THE ALIEN’S UNDOING

DRIXONIAN WARRIORS #3

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 Del’s Diabolical Editing

Cover design by Natasha Snow

First edition April 2020

DEDICATION

To not being the victim

CONTENTS

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

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Acknowledgments

About the Author

ONE

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 a cute little cat-shaped keychain which doubled as an eye gouger.

However, my pepper spray was in my purse hanging on the chair in my kitchen and my fashionable eye gouger was swinging from my keys 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 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, black corkscrews for horns jutting out the sides of their heads, and 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 zoom away with me.

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 a size eighteen, if such a thing existed. His sheer size sent my heart into overdrive so my whole body shook, and my teeth chattered.

Which led to my current dilemma.

Kidnapping 101.

Don’t let your assailant take you to another location. I wasn’t positive, but I was willing to assume Karen and Georgia from My Favorite Murder would also recommend this advice even when outside 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 which 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 really 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 breakdown I was barely hanging on by a thinning 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 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. His prominent, nubbed brow lowered.

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’d come 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 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 agitated. “Mah bust de rapundi,” he growled at me.

I pointed to a tree. “Right there. I’ll pee. And 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, horns, and glower.

I shuffled over to the tree and held up my finger. “Just a minute. Can you turn 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 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 which 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 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 one. 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 itself to my sweat-dampened 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, 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 survival? 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. 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.

Ward

The scream cut through the air like a blade and I whirled from where I’d been talking with my brother, immediately rushing toward the tree where the little human crouched to relieve herself.

I gripped the trunk and reached blindly for her, but my hands grasped at nothing. She wasn’t there. Another muffled scream echoed through the dense forest, sending my cora into a frenzy. Peering at the ground, I caught sight of markings in the dirt leading away from the tree. I would have to follow them and track her.

I gritted my teeth. Daz, our drexel, had given me one job, one flecking job and that was to protect the humans. I’d had her in my possession for less than a yora and I’d already lost her.

“Fleck,” I spat and turned to face my brother, who was off his bike and crashing toward me. I held up a hand, and Gar stopped immediately, his nostrils flaring. “She’s gone.”

“Gone?” A slight widening of his eyes was the only emotion my stoic brother displayed at the news, but I knew him. Like me, he was all about duty.

“I will track her.” I brushed past him as the females started to chatter with frantic little voices. Retrieving my solar gun and pack of supplies from my bike, I strapped them to my belt. “Hide my bike, and I’ll return for it once I find her.”

“Ward—” Gar began.

“Daz said to protect the women and that’s what we’ll do. Take them to the hideout and I’ll rendezvous with you there. With the wayward female.”

Gar’s jaw clenched and he grasped me around the neck, touching our foreheads together. “Stay safe, brother.”

I returned the gesture, taking some comfort in his words and tight grip. “You too.”

“She is all,” he whispered, his black eyes brightening to a deep purple for a beat.

“She is all.” I echoed the Drixonian Warriors creed. We hadn’t had females to protect for one hundred and fifty sun-cycles. We wouldn’t fail this time. We couldn’t.

With a nod to the rest of the males, I took off after my female at a fast clip.

Her tracks indicated she traveled alone, and despite my vow to protect her, I still cursed her. She’d been trouble since I’d laid eyes on her, in more ways than one. First, because she’d been hysterical and difficult and second because I couldn’t look away from her.

When I’d grabbed her to put her on my bike, I’d felt a bolt of heat run through me at the feel of her soft skin. Her straight shiny hair the color of the sun had brushed my chest and for the first time in my life, my cock awoke.

I’d been six cycles old when a virus had swept through our civilization, killing all the Drixonian females and more of our elder males. I hadn’t expected to ever meet a female, let alone have one awaken my dormant libido. It was the little escapee too, not the other females.

She was yellow-haired with perky breasts on a little frame and constantly leaking light-colored eyes. Her lips were round, lush pink pillows below a small nose.

I growled to myself. Since when did I notice things like this? Since your cock got hard, a voice in my head whispered. I shoved it away. This human wasn’t mine to keep or mate. I protected her until Daz gave the next order. Daz wouldn’t give the females to the Uldani, but his choice was complicated. The Uldani held his brother in exchange for us delivering them, which we wouldn’t do. The Uldani wouldn’t treat the females well. We didn’t know what they wanted with them, but the Uldani only acted selfishly. The females were a means to an end for something, that was for sure.

I had to focus on her small scuffled prints in the dirt as I ventured deeper into the forest. Time to ignore my cock and how just her touch had made my head spin. When I got her back, I’d let her know just how dangerous it was to run away. How there were many species on this planet who’d do her harm. I wouldn’t let her out of my sight again, even if I had to tie her to me. I knew enough already about her to know she’d hate it—probably toss that gorgeous sheet of hair and fire those eyes at me. Good, I hoped I angered her. Then she wouldn’t pull this flecked-up scheme again…

The tracks changed. She’d been crawling on all fours, and now she switched to upright. Her steps were light at first, indicating she’d been moving fast, but then slowed as she either grew tired or… I hoped she’d realized her mistake and was sitting close by waiting for me to find her. I’d still shake her and maybe turn her over my knee like a naughty chit.

This would be the last time she’d run away from me.

I was Ward Garundum. Brother to Gar Garundum and to the late Mave Garundum, our sister. Our father served under Daz Bakut’s father. We came from a long line of legendary warriors. I could handle one little human female with her dull claws and blunt teeth.

Abruptly the tracks changed, and my body went still. Mixed with my little female’s tiny tracks were the unmistakable markings of a Rizar. And not just one, but an entire pack.

My focus narrowed. I hated the flecking Rizars—a filthy flesh-eating race who were dumb but hard to kill. They traveled in large groups, and while a few Drixonians would take on a handful of them in a scouting party with ease, an entire pack of Rizars had been known to overpower and kill a lone warrior. Of course, none of those warriors had my skills, but I still had to be cautious.

The Rizars would only want my female for one thing, and if they’d hurt her yet, I wasn’t sure what I’d do. I took to the trees, scrambling up a trunk with my claws extended. I climbed to the tallest branch that would support my weight and surveyed the direction the Rizars had taken.

In the distance, a cloud of green dirt alerted me to a pack traveling at their normal lumbering slow pace. I scanned the line of Rizars, my palms sweating. Had they killed her? Where was she?

My eyes caught on a streak of yellow hair, and I exhaled roughly. My female sat in a cage carried by four Rizars. She was alive. Her head turned, and her little fists grasped the cage bars. She didn’t appear to be hurt or bloody.

I grabbed the comm from my belt and connected to my brother. He picked up and I could see in the background that they’d made it to the hideout. His expression was stoic, but I caught the slight flicker of relief in his eyes when he saw me. “Brother.”

“She’s been taken by a Rizar pack.”

“Fleck,” he bit off.

“She’s alive and caged. They’re taking her to their caves, but I’ll steal her back in time.”

“Do you need backup? I can send some males.”

I shook my head. We couldn’t afford that. We were the Night Kings, a warrior clavas of about sixty strong.

Currently, Daz had taken one of the humans to retrieve translator implants so we could communicate with the females. Gar, along with Hap, Nero, and Xavy, were protecting the other four females. The rest of our clavas remained at our compound, which needed to be protected from predators and rival clavases. In particular, we’d been having some issues with the Red Hands. It was my wish all Drixonian males got along, but after all we’d been through since the death of over half of our species, not all Drix agreed on upholding the values of our dying race.

“No, I’ll be smart, you know that.”

Gar shifted, and his pictured shuddered for a moment. The signal was weak in the western half of the continent. Holed up in their fortress in the eastern plains, the Uldani controlled most of the tech on Corin. “Be safe then, brother.”

“I’ll meet you back at the compound. I expect this to take a few rotations.”

“You better, or we’ll send out a rescue party.”

I scoffed. “Don’t do that. Don’t waste any males on me.”

He narrowed his eyes and his lips curled. If I didn’t know him, I’d think he was angry. And he was. He was angry because he hated when he had to care about something. And he cared about me. “You’re worth ten of our best men.” He tilted his head and a slight smirk stretched his lips. “Unless I’m one of the ten.”

“Fleck off,” I curled my lips into a defiant smirk. “Don’t scare the females, Gar.”

“Too late!” Xavy yelled in the background.

I rolled my eyes. “Gar.”

“They are difficult, and their voices hurt my ears,” he frowned. Nearly a pout.

“At least they haven’t run away like my disobedient one. So be grateful you’re there with food and a cleanser while I’m hunting down a Rizars pack.”

“You have a point.”

“I need to go. Let Daz know my situation?”

“Of course. She is all, brother.”

“She is all.”

My brother’s picture blinked off and I pocketed the comm as I set my sights on the Rizars in the distance. This pack would take her to a cave on the coast the Rizars made their camps. Once there, they’d make her their meal. I didn’t let panic set in. I refused to give in to the emotional distraction. My mind locked on my mission. Rescue my human from the Rizars pack and protect her until I could meet up with the rest of my clavas. I’d completed more difficult orders in the past. I was Ward Garundum, and I wouldn’t fail.

TWO

Reba

I fucked up. I wasn’t too proud to admit it. In fact, I wasn’t proud at all. After these grimy, bipedal, crocodile aliens grabbed me, they’d thrown me into a cage. Now, four crocs held two poles at each corner while my cage sat on top, so I was being carried like Roman royalty or something. So far, they hadn’t hurt me, but I didn’t have high hopes I’d stay unmolested.

In addition, they kept throwing things at me. At first, I thought this was some sort of public humiliation, like throw rotten fruits at the human before we hang her in the town square or some shit. But this fruit wasn’t rotten; in fact, it smelled good. With raspy grunts and gestures with their stubby, three-fingered hands, they encouraged me to eat. At first I refused, wondering what the food would do to me, or if they poisoned it, but then I saw a few pluck a berry-type fruit off a tree and toss it in my cage.

Maybe I was … their pet? I could only hope that being their pet meant they’d feed me and then let me go like a rehabbed raccoon.

I ate because I was hungry, and I didn’t know when they would feed me again. I only picked food items which didn’t look tampered with, like whole fruits. I peeled one with a combination of my teeth and a sharp stick to reveal a rather tasty jelly inside. When they shoved a liquid at me that looked like water and smelled like vinegar, I drank it.

I wasn’t sure if it was the right decision to eat, but I didn’t quite trust myself to make the right decisions. The crocs sure as hell looked scary and there was the small matter that they’d caged me.

Eventually, I grew full. After piling my uneaten bounty in a small corner of my cage with a large leaf covering it, I peered out of my cage bars. I tested the construction of the thing, but there were vines tough as sailing ropes tying the branches together. The floor was made up of sticks lashed together, and the rough edges dug into the soles of my bare feet.

I slumped against the side, letting my head roll on my shoulders with the sway of the cage as the crocs plodded along at a slow as shit pace. Something poked me in the back, and I yelped as I whirled around. A croc held a stick and gestured to my food stash before pointing to my mouth.

“I’m full,” I announced, as if they could understand me. Their language was just a guttural series of grunts and barks.

He had a long snout and beady yellow eyes. When he blinked, an opaque film descended over his eyeballs. As he thrust his head closer to mine, I had to hold my breath. He stank like rotten meat, and chunks of food hung off his razor-sharp teeth.

He poked at me again, harder this time, enough to leave a mark. “Ouch!” I said. “Stop!”

He made as if to poke me again, then pointed at the food again. He wanted me to eat? More? I picked up a small berry and placed it between my lips to see if I’d read his meaning right. He lowered the stick and kept walking, now ignoring me.

I frowned at him, unsure why it mattered so much that I ate. As we plodded along, this became the theme. If I stopped eating, I got poked. If I tried to protest, I got poked harder.

So, I ate in little bites. My stomach, unused to this food, began to gurgle, and I feared I’d vomit it all up and then get poked to death. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed as I played this stupid pointless game with them, but the sun reached its peak in the sky before dipping back down. I had to pee. For real this time. My stomach hurt and my head pounded. The constant swaying of the cage was making me nauseous. I got motion sickness, okay? This was why I didn’t travel much.

After a while, we stopped. My cage was placed on the ground and the four crocs stood around me like sentries. The rest ate or pissed out in the open. I studiously avoided looking at any croc penis, as if I wasn’t already scarred for life from this freaking journey.

I had just finished another berry when a one from the front of the pack hobbled back. He was the largest one I’d seen yet. He wore a necklace made of small bones. While some of the others wore bone jewelry, his was far more elaborate. He was followed by two more, who seemed to flank him like a bodyguard.

He held a spear, the end an off-white bone chiseled into an arrow-point. He reached through the cage with his meaty hand and poked at me. First on my arm, then my thigh, and then my stomach. He tutted and clucked and grunted before pointing once again to my pile of food, which had somehow increased since I last saw it.

I threw up my hands. “What the hell? While I appreciate the hospitality, I’m done. I’m full. No more eating, or I’m going to puke it up.”

His eyes widened before he shoved the spear tip at my throat. I sucked in a breath, sure that this was it. He was going to slice my aorta and I’d bleed out on this strange planet, but all I felt was a little prick as he leaned his snout through the bars and hissed at me, stinky breath nearly making me choke. He pointed at the food before jerking his spear away.

Breathing hard, nearly out of my mind with fear, I picked up a handful of legume-like beans. I shoved them in my mouth and chewed as my eyes filled with tears.

He nodded and turned to walk away. His guard gave me a look which chilled me to my bone. Hunger. He licked his lips and snapped his jaws at me.

The beans turned to ash in my mouth. I gagged, spitting them out on the floor of my cage just as my stomach upended its contents. Grunts came from all around me, but I couldn’t stop vomiting, and gasped and retched until all I spit up was bile.

Because I knew now why they wanted me to fill my stomach. They weren’t being nice. They were fattening me up so they could eat me.

Ward

Rizars were easy to track. They didn’t bother hiding, because they knew in a pack that large, most predators wouldn’t bother them. They were also so plentiful the leaders didn’t care if one or two were picked off by a salibri or a group of pivars.

They crashed through the forest like they owned it, leaving trampled leaves and hacked-at trunks. I maintained a safe distance behind. Their sense of smell sucked, but they could hear well. If they thought a Drixonian warrior was on their tails, they’d send a fighting group to take me on, even if it was a suicide mission for their ranks. They would hope to slow me down, or deter me. Rarely would a lone Drixonian warrior take on a Rizar pack. But then it wasn’t every rotation the Rizars had in their possession the one thing I was willing to fight to the death for.

I caught glimpses of her every once in a while. At the beginning, she’d been alert. Eating. Now she sat curled in a ball in the center of her cage. Not moving. I still couldn’t see any blood, but her prone body worried me. I didn’t think they would have killed her yet as they liked fresh meat in their caves.

Why had she run? I regretted that she had to see what she had back at the spaceship landing. We hadn’t known the cargo was human females. The Uldani—our enemies since fifty rotations ago—had only told us we had to make a delivery in order for them to release Daz’s brother. All they gave us was a location and time. When we saw the Kulks guarding a half-dozen human females, we hadn’t been prepared.

Then one of the Kulks had hit and bloodied a female—the one Daz couldn’t take his eyes off—and he’d started the battle. As always, we’d slaughtered the Kulks, and the females had been a witness to all of it. I couldn’t imagine what they thought at seeing us in our warrior modes, our machets rippling out of our skins as we slashed at the inferior Kulks.

So, maybe I could understand why my female felt like I was a danger to her, but that didn’t stop me from thinking of all the ways I’d never let her get hurt again. Once I dealt with these flecking Rizars.

The coast was about one and a half rotations away for me, which meant about double that for a Rizar pack of this size. I still had time to make my move, but I had to do it before they reached their cave, or I couldn’t be sure she would still be alive.

As I walked, I drank some qua and shoved a bit of antella jerky in my mouth, barely tasting anything as my focus was slowly on following the Rizar pack and listening for any other predators.

My cora beat with renewed strength and purpose at having a female to watch out for. The Drixonian males who survived the virus had been so young and unprepared for dealing with life after our society collapsed. Our females had been in charge of everything—from our leader council to our manufacturing and food production. The males were solely in charge of protecting our planet, the neighboring twin planet Corin, from threats. We were warriors, not homemakers.

The Uldani from planet Torin—previously only minor acquaintances of ours—offered us a chance. We could work for them as bodyguards and law enforcement. They’d help us get back on our feet. That worked fine for about a hundred sun-cycles until we discovered the Uldani had been conducting experiments on Drixonians in secret—causing suffering and death among the males of our race as we were already dying out with no way to reproduce.

After that, we started the Uprising, a war which lasted many cycles until we emerged victorious, gaining our independence. The remaining Drixonian warriors retreated to the western half of the continent, separating into clavases and each electing their own leaders or drexels. The Uldani remained on the eastern half of the continent, living in a fortified community and hoarding as much technology as they were able.

We were left with our bikes, our weapons, and our wits. We’d rebuilt a new Drixonian society and although it wasn’t perfect, most of us had found a way to retain the Drixonian values. One of those was that females must be protected and cherished at all costs. That was the way we were bred. It was embedded in our biology. It was why I refused to turn around and give up on my female despite her careless decision. She is all.

I needed a plan. I couldn’t slash my way through to her cage and steal her away. Not without succumbing to the many dozens of sharp Rizar weapons. And a large part of me worried she’d refuse to come with me. I couldn’t tell her I meant her no harm and I’d rather cut off my arm than see her in pain.

There was one way I could get close to her. One way that could maybe get the Rizars to let their guards down. I hated it with every fiber of my being, but pride meant nothing in the face of a threat to my female.

I trudged forward, moving at a faster clip now. I wanted to make it to her by nightfall.

THREE

Reba

The good news was after I’d puked my guts out, they’d stopped making me eat. Maybe if I acted sick enough, they’d think I was diseased and drop me off somewhere. Or they’d perform a mercy kill. I wasn’t even sure which one I preferred anymore.

I remained in the center of my cage, curled in a ball, feeling sorry for myself. I did that for a few minutes, until the shadows began to lengthen, signaling dusk was coming. Then I forced myself to start using my brain. Not using my brain was probably what got me into this mess in the first place. Had the blue guys shoved me in a cage? No. Had they insinuated they wanted to eat me? No. Had they hurt me in any way? No.

If I had to choose between Glower and these croc aliens, I would choose the blue guy. His breath hadn’t smelled like rotten meat. His muscles had been nice. For a half-second I felt a little safe as he whisked me away from the bodies he’d slaughtered. I shuddered. And okay he was handsome. Which made me feel crazy to even think that, but hey, I might have had a thing for Predator fan fiction in my heyday.

I’d felt his thighs beneath my stomach and umph…

Shut up, Reba. Shut up, you crazy horny mofo. Focus.

Did these crocs sleep? That was what I wanted to know. If we traveled all night, that was going to be bad, but if they rested, I might be able to do … something. My goal wasn’t necessarily to get out of this cage and be able to run away, but I could try to damage it enough to force them to use another way to restrain me. Mistakes were always made when killers resorted to Plan B. Or something. I’d read that somewhere.

So that was what I’d do. Wait until nightfall and see if these assholes needed to sleep. Fuck, I prayed they needed sleep. Before we started moving again, back after I’d thrown up, I had peed as discretely as I could, but I didn’t want to think about how bad I smelled.

I grabbed the water-stuff and did my best to rinse the taste of vomit out of my mouth. I drank some of it and then went back to my food pile, trying to eat to replenish my energy. Throwing up always took a lot out of me. Stupid body. I slurped up the jelly fruit because it tasted good and sweet. Sugar would help my blood sugar levels. Next I went for some hard shells that had a meaty center like a nut. Did they have protein on this planet? I wasn’t sure, but I ate that too.

The sun dipped lower and lower. The air grew cool, and after the first time I shivered, I went still. Okay that was bad. How cold would it get here at night? The climate was rather pleasant during the day, but I was wearing next to nothing and there were no blankets or coverings in sight to protect me from the cold.

I had fragile pathetic human skin not whatever weird scaled plated armor covered them. I couldn’t move inside the cage very well to keep my body warm, but I flapped my arms and rowed the air with my legs. Some of the crocs gave me weird looks and a few pokes. Probably because I was burning precious calories they wanted to ingest from my flesh.

When the sun touched the horizon, we abruptly stopped. Several of the crocs immediately sat down on their squatty haunches. I guessed overtime wasn’t a thing in their world.

The leader stomped down the ranks, grunting at his minions in what I could only surmise went along the lines of, “get up you lazy assholes.” Most of them swayed to their feet with moans and grumbles.

I kept quiet, hoping maybe they’d forget about me, but I was, of course, wrong. The leader slashed at the vines on my cage and hauled me outside. I stumbled; my legs were nearly numb from being cramped for so long.

