bare toes squelched in mud. Humidity hung thick in the air.

Eventually, the tunnel ended, and we stepped into a wider cavern. He set the sphere down, illuminating the space. When I saw the reason he’d led me there, I gasped.

It was some kind of a spring—a jacuzzi-size basin of steaming water bubbled in the cavern’s center. Surrounding the spring were plants of all shapes and sizes—pretty blue ferns and teal leaves the size of a palm frond. Large purple and green flowers bloomed, their stems too heavy to hold the petals, so they dipped into the water as if they needed a sip.

“This is beautiful,” I said in awe. After the hell we’d lived in, this was paradise. “Can we stay here forever?”

Sax laughed. “Maybe not forever, but there’s no rush. We have enough food for a few rotations.”

I approached the edge of the water with caution. “Can I get in? Is it too hot?”

“Nope, perfect for bathing. We prefer cleansers, but when they aren’t available, hot springs of qua will do.”

Ah, of course, this was qua. It looked so much like water that I’d forgotten. And while the cleanser had cleaned my skin and hair, there was nothing like the feel of hot water on my skin. I’d missed it.

Not wanting to waste another minute, I tossed off my filthy clothes and poked a toe into the water. “It feels just like a jacuzzi,” I moaned.

“A what?” Sax brushed my back, and I turned to see he was naked too. God, he was incredible.

For a moment, I forgot what he asked me. I shook my head to jar the question loose. “A jacuzzi,” I answered. “It’s like a big pool of water we relax in. Maybe while drinking wine or fruity drinks with umbrellas in them. A good romance novel wouldn’t be amiss.”

He did that cute head-tilt thing he often did before lifting his lips into a smirk. He raised his arms over his head and dove into the qua.

I squeaked and stepped to the edge to peer down, worried he’d hit his head. Where were the “no diving in the shallow end” signs? But the qua was deeper than I thought, because his blue body streaked downward maybe a dozen or so feet before he took a graceful turn. With one powerful kick he rocketed upward.

He surfaced with a toss of his hair that was straight out of Baywatch—or should have been, if Baywatch had been about women’s fantasies. It was then I realized that the water beaded off him, like he’d been doused in Rain-X, or was part duck. He treaded water like he’d been doing it his whole life. What can’t he do?

I must have said that thought out loud, because he laughed and said, “There are a lot of things I can’t do.”

I crouched down at the side of the pool. “Like what?”

“Well, Daz always says I don’t know when to keep my mouth shut.”

I snorted. “Okay, I can see that. But I happen to like your mouth.”

“I’m partial to it.” He swam over to me and braced his arms on the side. “Let’s see. I’m actually not that good of a shot. I can drive just about any type of vehicle, but I’m lousy with a solar gun.”

“But you hit the vehicle that was chasing us.”

“Lucky,” he said. “Or Fatas. Or it was a pretty big target. I’m glad I have you as a witness because none of the males are going to believe I did that. My brother Daz? He’s a great shot.” He pushed up to plant a quick kiss on my lips before kicking away toward the pool’s center like a playful seal. “Now get in, I’ve been dying to see my lioness wet.”

I obliged, sliding into the water not so gracefully. Moaning out loud as the heated water soothed my sore muscles, I sunk down until my head was submerged. I surfaced reluctantly and rubbed the water out of my eyes. He stared at my hair, and I realized as odd as I thought it was that his skin repelled water, he must have been amazed at how my hair soaked it up.

He paddled toward me and sifted his hands through my blonde locks. “It’s like a sheet of sunshine,” he murmured.

I drifted toward Sax. I wrapped my arms and legs around him and held on as he treaded water in the deeper part of the spring.

His skin felt a bit like oiled velvet, and I couldn’t seem to get close enough. “Thank you,” I said. “This is exactly what I need.”

“We leave the stink of that place behind, okay?” Wrapping an arm around my waist, he swam toward the pool’s side. He perched on the underwater ledge and leaned back. My hair swirled around us just below the surface. “We won’t go back, Val. I promise.”

“They won’t find this bunker, right?”

“No, and if they do, there’s an alternate escape.” He flicked his fingers behind us, where another tunnel led deeper underground. “We are safe here. Soon I’ll head up to scout out the area to determine when we can leave.”

“And where are we going?”

He grinned, and his entire face lit up. “Home,” he said with reverence. He rubbed at his left biceps and a flicker of sadness passed over his eyes. “My brother is drexel—the leader—of the Night Kings clavas. We are about sixty strong, and we will be safe there. According to my brother, there are more females than just his mate. You can have friends.” He grasped the back of my neck and squeezed.

“Friends,” I echoed. “I didn’t have many friends back on Earth.”

“No?” He frowned. “But your cora is so big. Surely others saw that.”

“I didn’t really let others see me. I worked and took care of my home and kept to myself.”

“Did you want friends?”

I liked my nights where I cooked myself a delicious meal and curled up with a good book. My job was tiring, stressful, and full of people. As an introvert, I valued my alone time. But there were nights where I’d browse on Facebook and see former classmates living fabulous lives full of family and adventures, and I’d wondered if I was selling myself short. Letting life pass me by.

I’d thought about traveling a little, maybe take a cruise to a tropical location with fun excursions for a little adventure. Careful what you wish for…

“I liked my life. I truly did,” I said. “But it was hard, especially because my mother was so sick for years before she died. I either worked or took care of her. There wasn’t time… for me. I felt selfish wanting things for myself when my mother was fighting for her life.” It wasn’t until after she’d died that I’d realized my whole identity had evolved into caring for her. When she was gone, I hadn’t remembered how to take care of me.

He kissed my lips. “It’s hard to be lonely in a clavas like ours. Always someone around in your business.” He grinned. “Of course, I will keep you to myself as much as possible. Away from the rest of those greedy flecks.”

I laughed and rubbed my nose against his. “That sounds perfect to me.”

The color of his eyes deepened, and he cradled my face in his huge hands before touching his lips to mine. At first, he merely teased my lips, nibbling and sucking and pressing small kisses to the corners. Then with his tongue, he opened my mouth and dove in. He took from me and gave of himself, and I lost myself in the kiss. For the first time in a long time, I was clean and safe. Protected. And I was with the most selfless, amazing being I’d ever met.

If Sax lived on Earth, he’d be everything—Chris Evans and Tom Hardy and Brad Pitt all rolled into one. He probably wouldn’t have even looked twice at me, but I wasn’t going to think about that now, not while his hand drifted down my back to cup my ass. His cock grew between us, the hard shaft pressed between our bodies.

I gripped him tighter, deepening the kiss as I rubbed against him shamelessly. Sliding my hands lower, I thumbed his nipple rings before giving them an experimental tug. He jerked and bit down on my lip with a loud groan. The sound vibrated down my spine to settle like molten lava in my core.

“Val,” he murmured, breaking the kiss to slide his lips down my neck. “Sweet Val, let me taste you.”

As if I weighed a mere pound, he hauled me out of the water and sat me on the edge of the spring. Without a word, he spread my legs wide and ducked his head between my thighs. At the first swipe of his tongue, I cried out. I was so ready, so primed. He could turn me on in seconds with his kisses and rumbling voice.

He curled the tip of his tongue around my clit and sucked while I gripped his hair and shamelessly humped his face. My legs shook as he took his time with that talented tongue, weaving in and out of my folds until there wasn’t an inch he hadn’t touched. My stomach dipped and soared. I couldn’t hold still, not when he drove me crazy from the inside out. My head fell back, and my eyes closed.

“Look at me.” His hot breath fanned my pussy. I dropped my head to look into his blazing purple eyes. “Look at me while I eat you, lioness, while I make you come on my tongue. Be as loud as you want. I want to hear my lioness roar.”

“Oh God,” I moaned at his words. My cream slicked my thighs, mingling with the qua, and yet he continued to bring me higher as he plunged his tongue into my entrance. I moaned as he licked into me, and nearly came out of my skin as the long muscle began to vibrate. I bucked into him, holding his head to me so tightly I should have worried I was suffocating him.

When I came, the sound that erupted from my throat wasn’t human. The gargled cry might have been a roar or a high-pitched moan. All I knew was that Sax was the only one who could bring that sound out of me. My limbs shook, and my muscles turned to jelly. As my blood rushed back to the neglected parts of my body, my head swam.

I slid bonelessly into the water, and in one fluid motion, Sax growled and slammed me onto his lap. His cock slid inside me with ease, as slick as I was from my orgasm. My breath stuttered in my lungs, and I gasped for air, the fullness of him nearly too much. He froze and looked into my eyes. They were a tornado of purple and black. He seemed in a trance until he blinked a few times and shook his head. His fingers flexed on my hips and his lips were stretched across his teeth in a near grimace.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I can’t hold myself back, I—”

“It’s okay,” I panted, shifting my weight to accommodate his girth. “I want this. Fuck me, Sax. Make me yours.”

His eyes flared like lasers. “You’re already mine,” he growled. “And you’ll remain mine until our last breaths.” He reared back and slammed into me.

He didn’t stop there. He followed my demands and fucked me hard, his cock plunging in my depths with every stroke of his powerful hips. The water slapped against us and spilled out of the spring as he powered into me, his hands braced in the dirt on either side of my shoulders. The panther in his aura grew bigger, doubling in size until it let out an almighty claiming roar.

“Mine,” Sax grunted, his nostrils flaring and his hair swirling around us like his mane was alive. “My fierce lioness. My cunt.” He wrapped one hand around my throat like a collar. “Only my cock claims you. Only my seed will make your belly round with our young.”

I could do nothing but hang on as he ravaged me. “Yes, Sax,” I whispered over the sounds of the swirling qua. “Yours. Only yours. Forever.”

He kissed me, brutally. I knew my lips would be bruised, and I didn’t care. I clung to his shoulders, digging my nails into his scales, wanting to leave my mark on him as he left his on me.

A suction latched onto my clit, pulling hard and I reared back with a cry as my body shuddered. I had a split-second thought that now I knew what that node on his cock was for—and it meant good things for me. The orgasm barreled into me like freight train, stealing my voice and my breath. All I could see was the panther’s throat stretched as he roared triumphantly into the sky. The sound traveled through my body, igniting my blood. It wasn’t until my vision focused that I realized Sax roared too, the sound reverberating off the walls of the cavern as he emptied himself into me. His hips surged, plundered, and I gave it all up to him willingly.

He collapsed against me, his head on my shoulders as his back heaved. I held him to me tightly, worried that if I let go, this connection would turn out to have been a dream. Because one thing was sure—I loved Sax. I loved him down to my bones. I just hoped I lived up to what he saw in me. I’d die before I let him down.

TWELVE

Sax

Val rested on my lap, her back to my front, as her hands floated on the surface of the qua. Her head lay against my shoulder, her eyes closed. At first, I kept my hands to myself, but the creamy flesh of her round breasts proved too tempting. I cupped them in my hands, loving the feel of her smooth skin. Brushing my thumbs over her peaked nipples, I relished the small moans that left her lips.

Something was bothering her though. The salibri in her aura remained restless, and creases marred the skin between her light brows.

I rubbed the skin there, and she opened her eyes, craning her neck back to look at me. “Do I have something on my face?”

“What’s bothering you?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she answered quickly.

I blew out a breath on her wet neck and watched in fascination as her skin pimpled. “That is a lie. You forget I can feel your nerves.”

“I’m just anxious, is all.” She bit her lip. I ran my hands over her ribs and clutched at the softness of her hips. “I don’t know what the other males of your clavas will be like. What if your brother doesn’t think I’m worthy of you? What if the other women don’t like me? What if… you find another of the women attractive—”

I laughed. Loudly. Val whirled around like a pissed-off salibri and with a cupped hand, sent a swirl of qua into my face. I sputtered and choked as I caught a mouthful, which only made me laugh harder.

She narrowed her eyes and scrunched her nose. “I’m freaking out and you laugh at me. Asshole,” she muttered.

She made to swim away, but I grabbed her and tugged her back against me. She struggled but gave up quickly because she knew I was stronger. She refused to look at me as she straddled my lap.

“Val,” I said after coughing a few more times. “I’m sorry for laughing.” With her arms crossed over her chest, all she did was make her breasts more enticing. I had to look away from them before I took her again. I forced her head to face me, but her eyes stubbornly remained focused over my shoulder. “First, no other woman will catch my eye. That is not in our biology. We are devoted to our mate and only our mate. With you as my cora-eternal? Another woman wouldn’t even catch my eye. Val, my cock had never been fully hard before I saw you. And it wasn’t just because you are a human female, it is because you are you. It is the way we are. You tell me humans are not like that?”

Finally, her eyes met mine, and she swallowed. “No, they’re not.”

“How so?”

“Humans males get hard at a stiff breeze.”

“They take multiple lovers?”

The tension seemed to ease from her body as she sighed heavily. “Yes, and it’s normal for people on Earth to date until they find someone they want to be monogamous with. And that’s acceptable and fine. Then there are the people who commit to a relationship but sleep around anyway. In secret. They hide it from the person they supposedly love and had promised to be faithful to.”

I frowned. “I don’t understand all those words, but Drixonians do not mate with others.”

She seemed dubious. “That seems a little too good to be true.”

I didn’t like the tremble in her voice. The doubt. “Did a human male do this to you?”

She winced, as if the question hurt. “Yes, Sax. That happened to me.”

I wrapped a strong arm around her back and pressed her chest tight against mine. “Fleck your human males,” I growled. “They are not worthy of you.”

She shifted on my lap, and my cock, which had already begun to rise, stiffened further. My mind seemed to go offline when that happened, and all I could think about was getting my mouth on her skin and my cock in her cunt.

She must have been thinking the same thing, because her nipples hardened, and a flush rose up to stain her pale cheeks. “I thought you were handsome before,” she said softly. “But you are even more handsome when you’re turned on. Your cheeks get darker, and your eyes glow.”