He didn’t seem to care. He shoved me to the ground and issued some orders to guards standing nearby. Hands clamped on my shoulders, and I tried to squirm away and kick them off me, but they were too strong. One lashed a strong vine around my ankle and tied the other end to a tree. Great, so I went from caged like a dog to tied to a tree like a dog. I didn’t see this situation as an improvement, although it was nice to be able to stretch out my legs.

They milled around, some flopping to the ground in an instant sleep with their creepy opaque eyes. Nearby, two crocs dragged something between them. In the dimming light, I couldn’t see what it was until they drew closer. I gasped when I saw the blood. It was some type of animal, I thought. There was some fur, and broken limbs and dripping entrails.

I pressed a hand to my mouth at the smell. I avoided the raw meat section of a grocery store, so this was … viscerally appalling. They hacked at it with their blades and spears before depositing a hunk of raw meat at my feet.

Raw. Alien. Planet. Meat.

Even if I hadn’t been a vegetarian since I was eighteen, there was no way I was putting that in my mouth. I gagged and crawled away from their offering, testing the limit of the leash, which was not very long. Grunts and clicks and hisses greeted my rejection of their meal. “Yeah, well fuck you. I’m not eating raw foreign animal meat unless you want to see me puke up my guts again.”

After more hisses and poking, they finally left me alone. By now, the sun was a half-circle over the horizon and the air had cooled considerably. It was maybe fifty degrees Fahrenheit which wasn’t bad if I would have been wearing appropriate clothing.

Most of the crocs were sleeping, although a few patrolled the area with spears in hand. One stood nearby guarding me while nibbling on a hunk of meat like it was a cookie.

I huddled with my legs tight to my chest and my arms wrapped around my shins. I wished I had a hat or something to hold in as much body heat as possible. I tugged on the vine tying me to the tree, but it was strong. The guard watched me carefully, and I wished for a lazy sentry. Didn’t they give the shit jobs of watching prisoners to the newbies? That was what always happened in movies.

Suddenly, crashing sounds came from the distance. I squinted into the darkened night, on high alert. If I got kidnapped a third time by an even worse alien species, I was going to go ballistic.

The leader, who had been eating his gross meat with his lackeys, leapt to his feet. He peered into the distance just as a group of crocs ran into the makeshift camp, pulling something bulky behind them. The leader gasped and began chattering excitedly. His stubby arms flapped as he hopped from foot to foot. Excitement filled the air, and it wasn’t until the crocs parted to reveal their bounty I realized why.

They had a blue alien. And not just any blue alien. My blue alien. Glower.

I jerked up to my knees to get a better look in the dying light. He was conscious, but restrained. Heavily. While they used vines on me, they’d found manacles for him, massive chains which wrapped around his wrists, waist, and neck. I wondered why he wasn’t unleashing those blades beneath his skin.

Did he need to be Hulk angry for them to work? Or maybe they weren’t effective against the manacles. His tail, which had previously been decorated with wicked looking spikes, was naked. He wore no weapons on his belt, and his chest was streaked with scratches and dirt. Black blood leaked from a cut on his cheek, and a few stab wounds littered his side.

He glanced around the camp, ignoring the leader and all the others jabbing at him making an eerie laughter. His eyes locked with mine and held. The mottled blue camouflage on his scales rippled like ocean waves.

“Oh no,” I murmured to myself. He was captured because of me. He’d probably been tracking me and had been caught by them. My stomach dropped, and guilt snagged at my heart. Wait a minute, why did I feel guilty? Maybe he was just pissed that they had gotten to his meal before him.

But as he looked at me, his gaze running down the length of my body, I didn’t feel like he was sizing up the amount of meat he could strip from my bones. His eyes were black as the night, but they still had a depth to them, an intelligence I didn’t see when the crocs looked at me.

Could he be here to … rescue me?

No, that couldn’t be. Why would he risk his life for me when the blue aliens had five other females? I would have thought they chalked me up to a lost cause. Yet here he was, watching me intently, his big body oddly relaxed for a prisoner.

Croc leader made a creepy cackling sound and gestured toward me. The crocs leading Glower on a chain pulled him toward me like a log. His jaw clenched, but he held his chin high as he walked. After seeing the way he and his friends fought, I felt an odd pang in my chest. This wasn’t right, this muscled warrior in chains. Yet he didn’t hang his head or shuffle along; he was still proud despite his capture. I had to admire that.

More crocs surrounded him now, hissing and grunting. As a group, they led him over to me. Several of them swung clubs at his legs until he fell to his knees, then they shoved him back on his ass. Between his knees, they hammered a stake into the ground and locked his chain onto it. Satisfied he wasn’t able to go anywhere, they tittered away, leaving us prisoners alone.

He sat beside me, his legs bent at the knee in front of him, his bound wrists strapped to the ground. His gaze swung to me immediately, and he did that body assessment thing again, checking me over in a studious way.

I thought I saw something other than concern appear in his expression before it vanished. Then his eyes narrowed, and his nostrils flared, and I swore he was letting me know he was fucking pissed at me. Yeah, well, I was kind of pissed at me too.

“Okay, so I can see you’re not happy with me, and I get it. I’m sorry. But I didn’t know if you were going to eat me. I know for sure these guys are going to eat me. Do you want to eat me?”

He didn’t answer and continued to glare at me, like look at what you did, stupid human.

“Well I didn’t say you had to follow me, you know.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “You could have left me here and you’d be free to do whatever it is you do all day. Bench press elephants, maybe?” I snorted at my own joke, but that only seemed to make him angrier.

Weary, I slumped back to the ground, the chill of the dirt making me shiver. Goosebumps rose on my arms and legs. I wrapped my arms around myself and dropped my chin to my knees.

Glower yanked on his chains, and then glared angrily at them.

I was surprised they didn’t incinerate under the power of that anger.

He frowned as he looked at me. I rubbed my arms, trying to bring some warmth into them as I felt my teeth begin to chatter. The cool of the night came quickly, and the only light now was a dull glow coming from an orb near the leader and the gray cast of the moon.

Up close, I realized Glower’s eyes were a very dark, shimmery purple. He watched me rub my arms. His tail lifted, and I held back a cringe as the tip brushed along my leg. He sucked in a breath and his nubbed brow lowered, throwing his eyes into shadow.

With a swift movement, he curled his tail around me and tugged me against his side. I fell into him with a yelp, and before I could regain my balance, he’d scooped me into the space between his legs. His arms came down on either side of me so the stake in the ground was in front of my feet.

For a moment, I didn’t move. Would he bite into my neck like a vampire? I’d seen his fangs. Then his head rested on mine, and the tension coiled in his muscles eased. His arms and legs closed around me tighter. It was then I realized he didn’t mean to hurt me. He was keeping me warm. He was … a gentleman? Sort of. A gentleman who glared a lot, had horns, and no shirt. His body radiated heat like a furnace, and I practically melted against his chest.

I’d made a mistake. A terrible fucking mistake. I still wasn’t quite sure what part Glower and his friends had played in my abduction, but every instinct in my body screamed he was my best chance at survival. Too bad my instincts were often confused, and I didn’t trust them.

Fuck, I was tired. I was physically fatigued and mentally exhausted. I wanted to stay awake, to keep my wits about me, but my eyes kept closing. A steady vibration at my back only aided in lulling me to sleep. Wait, a vibration?

Glower, my big blue alien, was making a sound, almost like a purr. “Ch-ch-ch,” he murmured above me, a gentle chant which for some reason delved deep into my psyche and soothed me. He didn’t know me. I’d ran from him. I’d caused him to get captured by man-eating reptile monsters, and yet he was keeping me warm and trying his best to soothe me.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I’ll do anything to help us get out of here. I hope you have some sort of plan, big guy. Because all I got is sheer determination to survive.” Tears pricked at my eyes and heat flooded my face. “I can’t be a victim. I just can’t be.”

He didn’t answer, just continued his purring until I finally fell into a dreamless sleep.

Ward

I couldn’t resist breathing her in. She smelled a bit like Rizars from being in their presence for a full rotation, but under that was her smell, the one I craved after being in her presence for only a yora or two.

I was angry she ran, but relieved to see her still alive. I might have been misreading her expression, but she looked contrite. I was sure I looked like a much better option compared to the Rizars. Little did she know I was the best option she’d ever get. I was probably better than her male humans. I’d heard they were small and weak. No weapons other than the ones they manufactured. Ridiculous. How another species hadn’t conquered Earth yet was a mystery to me.

She’d fallen asleep with her head resting on my biceps, revealing her pale, slender neck to my gaze. I’d have given anything to put my mouth there, to suck on that delicate patch of skin until she wore my marks.

My cock wouldn’t quit now I was in her presence again. It’d made itself known, hardening at her back with such a vengeance I worried she’d wake up and try to smack it. Maybe that would help actually, because this was ridiculous. She wasn’t for me. I was to protect her, and that was it. She wasn’t for me; wasn’t for any of us. She was a human female who must be kept safe, and that didn’t involve being on the receiving end of my cock.

But I couldn’t stop thinking about how she’d came willingly into the circle of my arms and how well her tiny body fit against mine. She hadn’t fought me, and it’d been amazing to look into her pretty green eyes and see what seemed like an apology. Hopefully now she realized there were worse things on the planet than my ugly face.

I barely suppressed a growl and forced myself to look away from her neck. My attraction to her could not cloud my judgement. I was here to rescue her and get her back to our compound to reunite with the other women. That was it.

About half of the Rizars slept. The rest stayed awake, guarding the camp. Their leader, or king as they called him, watched me with sleepy eyes as he drank what was surely a fermented drink. His belly was probably full as I’d spotted a well-cleaned antella carcass on the way in. The smell of Rizars surrounded me, turning my stomach.

Letting a Rizar pack catch me had to have been one of the hardest things I’d ever done. Watching as they tied me while hissing their mocking laughter nearly had me blowing the whole thing and taking their heads off. But this was the best way to get close to my female. I could protect her better now than I could from a distance, and it would be easier to get us both out than to sneak in and steal her back. That didn’t mean I was happy about any of this.

I rolled my shoulders and tried to get comfortable. I could pull this damn stake out of the ground right now if I really wanted to, and maybe break the rusty manacles too, but I had to bide my time. If I tried to leave now, I’d be overpowered by the sheer number of Rizars. Tonight, wasn’t the night. Tomorrow would be a full rotation of travel before we reached the coast, and that was when I had to make my move. I didn’t relish traveling that far from the Night Kings compound, but I had to be smart. My machets itched under my skin, nearly begging to lift, slash, and kill.

The sight of a vine wrapped around my female’s slim ankle tying her to a tree did nothing to calm the anger that simmered in my blood. She should be safe, well-fed, and not caged or leashed. A female treated like this! An abomination.

I should sleep. I wanted to stay alert, but there was no point. They’d leave us alone tonight. And tomorrow would be when I needed to be the best warrior I could be. I willed my cock to ignore the soft pretty female and shut my eyes. Sleep came easily with her tucked safe against me.

FOUR

WARD

I awoke at the first light of dawn. Lifting my head, I surveyed the camp. The Rizars slept in shifts so half of them were up already, stumbling around on their stubby legs, hitting each other with their short tails and generally being the annoying little flecks they were.

They ignored us, and I suspected we wouldn’t leave for another yora or two, at the least. The king was passed out, his snout half open and his drink cup tipped over on the ground near his splayed hand.

Some munched on rancid meat left over from the carcass which had sat out all night. I rolled my neck, working out the cracks and stiffness, doing my best to keep as still as possible so as not to wake my female.

Snuggling against me, her eyes still closed, she whispered a few words and laid her hand in the crook of my elbow. Her hands were so small, her fingers slender and she wore a gold band on her first finger. A small gold bracelet slid down her wrist, and small stones sparkled in her ears. I wondered where else my female was pierced. Drixonian women weren’t pierced like the males, but it wasn’t unheard of for them to put studs in their noses or ear lobes, especially if their mates were high-ranking warriors.

She moved again, and her lashes fluttered as her eyes opened. For a moment, she stared at the Rizars camp, her body still lax from sleep. Then her muscles stiffened, and she inhaled sharply before turning her head in my arms and peering up at me. Her green eyes locked with mine, and I couldn’t have looked away if the entire Rizars pack decided to end my life right then and there. She held so much in those green orbs of hers—fear, intelligence, humor, and respect.

Then she smiled, and my lungs seized in any chest. My breathing hitched, my cora pounded like a herd of antella, and I must have done something with my mouth, because her smile got wider. It wasn’t until I ran my fingers over my lips I realized I smiled too. A genuine smile that wasn’t forced or ordered. An involuntary one. What was this female doing to me?

She turned in my arms and knelt facing me. Her breasts brushed my chest, and my cock took that opportunity to wake up again. Wait, it’d been awake. Before me, in fact. What the fleck?

The female laid her hand flat on her upper chest and said a word, “Reba.”

“Reba?” I tested the syllables on my tongue.

She nodded eagerly. “Reba!”

Then she patted my chest, right over where my cora beat like a hunner swarm. She looked at me expectantly.

“Reba?” I said.

She shook her head but kept the smile in place. She patted her chest. “Reba.” Then she repeated the action on me.

Ah, now I understood. Or at least, I thought I did. We were exchanging names. I patted my chest. “Ward.”

Her smile widened until it took up her whole face. Her eyes crinkled at the corners, and her eyes glittered. “Reba,” she pointed to herself. “Ward.” She pointed to me.

I nodded, feeling like we accomplished something big. I had something to call her now. I hoped one rotation I’d be able to speak to her if Daz could get his hands on more translator implants…

Stop, Ward. Stop acting like you have a claim to her, like you’ll be anything to her after all this.

My smile must have evaporated, because Reba’s grin faded, and she nibbled on her lip with worry before dropping her gaze from mine. Our moment was over. My duty had to begin.

We didn’t have more time to converse, because we were pulled from the ground only a few moments later. Reba was shoved back in her cage while I was forced to march nearby. I didn’t mind. I liked stretching my legs and I could keep an eye on Reba.

The thing about Rizars was I could cut off a limb and they wouldn’t fall. While I could easily outrun them, I couldn’t outrun the reach of their launched spears. A few slices in my scales was survivable, but an entire pack nailing me with sharp weapons would be too much. As for Reba? No way would she survive a spear hit. Her skin was so thin, I could see her veins underneath. I couldn’t risk her safety.

The Rizars traveled with scouts on either side of us, so even if we escaped the main pack, several dozen would be waiting.

My only option was to wait until we reached the cliff caves. One thing I knew for sure the Rizars couldn’t do was climb. If I escaped at the right moment and scaled the cliff at the right angle, I knew we’d be able to evade the Rizars. Well, I knew with less than perfect certainty, but at this rate I had no other choice.

Reba

Ward didn’t seem concerned about our situation, and I couldn’t decide if that made me more or less nervous. Shouldn’t he be struggling and slashing with his many weapons? I would have welcomed gore at this point and fantasized more than once about watching him slam his horns into a few aortas. Maybe slash the leader’s face off with his forearm spikes. I was tired of that smug bastard leering into my cage like he was sizing up which thigh to bite into first.

By the time the sun began to set on the second day of my captivity, I was exhausted, smelly, hungry from my food strike, and delirious from fear of the unknown. When a squawk reached my ears, I pressed myself against the front of the cage and peered up into the sky. A shadow fell over us—a massive shadow—from some creature in the sky. I gasped and slid back to the center of the cage. Ward casually looked up, his eyes tracking something before he focused again on the path ahead. He glanced at me, gave me a firm nod, and just that small gesture settled me. I wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t question it and took the comfort where I could.

The air grew humid, and the smell of the vinegar-y water they’d given me to drink filled the air. Were we near a water source? Maybe they planned to drown me and make me swim with the fishes. See? Delirious.

The terrain changed. The forest around us grew sparser until the tall vegetation opened up, revealing a slope descent that led to… I gasped. An ocean. Or at least, this planet’s version of an ocean. The water was deep green and lapped at the store in gentle waves. The croc’s feet sank into softer land as they walked, and I stuck my hand through the cage bars. I picked up a handful of the sediment, which was a brown, sand-like consistency.

A crustacean creature with claws and an armored back scuttled near my hand and I drew it back with a short yelp. A sharp crack came from the other side of my cage, and I whipped my head around to see Ward staring at me, alarmed.

Did he think I was hurt? I held up my hands. “Just a crab thing. I didn’t get pinched. It’s all good.”

He huffed and ignored a croc who battered his broad back with the flat of his spear. When Ward looked certain that I was okay, he once again walked straight ahead.

We descended the slope toward the ocean, and I looked up at the two cliffs which surrounded us on either side, maybe about fifty feet tall. Just when I thought we’d march right into the ocean, the caravan took a sharp left, where a series of rock steps led up to a large cavern deep-set into the side of the cliff.

My cage was set down, and I was freed, but escape was impossible. I was surrounded by crocs. They didn’t bother tying me up, which was both welcome and insulting that I wasn’t much of a threat to the pack. On the other hand, Ward wore manacles with the rest of his body wrapped in a mishmash of chains. At least a dozen crocs held spears on him at all times. All he needed was a Hannibal Lector mask to look like a legitimate captured serial killer.

He watched me carefully as we were led into the cavern where—oh lovely—more fucking crocs greeted us. When they saw the bounty—me and Ward—a cacophony of grunts, hisses and clicks bounced off the walls of the cavern in a deafening din.

I had to step around holes in the floor, which I was curious about until an odd wave lapped up the edge cavern. Instead of running into the deep recesses of the cave. the water slipped into the holes and filtered back out to sea. They were apparently smart enough to establish an anti-flooding system. I would say I was impressed, but they hadn’t mastered hygiene yet, so I wasn’t giving them any points.

I was led over to a side of the cave. Grimy clawed hands shoved at my shoulders until I was forced to the sit on the ground. Something poked me in the butt, and I reached under me only to pull out a bone. A bone. I gagged and tossed it as far as I could, satisfied when I heard a plop when it landed in the water below. I didn’t want to know what animal—or person—that bone was from.

Oh God, that was going to be me, wasn’t it? My bones would be here for the next victim. I huddled into a ball as my heart beat a panicked rhythm like it was trying to warn me what was coming next. I knew what was next. That was the problem, and I could do nothing but watch as they gleefully roamed about the cave. Where was Ward?

Just then, I spotted a break in the crocs as the leader tugged the large blue alien in my direction. Relief washed over me. He was alive. Upright. The black eyes ignored everything around us to focus on me. The leader yanked on his manacles until Ward was forced to his knees beside me.

Then the leader, with an eerie cackle, took his massive spear and shoved the tip into Ward’s ribs. I screamed as the weapon sank into his flesh. The entire time, his expression didn’t change. The only indication he was in pain was a slight clenching of his jaw. Otherwise, he made no sound or reaction.

“Stop!” I screeched at the creepy leader as he withdrew the weapon, leaving behind a gash which began to leak black blood. “What the hell was that for, you fucking psycho?”

The leader did that cackling laugh thing and hobbled away on his stupid stubby legs. Ward’s shoulders slumped slightly, and he inhaled sharply as a wince finally twisted his lips. I reached for him immediately. He’d comforted me when I was cold. The least I could do was see to his injury.

Off-balance, he fell against me with a soft grunt. I wasn’t a nurse, but I did my best to shift his body to get a look at his stab wound. It continued to leak, although I could see the blood was clotting already. I wished I had something to clean it with. I tore a scrap of fabric from my shirt and the next time a wave hit the cavern, I managed to wet it before it disappeared down the flood holes. Crawling back to Ward where he sat hunched against the wall, eyes fixed on me, I pressed the fabric to his wound to rub away the dirt from the spear.

Surprisingly the wound didn’t look as bad as I’d expected it to. That likely would have killed a human, but maybe these blue aliens had better healing abilities. Still, Ward was in pain; I could tell by the tightness in his neck and the way he held his body.

Unsure what else to do, I held him against me, careful to avoid his sharp horns. At first, he remained stiff, but then he relaxed into me. We sat like that, in a weird, silent embrace as the crocs bustled around us, almost ignoring us.

They were bringing forth large hunks of wood from some sort of storage area further in the cave. Once they had it piled in the center, I realized they were making a fire. Seeing as they ate raw meat, I wasn’t sure what the fire was for. Unless human was better cooked. Stop it, Reba.

This situation was past critical and had descended straight into Oh my God, we’re going to die. They were going to eat me. And probably Ward too, although I couldn’t imagine his meat was any good. Mine would be great, like a little lamb’s, because my workout schedule had fallen off the last few months. Why was I thinking about how tasty I was?

Next to me, Ward fidgeted. His hands were clasped together, but in the dim light of the cave, with the last of the sunlight barely peeking around the rocky edge, I couldn’t figure out what he was doing. Suddenly, a soft clink reached my ears. I patted my hand on the ground, feeling for the source of the sound, when I realized Ward no longer wore his manacles. The chains pooled in loose coils beneath him. I jerked my head up, wondering what the hell was going on.

When he met my eyes, the pain no longer lingered in his black irises. His back was straight, fists clenched on his thighs. He raised one finger, placed it lengthwise across his lips, and held my gaze.

I nodded, unsure what I was agreeing to, but willing to put my trust in Ward. Something told me he was the only thing standing between me and the leader eating my leg like a drumstick.

FIVE

WARD

This was the time. Rizars didn’t have the best night vision, and if I was right about the angle of the cliff face, I’d be shielded from their thrown spears. Their king thought he injured me fatally, but I was a Drixonian, not a Rizar. I’d played the part of wounded warrior, but his spear thrust had been merely a scratch. I also might have enjoyed letting the female comfort me a little too much.

Her eyes were huge in her pale face, and she trembled next to me in her thin clothing. I couldn’t wait until I could get her proper attire and some warm salibri furs. She should be living in luxury—or as close to it as we could get post-Uprising—not sitting on this cold dirty floor in a disgusting Rizar cave as they scuttled about eager for their meal.

They planned to eat me too, and while they’d been known to overpower lone Drixonians, those were usually younger inexperienced warriors. They had no idea the kind of warrior I was and how far I’d go to protect Reba. The manacles had been easy to break, and I wondered several times if I should have tried to escape sooner.

I wasn’t sure if Reba knew I planned to get us out of here, but she kept quiet and watched me. I studied the Rizars, who were all but ignoring us now. The king was issuing orders as the smaller females and young remained huddled in the far recesses of the cage, only occasionally peeking out to gawk at Reba and me.

This was my chance. A little bit of sunlight remained, which I’d need, but by the time we were out of reach of the spears, it’d be fully dark. I’d have the speed and advantage. I hated I had to take this risk to save Reba, but there was no other option. I hoped she didn’t fight me; I’d have given anything to be able to explain to her what I planned to do. Instead, I had to hope I’d done enough to earn her trust.

I waited until a fight broke out between two Rizars over a female who’d walked by. A crowd gathered around them and the king had to wade in and break it up. While his back was turned, I made my move. As I scooped Reba into my arms, her only sound was a soft squeak when I pressed her to my chest. Running at a crouch, I sped toward the mouth of the cave. Reba’s hands dug into my shoulders, and her hair whipped at my face. A shout went from inside the cave just as I reached the edge and leaped.

Reba muffled a scream in my chest. I groped for the vine I’d seen earlier dangling at the side of the cave opening, the same plant the Rizars used to tie up Reba as the stalk was thick, fibrous, and nearly indestructible. It extended from a dense mass at the top of the cliff, which was the only reason I had any hope it would support our weight without snapping. Just as my fingers closed around the vine and we swung out and to the left, a spear whistled past my arm.

I held onto the vine with one hand, and Reba with the other. We soared away from the mouth of the cave. I glanced behind me to see dozens of Rizars rush to the edge, spears in hand. The vine swung us left, and Reba began chanting panicked words with her eyes closed. The cliff face rushed to meet us and with a twist of my spine was able to bear the brunt of the impact when we slammed into the rock wall. Reba screamed and slipped down my body before clamping her legs around my hips. Before we could swing out again, I hooked my ankle around a branch jutting out of the wall.

Spears sailed past us as the angle was all wrong for a direct hit. A sharp outcrop blocked most of the spears and the rest flew behind us. Once Reba was more firmly settled against me, her arms and legs locked around my body, I let go of the vine and began to climb the rock. Fast. With my claws extending, I was able to dig into crevices and keep us from falling. Shouts echoed from the camp, followed by the thunder of feet, and I knew the Rizars had now realized what I was doing. They were probably pouring out of the cave to try to beat us to the top of the cliff.

I smiled to myself. They wouldn’t come close to beating me. Hand over hand, foot over foot, I scaled the cliff until my claws closed around the rim, digging into the dirt there. I didn’t have time to relish in the victory of the soft soil in my hand. We had to move.

Even now, I could hear the Rizars rushing toward us, but this was my element now. I knew this area well. We’d fought the Uldani here. It’d been our battleground, and we’d studied the terrain so we could ensure our freedom.

I swung Reba around to my back, locking her arms around my neck, and disappeared into the dense forest. As I ran in the dark, I could occasionally hear a grunt or hiss from a Rizar but as time went on and I placed more distance between us and the coast, the only noises were that of the game in the area. A welf howl here or there and the rustling of antella eating berries. The scurry of a rodent.

Reba’s arms began to slip, and while I could carry her for longer, I also knew she was tired. Cold. Hungry. I had to find some shelter for her and a way to fill her belly. There were a few supply sheds in the area left over from the Uprising. Many of them weren’t kept stocked, but if she was somewhere safe and hidden, I’d be able to hunt for us. The dirt caked under her fingernails was a sign she needed to be clean too. I could provide all of that for her. Just keep your hands to yourself, Ward.

We still had a few more yoras before dawn when we reached our destination. Past a dense thicket of nearly head-high numa, we reached the door of a small hut. Reba gasped when I cracked the lock on the solid door and pushed up the wooden panel barring the entrance.

Inside, the hut was largely overgrown. Vines of numa stretched through the open windows and tangled around chair legs. The sleeping pallet in the corner was covered with a layer of dirt.

After settling Reba in a chair, I flipped the pallet over. The underside wasn’t much cleaner, but at least the dust wouldn’t choke her in her sleep. A closed-lid chest near the pallet held a few clean sleeping furs inside. I laid one down on top of the pallet, and then motioned for Reba to come over.

She rose from the chair slowly and took careful steps, her green gaze shifting between the pallet and me. Her small, bare feet were silent on the boarded floor. Her shirt was torn where she’d attempted to tend to my wound, and her hair hung around her head in wild clumps. As she drew closer, I spotted a twig with a few leaves stuck in the strands near her temple. I reached out to remove it, and she flinched. I froze and waited, my hand still in the air, as her chest heaved. Did she not trust me yet after I risked so much to rescue her?

But then I looked closer, and I saw her face was pale while the skin around her eyes was dark. Her lips were white, and she had small cuts all over her body from the brush we ran through. She was exhausted. Not giving her time to protest, I plucked the leaves from her hair, picked her up, and deposited her on the pallet. She put up no fight but watched me warily until I laid another fur over top her.

I retrieved a bottle of qua from the corner. It smelled a little stale, but it was better than nothing. A stream ran fairly close to the hut and we’d visit it in the morning to clean up and get more to drink.

I held the jug to her lips, and she drank with a slight grimace. After drinking some myself, I retreated to a large chair in the corner with an unobstructed view out the largest window. I needed to sleep too, but I preferred to do it where I could hear the slightest disturbance.

When I glanced back at the pallet, Reba’s eyes glowed in the moonlight as she watched me. Her hands were tucked under her head and the furs pulled up past chin.

“Sleep, Reba,” I called to her, doing my best to soften my voice.

She didn’t answer me but kept watching until her eyes grew heavy and finally closed. Her breaths evened out a moment later. I leaned back in the chair, got comfortable, and slept.

SIX

Reba

I was warm and encased in softness, like I was laying on a bed of purring cats. I didn’t want to move or open my eyes, but the growling of my stomach pushed me toward consciousness faster than I would have liked.

Yawning, I opened my eyes and blinked into sunlight. Warm golden rays bathed my face. My stomach rumbled again, and I groaned, lifting myself up onto my elbows. The fur pelt covering me fell away, revealing my dirty, torn nightshirt. And I was back to remembering where I was, which was not Earth, and who I was with, which was not a human.

Speaking of Ward… he wasn’t in the hut. For a moment, I kind of enjoyed the silence until the reality hit me I was alone on a strange planet with gross creatures like the crocs and who knew what else eager to eat me. I threw off the dense fur covering me and leapt off the pallet. My feet slapped on the dirty floor as I raced to the door and threw it open.

I could see nothing but vines—a massive network of them which seemed to never end with no path. How the hell had we gotten here? It’d been dark when we arrived, and my vision had been blocked by Ward’s massive shoulders. Speaking of Ward—where did he go?

The change in my attitude was not lost on me. Two days ago, I’d wanted nothing to do with him. I’d ran away from him. And now I sought him out as the key to my survival. I had to make a choice—I could either plot an escape or I could cautiously trust the big blue guy. I had to review—he hadn’t hurt me. Not one bit.

Last night he hadn’t eaten me like I’d originally feared he would. Or beat me as punishment for running away. I remembered it all now with a furious blush. He’d given me water and the bed. He’d taken care of me. And that was after the death-defying stunt when we ran headfirst out of the cave and swung on a freaking vine like some Jason Statham movie.

I didn’t know whether to call his name or keep my mouth shut. This hut seemed hidden on purpose, and the last thing I wanted to do was draw attention to myself. I lifted my foot to take another step outside when a voice boomed from my right.

“Reba!” the sharp shout had me whipping my head to see Ward striding toward me, a bundle of wood under one arm and some sort of dead animal clutched in his claws. Oh, and he looked pissed. What else was new? “Yohoa neh posa derisno gurom,” he growled.

Of course, I had no idea what he said but I was going to guess it was something along the lines of, Why didn’t you stay put?

“I’m sorry,” I said with a huff. “I woke up and you weren’t there. I have no weapons to defend myself if those nasty reptile things come back. Hell, I don’t even have shoes!” I braced may fists on my hips. “I thought you deserted me.”

He stopped in front of me, and the scent of the blood from the dead furry thing made my gorge rise in my throat. I placed my hand over my mouth. He frowned deeper and jerked his chin inside. I turned around and trudged back in the house.

He followed, shutting the door behind me, and dropped the dead animal on the ground. He carried the wood to a small stone alcove in the corner I hadn’t noticed the night before. The soot marks led me to assume it was a fireplace.

I stepped toward him as he piled the wood in the alcove. He flicked his dark eyes toward me, and then the dead animal. If I wasn’t mistaken, he was asking me to bring it to him. My stomach rebelled, and a bead of cold, sick sweat dripped down the back of my neck. I hadn’t touched raw meat in years, and even the smell grossed me out. I used to live near a Texas Roadhouse and just the smell of the grilled steak wafting from the building around the dinner rush was enough to turn me off food for hours.

Oblivious to my turmoil, Ward used a tool in his pocket to ignite a spark on the wood. It ignited quickly, the smoke funneling through a small hole in the hut. Would anyone see that and come find us? I guessed I had to trust Ward on that one.

I eyed the furry body and tried not to think about what it looked like alive. Right now, it was just sort of a jumble of fur and blood. Thank God I couldn’t see adorable ears or little cute toe beans. I didn’t have a problem with Ward needing to hunt to feed himself; I wasn’t about to place my own morals on his culture and lifestyle. But that didn’t mean I wanted to chomp on Peter Rabbit along with him.

I couldn’t communicate with Ward to tell him my objection, and the last thing I wanted to do was be another disappointment after that whole running away thing. I had to pull my weight around here. Careful not to look at the body—or breathe—I picked up the dead animal with two fingers by what I assumed was a hind leg and dropped it at Ward’s feet. Seemingly satisfied with my ability to follow simple commands by retrieving an item for him, he nodded and began to skin the creature with his claws.

I didn’t want to watch, but I was a little fascinated at how quickly and skillfully he worked. The animal was about the size of a small dog, but it had no ears, stubby legs, and a bushy tail. Its snout was long, like a fox’s, but its eyes were round and recessed like a monkey’s. It looked like a children’s drawing had come to life.

As he cooked it, the smell was a bit like chicken, which was the least offensive meat smell to me. Still, I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat it. I wanted to, I really did, but I had an embarrassing gag reflex and already my throat was closing at the mere thought of getting close to that meat.

I turned away from watching him spin the carcass on a stick to study our living situation. The hut itself was only one room, probably about eight hundred square feet. Other than the sleeping pallet, there was a large chair near the front window. A table and two smaller chairs were in another corner, and a bench sat in front of the fireplace.

A few jugs were stacked along the wall with a couple of crates. It didn’t look like Ward lived here—it didn’t look like anyone lived there. If anything, it reminded me of a hunting cabin stocked with basic supplies. I wished I could ask Ward if we planned to stay here, or if this was a temporary shelter before we moved on. Now more than ever, I wanted to see the other women again. Why, oh why had I run?

Ward grunted, and I turned to see him remove the smoking meat from the fire. He carefully picked at it, and I wasn’t lost on the fact that he chose the juiciest morsels to lay on a leaf he’d placed at my feet.

After a rather large pile of steaming protein sat in front of me, he jerked his chin toward me and then bit into the remainder of the animal like it was a turkey leg at the Renaissance Faire. I sat in wonder as he picked the entire thing clean in a matter of… well less than a minute. He would have made a champion professional eater.

I didn’t even think he took a breath. I imagined him at Coney Island next to Joey Chestnut and Matt Stoney and snorted to myself.

When he was finished, he tossed the clean bones out the window and wiped his greasy lips with the back of his hand. He gulped down a clear liquid that looked like water, cleaned his face and hands, and it was only then he turned to me to see I hadn’t touched my meal.

He frowned and shuffled closer, pointing to the food.

God, I felt like an idiot, but eating meat now would probably make me sick. “I’m a vegetarian,” I cringed, waving my hand over the food. “I appreciate this. Really. But I can’t eat it.”

I shook my head and backed away from the food to make my point clear. His frown deepened, and his nostrils flared.

“Guapo!” he insisted, which I was pretty sure meant, Eat!

I shook my head again, and with a loud exhale, he turned around to rummage in a bundled leaf I hadn’t noticed earlier. He withdrew a few fruits that looked familiar, as the crocs had given them to me. With his palm out, he offered them to me. He’d brought me side dishes!

I responded with a smile. “Thank you!” To show I wasn’t on a hunger strike, I ate as much as I could. When I tried to say I was full, he made me eat more. I saw him eye the meat in front of me, so I pushed it toward him. After a careful glance at me, he ate it.

Before long, my bladder was insisting I pay attention to it. Nowhere in this cabin did I see anything resembling a toilet. No bucket. No drain. Nothing. Last time I told Ward I had to pee, I’d run away from him, so I wasn’t sure how receptive he’d be if I tried to communicate this again.

I pointed outside, and then made an inelegant gesture toward my crotch. His eyes narrowed and flashed, surely remembering what happened last time. “I won’t run!” I said. “I promise.”

But he remained motionless, eyeing me with slight distrust. I didn’t blame him. I’d earned that. I reached for his hand, and he slowly rose, like a graceful panther. My palms tingled at the feel of his scales, like a slick velvet. I walked toward the door, and he followed.

Outside, I found a tree and after directing him to it, I dropped his hand and held my hands out. “I’ll stay.”

He glared at me.

“Please?” I went for my best innocent face, which only seemed to annoy him more.

So, I kept talking. “I’m just going to pee. Right behind this tree,” I said as I walked around it. I ducked my head out to see him watching me with his arms crossed.

I kept chattering. Saying random words because he couldn’t understand me anyway, as I ducked behind the tree and copped a squat.

Eventually I stopped talking and risked a peek around the tree to see Ward inspecting the branches of a nearby tree.

As I was about to stand, a small ruff reached my ears, so faint and high that I had to stop and listen closely. After a minute, no other sound came, and I figured I was hearing things until it came again. Ruff rrrrrrruff.

I turned toward the sound, letting my ears lead the way to a nearby tree even though I’d never tracked a thing in my life. The sound came again, higher before lowering into a pained whine that raised the hair on the back of my neck. Just when I had a thought that I should call for Ward before I encountered some strange animal, a bit of bloodied fur caught my eye. With my heart in my throat, I leaped over a small bush only to nearly step right on the motionless body of a large creature.

The animal lay on its side with its head and neck drenched in blood. I covered my mouth at the stench. It was obviously dead, the round glassy eyes with a slitted horizontal pupil open and unseeing. It had four legs and thick black fur. I crouched down, wondering if I’d imagined the ruff when the sound came again directly to my right. With a startled cry I nearly fell back on my ass when a little furred ball darted out from under a bush.

A miniature version of the dead creature peered up at me, gave me a short little ruff and growl. It had a round snout like a bunny, whiskers, and twitchy ears, but it had the body of a canine. This one had mottled gray fur, some of it patchy like it was losing its baby coat and growing adult fur.

I took one look at the dead animal and assumed it was this animal’s mother or father. Tears filled my eyes because I was a sap. I refused to watch any and all movies where dogs died—except for John Wick, because he avenged that dog like a badass.

“Do you have another parent?” I said in a sing-song voice. “Where are your brothers and sisters?” But the little thing only ruffed at me. I held out my hand, giggling when its whiskers tickled my fingertips before giving me an experimental lick.

“Reba!” came a loud shout, followed by the sound of crashing feet. My little friend trembled, so I scooped him up and held him to my chest.

“Over here!” I called out.

In seconds, Ward burst through a bush and came to an abrupt stop at he caught sight of me. With a stunned expression, he took in the scene before him. His eyes nearly bulged when he saw me holding the baby to my chest.

“Nit,” he shook his head and reached for the creature. “Welf bup husta prown grewt.”

I blocked him with my shoulder from taking my new friend and glared. “You’re not taking her from me. She doesn’t have a mom or dad. She’ll die if we leave her here.”

“Nit,” Ward said again, his lips thinned. When he grabbed for the pup again, I smacked his hand away. The sound was so loud, even the pup in my arms froze.

So did Ward. And so did I. I’d … hit him. Not hard, granted, but I’d still hit him, and that was certainly not a good idea, but then I’d been full of bad ideas lately.

“I’m sorry,” I held out my hand to him, even though he hadn’t moved. “I shouldn’t have smacked you. I’m sorry. I just… she’s all alone. And so am I.” She was so very tiny, and I’d seen what kind of creatures lived on this planet. Would she survive without her mom or dad?

I cuddled the pup to my chest as I slowly rose to my feet. When I stumbled, Ward steadied me, his expression calm, and I took that as he accepted my apology. He pointed at the pup. “Welf.”

“Welf?”

“Hooman,” he pointed to me. “Drixonian,” he pointed to himself. “Welf,” he pointed to the pup.

He knew what I was? I pointed to myself. “Human?”

He nodded. “Hooman.”

I placed my hand on his broad chest. “Drix…”

“Drixonian,” he puffed out said chest. Okay, so that was his species.

Now that we got that down, I wanted to reiterate names. “Reba,” I pointed to myself. “Ward,” I pointed to him. I held up the little pup and looked at her eyes. I didn’t know if it was a boy or girl, but I was going to go with she. Her mottled-gray coloring reminded me a bit of the moon. “Luna,” I said pointing at the pup.

For a moment, he didn’t react, then his eyes narrowed. “Nit, Luna.”

I was pretty sure nit meant no.

“Yes, Luna,” I said. “I’m keeping her. She needs me.”

His chest heaved and he rubbed his forehead in such an annoyed human gesture that for a moment I felt like I was back home being a pain in the ass to my latest boyfriend.

Finally, he sighed. “Luna,” he muttered and then grabbed my arm to lead me back in the direction of our hut. Luna squirmed and panted happily in my arms. And because of that, I was happy too. For maybe the first time on this planet. Ward and I were rescue parents now. Without a home inspection or application fee. I hoped Luna didn’t grow up to bite my head off.

“You wouldn’t do that, would you?” I crooned to her as she licked my face. I giggled and scratched her ears. I hadn’t realized Ward stopped until I ran into him. He watched me with a purple intensity. His hand rose slowly to pass over my cheeks and his fingertip dipped into my dimples.

I hadn’t had much cause to smile around him. The careful brush of his fingers, when I knew how deadly he could be, sent a shiver down my spine.

“Thank you,” I smiled at him. I jerked my chin toward Luna. “For letting me keep her.”

I beamed another smile at him, surprised when he sucked in a sharp breath, his gaze focused on my mouth. Suddenly he jerked, shaking his head as his brow lowered. With a grunt, he kept walking, stomping loudly this time.

What had I done? Well, maybe he was just grumpy we had another mouth to feed. Speaking of… What the hell did Luna eat? Fuck, I wished I could speak Drixonian.

Back at the hut, he pointed toward the pile of bones in the corner. I sat Luna down near them, and she immediately pounced on the bones, gnawing at them with her sharp little teeth and picking clean the small bits of gristle Ward had left.

With nothing else to do, I set about trying to make this space a little more livable. Using some of the large leaves Ward had gathered, as well as a stick, I fashioned a kind of broom with some of the vines and swept as much dirt out of the front door as I could. Ward sat crouched by the dying fire watching me while he sifted through the chest of supplies. I shook out the furs and clapped the dirt from them out the open window. I didn’t have that many skills, but I was a damn good homemaker and cleaner.