“Around you, I’m always turned on.” I pressed on her lower back, so she arched into me. Sinking down into the qua, I brought her nipple to my mouth and sucked. She gripped my horns and held on as I lashed my tongue and metal piercings against the stiff peak. When her hips began to churn, rubbing her sweet cunt against my cock, I gripped her hips and feasted on her breasts. The pale globes were large and overflowed my hand, which I couldn’t get enough of. So much of her was soft and pretty, like nothing I’d ever seen before. Down here, in the safety of our qua spring, I could take my time to appreciate her beauty.

Her pretty golden hair streamed down her back in a sheet of sunshine. And before I could take matters into my own hands, she reached between us, grabbed my cock, and guided it into her entrance.

She groaned as I surged into her. Being inside of Val was indescribable. I understood now why our elders fought so hard for their home. It wasn’t just how she felt around my cock, but how she filled a crater inside of me I hadn’t been aware of. With our loks on display, our auras pulsing with pleasure, and our bodies connected, I knew this was where we were meant to be. This was what Fatas wanted for us.

She braced her knees on either side of me, held onto my shoulders, and bounced her ass on my thighs. I did nothing but thrust my hips up with her rhythm. My balls ached, desperate to fill her again. And again. Her full breasts bounced, the peaks brushing my lips. Lost in her pleasure, she threw her head back, calling out my name as my subcock latched on and sucked her clit to ecstasy.

She cried out, and her inner walls milked my cock. My eyes rolled back into my head, and my muscles seemed to swell before I burst inside of her like a geyser. I pumped into her until my balls were dry. When I regained use of my arms, I clutched her to my chest as I caught my breath. She buried her face into my neck and didn’t make any move to release my cock from her body.

Her fingers sifted through my hair. It was a long time before she spoke in a soft voice full of vulnerability. “Tell me we’ll get to your clavas safe, Sax. Assure me everything will be okay. I hate being this needy, but I can’t help being scared.”

I rubbed my hands up and down her back. “We will get home safe, and everyone will love you, and I’ll spend the rest of my life protecting you.” I reached down to cup her soft belly. “You will grow my young in here, and we will raise him together to be a proud Drixonian human. You will be a loving mother.” I paused. “Do you want to bear my young?”

Her smile was soft, and despite her worry, her eyes were still hazy from her orgasm. “I never wanted kids. I had no desire to be a single mother, and I hadn’t met a man who I wanted to raise children with.” Her fingers played with the rings in my ears. “But I’d bear your young, Sax. In a heartbeat.”

My cora pounded, and just like that, I was hard again. I set my jaw with new determination. “Those Uldani bastards will never lay a hand on you again.”

She cupped my cheek and pressed our foreheads together. “Okay. I’m sorry for worrying.”

“Don’t apologize,” I said. “You didn’t ask to come here, but now that you’re here, it’s my job to keep you safe.”

She nodded and bit her lip, then glanced down at her hands. “Oh God, I need to get out of this water before I turn into a prune.”

Her fingers were wrinkled, and even her palms seemed shriveled. “What is that?”

“My body soaking up water.” She climbed off me and my cock slipped from her warmth as she stepped out of the qua. She grabbed a piece of fabric I’d retrieved earlier and dried her skin off.

I admired the view before leaving the qua myself. I stepped onto the edge and my thigh buckled. I stumbled before righting myself, hoping Val hadn’t seen. No such luck. She rushed to my side, her little hands on my biceps to pull me up. “Are you okay?”

I glanced down at my thigh and sucked in a breath at the sight of the large wound surrounding the spot where Borhan had stuck me with a needle.

Val followed my line of sight and her jaw clenched. Blue eyes fired at me. “What the hell is that?”

I couldn’t tell her. She was worried enough. Soon we’d be home, and I’d get some medis in me. I’d had worse injuries. “I told you. A branch struck me.”

“That doesn’t look like a bruise. That looks like… something under the skin. Or in your blood. Can I look at it?”

She bent down, but I stepped out of the way. “It’s fine. Just a little stiff from our activities.” I went for a grin, but she wasn’t having it. I recognized this as her nurse mode, where she didn’t take my shit or get distracted by a smile.

“Sax—”

“Look.” I sighed. “If it gets worse, I’ll tell you, okay?”

She pressed her lips together. “Fine. I’m serious, though, the moment the pain increases, you need to tell me.”

“I will. I promise.”

But for the first time since I’d met Val, I lied. Because I wouldn’t tell her. I wouldn’t worry her. I’d power through until I got her safe. Pain was nothing to me. She was everything. She Is All.

Val sat on the bed, and while she put on a brave front, the salibri in her aura twitched nervously and sniffed the air.

“I won’t be long,” I said. “But I have to take a look around above ground. Eat something and get some rest.”

Her hair had mostly dried and lay down her back in pretty gold waves. My cock gave a jerk, and I had to lower my eyes so I didn’t climb onto the pallet with her and stay there for rotations. We didn’t have enough provisions to last that long. And while we were safe here, we were safest with the rest of the Night Kings.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I’ll be fine.”

Nothing about her tone implied she’d be fine. She’d worry about me but call me selfish—I liked having someone care about me that much. I’d been jealous of what Daz and his mate had, the way they’d been willing to sacrifice for each other. I couldn’t wait to tell him stories of my brave Val—how she stood up to the Uldani, how she tackled Hawn in my defense.

“You’ll rest?”

She nodded. “I’m going to eat some of that jerky and then lay down.”

I braced my hands on the pallet and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll be back.”

Her fingers grazed my jaw. “Be safe. Don’t do anything stupid and half-cocked.”

I raised a brow at her. “Half-cocked? Me?”

She laughed, and the sound lightened up the dank room. With a grin at her, I began to climb the ladder toward the hatch. Below me, a rustling let me know she had dug into a pack of dried meat.

When I reached the top of the ladder, I remained still with my ear pressed to the hatch, listening for the sound of footsteps or the low rumblings of Kulk voices. When I heard nothing for a long moment, I pushed on the hatch to lift it a small crack. Peering out, I listened again.

Nothing but the buzz of hunners, the chirps of briggers, and a few muffled antella footsteps. Out here, in this terrain, Kulks weren’t my worst enemy. The last thing I wanted was to get treed by a nasty pivars pack, the bloodthirsty bastards. As far as Rizer clans, most didn’t roam this area, as it was too rough on their short legs, but they were known to venture here if hunting was scarce elsewhere. If they caught me, I was flecked.

I edged the hatch open farther and slid out as fast and smooth as I could. I closed the hatch silently and lay on the ground, covered by the thorny numa bush, and remained vigilant. When we’d first hidden in the bunker, I’d thought I’d heard their footsteps above us. Judging by the tracks in the dirt, they’d already canvassed this area. Knowing the Uldani, they’d ordered the Kulks to return with me and Val, or not at all. They’d still be out hunting us. They were shit at tracking, but there were enough of them that they could cover a lot of ground. Plus, they’d be armed with solar guns. I had nothing but my wits and machets.

We didn’t keep weapons in the bunkers as we didn’t have enough of a supply to leave one inactive for so long. And while we could conceal a solar light near the hatch, hiding a solar gun would have been difficult because of its bulk.

When I determined the immediate area was danger free, I climbed the closest and largest tree. I settled myself as near to the top as I could get without venturing out onto a thin branch. My skin camouflaged me in the foliage, which carried the same hues as my scales. The Kulks could try and shoot me out of the tree if they could find me. I doubted it though. They were terrible shots. This was why the Uldani wanted us back. Once word got out to the galaxy—probably from the gossiping Rahguls—that the Uldani only had the hapless Kulks as their Defens and not Drixonian Warriors, they’d be ripe for invasion.

I focused on my task, which was to survey the land and get back to Val as soon as I could. I straddled the branch and peered out between the leaves. We’d made it to the top of one of the highest peaks in the mountainous range separating the halves of the continent. From here, our journey would be downhill until we reached the more level plains and dense forestry where the Drixonian clavases made their homes.

In the far distance, a line of moving black dots marred the terrain. Kulks. They moved quickly and methodically, leaving no area unturned. Our escape route would be limited. I pressed my lips together. Good thing Val was comfortable in qua, because we’d have to take a wet detour. Kulks couldn’t swim and, with all that armor, they’d have trouble walking through shallows too.

If we traveled the river that led close to the Night Kings’ home, we’d have a chance. Once the Kulks entered the western plains, they’d fan out again to cover more ground. We had to leave soon to stay ahead of them. It wouldn’t be easy, but we’d come this far. Fatas was on our side.

I gazed toward my home planet, Corin, and sucked in a breath at its beauty. I hoped to return one day and leave Torin behind, where so many of our kind had suffered and died. We owed it to the memory of our females to rebuild what we’d once had.

For now, I breathed in the fresh air and let the sun warm my face. Val’s aura was quiet, and I guessed she was sleeping. I couldn’t wait to get her home and see her happy and at peace. I’d build a small hut for her and fill it with whatever trinkets she wanted along with soft furs and the freshest food. I wanted to see her fat and happy, her belly full with meat I’d killed for her and her womb growing with my young.

A familiar green orb in a patch of brush below me caught my eye. I grinned. At least I could give Val a gift before I told her we had to leave soon at a blistering pace. So sweet, my Val. I’d get her to safety if it was the last thing I did on this wicked planet.

THIRTEEN

Val

I sat in the center of the pallet in the bunker and hugged my knees to my chest, emotions washing over me. I’d learned over the last year that grief was unpredictable. After my mother died, I didn’t process my thoughts over her death, because I threw myself into all that came after—planning the funeral, dealing with medical bills, handling calls from her friends and other family members. I’d gone from caring for her in life to caring for her in death, as if her passing and the aftermath was its own sentient thing.

But I hadn’t let myself grieve the woman she’d been before the disease, the woman who I could call and vent to, but who didn’t expect anything in return, who would listen simply because she loved me. I hadn’t given myself permission to just be fucking sad and pissed about her death. I could almost hear Sax in my mind telling me it was okay to rage at the world for a while. Then it was time to pick myself up and move on.

There were plenty of things I missed about Earth, but I had to admit that now that my mom had passed, no one was waiting for me there. My disappearance wouldn’t affect anyone’s everyday life. They’d fill my position at the hospital, and I’d be but a name in their past employee files.

As much as my mom’s death had been the worst time in my life—other than this little alien abduction thing—maybe it was a good thing. She left Earth knowing I was safe with a good job. My only regret was she would never meet Sax, who was undoubtedly the best person I’d ever met, other than my mother.

I ran my fingers over the loks on my wrists. Here, on this strange planet with alien creatures, I’d be missed. I knew in my heart that Sax would care deeply if something happened to me. Maybe here, once we made it to the safety of his clavas, I could find myself again. I could remember what made me happy. I could try to make a home here. I wondered what the other women were like, and I found myself eager to meet them, especially Frankie.

I’d always worried about meeting a man and falling so deep into him that I’d lose my identity. But Sax was helping me find my identity. He encouraged me to stick up for myself, and he respected my knowledge of healing. I could maybe be an asset to his clavas and learn more about their medicine. I could be something here, in a way I had only faded into the background on Earth.

I had to have the courage, and I couldn’t rely on Sax for everything. That wasn’t fair to him. He deserved a strong mate who wasn’t a worrywart burden. I rubbed at my chest, taking deep even breaths even as the walls seemed to close around me. Why was being courageous so damn terrifying?

The hatch opened and Sax’s voice echoed down the shaft before he dropped to the floor in a crouch. He was grinning, and I smiled in return, because his good mood was infectious.

He strode toward me, braided hair swinging over his shoulder. In his palm, he held a green ball. As he drew closer to me, he sliced it open with a claw, revealing a jelly-like center. “I return bearing gifts,” he said.

I peered at the ball. The outside was like a thin membrane, and the jelly center glowed like it was phosphorescent. It had a clean, slightly floral scent. He dipped a finger into the jelly and swiped it onto his arm.

“It’s called feerum. It grows on Corin too,” he said. “We sometimes used it on our skin. It was popular with females.”

I dabbed at it with my finger, and when it didn’t hurt or burn me, I dipped out a dollop and smeared it on the back of my hand. A cooling sensation spread over my skin as the jelly soaked into my parched flesh. The scent changed, turning a little sweeter, but still very pleasant. I rubbed it into my skin, reveling in the renewed softness. This stuff would have sold like crazy on Earth. It reminded me of super-powered aloe.

“It’s so nice,” I whispered as I began to slather it on my arms. “It feels so decadent.”

I’d never spent a lot of money on beauty products, although Mom had insisted I do something to prevent crow’s feet around my eyes. But this stuff… Now I understood why people spent hundreds on skin care.

Sax slathered some on himself too, humming happily. On him, the scent altered, meshing with his body chemistry. He smelled like himself, but… better.

“Do I smell different?” I asked him.

He wrapped his arm around my waist and tucked his face into my neck. He inhaled there, and I laughed at the tickling feeling. Pulling back to grin at me, he said, “You smell like my Val, just even better.”

“Can we take this stuff with us?” We’d only used about a quarter of the jelly.

“Of course.” His expression sobered. “Speaking of leaving. We have to go. Now.”

“Now?” My heart skipped and then began to beat double time.

Sax seemed to notice, because he wrapped his fingers around the back of my neck. “We’re not in any immediate danger. But to evade the Kulks, we’ll have to follow the Triad River to the western plains to overtake the Kulks’ path. They can’t cross the river, and as long as we stay on the opposite side, we’ll be okay.”

I trusted him—how could I not? “Okay.”

He gripped my arms. “I’m not perfect, but I’m good with directions. Really good. I know this terrain better than anyone.”

I cupped his face. “I happen to think you are perfect, and if there’s a way, I know you’ll get us there.”