By the time I felt satisfied with the hut with my very limited cleaning supplies, Luna was passed out in the corner and Ward stood at the door, a bundle of fabric in his arms. He gestured to me to follow him as he opened the door and stepped out. Were we leaving? After I just cleaned the place? I went to gather Luna, but Ward barked a sharp, “Nit.”

“I don’t want to leave her,” I said.

He gestured toward the bed and made a sleeping motion with his hands folded beside his head.

“We’ll be back tonight?”

He pointed outside, and then back to the floor of the hut. I had to assume he meant we’d be back. When I gave him a nod, he pushed aside a tangle of vines and marched off into the great unknown. I shut the door behind me, comfortable that Luna couldn’t through the door or jump out the high windows.

As we walked, the soft sound of running water babbled amid the light breeze blowing the leaves. Was he taking us to water? We had some back at the cabin, but I’d give just about anything to wash my face. I wouldn’t use our drinking water for that, but I had fantasized about dumping one of those jugs over my head. I couldn’t imagine what I looked like. Dirty. Bruised. Cut up. Greasy hair. I didn’t want to talk about how bad I smelled, because yes, I stunk. Maybe that was why Ward hadn’t slept in the furs with me.

He, on the other hand, didn’t smell. I couldn’t understand it. I’d noticed his sweat, but the drops of perspiration beaded up and dripped off his scales. Maybe that was the reason he didn’t smell—his scales didn’t reabsorb the moisture. Was that how body odor worked? I didn’t even freaking know. And why was I analyzing this on an alien planet when I had more important things—like survival—to worry about?

The sound of water drew closer as humidity hung thick in the air. I was nearly salivating at the idea of getting wet when Ward stopped abruptly in front of me. I peered around his body and actually squealed out loud. A river. The water babbled over a rocky bottom and lapped gently at the bank.

Without warning, Ward scooped me in his arms and waded into the river. I kicked a bit, wanting to walk in myself, but I had to admit it was kind of nice, especially because the current was stronger than I had originally thought. I wasn’t keen on drowning today, so the fact he was taking care of me caused my heart to beat double-time in my chest.

He walked over to a cluster of rocks that jutted out of the center of the stream and perched on one of them. I didn’t understand what was happening as he placed me on his knee. “What—?”

He scooped water in his massive palms and trickled it over my skin. I sucked in a breath and held it as the cool water coated me and his warm hands followed after, wiping away the grime and inspecting injuries as he went. He was washing me. And I didn’t get the sense he was doing anything untoward. Maybe this was part of his culture; to take care of females like this.

His expression was calm. Peaceful. He wasn’t frowning, scowling, or flaring his nostrils at any perceived threat. Every few minutes he’d meet my eyes and hold them, the violet hues swirling and sparkling in the sunlight as it dappled the surface of the water and our bodies.

He turned me so my back was pressed to his chest. Because of his massive size, he could easily pull up my foot and brace it on his knee. He cleaned my feet—my feet! —which were so ticklish I refused to ever get pedicures. I had never let a man touch my feet ever. In fact, a guy I dated casually had a foot fetish and we broke up because I wouldn’t even take my socks off around him. True story.

But yet as Ward washed my feet, running his fingers between my toes and rubbing the arch of my sore, cut soles, I had to bite back a moan. He switched feet, letting the clean one dip back into the water where the rushing current soothed the remaining soreness.

When he was satisfied my feet were clean, he ran his hands up my legs, kneading my calves, my thighs, and just as he reached the hem of my shorts, he stopped. Completely. We sat still. In silence. It was then I became aware of the hardness poking at my back. The hot puffs of his breath on my damp neck. My mind screamed at me to get up, to move, to run from this threat in his pants attached to a massive stranger with claws and muscles.

But my body went rogue. It reacted at his size and his protectiveness. Oddly enough, maybe that was part of why I ran from him in the first place. His presence was overwhelming and confused me with conflicting signals of lust and fear.

My body remembered how he’d kept me warm at the crocs camp. My aching core wanted to know what that meaty rod in his pants could do. My inner walls clenched just as his hand curled into a fist on my thigh.

He still didn’t move. He didn’t take. He merely vibrated beneath me like a live wire while his chest rumbled with a cross between a purr and a growl. Was that a warning? Because my body didn’t seem to care as my nipples beaded to hard points, an obscene sight in my light-colored soaking wet shirt.

We were on a cliff, and I was ready to jump. I had a foot on the ledge and the other about to leap—

Ward jerked to his feet, nearly dumping me in the water before he grabbed me around the waist and hauled me to my feet. I turned in his hold to see his peaceful expression was replaced by a lip curled into a snarl. He wrapped his fingers around my wrist and took a massive stomp toward shore, but I dug my heels in. He could have easily pulled me, but instead he stopped and whirled, his nostrils flaring.

I wasn’t done. I wanted longer in the water. I wanted to know his intentions. This was crazy, and my brain screamed at me to have a little self-preservation, but I didn’t trust it anymore. I grasped the bottom of my shirt and pulled it over my head.

SEVEN

WARD

This flecking female seemed destined to test me. She ran from me, and I followed. I rescued her and maintained my distance, keeping to myself. Through sheer, clenched-teeth willpower, I’d managed not to crawl under the furs with her despite my near-constant state of arousal. Which was really flecking annoying and distracting.

Now she stood in front of me. Topless. Her full breasts round and plush, topped with rosy pink nipples I would have cut off my arm to draw into my mouth. She was beautiful, from her slender neck to her full breasts to her little cinched waist and juicy thighs.

And it pissed me the fleck off. I’d been good. I’d washed her and somehow managed not to throw her on the bank and ravage her like I wanted to do. Why was she tempting me? Was this some sort of sick joke? If I didn’t know Sax was locked up in an Uldani prison, I would have expected him to appear out of the trees, laughing at me for falling for his prank.

No way could this human female want me to touch her naked body. This had to be a test. If I maintained my duty and kept my hands to myself, she’d trust me. It struck me as much as I wanted to sink my cock into her soft body, I wanted her to trust me more. She wouldn’t trust me if I shredded the rest of her clothes.

Still, I couldn’t look away. I was only so strong. It was then I looked past how perfect she was to the evidence on her skin of the last few rotation’s adventures. A large bruise marred her ribs on the right, and a cut bisected the perfect line of her collarbone. Her neck was still streaked with dirt and something else that looked like dried blood.

Instead of using her body for my own pleasure, I proceeded to finish washing her. I cupped the qua and poured it over her neck. It trickled down her throat and between her breasts to soak into her already wet shorts. I took her shirt from her—I had dry clothes on the bank from the meager supply in the hut—and used it to scrub at a particularly stubborn patch of dirt caked on her shoulder. She didn’t move, but her skin pebbled under my touch, and she trembled slightly. With her lips slightly parted, she watched my every move.

I never felt the need to fill the silence. It was nice to wait for others to speak, since they always revealed too much about themselves. But with Reba, I wanted her to hear my voice.

“You’re beautiful,” I said, and she jerked slightly at the sound of my voice before her lips turned into a soft smile. “I would give anything to put my mark on you with my mouth. To take your nipples between my teeth and tug just to listen to you gasp and squirm and plead. I’d inhale your sweet cunt and lick your cream until you screamed my name. Always my name. Then I’d show you the true pleasure of a Drixonian cock. But not just any cock. In my dreams, you are mine, Reba.” I exhaled as I leaned her back so I could wet her hair. She bent with me, eyes trusting as she clung to my biceps. I soaked her hair and rung it out in the qua, happy to see the dirt, grime, and oils wash off down the stream. Her hair and skin fascinated me, the way the qua soaked into it instead of beading off the way it did on my skin.

“But those dreams have to stay dreams,” I told her as I brought her back to standing. She swayed slightly and cocked her head at me. I cupped her cheek, daring to brush my thumb along her soft skin just once. “My duty is to keep you safe, and that means from me too.”

I swallowed and stepped back. This time, she let me lead her to shore. I turned when I gave her the clean clothes, listening as she dressed quietly. She spoke a soft, “Um dun.” I turned around to see her in a pair of pants which were entirely too big and a shirt that probably once belong to an Uldani child. The boots were also too big, but her soles needed some protection. She bundled her wet, torn Earth clothes under her arm and took my hand as I led her back to the hut.

As much as I wanted to get going, I thought it best we stay another night. We both needed more rest and food. I still wanted to inspect the cabin for any other supplies. I hoped there was some tech laying around—a comm was probably too much to hope for.

My fear was my resolve was slipping. I’d survived the incident at the river, but I didn’t think Reba understood the impact she had on me. She definitely didn’t understand what it meant to mate a Drixonian. We mated for life. If she gave herself to me, then that would be it. I wouldn’t let her go. And that was the problem— what if Daz declared her off limits, but I’d already mated her. What would I choose? My clavas and drexel who I owed my life to? Or my mate.

She is all.

I knew the answer. And that was why I had to stay strong. My brother and the other males were depending on me to return. I was one of Daz’s most trusted males. I couldn’t let them down. I couldn’t let Reba down either.

Reba

I should have felt rejected, and maybe I would have if Ward’s eyes weren’t so expressive. His face didn’t change, but those whirling irises told everything he was thinking and feeling.

I’d never been that perceptive of another person other than my sister. With her, I’d been able to know everything she was thinking and feeling just by the way she scrunched her nose or shifted her shoulders. We’d been so in tune with each other. When she died, I’d felt a piece of myself die with her.

I sat on the pallet while Ward stoked the fire. On the way back, he’d killed another animal for him and Luna to eat. He’d also plucked some berry-like fruit, which had been rather tasty and a nice break from the fatty protein. He’d refilled the water jugs and had taught me a word for it—qua.

Now, he sat crouched by the fire, seemingly lost in thought while he stared at the licking flames. He’d moved my pallet closer to the fire, so the heat of the burning wood warmed my still-damp hair. I fingered the ends, unable to forget the reverent way he’d washed me. I’d never been touched like that, and now I cast a critical eye back at my sexual experiences. They’d been a race to the finish, and my body was merely a means to an end for the men who’d fumbled, fingered, and mouthed at my flesh.

Ward had been cleaning me, but there’d been no hurry and no selfish goal in sight, other than the contentment he seemed to find in seeing me clean. He’d wanted me though. I felt the bulge in his pants like a branding iron at my back. His breath had quickened, and his heart pounded a mating call down my spine.

When I’d taken off my shirt, I’d been scared I’d poked the beast too far. That he’d scoop me up and plunge himself into me for punishment for making him want so much.

I shivered. My imagination was getting away from me. He hadn’t wanted to touch me like that—or maybe he wanted, but not enough to do it, and I had to be okay with that. I’m not sure which reaction I wanted—did I want him to take what I was offering like a savage or did I want to know I could trust him with taking care of me without asking for something in return?

The sun had just set, and I lay on the pallet and closed my eyes. After a moment, I heard a rustling, and then careful footsteps move in my direction. They stopped by my pallet.

A hand ran through my hair, fingers tugging at some knots before his voice came in soft, halting tones. A finger brushed my lips, and I reacted, pursing them to press a kiss to the digit.

Ward froze, and I opened my eyes to meet his. His lips were pressed into a thin line, chest motionless as he seemed to stop breathing. He rose and tore his eyes away from me to retreat to the far side of the hut. I lifted onto an elbow to peer at him in the dark.

He sat on the large chair near the front window like a king on his throne. His massive thighs were spread apart, his arms casually laid on the armrests. The moonlight streaming through the open window bathed his face in an ethereal silver glow. I shamelessly took him in, from the proud jut of his chin to his wide nose to the high cut of his cheekbones. His eyes gleamed impossibly black as he slowly turned his head to catch me watching him.

I didn’t look away, and he didn’t either. He hadn’t said a word or made a single gesture, but his heavy, dangerous gaze on me sent a bolt of warmth sliding down my spine to pool hot and boiling in my center.

I’d never been this turned on from only a look. I hadn’t been this eager for a man in… a long time. I’d been promiscuous in my youth but after my sister died, I’d shut myself away, too scared of my own shadow to put my body and heart on the line for a man.

But Ward… with his strength and that sinful twist to his full lips, he stirred desires inside me I never knew I had.

Maybe there was something in the air of this planet, but I decided to take a chance on what I wanted. Not outside in a river while he seemed intent to perform some cleaning ritual. But here, where my intent would be blatantly obvious. It was crazy. I knew it was, but that wasn’t going to stop me. One thing that last few days had taught me—tomorrow wasn’t certain. Right now, I wanted Ward and the consequences didn’t really matter when I might not be alive to see them. I wanted to take back my power and re-establish my identity as a woman with her own mind, rather than a helpless victim.

I pulled my shirt over my head, baring my naked upper body to Ward’s gaze. His muscles went taught. His hands curled into the armrests, lengthening claws digging into the wood enough to make it splinter. His eyes, normally a bottomless black, swirled and lightened, glowing a near neon violet in the moonlight.

His mouth opened and his fangs glistened as he licked at the sharp tips with his wickedly long and pierced tongue. I took one step toward him and his lips curled into a nearly feral snarl. Was he warning me not to come closer? The bulge in his pants was unmistakable, nearly obscene. His gaze dropped, taking in my breasts and stomach. I hooked my fingers in the waistband of my pants and underwear, then tugged. They dropped to the floor in a soundless heap, and I stepped out of them. Another foot closer. Then another. I was close enough now I could hear his ragged breathing, a raspy sound which rapidly expanded his massive chest. Another step and I brushed the front of his knees.

His eyes flashed. “Gorpa marinu mah erudi viner.”

The words could have been a threat or an invitation. I didn’t care at that point, my sole focus on relieving the pressure in my core, where my pulse beat fast and torrid. Naked as a jaybird, I straddled his giant lap.

His thighs quivered beneath me like a taut bowstring, ready to be let loose with a flick of a few fingers. I placed one hand on the back of the chair at his shoulder, then the other over his opposite shoulder. Knowing he couldn’t understand me, I spoke anyway, insinuating as much as I could into the tone of my voice. “I want you, Ward.”

With a flare of his nostrils, his hand shot out quick as lightning, and those deadly fingers wrapped tight around my neck. I gulped as his claws pressed against my delicate skin. Had I taken too many liberties? Maybe he had a family at home; maybe I was an alien marriage homewrecker. But sue me, I didn’t care in that moment. I couldn’t care. Not when my body screamed for him.

His hand slid from my throat to the back of my neck, and before I could take another breath, he wrapped his fist into my hair and tugged. I cried out as I was forced to arch my back with my neck completely exposed. He could do whatever he wanted to me now, dig those fangs into my flesh and rip me apart. I fought for breath and closed my eyes as I grew wetter. I was more attracted to danger than I thought. I had dated too many nice guys who just didn’t do it for me, so I kept looking and hoping.

I reached blindly for him, but with one hand—with ease—he captured my wrists and braced them at my back. Immobile, on display, I could do nothing but swallow and wait. My nipples nearly ached from the cool air and arousal.

“Nehn,” he grunted with his deep voice before bowing his head and latching onto my nipple. I screamed as the wet heat of his mouth enveloped the hard bud of my chilled skin. He wasn’t gentle. He lashed it with his metal piercings and tugged on it with his lips. When he nipped me with a fang, I moaned embarrassingly loud. My pussy gushed, and I gasped when he released me with a pop to torture my other nipple. All the while, he kept his grip on my hair and my hands.

He took his time, nibbling at my breasts and sucking up patches of skin to the point of pain. I loved it all as I squirmed and moaned. It wasn’t until a draft hit my cheeks I realized I was crying.

I bucked my hips, eager to get some friction, anything to relieve the growing ache in my engorged clit. He nipped one last time, and I screamed at a white-hot split-second fire brand of pain. He leaned back, surveying his handiwork on my body before finally releasing the grip on my hair. I let my head drop and glanced down to see one small bead of blood on the top of my breast. He couldn’t take his eyes off of it, and when he licked his lips, I saw a bit of blood smeared on his fang.

Fuck that was hot, in a way that didn’t make sense to me, in a way I never would have let any man mark me. But Ward? He was no mere man.

I made a whining sound in my throat and tried to get closer to him. I wanted as much skin to skin contact as I could get, and he still wore his pants and boots. I wanted to see the monster responsible for the bulge in his pants.

“Please,” I murmured, wiggling my fingers.

With a heavy exhale, he released my wrists. He slid his palms up my ribcage, and I shivered at the touch. Palming my breasts, he flicked my now over-sensitive nipples.

I leaned closer, wanting to taste his lips. He jerked back for a second, but then his brows lowered. A flicker of worry passed in his violet eyes before he closed the distance between us. Our lips pressed together, and the kiss went from zero to sixty as soon as we touched. He delved his tongue inside, lashing it against mine, tasting the inside of my mouth and the back of my teeth with that talented tongue. With his hands on my back, he smashed me against him, so my nipples rasped along the scales of his chest. I gasped into his mouth, and he pulled back, a frown marring his expression.

I smiled, showing him it was fine. I reached between us and after a minute of figuring out how to release his pants, finally worked them open enough to reach inside. I closed my fingers around his hot, hard shaft, and stroked.

He nearly came off the chair. He arched and threw his head back, the cords in his neck straining. His reaction was intense, extreme, and when he lowered his head to look at me in awe, I got a feeling like he hadn’t felt this before. But that couldn’t be right, could it? Surely, he’d known females who could give him a hand job. A surprise growl left my throat thinking of another woman with him. Nope, this was about me and him, and if my hand on his cock was any indication of his responsiveness, then I looked forward to blowing his mind.

His chest heaving, his lips wet with saliva, he drifted his fingers down my stomach to rest on the top of my pussy. His little finger nudged under the hood of my clit, and when he found the right spot, I jerked in his lap. His lips stretched into a grin. A fast learner, he focused there, dipping down to my entrance to gather wetness before slipping back up to swirl a thick finger around my clit.

I pulled his cock out of his pants and glanced down. Sucking a breath, I nearly came on the spot. He was pierced with a thick ring through the tip. He had to have sex before, because why else would a male willingly choose to stick a needle through their dick? The sight was erotic, and his cock leaked copious amounts of slick fluid from the tip. I ran my palms through it and slicked up his shaft. His hips bucked into my fist as short, needy grunts left his throat. There was an interesting node at the base of his cock, and I ran my thumb over it. His stomach contracted, and he sank his teeth into his lip.

I needed more. It wasn’t the length of the foreplay, but the intensity, and we’d been operating at code red since his fingers had wrapped around my throat. I shifted closer to him and aimed the head of his thick pierced cock at my entrance. Our eyes met. Held. I went in for a kiss as I sank down onto his cock.

His girth took my breath away, and I whimpered into his mouth. He didn’t move or slam into me. Staring into my eyes, he held his breath, and once my ass hit his thighs, we both exhaled.

I smiled; his chest heaved. And I moved. Slowly at first, because fuck he wasn’t only thick, but long. I swirled my hips, getting used to his size and appreciating the way his piercing dragged along my inner walls on a smooth glide.

“Ward,” I murmured, because it was the only word I knew he’d understand.

“Reba,” he growled, the sound not much more than a rumble from his throat. His eyes had lightened even more, and I got lost in their swirling depths as he tentatively moved his hips against mine. I braced my hands on his shoulders. “Yeah,” I nodded. “Like that.”

He grunted and moved faster. Then his hands clamped on my hips, and he bucked up into me so forcefully all the breath fled my lungs. I screamed, and he fucked me harder, thrusting like a madman so all I could do was hold on and enjoy the ride. Every stroke nailed my sensitive, elusive g-spot until I saw stars behind my eyes and sweat rolled down my back.

“Neh cunt,” he growled, his eyes locked with mine. “Neh cunt!” he roared louder. Something latched onto my clit, and I managed to look down to see the node on the base of his dick had extended and sucked at my clit like the world’s best sex toy.

“Oh fuck,” I screamed just as I climaxed in an explosion of heat and pleasure so intense it was painful. I couldn’t breathe as he powered into me, and I held on as he gave one last fierce thrust with a garbled shout and came. He coated my inner walls with his seed as he panted against my mouth. I slumped against him, every muscle jelly. He held me with my face pressed into his neck, his cock still inside my body, and his tail curled protectively around my lower back.

I sighed into his skin, lapping at the sweat-damp scales. “Best I ever had, Ward. Best I ever had by a mile.” I yawned, curled my hands against my chest, and closed my eyes.

EIGHT

WARD

There was nothing eventual about how Reba came to mean everything to me. I’d seen her and wanted to protect her. But now she’d let me inside her, and my entire world shifted. I knew of species who were casually intimate, but that wasn’t the Drixonian way. It meant something to give one’s body to another, and Reba had given me … everything. Her pebbled nipples and sensitive clit and tight cunt. All mine.

Last night, after she’d fallen asleep on me, I’d carried her to the bedding, intent of laying her down and walking away. But instead I’d crawled in the furs with her and fell asleep myself. The morning sun had risen about half a yora ago, and Reba still slept against my chest. I worried she was cold, as those little flesh bumps were raised down her delicate spine. Wishing I had something nicer, I reached for a fur and settled it over her. She immediately made a small little sigh as she burrowed further into my chest.

The only reason I didn’t say fleck it and stay in this remote cabin with Reba forever was because of the Night Kings tag on my arm. Remembering it now, the stamped metal felt like it was burning into my skin. What would Daz do when he knew I’d touched her? I’d tried to resist when she’d revealed her pale skin bathed in moonlight. But when she settled herself on my thighs with those creamy breasts so close to my mouth… I had been weak. I’d forgotten my duty and I’d gotten lost in her sweet taste and perfect cunt.

Even now my cock was rising again, the flecking traitor. My only consolation had been that it was her choice. That blew my mind she had wanted to touch me, and she’d let me touch her. Sure, I was the only male around, but we’d just escaped the Rizars. I hadn’t thought mating would be on her mind at all.

What would I tell Daz? And worse, would he consider this a punishable offense? He was strict as drexel. He had to be. About fifteen cycles ago, he’d found one of the Night Kings had betrayed the clavas, and he’d ousted him. The poor fleck was a lonas now, with his name and likeness sent to all Drixonian drexels so they would know not to take him in. It was a hard life, but it was necessary for us. Enemies were everywhere, and we had to maintain order inside or we’d never weather the storms outside.

I rubbed my brow, wishing I could have slept longer, but unable to stop my mind from working. I had to find a comm and get a hold of Daz to let him know where I was. It’d been a few rotations and he’d be worried. She is all, I chanted to myself. I had to keep my wits about me and not let Reba’s pretty eyes and tight little body distract me from the ultimate goal—keeping us safe and alive.

Except, I’d already tried that and look how far that had gotten me. It hadn’t even taken me a full rotation to fail in resisting her.

Carefully wrapping the furs up to her little chin, I eased myself off the bedding and set about getting us some food. She’d refused the moira I’d killed yesterday, but greedily ate the fruits, so I slipped out the door and plucked some from a nearby bush. I also dug up some yona roots that tasted well in a seasoned soup. I didn’t have many ingredients, but I could make do with what I had.

Mave had been the cook in our family from a very young age, and even now I could feel the slap of the spoon on my skin when she chastised me for stealing a bite before she deemed it ready. The thought of my sister soured my gut, as it always did. I wondered when I’d be able to look back at her fondly without the memory of her choking on her own blood in my arms.

I shook my head, thoughts dark, as I trudged back to the house with a bundle of food in my arms. I preferred meat but I didn’t want to take the time to hunt something down. Reba hadn’t liked when I’d left her yesterday, and I didn’t want to scare her again. As for meat? She refused to eat it. I wondered if that had something to do with her affection for the welf pup. Did they not eat animals on Earth?

Back at the hut, Reba was still sleeping. After restarting the fire, I drug over a basin and filled it with qua. I filled that with sliced-up yona and some herbs I’d scrounged up. I left it all to cook in the rapidly heating water.

In the corner, Luna had found a rodent. She played with it for a while, batting the poor squeaking thing between her paws before she bit down. The squeaking stopped.

“You’re a resourceful little runt, aren’t you?” I asked her.

She just looked at me, her little head cocked. I couldn’t believe Reba had convinced me to keep a welf cub, but she’d been so adamant, and the little furry ball had made her smile. I had to admit, her kindness toward the abandoned animal—I hadn’t missed the mother’s body nearby—had been endearing. Kindness was in short supply in my life.

I sighed and rubbed my forehead, wondering how the hell I was going to deal with these… feelings. Just the memory of touching Reba’s flesh had my cock thickening in my pants, eager to have her again. I gazed at her still form in the bed. What I wouldn’t give to have the freedom to lay beside her, palm her pretty cunt and suck on her neck until she woke, rolled over, and spread her legs for me…

The smell of the fragrant soup hit my nose just as Reba stirred. She blinked her eyes open, and I watched as she slowly came to consciousness. She stared at the ceiling and then with a jolt, jerked up to her elbows and looked frantically around the hut. When she spotted me, she exhaled and offered me a soft smile.

I was done for. I knew as soon as she calmed at the sight of me I would do anything for her. She was my duty and my purpose. My Night Kings tagged burned on my arm as I considered going lonas for her. Leaving my brother, my males, the only family I’d had since most of my own perished in the virus. Did Reba have any idea of my devotion to her?

No, I’d still return home. I’d face Daz like a true warrior and explain what I’d done. If he shunned me, then that would be what Fatas demanded. But I would be truthful and honorable, not skulk away with Reba in the middle of the night.

The soft smile remained on her face as she rose with a fur wrapped around her nakedness and padded toward me on small pale feet. Her nose was in the air, and she sniffed delicately before approaching the fire to peer into the basin.

“Smulls gut,” she said.

Then, her eyes lit up as Luna—who had thankfully finished her rodent meal—bounded over to yip and paw at Reba’s ankles.

“Hullo, leetle wun,” Reba cooed, her voice taking on high, breathy quality. “Deed u eat?” She gazed over at the remaining small bones of Luna’s morning meal and wrinkled her nose. “Kess so.”

The soup bubbled happily just as Reba’s stomach rumbled. With pink cheeks, she shot me a look. I rose to my feet. My female was hungry, so I needed to feed her.

I spread a fur onto the floor and directed her to sit down. Scrounging up some bowls out of the trunk of supplies, I poured the soup into one, making sure to get plenty of the filling and nutritious yona for Reba. I placed it down in front of her, and she gave me another one of those pretty smiles. “Dank uu.”

But then she… didn’t eat it. She didn’t do anything. She sniffed it and poked at the yona swimming in the hot liquid. When she did so, she quickly yanked back her hand. “Oooh hawt.” She blew on her finger.

Could she not touch the food? I stabbed a yona from my own bowl with a claw and stuck it in my mouth. She watched me chew and then said. “Kess u doo nut huv a spune?”

What did she need? I shuffled over to her and speared a yona chunk from her bowl. I held it up to her mouth, and, with her eyes on me, she tentatively stretched out her neck. Her little blunt teeth closed around the yona and drug it off my claw. Her eyes went wide as she chewed. “Mmmm!” she murmured. “Like a curret.” A bit of juice dripped down her chin, and I couldn’t resist, eager to keep her clean and well-cared for.

I lapped at the juice, curling my tongue around her jaw and lower lip. At the first touch, she jerked back with a sharp inhale, but when I persisted, she remained in place. By the time I pulled away, her chest heaved, and her cheeks were flushed. The look immediately took me back to the previous night. That was how she’d looked when she was wet and wanting me. Did she want me again? Could I be so lucky?

Reba

He’d licked me. With his tongue. A tongue that did wicked things to my nipples and I embarrassingly couldn’t stop imagining doing more creative things to my clit.

This morning he hadn’t left me. He’d fed Luna and he’d made me soup. No meat anywhere in sight. This big beautiful alien watched me with those dark eyes like I held all the answers to life, and I hadn’t ever been looked at like that in my life.

And now his eyes swirled violet and indigo, and his neck was corded with tension. His fangs peeked out from beneath his parted lips as he panted, the bulge in his pants nearly obscene. He wanted me again, and fuck it, I wanted him too.

With careful movements, I unwrapped the furs from my body, revealing my nakedness. My breasts still bore the red marks from his attention, and my pussy ached slightly—a good ache. One that meant I’d been more than satisfied.

Ward’s chest rumbled, a deep growl that grew and grew until he gripped my thighs with powerful hands and tugged. I slid toward him, and before my back hit the floor, his head was between my legs. I had enough time to grab his horns before his mouth was on me. The long, strong tongue licked a path past my entrance to swirl around my clit, the metal balls raking on the engorged blood-filled nub until I was writhing and babbling. Luna, who at first was curious as to what we were doing, retreated to her corner like she knew we wanted privacy.

As for Ward, he ate. His fangs nipped and his tongue danced, and he sucked my clit like his life depended on me orgasming until I had a heart attack.

And me? I humped his face. There was no delicate way to put it. I held his horns like a roller coaster safety bar and bucked up into his mouth as he did his best to hold down my thrusting hips with his strong hands.

And then, he plunged his tongue inside me and began a purr. The vibrations zinged through me like an electrical shock, racing up my spine to detonate behind my eyes. When I came, it was like entering into a tornado. My skin tingled and my head spun, and I shouted out my release as I held Ward’s face to me in a death grip. He worked me through it, that vibrating tongue turning me inside out until it was too much, too sensitive, and I shoved his head away.

He rose above me, his face glistening with my fluids, his eyes nearly feral as he yanked down his pants and shoved his thick cock inside me. I screamed, and he froze above me, his eyes going wide as concern leached through the lust.

I reached up and clawed his shoulders, bucking against him. “Don’t you dare stop,” I growled. “Fuck me.”

And he did. Hard. He rose up onto his knees, bringing me with him so only my shoulders remained on the fur beneath us. He slammed his hips into me until I felt his heavy balls slap my ass. He grunted and huffed like a bull. I knew I’d have bruises for days, and I didn’t care. I wanted them. I needed them.

My next orgasm slammed into me, stealing my breath and vision as Ward fucked me through it like he was possessed. I was his to use, and I reveled in the mind-numbing escape of being his, being owned by this big blue alien who rescued me and took care of me. Fuck everything else on this damn planet. Ward was all I cared about. Who cared if we could never communicate with words? We sure as hell knew how to speak with our bodies.

He came with a roar, his head thrown back and his neck corded with muscle and sinew. His hands dug into my thighs, his extended claws piercing until the hut filled with the coppery tang of blood. It wasn’t until he dropped my legs that I felt the small pricks of pain on my upper thighs.

Ward collapsed nearly on top of me, catching himself on extended arms, fists on either side of my body, as he caught his breath. His eyes cast down my body, and when he spied the small drops of blood spilled down my outer thighs, he froze. His gaze darted to my face, and if I wasn’t mistaken, it was the first time I’d seen true alarm in his eyes.

I smiled, not really caring about a little sex injury. Which was crazy. He could have sliced me with those claws, but yet I knew, I just knew, he wouldn’t hurt me, at least not in any sort of real or permanent way.

Reaching out, I cupped his cheek, and offered a smile. He seemed to respond well to my smiles, and I’d learned it was the best tool to get my way or soothe him. “It’s okay. I barely feel it.”

He swallowed thickly, and then bent down. His tongue snaked out, and I was considering pushing him away—my clit was way, way overworked—but instead all he did was slowly and carefully lap at the tiny pricks on my thighs, cleaning the blood with long drags. I shivered at the feeling and watched as he cleaned me with half-closed eyes before moving up further to lick at my entrance. When I squirmed, he slowed and finally stopped. With a contented sigh, he lay along my side and placed one large palm over my pussy. I froze, wondering if he was going to play some more, but all he did was stare into my eyes, his hand warm and soothing on my abused flesh. “Neh cunt,” he whispered, nudging me with his nose along my temple.

“Yours.” I whispered back.

We lay like that for a while in silence. I had always been into post-sex chatter, much to the annoyance of most of my bed partners. But now I didn’t feel the need to talk, even if he had been able to understand me.

After washing his hands in a some qua, he fed me the rest of the soup, one speared carrot-thing at a time until I was full and pushed his hands away. He encouraged me to drink the broth, which was salty and aromatic. I felt content, my belly full of warm soup, my skin still flushed from the two orgasms he’d wrung out of me.

Was this my life now? Cleaning this hut, eating soup, playing with Luna, and getting fucked to within an inch of my life by Ward? I couldn’t say I hated it. Of course, I missed literally everything about Earth like my favorite barbecue joint on the corner and the taco truck I visited every Tuesday. I missed my friends and my parents. I’d held out so much hope I was going to get back, but I had to face the fact no spaceship was coming to rescue me.

If I had to be taken into the possession of an alien, I was sure as hell glad it was Ward. He fucked like a god and let me have a dog-like animal. He didn’t force-feed me meat, and he’d saved me from getting eaten myself. Hell, he was a better boyfriend than I’d ever had, and we couldn’t even talk yet. Or maybe that was why he was a good boyfriend. Maybe if I could understand him, he’d say dumb shit like every other man I’d ever met.

After feeding me, Ward got to his feet and began cleaning up. For real. He cleaned out the bowls and wiped up spills. He stepped over to the back-corner window to throw out Luna’s scraps when a floorboard beneath his mammoth feet cracked.

He froze and looked down, a frown on his face, while I sat upright, once again tying the fur around my chest. Ward’s concentration wasn’t on me, though. I was pretty sure I could have stuck my tits in his face, and he would have pushed me out of the way. He knelt down and yanked up the floorboard. I shuffled over to get closer and saw a cloth bundle nestled in a dirt hole.

With careful hands, he drew it out and unwrapped the cloth. I had no idea what the contents were. They looked like a bunch of some sort of tech—a little circular disk and one object that looked like an infrared thermometer.

But Ward… Ward’s entire expression changed. His mouth dropped open and then he turned to me, eyes swirling until they were nearly light purple. “Uh gonua pouln!” He tapped behind my ear, his deep voice excited. “Buron hune wertiz.”

“Uh, okay. Yay!” I cheered for him even though I had no idea what was so great about the small bundle that honestly looked like random scraps from a junkyard.

He fiddled with it, all but ignoring me, and I retreated to the corner with Luna. Ruffling her fur, I growled at her playfully while she yipped and tried to nip at my fingers. Occasionally Ward would talk to himself, and I let him go. I was about to take Luna outside to try to find a stick to throw around when Ward called my name and beckoned me closer. I picked up Luna and carried her with me, depositing her on my lap as I sat cross-legged in front of Ward. “What’s up, big guy?”

He still had that excited look on his face, almost gleeful as he reached for me with one hand, the other holding a small circular disk. I let him tilt my head, trusting him fully in a way I would have to examine later.

Ward said a few words, ending with my name, and I smiled at him. He pressed the disk behind my ear, and for a second, all I felt was a cool sensation of the metal object. But a second later, the metal heated, and then what felt like claws dug into my skull. What the hell? As the pain grew to a searing level, I began to scream. Luna barked, Ward roared, and chaos erupted.

NINE

WARD

Her screams would haunt me forever. She shrieked and cried, clawing at the translator implant. My cora stopped as I reached for her, unsure what to do. The implant wasn’t supposed to hurt, was it? I didn’t remember; it’d been so long ago since the Uldani had given us our implants.

Had I broken her? Had I… killed her?

She was trying to claw it off with her blunt nails, which I knew was futile and dangerous. The implant was now embedding into her skin and skull. Ripping it off would cause permanent damage for sure.

Although it pained me, I pinned her arms to her sides as she stared at me with a look of utter betrayal as wetness coursed out of her eyes. What was that? Did that mean she was dying? I held her to me and rocked her as Luna spun in circles around us, snarling with accusatory barks.

“Please Fatas,” I prayed. “Please spare her. She’s everything I thought I’d never have. Please.”

Reba’s cries calmed, and her glistening eyes went wide.

“I’m sorry, little one,” I crooned to her. “I didn’t know this would hurt you.”

“W-Ward?” she sputtered. “H-how can I understand you?”

I froze, barely able to believe my ears. It had worked?

“Are you still in pain?

She blinked at me and prodded the implant behind her ear. “I... Actually no. The pain has faded.”

Relief coursed through me. “Thank Fatas,” I breathed. “I’m sorry. It’s been so long since I’ve seen anyone get an implant. I didn’t remember the pain.”

She winced and tugged at her arms, so I let them go. “Yeah, well, you couldn’t have warned me anyway.”

She reached behind my ear and felt the lump of the implant the Uldani embedded in my skin. “I noticed this lump before, and I wondered what it was. Could you understand me this whole time?”

I shook my head and pointed toward the updater that lay at our sides. “I used that to add as many major Earth languages to my implant as I could. I was hoping you spoke one of those.”

She huffed a laugh. “Yeah, I speak English and it’s a common one since we’re colonizing bastards.” She gripped my face, her thumbs rubbing my cheeks. “So, this is real? We can talk now?”

I nodded. “It’s real. Your implant allows you to understand my words in your language. Mine does the same.”

She sucked in a breath. “I had just resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to start learning your language. This is incredible.” She smiled, the corners of her eyes crinkling. “Thank you. I thought this was just some fun man-toy you were fiddling with. I had no idea what it meant. Why was it hidden?”

Some of her words made no sense to me, but I figured that would come with time. “I’m not quite sure who would have left this here, but it’s not unrealistic. During the Uprising, we raided Uldani storage facilities and stole as much tech as we could. We hid it in hundreds of places so the Uldani wouldn’t be able to steal it back. This must have been a hiding place a Drixonian forgot about.”

She stared at me with her mouth agape. “Uh, what are all those words? What’s an Uldani? I think you’re a Drixonian, right?”

She remembered our little lesson. I puffed out my chest. “I’m a Drixonian Warrior from planet Corin.”

Patting my chest, she smiled. “And I’m a human from Baltimore on Earth. Guess you don’t have any good crab cakes here, huh?”

I stared at her.

“Guess not,” she mumbled. “Anyway, so, I uh, I have a lot of questions and I don’t know where to start.”

“Why did you run?” I blurted out. “I know you ran, because I tracked your singular trail until the Rizars captured you.”

She slid away with narrowed eyes. “Why did I run away from you? Seriously?

Her voice went up at the end, and although I wasn’t well-versed in human emotions, I sensed she was angry.

“First of all, I arrive on this planet and I’m handed off to you and your merry band of blue bikers. After that, I watch you slaughter a dozen armored giants. I see your leader separate one of the women and drag her off somewhere like a caveman. Then you strap me on your bike-thing like luggage and off we go. As far as I knew, you were going to eat me.”

My spine snapped straight. “We do not eat humans.”

She threw her hands in the air. “Well, I didn’t know that!”

“So why haven’t you tried to run again?”

Her mouth snapped shut, her little teeth clicking together. She crossed her arms over her chest, which drew my eye to her full breasts. “Because you saved me,” she said quietly. “Those crocodile things were going to eat me. I figured that much out. You rescued me, you fed me, and you haven’t hurt me.” She cleared her throat. “The opposite actually. And you let me keep Luna.”

“That welf will grow up to be big enough to rip your flecking leg off. I’m warning you now.”

She gathered the furry bundle in her arms with a gasp. “She wouldn’t do that to me. I’m her mom. And you’re her dad. She’ll tear off the legs of our enemies, though.” She grinned and held Luna’s face, pressing a kiss to her black nose. “Isn’t that right, Luna?” Reba spoke in a sing-song voice. “You won’t hurt me, but you’ll tear the throat out of some mean ol’ baddies, won’t you? My bloodthirsty demon.”

Despite myself, my cock thickened in my pants listening to my female talk about the deaths of our enemies. I hadn’t ever claimed to be good.

Reba look at me. “So, I haven’t run again yet. Want to explain to me why I shouldn’t in the future? Maybe start with why you got all of us humans in a handoff from those one-eyed aliens.”

I took a deep breath. “It’s a long story.”

She shrugged and leaned back on her hands, stretching her legs out in front of her and crossing them at the ankles. “My schedule is open for story time.”

Reba

I could barely believe we could understand each other. It was like a miracle. It was a little odd, because Ward’s mouth didn’t make English motions, but yet the implant came through loud and clear in his voice. I felt a bit like Neo from The Matrix when Morpheus and crew implanted fighting techniques into his brain.

Ward rose from the floor and dragged a chair over before sinking down into it and resting his elbows on his knees. “First of all, Daz, our leader, will not hurt your female friend. He’s taking her to a friend of ours to get an implant like yours, and to supply implants for the rest of the females.”

“Why did he have to take her?” I asked.

Ward heaved a sigh. “Daz felt something for her. It’s hard to explain, but he felt drawn to her.”

My eyes went wide. “Wait, will he… force himself—”

“No,” Ward barked so sharply that Luna, who’d been dozing near me, startled awake. Ward’s purple eyes deepened to a blue-black. “Drixonians would never hurt females. Our motto is She Is All. It means everything to us.” He rubbed his forehead. “Our enemies, the Uldani, took Daz’s brother, Sax. He’s imprisoned, and we were told they’d release him if we transported cargo to the Uldani. We assumed it was weapons. Medis. Tech. Something like that. We arrived at the landing site of the Rahgul ship—those are the one-eyed aliens—and found you, six females.”

“Why didn’t those armored giant things deliver us?”

He shook his head. “We don’t know. So much of us of this feels like a trick or a trap. But we will never let the Uldani harm you.”

“Would they? Harm us?” I shivered.