Purple swirled in his eyes, and his chest heaved. “Your confidence in me makes me hard, and that’s not good, because we don’t have time to do anything about it.”

I laughed. “Well, let’s get going because the faster we get home, the faster we can do something about it, right?”

With a lunge, he smashed his lips to mine. By the time he pulled away, we were both breathless. “You’re right. Let’s pack light and get going.”

Using his claws to slice the fabric, Sax fashioned a pack out of the bedding, and we filled it with some qua and food. I strapped it to my back, as Sax would be carrying me. So really, he’d be carrying everything.

I looked at our bunker, reluctant to leave a spot where I’d felt so safe. I could have used another bath, but there was no time. We climbed up the ladder, and Sax hauled me onto his back. My arms were still sore from the last time we’d traveled like this, and I tried to hide how they trembled as I gripped him.

Sax straightened and looked at me over his shoulder with a frown. “Why are you shaking?”

“Shaking?”

“Your muscles. In your arms.”

“They’re just a bit sore. It’s fine.” I couldn’t complain when he had the much harder job.

His frown deepened and he gestured for me to get down. “Are your legs sore?”

I shook my head. “No, just my arms from holding on to you. It’s fine though, don’t worry about me—”

“You are my concern,” he said sharply. “If your arms are sore, tell me and we’ll try something else. Speak up for yourself with me, my lioness.”

I nibbled my lip, his concern for me making my head spin and my body flush hot. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t think I should say anything when you’re the one doing all the work carrying me.”

“Holding on to me is work too, and I’m a Drixonian. My body can endure more than a human’s.”

I didn’t even care about the slight to my species. He wasn’t wrong. “Okay, then yes, my arms are still a little sore.”

“We will both go on foot for a while, then.” He grabbed the pack from me and strapped it to his back. “Is that acceptable?”

I nodded. I liked the idea of stretching my legs a bit. I was sure I’d be wheezing and out of breath soon, but we’d cross that bridge when we came to it. “Yeah, let’s do it.”

“Keep up as best as you can. I’ll slow my pace for you.”

Okay, now I was annoyed at the humans are weak attitude. I did a little dance on the balls of my feet and shook out my arms. With narrowed eyes, I said, “Oh, is that right? What if I have to slow my pace for you?”

Sax threw back his head on a laugh. Since he was distracted, I took off. Sax’s laughter cut off when he realized what I was doing, and then he was after me, his footfalls nearly soundless. I batted a branch out of my way and kept going, pumping my arms as the feeling of freedom soared in my chest like an eagle. Fuck the Kulks. Sax and I were a team, and a damn good one. I whooped, not too loud, but just enough to release the burst of optimism in my chest.

Sax caught up to me in seconds, his grin nearly feral. “There’s my lioness,” he said. “Knew you’d come out when I tested you.”

“I guess you know how to get a rise out of me,” I said as we ran side by side.

“I think it’s the best out of you,” he said. “You’re at your best when you’re standing up for yourself. And us.”

I nodded, unsure what to say. He had a point. I felt the most powerful when I didn’t let myself be pushed around, when I didn’t let anger and frustration well up in me until I overflowed with pessimism.

For the first time, I was starting to actually feel like his lioness.

Sax

Val kept pace with me well. I wasn’t running as fast as I could, but I was happy enough with our progress not to scoop her into my arms and set off on a sprint. Even she seemed surprised by her stamina. I wondered if the mate bond had something to do with it. Did she feel any physical changes? I felt stronger and faster.

The only issue was my leg. I tried to hide my limp, but it was getting harder and harder to run through the pain. When we stopped to get a drink, I excused myself to piss and took a glance at my thigh. The injection site was black and angry. Pus leaked from the prick in my skin, which had expanded, and my whole thigh was darker in color, hot to the touch, and swollen.

I wished I had some medis, and for the first time, I began to feel real worry. What had he injected me with? Could it even be cured?

“Sax?” Val’s voice called softly. “You okay? Your aura is off.”

I pulled up my pants swiftly and turned to join her. She stood next to a tree, her little teeth worrying her lip. When she saw me, her expression remained concerned.

“I’m fine.” I held her hands and pushed as much reassurance as I could into my tone. “Just thinking.”

She studied my face, and I worked to neutralize my expression. Pressing her lips together, she nodded. “Okay.”

“You all right to ride on my back now? The terrain coming up is a little rough.”

She glanced in the direction we were heading and sighed. I’d noticed she’d been pretty winded when we’d stopped. Finally, she nodded. “Yeah, that might be for the best. But if I get too heavy, let me know.”

Like I’d ever do that. She strapped the pack to her back, I hauled her onto mine, and we were off again.

I hadn’t been lying about the rough terrain. If I had timed this right, and the Kulks didn’t drastically change direction, we’d be able to cross the river before the falls and safely pass into the western plains.

But the plan could still go to shit. The Kulks were a variable. Another variable was my leg. The pain was increasing, and even when I shut down into cruise mode, the nagging weakness of the limb threw off my pace. Fleck Borhan. Even in death, he was messing with me.

Still, despite the growing heat and stiffness in my leg, I ran on until the sun began to dip, and the sky darkened. As the pain spread from my ankle to my hip, I finally slowed to a jog.

Val’s arms flexed around my neck. “Where are we?” she murmured, her voice hoarse.

“Need to rest for a bit.” I patted her thigh. “Get some food and water.”

“Good idea.” She made to drop down from my back, but I held her arms steady. “Hold on. We can’t rest here. Let me get us somewhere safe, and then I’ll let you go.”

“Okay,” she said, her voice confused.

I glanced up, checking the trees for one with the sturdiest, densest branches. After choosing our rest area for the night, I jumped, grasping a low branch with both hands, and pulling us up.

Val gasped. “We’re resting in a tree?”

“Yep. Kulks can’t climb. And now I’ll be able to see where they are.”

“Oh,” was all she said as she held tight with her arms and legs.

I climbed higher until I found us two sturdy side-by-side branches, less than a body-length apart. While Val sat in a safe crook of the tree, I cut through some thinner branches with my machets and laid them crosswise across the branches to make a pallet. After covering those with leaves and some moss for comfort, I wiped my hands and peered at Val in the increasing darkness.

She took small sips from the qua and handed it to me. “Here,” she said quietly, handing me the drink as well as a few energy bars. I downed two and tried to give her my third. She waved it away, and I inhaled that too. I’d give anything for a nice big hunk of antella meat. If we had the time, and I had the energy, I’d go hunt one.

I lay on the pallet, which wasn’t exactly comfortable, but better than the wet, rocky ground.

Val crawled over to me and curled up at my side. “How do you feel?” she asked quietly.”

“Tired.” I yawned.

“Do you need more food? Drink?”

I turned my head to face her. Her pretty blue eyes glowed in the greenish-gray moonlight. She gazed at me with so much trust and care that it nearly took my breath away. This little human was such a good mate, and I imagined she’d been a great healer back on Earth. Her scent drove me wild, especially with the freeum still lingering on her skin. My cock hardened swiftly, and my pants tightened across my groin.

“I don’t need any food or drink,” I said. “But I need you.”

Her cute brows drew together. “You need—” Her eyes widened and then fired. “Oh.”

Despite my fatigue, I didn’t want to rest without first being inside Val. It’d been hard to think with her touching me all day, her breath on my neck and the heat of her sweet cunt on my back.

I was about to roll on top of her when she rose above me, golden hair backlit by the moon and stars. After tugging her pants off, she knelt beside me, and in one fluid motion, stripped her shirt from her body. My cock jerked at all her creamy flesh on display, the freeum softening her skin and giving it a faint glow. I sat up to reach for her, but she shook her head with a cute little grin. With her hands on my chest, she threw one leg over my thighs to straddle me. I grasped her hips as her cunt settled over my hardened cock. I cursed the layer of fabric separating us, and thrust my hips up, seeking friction, release.

Her heavy breasts swung down, and I curled my back so I could pull one pert tip into my mouth. She gasped as I enveloped as much of her skin as I could and sucked hard, lashing her nipples with my piercings.

“Oh God,” she cried, arching her back and pushing her breasts into my face. “Your tongue. It feels so good.”

I sucked harder, then nipped with the edge of a fang, and she yelped. Her cunt gushed, soaking through my pants. My cock jerked and libo leaked from the tip. I pressed her breasts together, kneading the flesh, and went to work on her nipples, reveling in the flush that rose from her chest to her face and committing to memory all her little gasps and sighs and cries of pleasure.

I thumbed a stiff peak and wait for her hazy blue eyes to meet mine. “Would you pierce these for me?” I rasped. I hadn’t realized I’d wanted to ask this of her until the words hovered in the air between us.

After a sharp intake of air, she drew her hands up her body sensually until she cupped her breasts. Flicking her nipples, she rocked over my cock. “You want me to pierce my nipples?”

My eyes were glued to her small fingers on her gorgeous, full breasts. “I’d love to see golden rings in them.”

“You want us to match?” She smiled, and the sight of it hit me in the gut.

“Yeah,” I said. “I would.”

She dropped her palms to my chest and began to thrust her hips, working her cunt over my covered cock. “I never thought about it, but I would for you.” She bent down and licked at one of my nipples, then tugged at the ring with her teeth while watching me. I panted and she licked her lips.

“When we get back,” I said, nearly panting with the need to be inside of her. “I want these breasts pierced with my jewels. For me and only me.”

Her chest heaved, and those big, beautiful breasts bounced. “Yes, Sax. For you.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. Releasing my pants, I tugged down the front to free my cock. It sprang up between us, ready to join the party. I didn’t wait for Val to make the next move, because I was too consumed with lust for my mate. I lifted her up and impaled her on my cock.

She screamed as she whipped her head back, her hair brushing my thighs. My eyes nearly rolled back into my head at the feel of tight, wet heat gripping me like she was made for me. She was made for me. I gripped her hips and thrust up again and again. Her body jolted as I plundered her, and she fell forward, palms on my chest, fingers playing with my nipple rings as she rode me. Her ass slapped against my thighs, and her breasts waved in my face. I drew a nipple into my mouth and bit down.

She bucked hard and let out a sob. “Sax.” Her fingers curled into claws on my chest. “Fuck yes, Sax.”

My subcock extended, latching onto her clit and tugging. She slammed her mouth onto mine, and I thrust my tongue inside as she came on a long, low moan, her body shuddering and shaking as she rode out her climax. I took control, tossing her onto her back and powering into her. Her hands dug into my hair, and my tail lashed behind me as I roared out my release, coating her inner walls with my seed.

I collapsed onto my back beside her and drew her to my chest as I caught my breath. She lay an arm across my stomach and tucked her head against my biceps, where she fit perfectly.

We didn’t speak for a long time, and despite my weariness, I found that just lying with my mate seemed to fuel my energy. In her body and presence was where I found my strength.

Her hand drifted up my stomach to rest at the center of her chest. Her thumb flicked one of my nipple rings, and I gripped her hand. “I wouldn’t do that unless you want me inside you again.”

She huffed out an annoyed snort, but I caught the smile on her face. She peered up at me. “Did you mean what you said? About getting me pierced?”

“Of course, I meant it.”

She chewed on her lip. “Okay.”

“Did you mean what you said? That you’d do it for me?”

Her cheeks flushed, and she shifted her legs restlessly. Oh yeah, my mate liked the idea. “I did,” she said softly.

“As if I needed more motivation to get us home.”

She laughed and changed position until she was watching me with her chin propped up on a fist on my chest. “Are all Drixonians pierced?”

“All the males. Some females did, but males get pierced once they complete their warrior training. It’s a legendary symbol to our enemies we can endure pain, and we have kept the tradition.”

She lifted her brows. “You have a habit of showing your enemies your dick?”

I barked out a laugh so loud that some rodent scurried away below us in the brush. “That’s for our females, not our enemies.”

“So thoughtful, you Drixonian warriors.” She grinned.

I yawned. “It’s completely selfless.”

“Mmmhmmm.” Her eyes twinkled.

Val like this was the most beautiful. Happy, content, playful, and sated from my cock. I would have given anything right then to keep her this way. But we couldn’t let our guards down yet.

I sifted my hands through her hair. “As much as I want to talk with you and possibly ravage you a few more times, we both need to rest. We’ll need to set out before the sun is up.”

Val sighed, and I hated to see her expression darken with worry. “You’re right.” She rested her head on my chest. Her hand moved restlessly across my stomach before I grabbed it and laced our fingers together. Her breathing evened out shortly after, and I found sleep a few moments later, even as my mind whirled with thoughts of Kulks, pain, and my sweet mate in danger.

FOURTEEN

Sax

I woke with my mate in my arms, her even breaths wafting across my chest and her hands clutching mine. I knew we needed to rouse, to get going. The first rays of the sun were just beginning to peak above the horizon, casting a warm pinkish-orange glow on the landscape.

I ran my fingers down her back, smiling when she shivered. Her breathing hitched, then increased as her head rolled on my biceps. Blue eyes blinked sleepily, and she yawned as she scrubbed her hands over her face. “I could so go for a coffee right now,” she murmured.

“I promise I’ll find you a coffee equivalent.” I kissed her again, then again, all over her face because I couldn’t resist.

She gave a sleepy little growl and shoved me away before covering her eyes with her forearm. “Stop being such a morning person. You’re one of those cheerful people that bounds awake and says stupid stuff like ‘the early bird gets the worm.’”

I nuzzled under her arm so I could see her eyes. “Is that a human saying?”

“Yeah, an annoying human saying.”

“What does it mean?”

“It means the first person awake gets whatever the best thing is. So, for birds, it’s a worm.”

“What do these birds do with worms?”

She arched a brow. “They eat them.”

“Okay, well then, the early pretty female gets the delicious tein bar.”

She laughed. “That’s not much incentive.”

“A tein bar or my cock.”

She laughed and gave me a playful shove. “Fine, I’m up.”

While Val munched on a tein bar and sipped some qua with a sleepy, annoyed expression, I left her and climbed higher into the tree. When I reached the highest branch that could still support my weight, I peered west.

The Kulks had rested for the night. I could see small clusters of them, motionless as they slept, and the smoking remains of a few fires. If we moved now at the same pace as yesterday, my plan to overtake them and cross the river would still be a go.

I turned quickly to climb down but gasped when my head suddenly swam. For a moment, the world felt like it was spinning, and I sucked in a breath, remaining motionless. Eventually my vision cleared, but the moment caused dread to swirl in my gut. What the hell was that?

Maybe I just needed to eat. I continued my climb down, ignoring the twinge in my leg. Slipping into place at Val’s side, I drank some qua and stuffed a few tein bars in my mouth.

Once we descended from the tree, I picked up our pack and asked, “Do you want to walk or ride?”

She faced me with flushed cheeks and a determined gleam in her eye. “I can walk. Or jog.”

I gripped her hand, and we headed northwest toward the Triad river. I estimated we’d be there by midday. I didn’t tell her, but I was glad she had chosen to walk. The pain in my leg increased with every step, and I had to clench my jaw to keep from moaning. Fleck, it hurt, and the pain had traveled down to my foot. I needed medis as soon as possible.

Eventually there were signs we were close to the river. The ground became damp, the scent of moisture was in the air, and there was a distant sound of rushing qua. At another time—if we weren’t in a hurry, and if I wasn’t in pain—I’d tell Val about the river’s multiple tributaries, relate details about the foliage and wildlife enriched the western half of the continent.

But today I had to concentrate on getting us to the section where the qua was shallow enough for me to power across, despite the current. I would need all my strength to carry her across, and once we made it to the other side, it’d be a steep climb down.

Gritting my teeth, I trudged forward, each step like a thousand blades stabbing my thigh. Val’s eyes were on me, watchful of my aura. I’d done what I could to dull my link to her so she wouldn’t sense my pain, but she had begun to grow suspicious. I’d begun to sweat profusely, despite the cooler air.

The sound of the qua drew closer, and finally we burst through the last line of brush and onto the riverbank.

Val gasped as she gazed out over the rushing qua. “Okay, when you said river you meant river. This thing has to be half a mile wide.”

I wasn’t sure what that measurement meant, so I just nodded.

“And it’s moving fast. How the heck are we getting across?” she asked.

I pointed to a spot where the rocky bed was visible. “We can cross there. I’ll have to carry you. The current is too swift. When we get the center, I’ll have to swim a bit, but it won’t be for long.”

Her eyes were huge and round as she clutched my hand. “That current looks deadly.”

Her aura trembled, fear dulling the brilliant color. I gripped her face in my palms. “I promise I can get us across.”

She nodded, straightening her spine, and putting on a brave face. “I know you can.”

I nudged her. “Why is your aura scared?’

“Because that’s just me.” She sighed. “I worry. But I trust you. And I’ll do whatever I can to make this easiest for you.”

I led her to what seemed to be the best spot to enter the qua. After handing her the pack, I bent so she could climb onto my back.

“Just hold on,” I said as her arms and legs wrapped around me. “Try to keep your weight balanced and don’t move too much.”

“Okay.” Her voice was a bit breathless. “What’s there?” She pointed in the distance, where the qua rapidly gained speed before dropping off the cliff.

“The falls,” I said.

“The falls?” she nearly squeaked.

“Farther south, the terrain steadily declines into the western plains, but this far north there are still mountains and cliffs. And so…we have qua falls. I’ll get us to the other side, and then we’ll climb down toward the plains.”

“Climbing,” she grumbled, seemingly to herself. “Great. That’s better than in a barrel over alien Niagara Falls, I guess.”

I waded into the qua and sucked in a breath as the cool liquid rushed over my heated thigh. For a moment, the pain abated.

Val, ever the observant one, tensed. “Everything okay? You gasped.”

“Everything’s fine. Just getting used to the qua temperature.”

She didn’t answer me, and her aura shimmered with worry. I clenched my jaw and surged forward on my trek across the river.

We were nearly halfway across when I heard them. At first, I chastised myself for imagining things, but then the sounds grew stronger. The footfalls heavier. The trees lining the bank shook.

“Sax…” Val’s tight voice whispered in my ear.

Then I knew. I wasn’t imagining it, and my suspicions were confirmed when Kulks emerged from the trees like a swarm of hunners.

“Fleck,” I hissed, just as the largest Kulk raised his solar gun and aimed it at me. We were almost out of their range. If I could just get to the middle, we’d be safe. They wouldn’t be able to follow us to the other—

I stopped dead in my tracks as my gaze fixed on the opposite bank. Along the shore, the one I’d thought meant freedom, a dozen or so Kulks stood, solar guns raised.

“Oh my God.” Val’s arms tightened, and her body quaked. “They’re everywhere!”

I had no idea how the Kulks had reached the other side of the river. No area of the river was shallow enough for them to cross on foot in heavy armor. Unless they’d reached the western plains, crossed where the river split, and then doubled back…

It didn’t matter. We were trapped. They likely wanted Val alive, but they probably had orders to kill me. Panic welled in my chest, spurred by the fear pulsing in Val’s aura.

I gazed down the river, my cora beating against my rib cage with the fury of a thousand warriors. The only way was downstream.

I gripped Val’s thigh and tugged until she hugged me from the front, her arms clasping my shoulders and her legs around my waist. Her eyes were wet, hair wild, and yet she looked at me with so much trust.

“Hang on and hold your breath,” I said.

“Sax!” she cried, just as I took off at a sprint and dove into the qua.

When I surfaced, I gasped in a lungful of air. The Kulks must have realized what I was doing because shouts sounded from both banks. The qua sizzled and hissed as they fired their solar guns wildly, trying to hit me as the current swept Val and I away.

I wrapped my arms more tightly around Val. This was going to hurt like a motherflecker, but I’d protect her human body from the worst of it.

The qua deepened as we were swept downstream. I couldn’t touch the bottom, but I was able to push off jutting rocks to avoid crashing into them. Val sputtered and gulped air as we bobbed along with the current.

It soon became louder. Angrier. The Kulks couldn’t keep up and the sound of guns became distant. The qua began to surge over our heads. We were rapidly approaching the cliff. I shoved Val’s head against my neck, then curled around her body, hoping my bulk protected her.

“Be brave, my lioness,” I shouted into her ear, just as we reached the edge and hurtled over.

For a moment, we seemed to be suspended in the air, the qua spray all around us. Val’s nails dug into my scales, her breath becoming a shuddering scream. And then we dropped to the bubbling depths below.

Val

I was getting a little tired of this free-falling sensation. With Sax’s body wrapped around me, I couldn’t make sense of my organs. My stomach felt somewhere in my skull and my brain was in my pinkie finger and my heartbeat in my knee.

I tried to scream, but no sound came out. All I could think was that we were going to die. I caught a glimpse of the river below, the rocks jutting up from the livid whitewater. I squeezed my eyes shut and held on, sending out a last-minute prayer to karma and Fatas to protect us, even though this seemed like suicide.

We hit the qua with a smack, and the shock of it was like a train hitting my body at full speed. I opened my mouth to scream or suck in air, and all I got was a mouthful of qua.

On instinct, I spread my limbs to keep myself from sinking and opened my eyes. Through a cascade of bubbles, I latched onto the sight of shiny blue scales and black hair. I reached out for Sax, and panic slammed into me when his limp arm floated away.

“Sax!” I screamed underwater like a crazy person. I pushed through the qua, swimming my way toward him until I wrapped my legs around his body. His eyes were closed, and a trickle of blood leaked from a gash in his temple. “Sax!” I screamed again.

Wrapping my arms under Sax’s armpits, I kicked, trying to move toward the surface, following bubbles and a distant source of light. We broke free from the qua at last and I heaved massive gulps of air into my lungs as I tugged Sax’s limp body toward what I hoped was the shore. I glanced around desperately, one arm clutching Sax’s massive chest. I exhaled a sobbing breath when my gaze fixed on the bank and a small slope where I might be able to drag him out.

When my feet finally touched a sandy bottom, I almost wept with relief. With a lot of stumbling and grunting, I hauled Sax out with my hands under his armpits. When the qua lapped at only his feet, I fell onto my ass, taking a moment to catch my breath before I scrambled to my knees beside his body.

His chest rose and fell. “Oh, thank Karma,” I muttered. “Thank you Fatas. Thank you everyone.”

I couldn’t believe we’d survived that fall. You’re alive because Sax sacrificed himself for you and took the brunt of the fall, dummy.

I listened to his heartbeat, which was strong, but he was still unconscious. I glanced around frantically, suddenly remembering we had freaking enemies after us. We seemed to be in the clear for the moment. I couldn’t see or hear any Kulks, not that I was confident in my ability to hear them. With their armor, it should take them some time to reach us from the top of the cliff.

“Wake up, Sax,” I muttered, running my hands over his body. “Please, wake up.”

I checked for broken bones, lumps on his head. Other than the cut on his temple, he seemed to be intact. But then my gaze reached his left thigh, the one he’d been favoring. It looked bigger than his right, swollen, and despite the coolness of the qua, was hot to the touch.

Finding a tear in his pants, I wiggled my fingers inside the hole, stretching it wider until the material ripped down the center. I glanced down at his exposed skin—

Bile rose in my throat and I gagged, tears immediately springing to my eyes. His entire leg was a sickly black. The area where he’d told me a branch had poked him was now a puss-filled crater, the edges ragged. I hesitantly touched it, and the infected heat coming off his skin made me hiss.

He’d been running on this for two days—two fucking days! —and he hadn’t said anything. I angrily wiped away tears before reaching for our drenched pack. I didn’t think there was anything inside to treat his wound, but I had to do something, anything to help him.

A groan reached my ears, and I peered into Sax’s face as he squinted, his eyes blinking open, the irises nearly black and hazy with pain. He licked his lips and peered around us, focusing on the waterfall in the distance.

He grinned at me, but the action was forced. “Good job getting me out of the qua. The fall hit me harder than I thought it would.”

“The fall hit you harder?” I spat. “The fall? How about you tell me why your leg looks like a war zone? You told me it was just a scratch from a branch! Was it poisonous? Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

He lifted onto his elbows with a wince to see his pant leg ripped open. His color paled, and his eyes rolled back as he collapsed onto the ground again.

“Sax?” I gripped his face. “Are you okay?”

He opened his eyes again, but I didn’t see the normal alertness I’d come to know from Sax. He blinked rapidly, and he seemed confused. “I—” He frowned. “Fleck, I can’t think.”

I peered again at the cut on his temple, worried about a brain injury, but it had already clotted and stopped bleeding. There was no lump around it. “Did you hit your head? What’s wrong?”

He covered his face with his palm. “No, I didn’t hit my head.”

“Then what’s wrong? Sax, please.”

“Borhan,” he whispered softly, dropping his hand to the ground with a flop. The sound of that vile Uldani’s name sent a bolt of panic down my spine. Sax peered up at me, his brow furrowed and his eyes fogged with pain. “Back at the lab, he stuck me with something before I killed him.”

I had to have heard him wrong. “I’m sorry, what? He stuck you with something?”

Sax licked his lips, and I held some qua to his mouth for him to drink. After he swallowed down a few gulps, he sighed heavily. “Yeah, a needle. I don’t know what was in it. But he got me. I figured it was nothing.”

I couldn’t tear my gaze away from his leg. “It’s not nothing. It’s so not nothing. How long has it been like this?” He didn’t answer me, but the muscles in his jaw ticked. That told me all I needed to know. He’d been dealing with this for a while. I closed my eyes briefly and hung my head. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“What difference would it have made?” he said. “I need medis, and we don’t have it. All I could do was get us home as quick as possible.”

“I wouldn’t have let you carry me. I would have pulled my own weight. We’re a team, Sax. You told me that. And you can’t hide stuff from this like me.”

“You were worried enough. I didn’t want to worry you more.”

I hated how angry I was getting, but the helplessness of our situation was combining with my fear, twisting it into an ugly fury that needed an outlet. “Why? Did you think my weak human heart couldn’t hand it?”

His eyes went wide, and his nostrils flared. “That has nothing to do with it.”

I threw my hands in the air. “Then what? Why would you keep this from me?”

“Because I’m supposed to protect you!” His aura shook, blurring, the panther’s face nothing but an unfocused grimace. Sax’s chest heaved before his eyes drooped, and he held out his hands to me imploringly. “The thought that I might fail you is more painful than anything Borhan could inject me with.”

“Sax,” I whispered. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and held him to my chest. He exhaled across my wet skin, raising goosebumps. I closed my eyes, listening to nothing but the rushing water and the breeze blowing through the trees. “I’m sorry I yelled,” I said softly. “I’m worried about you.”

I felt his breath hitch before he pulled back and shot me a crooked grin. “It’ll be fine. I’ve been walking on it all day.”

“Let me look at it,” I tried valiantly to switch to nurse mode. I’d coached my mother through chemo and watched her body turn on itself. I could try my best to evaluate Sax clinically.

I ran my hands over his leg and palpated the skin. Pus oozed out of the injection site, which had widened to about a two-inch crater in his leg. His veins, which were normally black beneath his skin, had turned a grayish white around the crater. Whatever Borhan had injected him with seemed to be in his bloodstream. I didn’t hold out much hope, but maybe I could prevent the spread of the toxin to his vital organs.

I tore a few strips of fabric from our pack. I wrapped one tight around his upper thigh, and then another below his knee to make tourniquets.

Looking at my handiwork, I wasn’t happy that this was all I could do. Sax watched me carefully as I tended to him. He flexed his knee, and winced, but quickly hid it from me. I narrowed my eyes. “I know it hurts. Don’t act like it doesn’t.”