Ward’s jaw clenched. “Most likely. Yes. The Uldani have a history of experimenting on other species. It’s why we broke away from them in the Uprising.” With a tight voice, he started from the beginning. He told me about his civilization on Corin, the twin planet I could see hanging out past the horizon. There, the males patrolled the atmosphere and protected the planet while the females remained on the ground, running everything from the government to the distribution of resources. Then a virus swept through the population, killing all the females and most of the elder males.

“Oh my God,” I gasped, heart aching.

“If you noticed the large scarred Drixonian with a broken horn while we were fighting the Kulks at the spaceship landing site, that’s my brother.” He swallowed heavily, and his eyes dropped to his hands, which he rubbed together. “We had a sister too. She was Gar’s twin. Where he was big and strong and dark, Mave was small and happy and light. Gar worshipped her, and I did too. But their bond was incredible.”

My throat grew tight, remembering my own sister. The memory of how good she was. I was the bad one, always sneaking out of the house when we were teenagers, the one with no dreams except fun and trouble. Zara was the good girl, the one who stayed home and got A’s and had visions of making partner at a top law firm in NYC. She was almost there too, attending NYU for her undergrad until it was all taken from her—and she was taken from us—by a violent man who I’d kill with my bare hands if he wasn’t locked behind bars.

“The virus killed differently. Some females passed quickly and painlessly. Others died choking on their blood. But Mave… Mave held on for a long time. I don’t know if she was doing it for Gar, but he had to watch her wither away rotation after rotation as painful spasms wracked her body.” Ward shook his head and his giant shoulders heaved as he inhaled sharply. “She died, and Gar was never the same. I wasn’t either, but Gar shut down. I’m still not sure how he survived the Uprising because he battled like he didn’t care whether he lived or died.” He shrugged with a jerk. “Maybe he didn’t.”

“He probably didn’t,” I’d had that emotion many times. I should have been the Grant sister to die in an alley with a rapist’s hands around her throat. Not Zara. Until I’d shaped up and vowed never to become a victim, to never let my parents go through that pain again.

Ward was watching me shrewdly.

I didn’t want to talk about my sister. “So, what happened next?” I asked.

“We’d traded with the Uldani. We were never close allies, but we weren’t enemies either. After the death of our females, our civilization crumbled. It was chaos. All us males know how to do was fight. The Uldani offered to employ us as their law enforcement and bodyguards. We accepted and moved to this planet. We were given implants and our bikes. That was how we lived for many sun cycles until the Uldani began to treat us terribly. Less medis, less supplies. Less everything. And then we found out they were conducting experiments on some of our males. Our precious males. We couldn’t procreate more. No more females, remember? So, every Drixonian life is precious. We led the Uprising and broke from their rule. Now they live on the eastern half of the continent in a well-defended fortress.”

My jaw clenched as anger at these assholes flared in my chest. “But yet they still find ways to fuck with you.”

He nodded. “They do.”

“What do you think they wanted with us women?”

“We don’t know, but the Uldani are not to be trusted. They see every other species as inferior to them.”

“But you…?”

“I have never met a human. I don’t think any of us have, but we have always been aware of Earth and your species. Regardless, you are female, and that means you will never be harmed at our hands.”

“Do all Drixonians feel the same way you do?”

At that, he paused, and his face darkened. “There are some who do not. After the Uprising, many of us males separated into clavases and appointed a leader, or drexel. Daz is ours. Most drexels are good, but there are some who are not.” He pointed to the red band on his arm, which had a crude shape with jagged edges, like a crown, stamped into the surface. “We are the Night Kings, and we follow Daz’s lead. He believes in She is All and all the legendary Drixonian customs. You can trust a Night King.”

“And others?”

“Ask me first.”

“What if you’re not there?’

His nostrils flared and he jerked his head up, purple eyes spearing me like a laser. “I will always be there for you, Reba.”

The intensity of his words struck me like slap. “Ward—”

“Daz told me to keep you safe. He wouldn’t approve that I touched you. I tried my best to keep my distance, but I’ve never known temptation like you, little human.” He slid off the chair and went to his knees before me. “But now I belong to you. Every beat of my cora is for you, and I’ll spend every waking moment ensuring your safety and making you happy.”

My heart tripped over itself and then ignited, sending a rush of heat throughout my limbs. I’d never in all my life imagined anyone saying those words to me, but especially not a deadly blue extraterrestrial.

“Ward,” I whispered before a sudden thought occurred to me. I went to my own knees and scooted toward him until we touched. “How old were you when the females died?”

“About six sun-cycles.”

“So, like… six cycles of your planet around the sun?”

He nodded.

Of course, I had no idea what their development was like, but that must have placed him as a child. “Had you ever been with a female? Before me?”

“Nit,” he said sharply.

Was this right to let him devote his life to me? He didn’t really know me. Despite his size and intelligence, his sexual experience was like a fourteen-year-old boy who just declared love to the first girl who ever made him come.

“There will be other females—” I began.

“Nit!” he barked at me.

“But you don’t really know me—”

“I do,” he growled. “I know that you are brave. Attempting to run from a Drixonian is nothing but brave. You remained strong while the Rizars had you. I know you are kind to other beings, like Luna. You are pretty when you smile, and you taste like the ripest fruit.” I blushed under his words, and felt my eyes prick with tears. “I do know you, Reba. I tried to ignore it, but I felt a pull toward you from the moment I laid eyes on you. There are no others for me. Drixonians take one mate for life.”

His words came at me too fast for my brain to keep up. Of course, I cared about Ward. He was an amazing person. He was strong and capable. He fought for me, cooked for me, and touched me like I was a precious gem. My heart said to trust his words, but my brain, the small part of my conscience that still worked, yelled at me to be careful. Was he saying all this stuff so I’d be agreeable until he took me to his lair?

But fuck, I wanted to trust him, with everything I had. I threw caution to the wind and nodded. “Okay, Ward. Then if you’re mine. I’m yours.”

His eyes detonated like a sparked road flare. His body covered mine, and then he took his time claiming me.

TEN

WARD

“I ran away because I was trying to get back,” she spoke softly, her little fingers rubbing at the scales on my side. We lay on the furs, sated and tired from mating. Again. I couldn’t keep my hands off her no matter how much I told myself we had to focus on getting home.

“Trying to get back where?”

“To the site where the spaceship landed. I wasn’t thinking clearly, but I wanted to believe if I stayed there, eventually another spaceship would come, and I could sneak on board and hitch a ride back to Earth.”

I closed my eyes as my chest tightened. “I’m sorry, but there is no way for us to take you back.”

Her fingers stopped moving and a breath shuddered across my chest before she spoke. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

“The Uldani took all our spacecraft. Even if we had them, none could travel as far as your galaxy. Only the Rahgul have that capability, and they are in league with the Uldani. We don’t know the extent of the human cargo supply, or how often they travel to Earth. I can only hope you are the only females they’ve taken, but we can’t be sure.”

She didn’t speak for a long time. “Another reason I ran was because…” she chewed her lip and wouldn’t meet my eyes, “was that all I could think about was I refused to be a victim.” Finally, she lifted her gaze. “My sister, um, was killed. A few years ago. In a horrible violent crime. She was so good, so pure, with dreams and goals. She was beautiful and smart,” she buried her face in my chest. “All these words just seem so empty, so flat, to describe Zara. She was three-dimensional and vibrant and alive.” She inhaled sharply and exhaled with a shuddering breath. “Until she wasn’t.”

I knew the loss of a sister, and I wrapped my arms around Reba tightly as her eyes leaked onto my chest.

She pushed her hair out of her face and speared me with glistening eyes. “So, I told myself I’d never be a victim. I didn’t want my parents to go through that. And I didn’t want to waste my life now that hers had been cut short. My therapist calls it survivor’s guilt.”

“Survivor’s guilt,” I murmured. I wondered if that was what affected Gar so strongly. Why did he survive and not Mave? “I’m sorry for the loss of your sister. What happened to her?”

She looked at me funny, like that wasn’t a common question she was asked. “She was, um, raped and strangled.”

I went still. “A male in your society forced himself on her?”

She nodded and whispered a harsh, “Yes.”

I felt my blood heat and my cora pound as anger pulsed through me. “Absolutely deplorable.”

“Yes—”

“No honorable Drixonian or any male would do that. If that man was in front of me right now, I’d cut out his cora. No, I’d flay his skin and take off his limbs while he was still breathing.”

Her eyes bulged. “Well, uh, I’m actually not as horrified as I should be seeing as I’d love for him to suffer.”

“I’m sorry this happened.” A bolt of determination straightened my spine. “As long as I’m breathing, I won’t let you be a victim again. Do you understand?”

She sniffed and searched my eyes, my face, for a long stretch of time before a small smile stretched her lips. “I do understand, Ward.”

“When we get back to camp, you’ll see. My clavas will defend and take care of you and the other females. No male will take any of you unless you consent. I promise you on my life.”

Her delicate fingers brushed my face in a feather-light touch. “If I’m going to be stuck on another planet, I’m glad it’s with you.”

Surprising myself, I barked out a laugh. “Well let’s hope Daz doesn’t take my head off for touching you.”

Her head bobbed up. “But I wanted it too!”

I smoothed down her wild hair. “I know.”

She frowned. “I’ll make him see.”

I snorted a laugh, imagining Reba standing up to Daz, the fiercest warrior I’d ever met. He wasn’t easily swayed. I wondered how he was doing with his little human. She’d been a loud, feisty one. I happened to like the feistiness in Reba.

“So, we’re not staying here, then?”

I shook my head. “We need to get moving. We’ve already wasted a lot of time. I wish there’d been a comm stashed here so I could communicate with Daz or my brother to let him know we’re okay.”

She eyed our position on the sleeping pallet. “You don’t look like you’re in a hurry to move.”

I grinned at her and plucked one of her nipples, reveling in her soft gasp. “Can you blame me? Look at what’s laying on top of me.”

She rolled her eyes and batted my hand away. “Okay, okay. Can we visit the river or whatever to get clean before moving on?”

I agreed, eager to wipe off the filth of the cabin myself. We gathered our things and with Luna nipping at our heels, made our way to the stream. I just managed to keep my hands off of Reba as she washed her body. I was fascinated at how her hair darkened when it dripped with qua, and the way her fingers and toes grew wrinkled.

Luna drank from her sunny spot on the bank, and then chewed on a stick Reba had been throwing to her along the way.

By mid-rotation, we were clean and on our way to the hut. “We’ll gather our things and begin the journey back our home.”

“How long will it take to reach your home?”

It would have taken me about two rotations, but with Reba, I assumed double the time. Her legs were half as short as mine, and I knew we couldn’t cover the same amount of ground, especially with Luna who squirmed when she was held. “Maybe three rotations,” I said. “I’ll have a better idea by tonight after I see how well we do.”

She nodded and looked down to step over a protruding root. Just then a hunner buzzed past her ear, and she cried out in surprise, swatting at it. “Nit!” I called out and grabbed her hand as she lifted it to hit the bug again.

“What is that thing?” she gasped. A hunner to me was merely a nuisance. Their sting was painful and caused slight paralysis near the sting site, but it was entirely survivable… as long as the hive didn’t catch wind. I’d known of an angry hunner horde killing a Drixonian who stumbled upon their ground nest. But I worried that a hunner sting would do much worse damage to Reba. She was small with thin skin, and the hunner was the size of her palm.

“Hunner,” I said.

“Oh my God, it’s like a giant wasp! Do you know how much I hate wasps? They are assholes.”

The hunner buzzed around her ankle, and I watched in horror as she picked up her booted foot and stomped on it. The buzzing cut off abruptly. Silence greeted us. Reba brushed her hair away from her face and looked up at me triumphantly. “There!”

But I couldn’t share in her victory, I was too busy listening intently, so I knew which direction they’d come from. From the left, I detected a faint buzzing. “We need to run!” I hollered. I swooped Reba into my arms and took off at a dead sprint.

“Luna!” Reba screeched, but I couldn’t deal with the welf pup right now. Hunners didn’t bother welfs, and if I delayed even a moment, we’d be under attack. When a hunner was killed, he released a scent that attracted the entire horde from the nest. Hundreds would descend on us. As it stood, I wasn’t sure we’d make it.

“What’s wrong?” She cried in my arms, her voice wavering as she bounced with my strides.

“The horde,” I gritted out. “They’re coming for us.”

“Wait, what?” She craned her neck behind us. “The horde—?” Her voice dropped out as the buzzing increased. “Holy shit!” she shrieked. “What the fuck?”

I didn’t look back, but I could see their shadow blotting out the sun as they careened toward us.

“Oh my God!” Reba cried. “Oh my God! I’m sorry!”

This wasn’t her fault. This was mine. I hadn’t explained the planet’s dangers. I’d failed her by flecking her cunt instead of educating her.

My only objective was to reach the numa patch that was near our hut. Hunners hated the stuff and wouldn’t penetrate the vines. I wouldn’t be able to fit under the numa dome, but Reba would. I wasn’t sure how I’d fend off the horde from killing me, but I’d deal with that next.

I burst into the clearing and spotted the numa ahead of us in a dome-like set of twisty vines. I tossed Reba inside, wincing as I heard her oomph as she hit the ground. Bruises were okay. Hundreds of hunner stings were not. I turned at the last minute to see the horde descending, stingers aimed at me. I sucked in a breath and let my machets loose. I planned to cut down as many as I could and hoped I was still standing afterward.

I crossed my arms in front of my throat and braced for the first sting. I registered the sound of leaves rustling above me, and then a tangle of vines crashed down over my head. I fell to my back, barely able to see through the dense weave, but I heard the hunner bodies hitting the vines, pinging off and flying away with a vicious buzz that vibrated the air like a dozen bikes. I peered through the vines to watch the horde circle overhead, over and over, before giving up and speeding off to return to their nest without vengeance for the death of one of their own.

Soft sobs reached my ears, and I rolled onto my stomach. The vines on top of me were heavy, and when I plucked at them with my fingers, I realized they were woven together in a pattern. “What the fleck?” I muttered. How had a handmade shield of numa landed on me at the moment I most needed it?

I heaved it off of me and raced toward the numa dome, where Reba sat inside, knees tucked to her chest. “Mate,” I called,” Come to me. It’s all right now.”

“I’m so sorry!” she wailed. “They came after us because I killed one, right?” She plunked her head down on her knees and her shoulders shook. “It’s all my fault.”

I shook my head and reached through a small break in the vines toward her. “It’s my fault for not telling you about them. Come out now, they’re gone.”

She lifted her head and sniffed. Her eyes were rimmed with red. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” I said.

On a shaky crawl, she made her way out of a gap in the vines. As soon as she was free of the dome, she flung herself at me, wrapping her arms so tight around my neck that I had trouble taking a deep breath. “I thought they were going to kill you.”

I patted her back, not wanting to worry her so I didn’t confess I thought they would kill me too. I peered up into the trees, still wondering how that net of numa had dropped on me.

The thing about Drixonians was that we camouflaged well. The pattern of our scales blended into the sky and leaves. We often went to the trees to hide from Rizar packs or pivars. But as a Drixonian, I knew what to look for, and my eyes settled on the barest hint of a broad blue-scaled back. I went still. “Show yourself!” I called out.

The body twisted, only slightly, and hair brushed the muscled back. I sucked in a breath as a low growl started in my throat. The only Drixonian who had hair like that, with two white streaks flowing from each temple, was the one Drixonian I never thought I’d see again. “Drak,” I whispered.

The white-streaked head turned. One wild black eye met mine, and then he was gone. I didn’t see him but could track his progress by shaking leaves as he leapt from tree branch to tree branch away from us, until he was no longer detectable.

“Did you see something?” Reba asked, squinting into the trees. “What is a Drak?”

What is a Drak? Drak was a betrayor. Daz had kicked him out many cycles ago. I was surprised he was still alive. Drixonians didn’t do well alone. Even those who went lonas had communications with clavases to trade with, like our friend Tark.

But Drak… Drak was alive. And he’d saved my life.

I didn’t know what to think about that. He’d always been a quiet one who kept to himself, but we’d been close. Friends. His betrayal to our clavas had cut me deep. I still remembered the rotation when Daz stripped him of his tag and closed the gates behind him. He’d been a strong warrior, one of the best.

I swallowed and shook my head. “It’s… it’s nothing.” The words felt wrong in my throat. I pushed the thought of Drak out of my head and focused on Reba. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I’m so sorry—”

“I said it wasn’t your fault. Let’s get back to the hut, gather our things, and we’ll spend that time on a little bit of a lesson about the dangers of Planet Torin. Sound good?”

She heaved a sigh and brushed at her wet cheeks. “I never liked school, but then I never felt like my grades were life or death. You bet I’ll be taking notes.” A bark sounded and Luna burst into the clearing, making a running leap at Reba’s arms. “You found us!” she squealed, rubbing her face in the pup’s fur. She glanced up at me. “Would those wasps have hurt her?”

“We call them hunners and no. They don’t sting welfs.”

“Oh, thank God,” Reba nuzzled Luna. “Because if they took away my man and my pup, I’d be on a warpath.” She marched ahead of me toward the hut, muttering to herself and talking to Luna. I smiled, liking that Reba called me her “man” and almost eager to see what her warpath would look like.

Reba

I didn’t have many possessions. I only kept my Earth clothes to use as scraps because I wouldn’t be wearing them again. I had the boots and clothes from the hut’s storage, and I’d fashioned a pack from some of the furs. Inside the pack went my old clothes, a small canteen of qua and a few berries.

I remembered thinking a month ago I wanted to downsize my belongings and go for a more minimalist lifestyle—the result of watching too many tiny home videos on YouTube—but this wasn’t what I’d had in mind.

I glanced around our hut, the place where I’d come to trust Ward, give him my body, and have a full conversation with him. As much as it’d never felt like home, it was the closest I’d come on this planet to my own place. So far.

Ward gave me an odd look when I lovingly ran my hand over the door. I shrugged. “Just saying bye to our first place.”

He shot me a funny smile and then grabbed my hand.

Ward’s pace was punishing, but Luna kept up pretty well with her stubby legs, though it wasn’t long before she grew tired. Ward draped her over his shoulders and held her front paws with one massive hand so she wouldn’t fall. She seemed happier that way, her ears and tongue bouncing as we walked along. Once or twice, he’d let her down, and she’d go hunt her food before returning to us with a bloody puppy grin.

I tried to maintain his pace, but Ward’s strides covered twice as much ground as me. I knew he had to walk slower for me, and I felt bad about it, but I wasn’t Wonder Woman. By the time the sun began to drop, and Ward looked for a place to rest for the night, I was dead on my feet. He found a secluded area mostly hidden by a downed tree. Too tired to do much but fall headfirst into a bed of furs, I was asleep in seconds, Luna tucked under my arm.

I woke up warm. Really warm, and a soft vibration nearly lulled me back to sleep. Something felt good between my legs, and I reached down, my fingers wrapping around a ridged horn. My eyes flew open to find Ward’s head between my legs, his tongue steadily lapping at me as if he was cleaning maple syrup off a plate. I sucked in a breath and squirmed. The vibrations increased and Ward’s head moved faster, his tongue snaking among all my folds to swirl around my clit. He sucked, and I cried out, arching my back. His fingers joined in, sliding into my slick core and rubbing along the spot inside me that had me seeing double.

“Fuck, Ward,” I murmured, bucking up into his mouth, seeking the climax I knew was going to be great. Amazing.

He sucked faster, and his fingers scissored.

I came on a wordless shout, thrusting against him as his tongue worked me through the orgasm. The final tremors still coursed through my body when he pulled away on a growl, flipped me onto my stomach and pulled me up onto my knees.

He entered me in one smooth thrust, forcing the air from my lungs so I fought for breath with my face smashed against the furs. I came up onto my elbows as he began to fuck me. Hard. His balls slapped my clit and each time he bottomed out inside of me, he growled like an animal.

I fucking loved it. I loved how hot I made him, and I loved how well he worked my body. There was nothing like getting fucked by Ward. Not on Earth at least.

He gripped my hips and used my body, sawing in and out of me with that massive pierced cock. It raked over my g-spot, so lights exploded behind my eyes. I shuddered and shook as another orgasm built inside of me. Just when I wasn’t sure I could get there again, he blanketed my back with his massive body and whispered in my ear. “This cunt belongs to me.” He squeezed a breast, raking his claw over my nipple, and bit down on my shoulder.

I shrieked like a madwoman and came like a rocket until my sounds devolved into whimpers. Ward didn’t stop fucking me through it all, just continued to plunder my depths again and again until he came on a roar, shouting “Mine!” into the tree canopy above us.

He collapsed nearly on top of me, and while my lungs protested, I didn’t have the energy to tell him to roll off me. Eventually he did, falling onto his back. His great chest heaved as he gathered me and tucked me into his side, lips plucking at the hair on top of my head. “I’m so lucky to have you,” he said softly.