He huffed a laugh and went to sit up. Although he swayed slightly, his face pale, he managed to roll onto his hands and knees. Still, he panted rapidly, and I knew it was from pain and not fatigue. I gazed up at the waterfall, and a shudder snaked down my spine. “I can’t believe you jumped off that. I thought we were goners.”

“Goners?” he queried.

“Drowned. Dead. Smashed to bits on a rock. Broken necks.” I reached for his messy hair and with shaking fingers, began to braid it. “Thank you. For protecting me. You got the brunt of the impact.”

He leaned back on his heels and swayed into my touch. “We’re still alive and so I can admit that I wasn’t quite so sure I’d survive that impact.”

I glared at him. “Can you stop trying to sacrifice yourself for me?”

His chest heaved. “I would die for you.”

“Yeah? Well I don’t want you to die for me, because I don’t want to live here without you, you big blue bastard.” I finished his braid and tied it off with his band. “So how about you work on keeping yourself alive?”

I thought he’d laugh or make a joke. Instead he lunged at me and pressed a crushing kiss to my lips. “I wish we had time to do more than kiss, but we have to move. The Night Kings’ home is about three-quarters of a day’s journey, and I’m hoping to make it in half a day.” He gazed up at the sun high in the sky. “Ready?”

I nodded as I rose to my feet. “I’m ready.”

He stood and took a step. His left knee buckled, and he swore as he grabbed a nearby tree trunk to stay upright.

My stomach dropped to my feet as I gripped his arm. “Maybe we can find a place to hide—”

“We have to move,” he said. “The longer we wait, the worse my leg will be. And the Kulks will be combing this area in no time.”

“But your leg—”

He shot me a look, and for the first time, I saw genuine fear and concern in his eyes. I clenched my fist as hopelessness threatened to overwhelm me. I had to be strong for Sax.

“Let’s go home,” was all he said.

And all I could do was echo back, “Yeah, let’s go home.”

FIFTEEN

Val

We walked for what felt like hours, until my legs ached, my feet were covered in blisters from the too-big boots, and sweat coated every inch of my skin. Sax showed me the direction we were going, based on the position of the sun in the sky. Due west.

For a while, he walked with a slight limp. Then it grew more pronounced. I grabbed a stick and showed him how to use it like a crutch. He did until the wood snapped under his weight, which meant he was leaning on it. Heavily.

By the time the sun was halfway toward the opposite horizon, his color had turned a sickly gray. He dragged his leg behind him, grunting with each step, and the sound tore at my soul.

I couldn’t help him. I didn’t know what Borhan had injected him with, and even if I did, I had no way of doing a damn thing about it. The two tourniquets were all I’d managed, and I wasn’t sure they were effective at all.

Adding to my terror was that I swore I heard the Kulks bearing down on us—the thud of something hitting a tree trunk, deep voices carrying on the wind, an odd clang of armor.

Sax didn’t react. His eyes were glazed, like when he was in cruise mode. I grabbed his arm to help him along, and he leaned into me. We entered a small clearing, and by the time we reached the opposite side, he’d given me almost all of his weight.

I grunted as I tried to stay upright. “Okay, it can’t be much farther, right?” Oh God, please tell me I’m right.

Sax didn’t answer and his head slumped, hanging listlessly, his chin on his chest. My lungs seized. “Sax?” I cried, shaking him. “Sax?”

His body swayed, and I wrapped my arms around his chest, trying to keep us from going down. It didn’t work. He was too heavy, and I was too damn tired. We crashed to the ground with a thud, Sax’s considerable bulk landing on my stomach and knocking the wind out of me.

I managed to roll him off, and I immediately scrambled to his side. His eyes were half-open, his lips nearly white. His leg had swollen more, and the white veins were close to escaping my tourniquets.

“Sax!” I shook his head and slapped his cheeks lightly. He moaned but didn’t open his eyes. Tears blurred my vision as I pawed through the pack, withdrawing the last of our qua. It wasn’t much, but I upended it into Sax’s mouth. His lips moved weakly, and his throat worked as he swallowed.

“Please,” I wept over him, my tears splattering on his chest and face. “I’d carry you if I could. I’d carry you anywhere. But I can’t. Tell me what to do!”

He blinked, and his eyes opened, a dull black that couldn’t seem to focus on my face. “Leave me,” he murmured. “Take the chip from my pocket. Keep going the direction we were. Due west based on the sun like I taught you.”

“Leave you?” I sputtered. “Are you crazy?”

He still couldn’t seem to focus, and his breath came faster, like he was panicking. I grabbed his hand and pressed a kiss to the inside of his wrist, right over his loks. “Sax, I’m right here. Can you see me?”

He swallowed and didn’t answer my question. “Find Daz Bakut of the Night Kings and show him your loks. Tell him you’re my cora-eternal. Give him the chip. And live.” His breath shuddered. “Go, Val. Please, my lioness.”

“But the Kulks—”

“You matter the most,” he said. “She Is All, remember?”

“No,” I cried. “You matter. You can’t leave me. I love you!”

His eyes focused on my face for a split second, and a beautiful grin stretched across his face. Then his lids closed, and his face went slack.

“Sax!” I screamed. I laid my head on his chest. His heart still beat, and he breathed, but he wasn’t conscious, and there was no way I could drag his limp body the entire distance we still needed to go.

I didn’t know what to do. Something buzzed behind my back. Leaves rustled overhead. I was suddenly very aware I was alone. On a strange planet. Crouched over my passed-out alien boyfriend who didn’t seem far from death. His aura had nearly faded to nothing, the panther only a hazy silhouette.

My vision narrowed to a tunnel and my head spun. I couldn’t catch my breath, and the familiar feeling of a panic attack gripped me.

No. Fuck no. This couldn’t happen now. “Breathe, Val. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe,” I chanted.

I gripped Sax’s hand in mine and focused on it. This hand had fought for me and killed for me. It had cradled my face, brought me pleasure, and gave me gifts. I stared at my own hands and the golden loks that adorned my skin.

I was better than this. Sax deserved better than this. I breathed through the panic attack and didn’t let it overwhelm me. I went through all my techniques as the tightness in my chest eased. When I could breathe again, I swiped at my eyes.

I stared west, contemplating how far I could drag Sax or where I could hide his body. A twig snapped behind me. I went still and slowly turned. A large leafed plant moved. A shimmer of silver caught the light by a tree trunk. An armored arm pushed aside a branch to my right.

Within seconds, at least two dozen Kulks materialized from the dense forest, forming a semi-circle in front of me. They held solar guns in their meaty fingers.

They began to come closer. I wasn’t stupid enough to think I could outrun them. They were here for me, and I knew without a doubt they’d kill Sax. He was good as dead anyway if I didn’t get him help soon.

Fear leached into my blood, pumping cold and icy into my heart. For a moment, I was certain this was the end. I couldn’t move, and they’d pluck me from the ground like a wilted flower and carry me home like a trophy.

But something happened in the four chambers of my heart, because that icy fear heated until it boiled and bubbled, sparking into anger. Red-hot fucking fury.

“Stop!” I yelled, and the Kulks stopped advancing. I rose to my feet, hovering over Sax. “Are your orders to take me back alive?” I asked the one closest to me, a big fucker with a different ornament on his armor.

“They are, human,” he said in a deep voice.

I cast my eyes to the ground, looking for a rock that would serve my purpose. “And Sax?”

“The Drixonian dies.”

I didn’t let the callous words freeze me. I bent and picked up a flat rock. One corner was sharp, like it’d been chipped recently. The rest of the rock was smooth and weathered. I lifted my chin as my blood pumped hot in every limb. My anger was a full-blown conflagration now, consuming me so I saw red as my face burned.

Fuck karma and Fatas. Fuck putting aside my own desires for other people. I was Sax’s lioness. I stood up for myself, and I wouldn’t go quietly into the night with these assholes. I wouldn’t be a pawn for someone else’s purpose. I inhaled deeply, muscles swelling.

“I’m not coming.” I held the sharp edge of the rock up to my neck. “No one gets to decide the direction of my life but me.”

The Kulk stepped forward, tension rolling off of him in waves. “Human—”

“My name is Valerie!” I roared at him, pressing the rock into my neck until I felt a bite of pain. “You don’t get me, you don’t get my womb, and you don’t get Sax’s life.” Blood trickled down my throat. “Because he. Is. Mine!” The roar that left my mouth was unlike anything I’d ever produced. It shook the ground. The trees. It sent my heart into overdrive as my lungs burned with each giant inhale.

The roar seemed to go on, long after I fell silent. The Kulks glanced uneasily at each other. And that’s when I heard it—a dull buzz that grew and grew until the very air seemed to vibrate.

“Grab her!” the Kulk leader screamed just as a gust of air knocked me off my feet.

I landed on my hands and knees and tilted my face up at the sky. A horde of mean-looking, blue-horned aliens on wheel-less bikes roared over my head, heading toward the Kulks. I stared in amazement as a cavalry of blue aliens leapt off their bikes midair and landed on the ground in front of me, the force slamming my shoulder to the ground.

Their bone blades rippled down their forearms and backs, and they crossed their arms in front of their throats before moving into some sort of practiced, V-shaped formation. I scrambled backward and huddled over Sax’s body as a whistle rent the air.

Then the battle began.

The Kulks continued to pour from the trees, their numbers seemingly infinite. I thought the Drixonians would be outnumbered, but I quickly learned that wasn’t the case. Sax’s words came back to me. One of us is powerful. As a unit, we are nearly unstoppable.

I understood as I watched the Drixonians fight. They went through the Kulks like a heated knife through butter, melting their ranks and leaving bodies in their wake. A few Drixonians remained on their bikes, zooming around the trees like X Games champions, firing precision-aimed laser gun shots at the Kulks.

It was a massacre.

I huddled over Sax’s chest, watching as green Kulk blood arced in the air and soaked into the ground. Lifeless bodies hit the ground and death rattles shook their chests. The Drixonians fought nearly silently, some seeming to relish the fight, grim smiles on their faces that chilled me to the bone.

A massive Kulk with one broken horn, his face scarred, lashed out with a tail ringed with metal spikes. The weapons sliced into the Kulk’s armor, and he alone took out six at a time. I’d never seen anything like it.

By the time the battle was over, Kulk bodies lay half a dozen deep. Crashing sounds echoed through the forest as the rest retreated.

From the crowd of warriors, a large Drixonian emerged. His gaze leapt from me to Sax, and his expression turned thunderous, his eyes nothing but black pits. With his legs and arms streaked with Kulk blood, he was absolutely terrifying. His eyes were wide, nostrils flaring on either side of his pierced septum, and his shoulder-length hair swirled around him in a kaleidoscope of blue, black, and white.

I braced myself over Sax’s body, covering as much of him as I could. I remembered Sax’s words. Not all Drixonians could be trusted. Just because they battled these Kulks didn’t mean they would take care of me and heal Sax. Would this Drixonian finish Sax and take me?

He approached, his massive boots thudding on the ground and kicking up green dirt. He hadn’t lowered his bone blades, and I knew it was stupid as hell to face off against him when his warriors had taken out an army of Kulks, but my focus was protecting Sax.

I bared my teeth at him, feeling as feral as I probably looked. “Don’t come any closer,” I hissed. “Don’t touch him! He’s mine!”

The Drixonian rocked to an abrupt halt. The anger slowly leaked from his eyes until they became violet. He held up his hands, palms out. “Hello, female. I’m Dazeem Bakut, drexel of the Night Kings.”

I sucked in a breath, and my head swam. Was I hearing things? Could this actually be…

“I appreciate your protection of my brother, but you’re safe now,” Daz said. “Let us take you home and see to Sax’s injuries.”

At those words, relief rushed through my muscles, weakening them as the days of fear and uncertainty caught up to me. Unable to hold myself up any longer, I collapsed onto Sax and wept.

SIXTEEN

Val

I refused to leave Sax’s side. He lay on a massive pallet on the floor in a large room in the healer’s hut. I joined him, snugged up against his side amongst the furs. His body was warm. Too warm. His eyes—when I pried open his eyelids—were bright with fever.

The Night Kings’ healer, Rokas, was a smaller Drixonian, quiet and careful, with nimble fingers and a kind smile. He never once admonished me or told me to leave Sax’s side. He even remarked one time, quietly, that he believed my presence was the only reason Sax seemed to be holding on as the poison ravaged his body.

Rokas wasn’t sure what Borhan had injected Sax with. He’d drawn blood samples and taken tissue scrapes then ran tests on them with a complicated piece of machinery. So, he did all he could—their medis wasn’t powerful enough to cure the damage the poison had already inflicted, but it stopped the toxins from spreading further in his body. We kept him cool to try to drive down his fever, but now it was mostly a waiting game to see if Sax’s body would recover.

I hated the waiting game, but I was familiar with it. A few times, I looked at Sax and instead saw my mother, frail and serene while doped up in hospice. The déjà vu was too much, and I refused to let myself go there.

I took care of myself too. Because I knew I needed to. I ate, slept, showered, and rested pressed against Sax’s body. It was part of my whole new sticking-up-for-myself plan. I wasn’t any good to anyone, including Sax when he—I refused to say if—recovered. He’d want me healthy, and I wanted myself healthy, in order to get used to this new, strange life.

When we’d first arrived at the Night Kings compound, I’d been nearly delirious with hunger and fatigue. They’d immediately taken me and Sax to the healer’s hut. I’d fallen asleep while Rokas worked on Sax. When I woke up, he’d shown me to the cleanser and provided me with a tray of food. Other than the Drixonians who had rescued us, everyone had left us alone. On Rokas’s orders.

Now I sat beside a feverish Sax, my knees pulled to my chest, his massive hand in mine. I brushed my thumb over his loks and talked to him while Rokas was out checking on a minor injury one of the warrior’s had received.