“Yeah, I mean, no complaints here,” I said. “Which brings me to an important question. If you’ve never been with a female before, how come you’re so good at this.”

He lifted a nub and peered down at me. “Good? Only good?”

I rolled my eyes. “Okay, great. Amazing. The best. A god among men. Happy?”

He smiled, and I was continually amazed at how a simple upward shift in muscles transformed his whole face. “Drixonian males have always been known for their sexual prowess. The elder males who survived the virus made sure we were still taught all the techniques to pleasure females.”

“Wow,” I muttered. “Well if I ever meet an elder, I’ll shake his hand.”

“Shake his hand?”

“It’s a form of greeting for humans.”

“So, it’s a nice thing.”

“Yes, I would say it can be a form of respect too,”

“Ah,” he settled back and lifted his gaze to the sky. “Gestures of respect I understand.”

With some insistent prodding from Ward, I roused from the warmth of the furs to begin our trek back to his home. He’d told me once we reached the perimeter of his territory, we’d be spotted, as one of his friends named Nero was some sort of tech wizard and had eyes in the sky so to speak. So Big Brother-ish. When I’d made that comment, Ward had looked at me funny, but I’d waved him off because I wasn’t in the mood to deliver an American history lesson.

He, however, was in the mood for a planet Torin biology lesson. He felt guilty over the hunner attack, which I thought was ridiculous. How could he possibly prepare me for every danger on a whole planet? I wouldn’t have known where to start on Earth. But he explained about hunners and how when one died, it sent a signal to its nest for them to attack. And by attack, they swarmed and stung until the enemy was so longer moving. I shuddered. What a terrible way to go.

Numa, though, was a deterrent for them—something about the smell of the vine, Ward said. He showed me evidence of an old nest in the ground, and how the hunners made a tube-like entrance and that was a warning to stay away.

“You also have to watch for pivars,” he explained as he helped me over a fallen log.

“What the hell are pivars?” I couldn’t step over the log in one stride like he could, so I climbed on top and jumped off it.

“They probably come up to your chest. Meat-eaters, so they’d want you for dinner. Nasty, fast things that move in packs. They can’t climb, so if you see them coming, get up a tree quick.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Does everything here move in packs?”

“Are animals solitary on Earth?”

I twisted my lips to the side. “No, not many. I guess I just prefer to tackle your nasty monsters one at a time. What else do I need to look out for?”

“Salibri, although you’re not their typical prey, so they’d most likely only attack if they feel threatened or if you stand between them and their young. They have four legs, short ears, and big fangs. This pack is made with salibri fur.”

It was a thick hide, massive, with mottled stripes. I decided I never wanted to see a salibri in person. “So, have you ever killed a salibri? For its fur?”

He nodded. “We are in the warm half of our sun-cycle now, but in the cold months, we need the furs to stay warm.” A small smile twisted his lips and his eyes took on a glazed look. “My brother and I are a team. I’m the tracker and he’s the one who makes the kill.”

“The tracker?”

He gave me a lopsided grin. “How do you think I tracked you down, little human?”

I remembered now; he said he’d been able to detect my singular trail when I’d been taken by the Rizars. “And your brother?”

“We have solar guns, left over from our service to the Uldani, but that would damage the pelt. So, my brother uses a spear or bow and arrow. He’s deadly accurate.” He still wore that smile on his face.

I slipped my hand in his and squeezed his fingers. “Do you miss him?”

He cleared his throat and swallowed. “I do. And while he’s a grown male fully capable of being alone, I know he misses me too, and he’ll be worried I haven’t communicated in some time. This clavas is all most of us have, but Gar takes it to another level. To him, every threat to our livelihood must be exterminated. No question. He already lost everything once, and while he’d never admit it, I know the thought of losing me or any of our males makes him see red.”

“I get that,” I said meaningfully.

He met my eyes, surely remembering the conversation we had about my sister. “The main key to survival is to pay attention. Observe everything. You never know when something seemingly worthless is the reason you’re alive. Remember when we escaped from the Rizars?”

I’d never call them that. They were crocs to me. “I nodded. The vine.”

“I noticed that vine on the way in, and saw it was connected to the top of the cliff. It didn’t mean anything at the time, but it proved later to be what we needed to get away.”

“I pay attention.” I said.

He shook his head. “Not like I’ve been trained to do. First, you need to talk less. Think less too. Keep your mouth closed, eyes open, and brain clear. Those are what you need to keep your senses open to all details and any change from the norm.”

He had a point, I was often in my own head, and I walked without really looking where I was going. I’d tripped over about three bulging roots just that day.

“You know, at home I was sort of obsessed with true crime,” I said.

“True crime?”

“Yeah, like… what happened to my sister. Robberies, thefts, murders, assaults. Unsolved mysteries.”

He was listening with his brow furrowed. “Explain.”

“Well sometimes there are people who … kill other people. A lot of them. They are called serial killers.”

“What is the purpose? Did these people offend the serial killer?”

“Well I think the reason someone is a serial killer is much more complicated but often no. They kill strangers just because they either enjoy killing or the power it gives them.”

His lips turned down. “Enjoy killing? Humans killing humans?”

I nodded.

His nose wrinkled and his eyes darkened. “No Drixonians relish that.”

“None? Are you sure? Most humans are good too. But I think there’s a few baddies in every sentient species, don’t you think?”

He clenched his jaw and didn’t answer for a long time. Finally, he said, “You’re right. But they aren’t like us. Like me.”

“Of course not. That’s part of why I watch a million documentaries and listen to podcasts about true crime. Part of me wants to know what the difference between me and a serial killer is. Is it a mental disorder or something as simple as a bad experience?”

He sighed. “Drixonians live five hundred sun cycles.”

“Five hundred?” I gasped.

“We’ve had a lot happen to us. Sometimes I do wonder why some Drix reject the traditional customs. I’ve questioned whether all of them should be upheld myself.” I glanced at him, but he smiled. “Not She is All, though. That one is never in doubt. It’s paramount.”

He reached for my hand and squeezed. “Enough talk about killings. How about you tell me what you observe, and we’ll work on your skills.”

“Homework?” I pouted. “You’re mean.”

He chuckled to himself and we trudged on as I softly called out the breeze in the trees and the small insects on the ground and anything else my eyes landed on or my ears heard.

What felt like many hours later, the leaves shifted above us on a gust, but I didn’t feel a breeze. Ward’s head went up, his keen eyes alert as he peered into the distance. “What’s—?” I began, then fell silent when the ground rumbled beneath my feet. The air vibrated and my first thought was hunners. “Are they back?” I tugged on Ward’s arm. “Where do we run?”

He didn’t answer me, and his eyes closed slowly as he cocked his head to the side. He gripped my hand. “That’s not a hunner horde.”

“Then what is—”

Dark objects burst from the trees around, kicking up green dirt as we were encircled by a bunch of Drixonians on bikes. At first, I was hopeful we’d get a speedy ride back to Ward’s home, but one look at his clenched jaw told me this wasn’t a good thing. That was when I noticed the armbands, or tags as Ward called them, of these Drixonians. They weren’t red, like Ward’s. They were a dark green.

“Trust me,” Ward said out of the corner of my mouth. He squeezed my hand and then let it drop.

I nodded. Of course, I trusted him. Didn’t I?

The bikes circled us for a while, and while seconds ago, I’d been hopeful they were allies, now I was terrified. It felt a bit like they were intimidating us. Several whooped and growled before one Drixonian settled his bike on the ground in front of us, the rest followed, caging us in so there was nowhere to flee without meeting a Drixonian on his bike.

The vibrations of the bikes rattled my teeth. The Drixonian in front of us seemed to be the leader. He was biggest, scarred, and his tag was rimmed in a golden thread. He turned his bike off and the rest followed suit. I shoved my hair out of my face and edged closer to Ward. He stood tall and proud, and I didn’t detect an ounce of nervousness in his expression.

The leader dismounted his bike, landing on the ground with a thump in his massive boots. He wore a pair of dark pants and no shirt. A large metal cap sat on his left shoulder, and scarred lines like burns ran toward his neck and down his muscle forearm. He wore his hair in a series of beaded braids that looked dirty and unkempt like Captain Jack Sparrow.

He had a row of dermal piercings down each side of the bridge of his nose and two rings in his lip; I thought they called those snakebite piercings on Earth. Altogether, as he strode toward us with a sneer on his curled lip, he struck an absolutely terrifying figure.

He came to a stop in front of us, and when his gaze shifted to me, I saw nothing but two black holes. There was no purple warmth, no affectionate violet. Just an absence of light. I shivered, and that seemed to make him happy. His lips turned up at the corners into an expression that was maybe a smile but instead felt like a dagger in my chest.

“Daz’s loyal pet and and…what is this creature? A human? Guess it’d be okay to take her off your hands, huh? Run back to Daz now, Ward. Tell him Gaul and the Red Hands were happy to take this pretty burden off your hands.”

Oh shit, oh no.

I looked around frantically, but there was nowhere to run. Bikes stood side by side with massive Drixonians at the helm. We were penned in from all sides, and there was only one of Ward. While I personally thought he could do anything, I didn’t think he could take on about fifteen of his own species. And this Gaul guy looked wicked, like he killed welfs for sport. I was glad she was safe and sleeping in the fur pack strapped to Ward’s back.

Suddenly, a hand clamped on my neck, and I shrieked. Ward’s hand tightened, his claws digging into my skin. What the fuck? I whipped my head around, readying to open my mouth and holler at him when he squeezed again. Harder. Prolonged. My voice died in my throat as his steady gaze remained on Gaul.

“No need,” Ward said. His lips split into a smile I’d never seen him make, one that sent a bolt of unease down my spine. His dark eyes glinted. “Because I stole her from Daz.”

He… he what?

Gaul’s brows lifted and he eyed Ward for a long moment before he crossed his arms across his chest and braced his feet apart. “Go on.”

“We got her off a Rahgul ship. Daz has preached ‘She is All’ since before the Uprising, so of course he wanted to protect her like an untouched precious stone.” Ward shrugged as I gaped at him. “I can’t follow him blindly anymore. He’s holding onto old ways and isn’t adapting with the times. It’s every man for himself now.” His chin tilted up, and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I wanted to rage at him, pound my fists against his chest and ask if he had meant anything, he’d said to me. Was this just all to keep me docile.

Then his hand squeezed again, and his thumb moved, almost imperceptibly, but I felt the rub like a caress. Trust me.

Gaul’s eyes narrowed. “You expect me to believe that Ward Garundum has stolen from Daz Bakut and the Night Kings? Other clavases tell tales of your loyalty.” He sneered the last sentence.

“Allegiances can change.”

“So, what was your plan with this little thing then?”

“The Uldani will pay handsomely for a human female.”

Gaul’s lips stretched into a grin. “Will they now? So why do I need you then? Looks like the Red Hands just came into some profits.”

Ward didn’t flinch. “I know the rendezvous point with the Uldani, who will only deal with me. You don’t keep me alive, and you don’t know where it is or be able to meet them.”

Was that true? Oh God, I was going to throw up. I’d given myself to him over and over. I was starting to… care for him. Maybe more. Had I been his willing victim this whole time? Bile rose in my throat.

Gaul snickered. “Smart, aren’t you?”

“Also, she’s comfortable with me. Thinks I’ll take care of her.”

“She can’t understand you, can she?”

“No translator implant, but she’s simple and follows basic commands.”

I wanted to seethe over the simple comment but then realized he’d lied to Gaul. He hadn’t let on that I understood what was going on. A bit of hope flared in my chest.

“She does? Then get her to kneel at your feet. That’s where a pitiful human belongs, huh?” He rose his voice as he spoke to his males. “That’s where every species belongs, right Red Hands? Kneeling at our feet!”

“Kneel to us!” The males chanted, and my legs shook so badly I swore I’d collapse right there.

Ward’s nostrils flared, but other than that, he made no reaction to the bone-chilling superiority complex.

He turned to me and a muscle flexed in his jaw. He met my gaze and there was nothing there, not the Ward I knew. His eyes were as black as Gaul’s, and I wanted to cry and plead with him to come back to me. My entire body shook so badly that my teeth rattled.

He pointed to the ground and said in a harsh bark. “Kneel, human.”

Oh God, I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to do it at all. I finally spoke in a rush of babbled words. “Please, can we—”

“Kneel!” he barked again, and his eyes flared in warning.

Suddenly a rush of air blew my hair off my shoulder and a blow slammed into the side of my head. I fell onto my hip and elbows with a cry as pain nearly blinded me. I dimly registered a scuffle and shouting but all I could do was blink and work my jaw while prodded my eye socket. Did I even have a face anymore? Whatever hit me felt like it crushed every bone in the left side of my face. When I looked at my fingers, they were red and sticky. Fuck, I was bleeding. Probably out of my ear. Was I deaf?

I glanced up to see Ward with his hand on Gaul’s chest. “We can’t damage her. The Uldani want her untouched, you flecking bastard.” Ward’s eyes were no longer black, they swirled a violent purple.

The big ugly asshole flicked his fingers toward me. “She’s fine.”

Ward spoke through gritted teeth. “She’s human and weighs a quarter of your weight. She’s bleeding. I don’t think that is considered fine.”

“She didn’t kneel quick enough.”

“We’re working on commands. Sometimes she’s a bit slow. Hitting her will solve nothing.” He glanced around the bikes surrounding us. “You want your payout? Then she’s in my care. My possession. I risked my life and reputation to steal her, and I won’t tolerate any of you flecking it up. Understand?”

He met Gaul’s eyes. He held them, and when Gaul nodded, Ward reached down and scooped me into his arms. I was too stunned, confused, and in pain to resist.

ELEVEN

WARD

In the list of bad situations I could find myself in with Reba, this was probably the worst. Maybe the only thing better would be instant death. It took every single ounce of my willpower not to slice of Gaul’s head. In fact, if I was alone, I might have done it. I wasn’t a part of the Red Hands, so I couldn’t rightfully challenge him as drexel. The consequences of killing him would have been death at the hands of the rest of his clavas. Sacrificing myself to rid this planet of Gaul would have been worth it. But I couldn’t leave Reba alone with these monsters.

I hated what the virus and the Uprising had done to so many of our once proud, honorable males. I remembered Gaul back when we’d worked for the Uldani. He’d been a skilled bodyguard for some of their Elite, but as time went on, he changed. His beliefs shifted. During the Uprising, he’d disagreed with most of the orders Daz—one of the main commanders of the war—had given. Gaul had gone behind his back to execute a mission, resulting in dozens of Drixonians deaths. Daz stripped Gaul of his leadership role, and Gaul never forgave him.

As soon as I spotted the Red Hands tag, I had to think fast. Gaul would think nothing of killing me and swiping Reba to use for the benefit of his clavas. I had to buy myself time, and I had to stay alive. Pretending to betray Daz and care nothing for Reba was the only recourse I could think of on short notice. If I had more time, I maybe could have come up with a better plan.

I held Reba in my arms as we trudged behind the slowly moving bikes on the way back to the Red Hands camp. She hadn’t spoken, and her eyes were closed. The left side of her face was swelling, and the sight made my blood run hot. I’d felt the blow as if Gaul had struck me himself, a crushing fist to the cheek. I had to check to make sure I wasn’t bleeding, that was how real it felt. Seeing Reba’s blood nearly had me coming out of my skin. It incensed me in a way I never felt before, even back when my sister died, and our civilization crumbled. The crimson of Reba’s blood streaking down her cheek called to me. Ordered me to kill, hurt, and crush.

But I’d held back, for both of our sakes. I wouldn’t let Gaul touch her again though. Not a fucking finger. I wished now I could explain, to tell her again to trust me, that everything I spoke to Gaul was a lie and speaking the words felt like flaying my own flesh. But I couldn’t. I was surrounded by listening ears. Gaul would jump at any mistake I made. He didn’t fully trust me yet. There would be tests, and my only hope was to buy us enough time to escape before this made-up handoff with the Uldani.

The next few rotations would test every bit of my cunning and willpower. And it would test every single bit of trust I’d gained with Reba. When I got a chance to reassure her this was all for her, would she believe me? I wished I could open my chest and give her my beating cora so she could poke and prod it until she was satisfied it beat for her.

I’d never been to the Red Hands camp. Daz felt that they should be left alone if they left us alone, but our scouts had noticed they were increasingly venturing into our territory. Before Sax was taken, our most common discussion was what to do with the Red Hands. We knew where they made camp—most of the clavases didn’t hide their whereabouts—but we also knew it was in a great defensive position, like our compound.

As my feet slid down a moist embankment and I splashed into a small stream of qua, Reba jerked her eyes open on a gasp before looking around wildly with her one non-swollen eye. As I walked ahead, I now understood why our scouts had reported the Red Hands clavas as nearly impossible to attack. The walls rose steeply from the banks of the stream, so that they seemed to nearly touch the sky. The stream moved swiftly, nearly taking me off my feet. There was no way to approach this with stealth. The entire area had been cleared of trees, and I spotted guard towers on top of the wall.

“Fleck,” I muttered to myself.

The bikes skimmed the water, and seemed to nearly crash into the wall, but then a section of the wall rose swiftly, and they zoomed under it. I followed on foot, still clutching Reba in my arms.

Luna shifted her weight around in the pack on my back, but she remained silent, like she knew we were in enemy territory. It was going to be fun to explain the presence of the welf pup to Gaul. Luckily Luna didn’t have a big enough pelt to be coveted for her fur. Yet. Fleck, we needed to find a way out of here.

I took in everything as the gate shut behind us. The clavas was set up similarly to ours, and I had to admit I was impressed with the organization of the camp. Drixonians ran out to take the bikes from the incoming warriors, surely to service them, and the scent of food wafted from a large building which I assumed housed the warriors. A few huts stood nearby, which I was sure belong to Gaul and a few other high-ranking warriors in the clavas.

The camp was clean. Orderly. Well-kept. I’d hoped to walk inside and see a mess I could exploit, but damn Gaul and his leadership skills.

As Gaul left his bike near the garage to be tended to and began to walk toward us, I set Reba on the ground, making sure she was steady on her feet before taking away my arm. I couldn’t afford to touch her too much, to give away the affection I felt for her. Gaul would exploit it, exploit her, and I couldn’t let that happen. I felt the loss of her warmth, and I would have given almost anything to take her aside and assuage her fears.

Gaul came to a stop in front of us and crossed his arms over his broad chest. Bone earrings dangled from his stretched lobes. “Here’s how this is going to go. We’ll set the female up in one of our spare huts. Alone. Her food will be brought to her.”

At my side, Reba began to tremble.

I swallowed. “She will be more complacent with me—”

“Do I give a fleck about complacency? No. The Uldanis need her alive; that’s it. I’m not concerned whether she’s happy or not.” He cocked his head. “You’ll stay in the barracks.” He flicked his fingers at one of his males, who came and grabbed Reba by the arm, hauling her away from me. She broke then, wetness streaming out of her eyes as she fought and punched and kicked. “Please!” she cried. “Don’t let them take me from you.”

I checked to make sure Gaul couldn’t understand. I didn’t think he’d have any reason to update his translator. He had already turned away from her, all but ignoring her pleas. “I can’t be a victim again, Ward. I can’t. I’d rather die!”

Her last words hit me like a gut punch and I almost blew the whole thing and reached for her. Would she end her life? But I couldn’t do a thing except stand there helplessly as they dragged her away. I felt like my limbs were being torn off one by one. “Remember,” I managed to park at the warriors holding her. “She must remain unharmed.”

She was still yelling, her words garbled and unintelligible, when they threw open the door of a hut and tossed her inside.

“Ward.” Gaul’s voice came from somewhere in the distance, as if through a tunnel, as my focus remained on the closed door with currently rattled on the hinges, no doubt from Reba’s fists on the inside. The warriors remained at the door on guard. My only consolation there was they wouldn’t let anyone inside to hurt her.

“Ward.” Gaul’s voice came again.

I turned sharply to face him. “Yes.”

He watched me closely. “Barto will show you where you’re staying. How many rotations until you have to meet with the Uldani?”

“Seven,” I said. If we weren’t able to escape in seven rotations, then we were never getting out.

“Rendezvous point?”

I narrowed my eyes. “A rotations’s ride. Two at most.”

“At Alazar?”

Alazar was the Uldani fortress. I shrugged. “You don’t need to know yet, now do you?”

“Clever bastard,” he muttered. He tilted his head toward the barrack building. “Follow me.”

I had enough time in my room to spend a quick moment in the cleanser getting clean and getting Luna settled before I was to report to the dining hall for the evening meal. Gaul assured me Reba had been delivered food, but I spent the whole meal anxious that they’d given her only meat. She wouldn’t eat it, and I feared she was alone in her hut, despairing and hungry.