A shadow fell over me, and I jerked up to see Daz standing in the doorway, his bulk taking up nearly the entire space. In my heart, I knew he was good, but the only person I truly trusted was Sax. Still, I met his gaze directly. If Daz was who Sax said he was, he’d accept me.

“Rokas gave me a report,” Daz said. “Sax isn’t improving as well as he’d like, but he’s not getting worse.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

He stepped farther inside, and I realized his steps were slightly hesitant. “What is your name?”

“Valerie.” I cleared my throat. “I usually go by Val.”

“Val,” he said softly, and his lips tilted up, changing his expression from intimidating to something much warmer. “I’m honored to meet my brother’s cora-eternal.” He jerked his chin toward my wrists. “I assume he told you what that means?”

“Yes, he did.” I laid Sax’s hand on his chest and replaced the cloth on his forehead with a fresh cool one from the qua bucket beside me. “Thank you for saving us. I really thought it was the end.” I dropped the old cloth, which was warm from Sax’s burning forehead, into the bucket to cool down. “How did you find us?”

Daz watched my movements, and when I was finished, he took a seat on a chair next to the pallet. He braced his elbows on his knees. “We have warriors who regularly scout the perimeter of our territory. One reported a large contingent of Kulks. We rode out to take a look and found you.” His violet eyes held mine. “Actually, we heard you first.”

“Heard me?”

“I heard what you said as you stood over my brother’s body and faced off against dozens of Kulks in full armor.” He swallowed and his gaze dropped to his hands as he rubbed a thumb over the markings on his wrists. His loks, the ones that matched those of his mate. His back heaved with a deep breath. Finally, his eyes lifted, and when he spoke again, his voice was soft. Reverent. “You human females are warriors.”

“Sax saved me more times than I can count.” I swiped at a wet strand of hair that had stuck to his nose.

“If you’re up to it, will you tell me how you met? Last I saw my brother, he was an Uldani prisoner.”

I fidgeted as I considered where to start. When I began speaking, I only intended to give an abridged version, but the more I told to Daz, who sat silently and attentively, only interjecting a few questions, I found myself spilling my guts. I explained the fear and the desperation, how his brother sacrificed himself again and again, all the pain he’d put himself through, and how bravely he’d driven that hovercar to our safety. How terrified I’d been when I realized the seriousness of his injury.

I swiped at my eyes. I’d spent the last half of the story silently crying. I dug into Sax’s pocket and pulled out the chip. “Sax destroyed the lab and saved this. Apparently, this has all the Uldani research on their Drixonian breeding problem, and private information about your, um, Frankie.”

Daz held out his hand and I dropped it into his palm. “I guess HIPPA laws aren’t a thing here,” I murmured.

“Hm?” Daz asked.

I waved a hand. “Nothing.”

He studied me for a moment. “Fatas chose well for my brother.”

I flushed, and it was on the tip of my tongue to deny or reject the compliment, but I held the words back. “Thank you,” I said. “I think the world of your brother, so that’s the nicest thing anyone could say about me.”

His mouth opened into a full-on smile then, and I sucked in a breath. If he would have looked like that when I’d first seen him, then I would have recognized the resemblance. His smile was beautiful, like Sax’s, although my mate definitely smiled more, if the lines on his face were any indication.

“My Frankie is eager to meet you. She was devastated when we didn’t come home with Sax.”

“I’m excited to meet her, too. Sax spoke highly of her.”

Just then two blue bodies barreled into the room, pushing and shoving at each other. “Rokas said wait!” said a Drixonian with a lower lip piercing.

“Yeah, well Rokas is off sticking a needle in a grumpy Gar.” This came from a smiling Drixonian with a mohawk, nipple rings like Sax, and thick gold rings on his fingers. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

“What are you two doing here?” Daz growled. He slapped Mohawk’s hand when he fiddled with a box of medis vials. “Don’t touch anything.”

Mohawk seemed unperturbed. “I want to see Sax.”

He strode toward the bed, and I saw the moment he realized I was there too. His steps faltered, and he came to a halt. He blinked at me, and then his mouth turned up into a rakish grin. “Hey! I’m Xavy. Happy to meet you. You were a little badass standing up to those Kulks.”

“Hi, I’m Val,” I said. “Sax mentioned you. He would talk about how he missed riding with you.”

Xavy let out a boom of laughter. “Ah, me too. Well, I’ve been personally looking after his bike. Cleaned it every day so it’d be ready for him when he got home.” He bent over Sax and ran his hand over his friend’s hair and down his neck to squeeze his shoulder. “Hey buddy, you have to get better. I have a new spirits recipe for you to try. I’ve been saving it, so no one else has had it yet. I’ll even name it after you.” He went down to his knees and shuffled forward until his chest was pressed against Sax’s side. He sobered as he took in Sax’s battered body, the heat of his skin, and the nasty-looking wound in his leg.

He gripped the back of Sax’s neck and touched their foreheads together. “Miss you, brother.” His voice went hoarse. “I would have traded places with you. Thought about it a bunch of times, just showing up at the Uldani gates with nothing but a prayer to Fatas. If I thought it would have worked, I would have done it.”

Behind Xavy, Daz sat with his head bowed, and the other Drixonian stood over his shoulder, watching Xavy with a somber expression. I admired the way these strong males, full of testosterone and warrior instincts, were willing to lay themselves bare emotionally with no hesitation. Toxic masculinity didn’t exist on Corin. Along with HIPPA laws.

“Glad you found her, though,” Xavy was saying. “You should have seen her taking on those Kulks, defending you. You would have been proud.”

Tears slipped down my cheeks, and I angrily wiped them away. I was so, so sick of crying.

With a squeeze of his fingers, Xavy let Sax go and stood up. He ran his hand down his face with a heavy sigh before shooting me a soft smile. “Thanks for taking care of him when he was in that flecking hole.”

“He took care of me,” I said. After I thought about it for a moment, I said, “I guess we took care of each other.”

“It’s what mates do,” Daz’s deep voice added. He stood and clapped Xavy on the shoulder. “You got your wish to see Sax. Now Val should get some more rest. I’ll make sure Rokas doesn’t shut you out again.” He turned and handed the other Drixonian the chip. “Nero, Sax stole this from the lab. Val said it has all the information about the Uldani breeding program. Find out what you can from it.”

Nero took it like it was a rare gem, cradling it in his palm with awe. “I’m sure it’ll take me some time to decrypt it, but I’ll get on it right away.”

“Do that,” Daz said. “Val, you said you there were other females on your ship?”

“Yes, but I’m not sure what happened to them.” My heart ached at the thought. At least I’d had Sax to help me through this.

Daz made a frustrated growl in his throat. “Nero, hopefully there’s some way to see how many shipments of females have arrived. I don’t want to think about the Uldani holding a large number.”

“Will do, Daz,” Nero answered.

He turned to me as the other two Drixonians murmured their goodbyes and left the room. “I’m not sure how much longer I can keep Frankie and the other women away. They already feel protective of you, and they haven’t met you.”

I stifled a yawn behind my hand. I still wasn’t one hundred percent. “Maybe after I nap.”

His lips quirked up. “I’ll tell her. Sleep well, Val.”

“Thank you, Daz.” He turned to walk away, but my next words stopped him. “Sax spoke about you a lot. He respects you and wanted to make you proud. I didn’t think it was possible for someone to live up to the legend Sax made you out to be.”

Daz’s purple eyes met mine.

“But I see now,” I said. “I see how you fight and interact with your warriors, and how much you care about your brother, your mate, and the members of the Night Kings clavas.” Tears pricked my eyes, and I didn’t know why.

Daz swallowed thickly, and his chin jerked. “Thank you for saying that,” he said. “Sax is the greatest Drixonian I know. I’m glad I make him proud. He makes me proud every rotation.”

With another smile, he strode from the room.

I gulped down some qua and curled up next to Sax. He didn’t move, but his features were no longer pinched with pain. Rokas had given him something for pain, and it must have been some pretty strong shit.

I rested my head on the pallet beside his, wrapped an arm around his heated chest, and closed my eyes. When I slept, I saw Sax’s eyes, and his grin. And even in my dreams, he called me his lioness.

Val

“She’s still sleeping, Tab. Quit being a creep,” whispered a female voice.

“But look how cozy they are. It’s so sweet,” said another woman, this voice a little higher. Younger. Maybe Tab?

I could hear them, but I didn’t move, still caught somewhere between sleep and wakefulness, warm from Sax’s body and too comfortable to move.

“If Sax doesn’t make it through this, I’m going to…” The first voice cut off on a frustrated growl. “I’m going to do something. I don’t know what yet.”

“Didn’t you say you think Daz is stronger since you two got your loks?” another voice said.

“Yeah, but Sax’s injuries are severe,” said the first woman, who had to be the infamous Frankie. “I can’t imagine what they went through. Daz said she and Sax were stuck with the Uldani for days while the Uldani tried to get them to breed. I was only there for a few hours, and it was horrible.”

“You think she’s okay? Like, mentally? I can’t imagine the trauma of that.”

“Of course, she has fucking trauma.” This voice was strong and rough around the edges. “But she’s here now. And she’s safe, and we’ll be there for her. All of us. No matter what she needs.” The fire in this voice settled around my heart like a heated blanket.

“Absolutely Justine,” Frankie said.

“She’s real pretty,” Tab whispered, her voice a little closer.

I decided to give up the pretense of sleep. I blinked my eyes open to see an attractive woman with a figure to die for and purple hair. Her eyes widened when she noticed I was awake, and she clapped her hands as she called over her shoulder, “She’s awake, ladies. She’s awake!”

“Don’t crowd her and freak her out, Tab,” said a woman with a short black bob and lots of colorful tattoos. She gave me a nod and a stiff smile. “Hey there, Val. I’m Justine.”

At her side, a petite woman with very pale skin, brown hair and lots of freckles waved. “I’m Naomi.”

“And I’m Miranda,” said a woman with long braids, light brown skin, and a warm smile. “How are you feeling?”

“Um—” I began.

A fifth woman pushed past the rest, her thick brown hair in waves nearly down to her butt. On her wrists were golden markings like mine, but hers matched Daz’s. Her big brown eyes went wide at the sight of me, and she launched herself at me, enveloping me in a tight hug. I went still. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been hugged like this. Even at my mom’s funeral, the hugs from those in attendance were cursory. Sympathetic. I’d had no one to console me like Frankie did.

Her breath was hot on my neck, and her hair smelled good. “I’m Frankie,” she said in my ear, her hand making soothing circles on my back. I must not have moved, or breathed, because she pulled back and shot me an apologetic smile. “Sorry, that was probably overwhelming. I’m a hugger.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “It just surprised me. It’s been a long time…” These damn tears again! I blinked them away. “It’s just been a long time since I’ve seen a human. Feels like forever, and it’s probably only been a week or so.”

“I know the feeling,” Frankie tucked a knee on the pallet beside me, and it felt a little weird to be holding a get-together around Sax’s unconscious body. I wasn’t ready to leave him for any reason, so this was the way it had to be.

“When I first met Daz, he separated me from the other women. I lost my shit,” Frankie said. “I thought I’d never see them again.”

“He separated you?”

She waved a hand. “Long story. For another time.” She squeezed my hand. “Are you okay? We’re here for you. All of us.” Four female heads nodded in confirmation. “We don’t know exactly what you went through, but we’ll listen.”

“I told Daz everything,” I said. “I didn’t mean to, but I started talking, and it just all came out.”

“He told me a little bit,” Frankie said.

“I’ll tell you all of it. But I don’t know if I can go through it all again right now.”

Frankie shook her head. “No need. I’m sure you’re focused on Sax getting better.”

I reached for him instinctively, twining my fingers with his. I looked at these women, who all watched me with a mixture of understanding and support. Determination too. They were survivors, like me. I could confide in them. “I’m scared.” My admission of fear rasped in my throat. “I’m scared he won’t make it.”

“He will,” Frankie said, and the conviction in her voice sparked another ember of hope in my chest. “The last time I saw him, he was so sure that he was meant to stay at the Uldani fortress, and now I know why. He was meant to meet you.”

“You believe in their Fatas too?” I asked.

Frankie gave me a lopsided grin. “Sometimes, I think I do.”

“Is Fatas a bitch enough to take Sax from me? From his brother and his friends?”

“I don’t know about that.” Frankie gazed at Sax with care in her eyes. “But I know Sax is stubborn enough to stay alive.” She rubbed her thumb over my loks. “He’ll come back to you.”

I picked up her wrist. Her loks resembled a filigree pattern, while mine seemed almost floral.

“As I understand, they’re a bit like fingerprints,” she said. “Unique to each mated pair.”

I jerked my head up. “Really?”

She nodded, her eyes bright. “And when Daz told me you and Sax had bonded with loks… Well, we could barely believe it. Or at least, the Drixonians couldn’t. Apparently mated pairs like this—cora-eternals—were extremely rare back when their females lived. Like once-in-five-hundred-years rare.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, so the fact that Daz and Sax both have cora-eternals… It’s a little crazy.”

“Do they know why this happened?”

She shook her head. “There are a few elders left. Daz has been trying to get a hold of one elder he knows, but he’s a lonas… er, not affiliated with a clavas, so he’s hard to get a hold of.”

I nodded, unsure what to say.

“Frankie—” Miranda began.

“So, Rokas told us you were a nurse?” She ignored her friend, who looked like she was trying to draw Frankie out of the room. Maybe they thought they were overwhelming me, but the company was nice. I’d felt so much crushing loneliness lately, and I found it a little ironic that I had to come to an alien planet to get some damn friends in my life.

“Yeah, I worked in an ER in Dayton,” I said.

“Well, Rokas is looking forward to having someone to help him.” Frankie’s eyes widened. “I mean if you want to! You don’t have to, like, work to earn your keep here or anything.”

I laughed, and the sound surprised me. It surprised the other women too, but the effect was immediate. They all relaxed, and Tab plopped on a chair nearby, playing with the ends of her hair as she jiggled her sandaled foot.

“I would be happy to help Rokas,” I said. “I like him, and I love being a nurse. I’m fascinated by their medis here and would love to learn more about how they heal.”

“That’s awesome!” Frankie said. “I was a waitress back in Jersey. My skills are only used here when some of the guys drink too much of Xavy’s spirits and need poured into their beds. I’ve broken up a fight or two though.” She polished her knuckles on her shirt.

“I was a lawyer,” Miranda said. “And seeing as judge and jury is pretty much Daz, I’m out of a job.”

“Graphic designer here,” Justine said. “You need a logo? I’m your gal.”

The girls giggled, and I grinned.

“I was in college. Undecided with a minor in frat parties. And frat boys.” Tab winked.

“Why am I not surprised?” Miranda rolled her eyes and tossed Tab a playful smirk.

“What’d you do, Naomi?” Frankie asked. “I don’t think you ever told us.”

“Construction,” she said softly.

Miranda turned her head so fast, her braids smacked Justine in the face, who sputtered. “What?”

Naomi shrugged with a smile. “I could fit into small spaces. I’m stronger than I look, I guess.”

“You?” Frankie said. “You. Tiny, petite Naomi with a big rack worked with a bunch of rough dudes?”

“My big brother owned the company,” she said. “No one messed with me, because they knew he’d swing a hammer at their temples.” Her smile faded, then her eyes glistened, and she sniffed. “Shit, I miss him.”

Tab hopped to her feet and wrapped her arms around Naomi. “I’m sorry, babe. We know how you feel.”

“I wish one of us was a psychologist.” Frankie pouted. “We all need freaking therapy.”

“Do any of you know why we were taken?” I asked. “We aren’t from the same areas, right?”

Frankie shook her head. “We’re from all over. And what’s interesting is most of us don’t have too many ties from home. Miranda is the only one with a large family. It’s like we were … chosen.”

“But how?” I asked.

Frankie shuddered. “I’ve wondered this so many times. What if there’s some creepy human database floating around the galaxies and we were ordered up like Big Macs?”

We lobbed some ideas back and forth, but we didn’t get anywhere and succeeded only in scaring ourselves. When I yawned—again, it was like my body was trying to make up for lost time—Miranda put her foot down and hustled the women out of the room.

“Just let Rokas know if you need us!” Frankie said, dragging her feet even as Miranda tugged her out of the room.

“Thank you,” I said with a smile and a wave. “I will. It was awesome meeting you ladies.”

“We’ll hang out soon!” Tab stuck her head back in. “And wait until you try Xavy’s spirits. That shit is like tequila without the hangover.” She yelped as Miranda pulled on her arm.

“Get some sleep and take care of your mate,” Miranda called over her shoulder.

“I will.”

As I heard their voices fade and leave the hut, I sighed, feeling better than I had in… a long time. Since I’d met Sax, threats had loomed over our heads, making it nearly impossible to relax.

Now I just needed him to wake up. To hold me. To kiss me and wrap me in those strong arms. I longed to see his smile and hear his laugh. I wanted to see him speed around on his bike with his best friend. I wanted him to be able to hug his brother. I wanted to start our new lives on this crazy planet.

SEVENTEEN

Sax

Thin, small fingers brushed my forehead and there was a slight tugging on my scalp. “Oh shoot, sorry,” a female whispered. “Just trying to get the snags out of your hair. I know you don’t want to wake up with a rat’s nest.”

Not just any female. My female. My Val. But where were we? The last I remembered I was… dying.

I struggled to pry open my eyelids, but they were so heavy, and my lashes wouldn’t budge. I tried to flex my fingers and toes, but nothing moved. I didn’t have pain, but I didn’t feel connected to my body. What the fleck?

“Everyone is so excited to see you again,” Val was saying. “Daz visits every chance he gets, and I can tell he’s trying to stay strong for me and the rest of the clavas, but he’s worried, Sax.” Her voice shook, and she cleared her throat. “I’m worried too, but your wound is healing. Your body is responding to the medis. I know it is.” A small hand cupped my cheek, her thumb stroking my bottom lip. “Come back to me,” she murmured. Her hand slid down to my chest, and a light weight pressed down over my beating cora. Hair tickled my throat.

I wanted to. More than anything. Why wouldn’t my body work? I strained and focused, and with more effort than I would have liked, I opened my eyes. Above me was a familiar sight. The ceiling of Rokas’s hut. I was home. Somehow, we’d made it.

Val. Val got us here. But how? I knew my lioness was amazing, but this seemed nearly impossible.

She didn’t know I was conscious. Her head rested on my chest with her blonde hair splayed all around us like golden thread.

I wanted to touch her. I focused on moving just my fingers, and when my thumb twitched, I exhaled with relief.

Val’s body tensed, and then she slowly raised her head, staring down at my chest. “Did you just…” She lifted her gaze until her eyes met mine. Her mouth dropped open, and she jolted to her knees. “Sax!” she cried, leaning over me so her hair formed a curtain around our faces. “Can you hear me? Are you in pain?”

I tried to talk, but the words were nothing but clicks in my throat.

She reached over me, grabbed something, and held a cup to my lips. With a hand under my neck, she inclined my head so I could drink. I swallowed a few sips of qua, relishing the liquid on my parched tongue. “Val.” God, even that one word was like a dagger slicing my throat.

My pretty female’s eyes glistened. “Don’t try to talk too much,” she said. “Do you know where you are?”

“Home,” I rasped. “Safe.”

A beautiful smile lit up her face. “Yeah, Sax. We’re home. And we’re safe.”

I lifted a hand, finally gaining control of my limbs, and sifted it through her hair before brushing my fingers across her lips. “I thought I was dying.”

“You were,” she said. “But Rokas got to you in time.” A sob left her lips as her shoulders shook. “You came back to me.”

“I’ll always come back to you, lioness,” I said.

She pressed her lips to mine, heat flooding my weakened muscles with much-needed blood. I was home.

Once I woke up, nothing could hold me back. Soon I was sitting up, and then walking around the room as Val and Rokas watched me nervously. I felt strong already, and I couldn’t wait to exercise. I’d been passed out on Rokas’s cot for three rotations. Val explained to me what had happened. I’d been furious at the mere thought of her facing off against the Kulks. I couldn’t imagine how terrified she must have been. But when she spoke of Daz and the Night Kings flying into battle, I wished I could have seen the magnificence of that.

A commotion from the front of Rokas’s hut caught our attention before a tiny body, all limbs and long brown hair flew into my arms. “Sax!” Fra-kee sobbed against my chest. “You’re okay. Oh God, you’re okay.” She pulled back, tear-streaked face smiling up at me before she frowned, red-faced, and slugged me in the biceps. “Don’t you ever sacrifice yourself like that again. Don’t you ever scare us by getting injected with gross Uldani poison. And never, ever, ever pass out on us for days where we’re unsure you’ll ever wake up.” Her eyes fired at me. “That was… rude! You big jerk!”

Then she collapsed against me into sobs again. I wrapped my arms around her as her little fists pounded me.

“I tried to keep her away longer to give you time,” Daz’s deep voice filled the room, and I glanced up to see my brother leaning in the doorway, arms crossed over his massive chest. “She snuck out and ran here because she doesn’t listen to her mate.” With a pointed look, he directed the last words at Fra-kee, who wiped her runny nose and glared at him over her shoulder.

“Your mate wanted to see your brother, who put his life on the line for both of us,” she hissed back at him.

Daz’s expression melted as he stepped toward me. “Brother,” he said, his voice a low rumble from his chest. That one word held so much.

“Brother,” I answered back with a nod. Fra-kee left my arms, and Daz gripped me at the back of my neck, his fingers digging in with a slight tremble before he brought our foreheads together. I laid my hand on the back of his neck and closed my eyes.

He didn’t speak, and neither did I. I basked in the presence of my big brother, a warrior I’d looked up to my whole life. “I’m proud of you,” he said. I opened my eyes to see his were a whirling purple and black. “I didn’t—” His throat worked. “I didn’t think I’d see you again. Not only did you escape the Uldani, you retrieved their research for us to study, and Fatas blessed you with a courageous mate.”

He didn’t let go of my neck, but he pulled back to be able glance between me and my mate. “You should have seen her facing off against the Kulks before we showed up. I heard her. She claimed you, and no way were the Kulks taking her away from you. Magnificent.”

I met Val’s gaze head-on. She no longer blushed or ducked her head when receiving praise. This time, she smiled, her cheeks slightly flushed. Fra-kee grabbed her hand and squeezed it. Val smiled at her, and the two females nearly glowed with happiness.

I squeezed Daz’s neck, so flecking happy to be safe and back home. “I learned from the best, big brother.”

Daz smiled and huffed a laugh. “I don’t know. I think I’ve been hard on you in the past for not taking things seriously. I’ve chastised you for driving your bike recklessly, but Val had something to say about how your skills saved you in a rather exciting vehicle transport battle.”

I nearly leapt with excitement. “Did she tell you about my solar gun aim? I took down a vehicle! Two shots!”

Daz frowned, but I saw the amusement in his eyes. “She might have mentioned it, but that was a big target, so I don’t know that deserves praise…”

I shoved with him a laugh. “Oh, shut up, you fleck.” I jabbed a thumb at my chest. “I’m doing nothing but practicing now. Before you know it, I’ll be a better shot than you.”

Daz’s eyes glittered. “Bring it on.”

I looped an arm around Val and tucked her into my side, so flecking proud of my mate. My cora felt like it would burst with happiness. I couldn’t wait to get out of this hut and see Xavy and Nero. Pick on Hap. Get a few grunts from Ward and Gar. “Thanks for taking care of my lioness while I was recovering,” I said.

Daz nodded. “She’s a great mate for you. I think she’ll keep you grounded, and you need that a little, huh?”

I pressed a kiss to her temple. “She’ll keep me in line. You’re out of a job now.”

Daz raised a brow at Fra-kee. “I think I have plenty of work to keep me busy.”

“Hey,” she protested, but her eyes shone with adoration for her mate.

Daz reached into his pocket and pulled out a familiar red band. A Night Kings tag. I remembered vividly when the Uldani had ripped mine from my arm and spat on it. I knew I’d never see it again, which had hurt worse than the damn shock rods. Our clavas tag was sacred. We wore our scarred, beaten up bands with pride.

Daz didn’t wait for me to take it from him. He grabbed my arm and wrapped the band around my biceps. Something in my soul settled. I hadn’t realized how naked I’d felt without my tag until I once again bore the crown symbol stamped into metal.

“I wish we could have retrieved your old one, but I’m sure you’ll dirty this up in no time.” He patted my shoulder and stepped back.

I was unable to talk for a moment, not until Val’s hand clenched mine, and her pretty smile beamed up at me. “Red’s your color,” she murmured, running her fingers along the tag.

“Thank you, brother,” I said around a lump in my throat. “Proud to wear the Night Kings’ tag again. The stamp was always on my cora when it wasn’t on my arm.”

Daz cleared his throat, and I knew that was enough emotion for both of us for the rotation. “You up for a walk in the sun?” he said. “Your poor mate has been stuck by your lazy side since she got here.” Daz lightly slapped my face, and I batted his hand away with a growl. “She needs a tour. And the males are eager to see you.”

Fra-kee clapped. “A tour!” She reached for Val’s hand and squeezed. “It’s not so bad. Kind of a medieval-castle-slash-frat vibe. But like, a frat where the guys can cook. And sew. And take care of themselves. It’s truly impressive, to be honest.”

I didn’t know what those words meant, but they made Val laugh.

She gazed up at me, her hand resting protectively over my pounding core, her smile so big that her eyes crinkled at the corners. “I’m ready for the tour. Let’s go greet your fans.”

Val

The Night Kings clavas was massive, and it seemed like everyone had a job. Drixonians milled about, many filling the massive garage-type structure where they stored all the bikes. There were a series of huts, which Sax explained belonged to Daz, him, and several of the higher-ranking males in the clavas. The rest lived in a dorm-type structure. The compound itself was built on a pointed cliff and only accessible from the front. Walls extended from one edge of the cliff to the other with the only entrance guarded by Drixonians.

Males from all over rushed to greet us when they saw Sax was on his feet. Xavy nearly bounced, his excitement infectious and youthful. The two of them did that neck-grip-forehead-touch-thing that I learned was a customary greeting for the Drixonian warriors. That greeting then dissolved into a playful tussle that kicked up green dirt and resulted in Daz cuffing Xavy on the back of the head and telling him to go find a job to do.

Seeing Sax with his friends and a community who cared about him only solidified what I already knew. Sax was amazing. A good man. He kept his arm around me the whole time as he laughed with his friends and rolled his eyes at his overprotective brother. Daz followed us with a happy Frankie at his side as we walked the compound. At first, I thought Daz wanted to watch for Sax’s health, but I soon realized he simply didn’t want to leave his brother’s side. Every time a male greeted Sax, Daz’s chest puffed out more and more, his pride for his brother evident.

It warmed my heart.

Nero emerged from a hut, rubbing his neck. His face lit up when he caught sight of Sax. “I heard you were up and about. Had us worried there.”

“Ah, you shouldn’t have been worried about me,” Sax said with a grin.

“Your mate gave Daz the chip you stole. I’ve been working on decrypting it. It’s a bitch, but we’ll get to their research soon. It’s invaluable. I can’t believe you managed to escape and steal from them.” He clapped Sax on the shoulder. “Of course, if anyone was going to do that, it would have been you.”

Sax shrugged, but I knew the praise pleased him. The panther in his aura preened.

A large Drixonian strode toward us, and I recognized him as the one with scars and a broken horn. His eyes were all black, and his lips were thinned. He greeted Sax quickly, murmuring a few words. I learned his name was Gar, and he gave me a quick nod before turning to Daz. “Drexel, I’d like to discuss the plans for the search party for Ward.”

Daz’s casual posture immediately shifted as his back straightened and his shoulders tensed. “Are you ready to leave soon?”

Gar’s fists tightened, the only physical reaction he gave away. His face remained stony. “Yes, but…” He glanced at Frankie and me before he swallowed. “I’d like to speak to you alone.”

“Where’s Ward?” Sax frowned.

Daz’s eyes flicked briefly to his brother. “When the females first arrived on the planet, one ran away, and Ward chased her. She was taken by a Rizars pack, and he had been tracking them the last we heard.”

“Fleck,” Sax muttered.

“Daz, we should speak in private.” Gar shifted his weight.

Daz nodded and turned to his mate.

She squeezed his biceps. “I know, you want me to make myself scarce. Will do.” She raised pleading eyes at Gar, which surprised me because the male was downright scary. “I hope Ward and his woman are okay. Bring them home.” After giving me a quick hug, she strode off in the direction of one of the huts.

Daz and Gar walked away, their heads close together as they talked. “Do you want to follow them?” I asked Sax.

He watched them carefully before shaking his head. “Nah, it’s okay. Daz will fill me in later.” He gripped my hand and we continued the small tour on our own until we reached the back of the compound where the land abruptly came to an end.

When Sax led me to the edge, I gasped. We stood on a cliff, and, as far as I could see stretched a green sea. Waves hit the rocks below, splashing into swirls of white and seafoam.

“An ocean,” I whispered.

“We call it the freshas. But I like your word ocean.” He grinned at me.

I peered below. “Do you sail? Have you ever traveled on the freshas?”

“We have small boats we use for emergencies.” He pointed to a pulley system. I saw a few canoe-like vessels braced against the side of the cliff, ready to be lowered.

“We are in a good defense position here,” he said. “But we have to be prepared in case of a siege.”

That sounded scary, and I decided not to think about it. “This is beautiful.” The air smelled slightly sweet and the humidity coated my skin. The breeze picked up, and my hair lashed my face. I turned to see Sax standing beside me, tall and proud, his chest out. He barely limped, and I knew it was only a matter of time before all evidence of what he’d gone through was gone. But we’d remember. Both of us. We were bound by our experience, mutual respect, and love.

Sax reached for me, tugging me into his arms, and I went willingly, so happy to be in his embrace again. I’d thought I’d never feel the weight of his arms around me, cradling me.

“I remember you said something right before I passed out,” he said. “I believe you used the word love. We don’t have that in our culture, but Daz explained it to me when we were in the Uldani prison.”

“I meant it,” I watched avidly as his lips twisted into a self-satisfied smirk.

“Of course, you do. I’m completely lovable.”

I laughed. “Oh, I see someone’s back to his old self.”

He suddenly dropped to his knees, and his hair waved in the wind like a shiny black flag. “I love you, too, my lioness. There were times in the Uldani prison that I despaired. I wondered if I made the right choice to stay alive, to remain there while my brother and his mate survived. And then you showed up. I knew you were my purpose. My brave lioness. My healer.”

“I didn’t heal—”

“Rokas told me that the tourniquets surely saved my life. You did that. You stood up to the Uldani and pulled me from the river, and you stood up to the Kulks.” His eyes narrowed. “Although if I ever hear about you threatening to take your own life again, I’ll tie you to my bed.”

I smiled. “I can accept that deal. No more sacrifices.” I inhaled, loving the scent of the freshas and Sax and the lingering smoke from a campfire. “We get to be happy now. We earned this.”

He kissed my hands and rose to his feet. “We did. Now let’s go to my hut and make the rest of the males jealous while I lick you until you scream.”

Memories of his wicked tongue slammed into me, and I squirmed. He grinned devilishly, like he knew what I was thinking. Wait, he did know. Stupid auras.

“You should probably rest. We did a lot of walking— Oomph!” I was airborne, carried over Sax’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “Sax, put me down!” I hit my fist on his back, which was about as effectual as a flyswatter.

Drixonians watched us as we cut through a crowd on the way toward the huts. Many laughed. I saw Tab giggle and wave. I shot her the finger, which caused her to double over with laughter.

“Nope, I earned my female’s pleasure cries. And I’ll get them.” He dropped me in front of a hut before pushing the door open and then shoving me inside. He bent down and invaded my mouth, seeking entrance. I melted into his arms. “It’s time to make my lioness purr.”

I did purr. And touch. And scream.

Later, as Sax and I fell asleep in each other’s arms, sated and sweaty, I vowed to always be his brave lioness. To always stick up for myself. And to never turn down a Drixonian-induced orgasm.

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If you missed reading about Daz and Frankie, you can get their story in The Alien’s Ransom.

Want to know if Ward ever tracked down his runaway human? Read on for a sneak peak of THE ALIEN’S UNDOING.

THE ALIEN’S UNDOING

Excerpt from Chapter One of

THE ALIEN’S UNDOING.

Reba

I was a true-crime junkie. Podcasts? Listened to ‘em. Books? Read ‘em. Netflix documentaries? Watched ‘em. I was the proud owner of pepper spray and that cute little cat keychain that doubled as an eye gouger.

But my pepper spray was in my purse hanging from my kitchen chair and my fashionable eye gouger was swinging from my keys on the hook by my front door. Those crime deterrents were ineffective seeing as I was snatched from my bed in the middle of the night.

None of the true crime information I inhaled like air had given me any indication of what to do when aliens transported me to a distant galaxy. Worse? I’d just seen a contingent of giant blue aliens on hover bikes with freaking blades under their scales slaughter a whole bunch of other aliens. I was now face down, ass up on one of these bikes, zooming toward a place where they’d surely flay me and eat the skin from my bones if their large fangs were any indication of their eating preferences. They had sharp horns too in black corkscrews jutting out the sides of their heads, as well as tails. The alien who had me cut his hair close to the scalp, so it was just a half-inch of black hair, which only seemed to emphasize how utterly big his skull was.

His chest was bigger than any bodybuilder I’d ever seen and his massive hand was clamped down on my back in a warning not to struggle. Because I had. After the slaughter, I’d lost my mind when this one grabbed me and dragged me toward his bike. The death glare he’d given me had rendered me immobile for a half second which was enough time for him to throw me over his bike and get us off the ground. I lay across his massive thighs, which hardened and flexed as he moved with his bike through the air. His boots on the footboard had to at least size eighteen, if such a thing existed. His sheer size sent my heart into overdrive so that my whole body shook and my teeth chattered.

That led me to my current dilemma. Kidnapping 101. Don’t let your assailant take you to another location. I didn’t know for sure, but I was going to assume Karen and Georgia from My Favorite Murder would also recommend this advice even outside of our galaxy.

I had to get back to the sight of the slaughter. Not because I was excited to revisit the gore, but because that was where the spaceship that brought us here had landed. I wanted to get back there, sit on my ass, and wait for the next shuttle to arrive so I could hitch a ride back to Earth. Did I think it would be that easy? No. But I was terrified out of my mind, sick as hell from the twisting and turning of the hover bike as we sped through dense forestry, and so close to an actual mental break that I was hanging on by a fraying thread.

I had a one-track mind, and that was getting back to the spaceship site. They had to return, right? I’d sneak aboard like a stowaway to return to Earth and my new mattress in my little house with my two cats and one fish.

I would not be a victim. I would not be a victim. I would not be a victim. Not after my sister’s fate…

Shit, I couldn’t think about that now, because the last thing I had time for was a grieving crying jag. I struggled to lift my head and peer through my curtain of blonde hair, wondering how the hell I was going to get back to the ship’s landing site. I had to try. It’d been a massive clearing, so it couldn’t be too hard to find, right? If I could just get off this damn bike…

I squirmed and flailed enough that the alien driver must have sensed I was uncomfortable or about to lose it. I was both, but that wasn’t why I wanted him to stop. He slowed the bike, and before I knew it, I was coughing up green dirt from this godforsaken planet as we landed among some dense brush.

The alien lifted his hand from my back long enough for me to slide to the ground in a heap. I brushed my hair out of my eyes and glared up at him. He looked at me down his nose, and his lips curled to reveal his very real and very sharp-looking fangs.

He reached down for me just as the other bikes settled around us. I scrambled away as one of the other aliens spoke to mine. He growled a few words back at them.

I looked in the direction we came from. I could maybe get away now. Sure they’d follow me—maybe—but I could certainly hide. Unless they had ultra sniffer noses or something. God, I was so out of my element. I had no idea what secret senses these guys had. They had damn hidden weapons in their bodies!

My alien’s eyes narrowed at me and he curled a lips as he swung off his bike. I scrambled away from him as he stomped toward me. I held my arms out to ward him away and said the first thing that came to mind. “I have to pee!”

He stopped abruptly and stared at me. The other women on the bikes—who didn’t look terrified enough, in my opinion—glanced around nervously. The one with the braids spoke up. “You okay?”

I wanted them to come with me, but I didn’t think a mass escape attempt was feasible. If I could get home, I could send help. Or something. I wasn’t sure. My brain was a jumble. “I just have to pee,” I said to the women.

I turned to my alien and tried to figure out how to convey my need to him. I made a rushing water sound and gestured between my legs while pressing my knees together in the classic Earth sign for “need to relieve my bladder.”

My alien wrinkled his nose and only looked for agitated. “Mah bust de rapundi,” he growled at me.

I pointed to a tree. “Right there, I’ll just pee. And then come back.” I tried to mime some hand motions with that.

He crossed his arms over his chest and braced his feet apart. God, he was massive. All muscle and horns and glower.

I shuffled over to the tree and held up my finger. “Just a minute. Can you turned around?”

Of course he only stared at me.

One of the aliens said something, and mine turned his head to face them. Another laughed, which drew my alien’s attention enough that he gave me his back. He took a step toward his companions, gesturing with his massive hand in an impatient tone.

I ducked down. Thankful for the thick brush that extended over my head, I began to crawl away on my hands and knees. I nearly held my breath, because my life depended on me not getting caught. Not a victim. Not a victim. Not a victim. I chanted in my head. This couldn’t be happening to me. My parents couldn’t lose another child to some freak bullshit—

I froze as I realized I didn’t hear any voices anymore. How far had I crawled? It couldn’t have been that far. I glanced behind me, but all I saw was more of the thorny bushes. Well shit. Keep going. You can do this, Reba. Keep crawling. Away from the big bad aliens. Away from Glower. I wished the other women were with me. I thought for a second about going back, but what could I do to help them if I was held prisoner by these blue guys same as them?

I wondered where the leader had taken the loud girl. She’d been terrified as he’d ripped her away from us, and I’d tried to cling to her just like the other women. That was my other fear—they were going to separate us one by one, and no way in hell was I going to be alone with one of those big bastards. I didn’t want to think about what the leader was doing to the loud, pretty girl now. I shuddered and kept crawling, sending up a short prayer for her. Wherever she was. If this was her end, I hoped it was quick.

The sun beat down through cracks in the large leaves over my head, soaking through the thin shirt and shorts I usually wore to bed. My hair plastered to my sweat-damp neck. Burning streaked through my palms and knees as rocks and sticks dug into my skin. I ignored the bloody trail I left behind and kept going.

The foliage on this planet was a brilliant blue and teal. Every once in a while, I caught a glimpse of another planet next to this one, visible along the horizon, its atmosphere a swirl of greens and blues.

I kept crawling, and when the brush around me began to change, I took my chance and stood up to run at a loping crouch. When we’d left, the sun had been at my left, I remembered that much. So if I just ran with it to my right, I’d eventually make it back to the landing site. Right? Sure, let’s go with that.

But as I continued on, every step in the opposite direction of the women and the blue aliens seemed wrong. I second-guessed myself, which I hated doing. The blue aliens knew how to survive on this planet. They most likely had food. Shelter. What if they were my best chance at staying alive? Before the leader had ripped away the pretty brunette, he had killed the big alien who’d hit her.

I slowed to a walk. Then I stopped. My breathing hitched with the beginnings of a freak out. “Calm down, Reba.” I whispered to myself. “Just… calm down. Go back. Stick with the women and the blue assholes and try to learn their language. Communicate. Plead your case.” Wasn’t running away playing the victim?

I took a deep breath as I heard footsteps behind me. This was probably Glower, here to reprimand me and toss me on his bike like a sack of potatoes. Try to look innocent. Fragile. Maybe he’d take pity on me and not exact some horrible punishment for running away.

I turned around, adopting the most apologetic expression as I could when a body crashed through the brush. Actually, not just one body. Several bodies. And they weren’t Glower. They weren’t any of the big blue aliens. These were big lizard-like creatures with yawning jaws of sharp teeth, clawed hands, and oily bodies. One reached for me, and I opened my mouth and screamed.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I first and foremost have to thank the readers who took a chance on a new science fiction romance author and launched themselves headfirst into my Drixonian universe. I feel so, so lucky that I get to do this, because I’m having so much fun writing these brawny guys and their females. THANK YOU! I hope to keep making you happy and giving you a fun escape.

Thank you as always to the amazing Natasha Snow, my cover designer. You captured Sax perfectly! Thank you to Edie Danford for your copy edits, and Del for your great proofing. I have a good team!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ella Maven is the pen name for a multi-published USA Today Bestselling author who decided to finally unleash the alien world that had been living in her head for years. (Is that weird? Probably). Her books feature dominant, possessive aliens who are absolutely devoted to their humans.

She lives on the East Coast with her completely normal husband and two spawn who sure seem alien some days.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

The Alien’s Escape

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

The Alien’s Undoing

Acknowledgments

About the Author