I bounced my knee under the table and gazed out of the open windows to the pink streaked horizon caused by the setting sun. I willed the sunset to come quicker, wishing for dark so I could sneak out and see Reba.

“So, Ward,” Gaul said as he gnawed on a pivar leg. Barto, his second in command, sat beside him, a shrewd warrior with pitch black eyes and gray hair he wore in a high ponytail. “What are the remaining Bakut brothers up to these rotations?”

I bristled at the question. The pain of Rex’s death during the Uprising was still fresh for Daz and Sax. Rex had been their youngest brother, a dedicated, loyal warrior who wanted to make his big brothers proud. He had, but he’d died doing it.

I had to be careful what I said around Gaul, just like I was sure he was careful what he said around me.

“He’s not trying to expand territory,” I said. “So, he’s let some of the outskirts of the Night Kings land unguarded.”

“Is that so?” Gaul took a swig of spirits that smelled terribly compared to Xavy’s special blend. “Which direction?”

“Southeast.” This wasn’t exactly wrong, but it wasn’t right either. We didn’t scout the far reaches of our territory as well as we used to, but we had tech eyes hidden in the trees thanks to Nero. But Gaul’s scouts wouldn’t notice those for a long time. They’d only report back that they’d found the land empty. If they actually tried to encroach, the Night Kings would attack. With any luck, Reba and I would be long gone by then.

“We’ll look into it,” he said, nonchalantly. He wasn’t relaxed though. He watched me carefully out of the corner of his eye. His shoulders remained tight. I felt like he would unleash his machets any moment and slice into my neck.

He didn’t have the Uldani contacts though. A human female to him was only worth what he could get for her. And the Uldani would pay. Handsomely.

“You want more food?”

I shook my head. “I’m going to head back to my room. It’s been a long rotation.”

“I guess it has,” Gaul’s keen gaze speared me. “Get some rest then, Ward. Tomorrow, we talk.”

I nodded, already dreading that talk. Behind the safety of the locked door to my small room, I pulled out several hunks of pivar meat and a leg bone I’d managed to hide away in my pockets. Luna bounced on the pallet and yipped as I approached her. Her tail wagged, and she descended on the flesh like a true bloodthirsty welf.

When she finished eating, I poured out a small basin of qua and watched as she lapped at it. I figured she’d be happy but instead she paced the room, sniffing at corners.

“I know,” I sighed and leaned back on the furs, eyeing the darkening sky. “I miss her too, little one. I miss her too.”

Reba

When those blue muscled goons tossed me in this damn hut, I’d pounded on the door until my hands swelled. Not that I thought they’d let me out. Hell no. I could hear their hulking breaths on the other side as they guarded me. I just wanted to yell and scream and cry because I didn’t know what else to do.

I’d never been good at holding my tongue. Or cowering. Or submission. I refused to be a victim and yet here I was, shut in some hut while an alien species decided what my life was worth.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed as I sat on the floor with my knees drawn to my chest. Someone had dropped some food inside, but I hadn’t even looked at the tray. What was with everyone on this planet so eager to feed me? Didn’t they know how to starve their prisoners like good captors?

I did guzzle some qua which sat in a jug in the corner because my throat was raw from all my screaming. This hut was tiny with no furniture. A bundle of dusty furs sat in the corner I guessed I was supposed to sleep on. How the hell I was going to get any sleep was beyond me.

The sun had set, and pale strips of gray moonlight poured between the only window in the hut, which was near the roof—so out of my reach—and barred. So, this was the prison hut? Cool. Awesome.

I wished for a big body to keep me warm, and that only made me think of Ward, which made my heart skip a beat and fill my head with a tornado of conflicting emotions. He’d told me to trust him, and I wanted to, God I wanted to more than anything, but I couldn’t shake the words he’d spoken to Gaul. The memory of his dead, cold eyes as he’d commanded me to kneel brought tears to my eyes. Was everything a lie?

I wanted to think that this was all a ruse to keep us alive, but then I wondered if I was being a stupid, naive human. Ward might right now be laughing with Gaul about how he was able to seduce me and make me trust him in mere days…

The door opened, and I braced, because a visitor in the darkness of night couldn’t be good. The moonlight framed a massive body with horns—because of course, what other creature was here? He stepped into a shaft of light, and Ward’s purple eyes met mine. “Reba,” he whispered as he shut the door behind him.

He went to his knees and reached for me, but I flinched away from his touch without thinking, still stung by his actions. He froze, hand suspended in the air between us before he dropped it to his side. His shoulders slumped. “I had to sneak away to see you. Gaul can’t know I’m here.” he whispered. “I’m sorry, Reba.”

I swiped at my eyes, because the tears had already started. The sound of his voice had me simultaneously wanting to slap him and kiss him. Men seemed to often instill that feeling in me.

“Y-you… The things you said…” My words were broken by sniffles and small sobs. “And he hit me!”

I touched my cheek and watched as Ward’s eyes darkened to pitch black. He slid closer, and this time I didn’t shy away. He cupped my cheek, rubbing his thumb on the sore flesh. “I almost killed him when he struck you. I would have killed him if I could. But then his males would kill me and take possession of you. I couldn’t let that happen.”

“But they have possession of me.”

He shook his head and his eyes narrowed. “They only think they do. You have to understand. I said the things I did to keep both of us alive. I will forever remain loyal to Daz, the Night Kings, and you. But if I didn’t come up with the plan I did, Gaul would have killed me and taken you. You understand?”

I sniffed as my heart ached. “I want to believe you. I want to trust you.”

His shoulders tensed. “You doubt my devotion to you?” He said it incredulously, like how dare could I not believe him?

“Ward… I’m trying not to doubt you, but I’m scared. I don’t know this planet. I don’t know your people or your history. I only know what you told me. What if I’m the stupid human who has fallen for her captor who thinks of her as nothing but a pawn?”

“I don’t know what a pawn is, but everything I told you was the truth. She is—”

“—All, yeah, I know. She Is All. But these guys don’t think that, and they are the same as you.”

“They are not the same as me!” His voice rose before he closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. When he spoke again, he used a lower, but no less firm, tone. “I told you that not all Drixonians kept our ethics.”

“You did tell me that, but you also have to understand that from perspective, I don’t have any proof of that. All I have is your words.”

His body went still, so still that I didn’t see or hear him breathing. Then, slowly, he leaned toward me until his fierce expression filled my vision. “Proof?” That one word was soft but deadly.

I swallowed. “Ward—”

“You want proof, little human? Proof is when I washed your skin with my own hands. Proof is letting you keep a welf pup. Proof is getting you to safety from the hunner’s attack while leaving myself vulnerable. Proof is in the way I look at you, the way I touch you, the way you melt at the end of my tongue.” He surged forward, so I was forced to lay on my back as he rose above me like a conqueror. His hand skimmed the side of my breast before flitting across my stomach.

My traitorous body didn’t care what my brain was warning me. That Ward could be playing with me, distracting me with his touch and knowledge of how to turn me inside out. My body didn’t care about any of that, especially when his hand dipped into my pants and his fingers dipped into my fold. I was already wet, because of course I was. One look from Ward’s purple eyes and I was ready to go. I arched my back as he slipped a finger inside of me and thumbed my clit.

“Is this enough proof?” Ward snarled with a curled lip. “Your body knows it belongs to me, that it can trust me.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” I managed to gasp as his probing finger hit my g-spot.

“It does work like that,” he argued. “Trust me, Reba. I will get us out of here. I will get us home. And I will spend many cycles showing you how I worship you. How you’re mine. My mate.”

With a growl, he tore off my pants, unfastened his, and plunged his thick cock inside of me. I opened my mouth to scream, but he clamped his palm over it as he rutted into me. His hot breath panted near my ear. “I love your pleasure cries, little Reba, but we can’t let anyone hear. Your sounds are only for me.”

Ward fucked me with deep strokes of that metal-tipped dick. I could do nothing but cling to him and stare into his purple eyes as he swore against my lips he’d kill anyone else who hurt me and promised he’d save me from this place.

I believed him, because I needed to. Because I craved his touch and his words. I relished in the power of his body and the way he trembled as he grew close. When his fingers plucked at my clit, I came on a wordless cry, my eyes squeezed shut, as he pulsed inside of me.

Afterward, he held me silently, pressing soft kisses to my temple. I felt a tongue on my chin and jerked my head away. “Why are you lick—” My eyes adjusted, and I found a furry little face pressed into mine. I jerked to a sitting position, dislodging Ward from my side as I gathered Luna in my lap. “My girl, oh my God, I worried I’d never see you again.” I bawled into her fur.

Ward fingered my hair. “I kept her safe in the pack. I thought she could keep you company in here. It’s best to hide her though when the guards come in.”

I peered up at him through my tears. “Thank you so much. Speaking of the guards, where are they?”

“I created a distraction on the other side of camp. I should leave now before they return.”

I watched him stand and rearrange his clothes. “O-okay.”

He crouched on the balls of his feet and gripped my chin. “It might not be tomorrow, and it might not be the rotation after that, but I will get us free, Reba. Trust me.”

There were those words again. Trust me. I nodded. “I will.”

After he slipped out the door and I was left alone on the floor of the hut with my pants still around my knees, I realized he hadn’t kissed me. He’d fucked and ran. I tried not to think about what that meant, but the doubts crept in like shadows. I finally fell asleep with tear tracks on my face and my pet curled against my side.

TWELVE

WARD

I didn’t sleep much that night. I played my visit with Reba over and over in my head, cursing myself for all of it. I had planned to comfort her, soothe her fears, and give her Luna to keep her company.

Instead, I’d been defensive about being compared to Gaul and impaled her with my cock in the dirt floor. Then left her while she was still crying and uncertain.

By the time the sun rose over the horizon, I didn’t feel rested, and my head pounded from thinking too much. This was all unfamiliar territory to me. It’d been many, many sun-cycles—what felt like another lifetime—since I’d been around females. Even then, I’d never met a female like my little human. She was fierce but soft and vulnerable. She was so expressive. She seemed to cover an entire range of emotions in one conversation.

I hadn’t had to comfort anyone. My brother would certainly never accept any sort of soft words from me about the losses we’d faced. Life was duty. I woke up thinking of ways to better serve Daz and our clavas and went to bed feeling satisfied I’d done my best to secure our safety. But I always felt firm on my feet. With Reba in my life, I felt anything but confident, and the ground shifted beneath my soles like a mudslide.

I’d have to visit her again. Tonight. I wasn’t sure how I’d get past the guards this time. I didn’t think they’d be fooled again. Last night I’d created a distraction with some fire, so they had to retrieve qua to put it out. I knew that wouldn’t work again.

After using the cleanser, I dressed and made my way down to the hall for the morning meal. Gaul was nowhere in sight, so I gripped my food and ate by myself. I had checked Reba’s food tray before leaving, and she’d had a variety of meat and fruits. She would be able to eat something, and feed Luna the rest.

After eating, I left the hall. My eyes immediately strayed toward Reba’s hut. Two new guards stood sentry. Was she okay? Did she sleep? Did she eat?

“Worried about your human?” Gaul’s voice sounded way too close to my back. I spun around to see him standing right behind me, chewing on a thin twig.

“My main concern is she’s alive and fed. The Uldani don’t want a half-dead human.”

“I checked on her this morning myself,” he said. “Never thought humans were attractive, but she stirs the blood, doesn’t she?”

I went still at his words and fought not to lift my machets. In the middle of his clavas, that would be grounds to kill me on the spot. “I guess so,” I said noncommittally.

“Now that we showed her how to use the cleanser, she smells good,” he said with a quirk of his lips as he began to walk. He beckoned me to follow with his fingers.

Did she have to get undressed in front of these bastards? I wasn’t sure how long I’d last here before I lost my mind.

“Pretty too. Big breasts. Bet she’s got a ripe little cunt.” He eyed me with a wicked grin. “You try it, Ward? Did you dip your cock into paradise before you had to sell it?”

I didn’t answer, mostly because I didn’t trust myself not to spit in his face.

“Ah,” he said as we slipped between two buildings. “Trying to keep some things to yourself?”

“I—”

A forearm rammed into my throat and my back slammed against the side of the barracks. Before I could blink. Gaul’s face was in mine, his tail swishing angrily behind him as he lifted his machets, which ended a hair-length away from my chin. I couldn’t swallow or speak. One movement of my mouth or throat and those blades would sink into my flesh. We were alone here, just me and Gaul. He’d led me here and I had been too focused on my anger over Reba to realize it.

“Do you think I’m stupid, Ward?” he hissed through gritted teeth. “Do you think I’m not aware of every little thing that goes on in these walls? Maybe Daz lets his males do what they want, but not here. Everyone does what they’re told, when they’re told, and if one flecking stone is out of place, I know about it. I know you set that fire. I know you distracted the guards and visited your little human.” He moved slightly and the pressure on my throat eased slightly.

He cocked his head, and rolled his shoulders as his dark eyes threatened to suck me in. “I’ll allow you that one time, Ward. One time to do whatever you wanted to do to her tight little body. But that’s it. From now on, you stay away from her hut. If I find you visiting her again, I’ll slice off her hand while you watch. The Uldani don’t need both her hands. They probably just want her cunt.” He pushed on my chest, forcing the air out of my lungs as he stepped back. “Am I clear?”

I forced myself to stay upright even as I felt a small trickle of blood slide down my neck from his machets. I took my time catching my breath before licking my lips. I wouldn’t be able to see Reba. To assure her I care. To tell her I lived and breathed for her, that this was all for her, that I was living here at the whim and mercy of Gaul flecking Yokulz. I hated him, and I vowed, before I took my last breath on this cursed planet, that I’d take his life.

I managed to unlock my jaw long enough to say. “You’re clear.”

He patted me on the chest and grinned, like he hadn’t just threatened to cut off the hand of my mate. “Great. Let’s meet with my officers. We have some things to discuss and information to trade.”

I followed him, each step heavy, my mind a jumble. Maybe this was better. I hadn’t been paying attention, too focused on Reba, to realize Gaul had gotten me alone. While in these walls, I needed to focus, and so, as much as it pained me, I pushed Reba from my mind so I could focus on Gaul and escaping as soon as I could.

Reba

I counted the days by sunsets and kept track by etching scratches into the wall with a stone. I was fed twice a day, which was enough because they tray was loaded, and I could nibble on the contents throughout the day. While I didn’t eat the meat, Luna did, so we were both fairly content as far as hunger went. I was clean too, having learned how to use their weird air cleanser thing. At first, I was convinced it wouldn’t work. I basically stood in a stall and let a strong gust of air rush over me. How would that clean me in any way? But when I stepped out, my hair was shiny, and my skin was clean of dirt and debris. I even smelled decent. The hut was large enough for me to do some sit-ups and jumping jacks. I even ran some laps. No one came in to beat me or… worse.

It was mentally I was a fucking mess. I wafted between despair and hope. It didn’t help Ward didn’t visit me again. In fact, no one visited me. The only visitor I got was the morning after Ward had seen me. Gaul strode in like he owned the place—well, I guessed he did. I’d hid Luna under a blanket, and she was content to stay quiet as she gnawed on a bone.

Gaul’s eyes scanned me in a way which gave me the fucking creeps. But he didn’t touch me or talk to me. He asked his guards if I talked at all or heard any noises, and they reported I was apparently a good little human. Gaul seemed pleased and after another look that sent a shudder of fear down my spine, he’d left me alone. Fucking. Creep.

The thing was, he seemed smart. I wasn’t sure how I knew that, but I did. His gaze was shrewd, and those black pits of eyes took in everything and everyone. He assessed every situation and that terrified me. Why couldn’t we have been taken by stupid baddies?

I stared at my etchings in the wall, barely able to believe it had been six days since the night Ward had visited me. Six days of solitary confinement with nothing but Luna to keep me company. She was great company, but she slept a lot, therefore I slept a lot, and that was fine because there wasn’t much else to do.

I gnawed on a root they were fond of giving. At first, I refused to touch the brown gnarly thing but then I noticed Luna scratching and licking at one. The next day, I’d picked it up and given in a try. Surprisingly, it tasted good, kind of like a sweet carrot. As I chewed on the root, I peeked through the small hole I’d managed to whittle in the wooden planks of the hut. At first, it’d only been a knot in the wood, but I’d slowly scraped at it with sticks and rocks until the wood had chipped away, revealing a small spyhole.

I had a view of the bike garage, the front door of Gaul’s hut, and the gates. Not much was going on now—I never caught sight of Ward and he was the thing I wanted to see most.

I didn’t expect to see anything useful, but Ward had said to always be aware of my surroundings and observe everything. So, I studied the routine of the Red Hands. It wasn’t like I had anything else to do. I knew when my guards changed shift and when the garage opened for the day. I knew when the scouts left through the front gates and when they returned.

Despite the primitive look of the camp, this Gaul guy had access to some tech. The gate controls, as far as I could tell, were only accessible from the inside. To leave, the scouts flipped a lever behind a nondescript panel on the wall. When they returned, they called to the Drixonians manning the gates, who then opened it for them. The wall had to be opened and closed; it wasn’t automatic.

This was mid-afternoon, when there always seemed to be a lull in activity. Maybe these guys had siestas.

I threw a stick to Luna, who went ass over teakettle chasing it. I smiled at her antics just as the door to my hut swung open.

The smile dropped off my face as I braced. They’d brought my food already this morning. I wasn’t due for another food delivery until later.

Gaul strode in, thumbs tucked into the waistband of his pants, tail swishing behind him. I scooted as far away from him as I could, tucking myself into the corner. I darted a glance at Luna, but she’d managed to bury herself under my bed furs, like she knew Gaul was a son of a bitch. Animals could sense evil, I reasoned.

Another alien strode in after him, and a smaller wiry one with white hair pulled into a high ponytail like a fucked-up Ariana Grande. I strongly disliked that guy. Barto, I thought his name was. He was Gaul’s sidekick and looked every bit as evil as his leader.

Gaul stood in the center of the room, peering around like he had plans to decorate the place, while I tried to remain as inconspicuous as possible. Finally, Gaul jerked his chin toward me. “Check her.”

Before I could understand what that meant, Barto was in front of me, pulling me to my feet and yanking my hair into a ponytail with his fist. I screamed just as he thrust me toward Gaul. “It’s there,” he growled before dropping me to the floor like a piece of junk.

My scalp screamed, and I glared at Barto. What was he checking for? I ran my fingers behind my ear and tried to hide my reaction when I realized what they’d found. My translator implant.

I met Gaul’s hard black ones. He crouched down on the balls of his feet and grinned at me, fangs gleaming. “So, you can understand me, huh? I wonder why Ward didn’t tell us about that.” He cocked his head. “Because he’s told us plenty of other useful information. Like how there are more females who the Night Kings plan to keep for themselves.”

He didn’t, did he? But how did Gaul know? I shuddered, lowering my eyes. I refused to speak. I wasn’t sure they could understand me anyway, and I didn’t think anything I said would matter. So, I kept silent as my heart pounded.

Gaul’s fingers wrapped around my chin and squeezed. And squeezed. I whimpered as he drew my face up to his. “What do the Uldani want with you tiny creatures? You’d make terrible guards and slave labor. They have no need for breeders so…” he stopped abruptly, and then the most hideous expression crossed his face. His eyes widened, his lips curled, and his nostrils flared as an evil glee glowed on his blue face. “That’s it, Barto,” he said. “The Uldani do want to use them for breeders. For us.” He hissed the last word with pure delight.

“Us?” Barto said. “Why would the Uldani want more of us?”

“Think about it.” Gaul dropped my chin with a shove and tapped his temple. “They breed us for themselves and they can control us.”

“Yeah, but look at her,” Barto snorted. “I doubt she can take a Drixonian cock let alone push out our offspring.”

Gaul shrugged. “I doubt she can birth our babies and stay alive, but what does it matter? The Raghuls will just steal more humans from their pathetic world. They’ll be our incubators for the next generation of Drixonians.” He rose. “Fuck the Uldani. We’ll keep her. Steal the rest of the Night Kings’s humans and start our own breeding program here.”

I instinctively placed my hand over my stomach. As many times as Ward and I had been together, pregnancy hadn’t crossed my mind. Which was stupid, but I assumed we weren’t genetically compatible to procreate. But that would mean… I could possibly be… oh God.

I gagged as bile rose up my throat. I clapped my hand over my mouth as I willed my gorge to settle. I would not throw up in front of these bastards.

Gaul watched me carefully before turning to go. He stopped suddenly at the door and turned around. “Should I be asking Ward if he could be a father?”

I couldn’t hold back the sob that shook my body.

Gaul threw back his head and laughed. “Hey, don’t you be upset. If you make it through the birth, we’ll keep you alive to raise the chit. Ward though… he’s expendable. The chit’ll have a dad. And it’ll be me.”

He walked out the door, Barto on his heels, and the door slammed shut behind them.

I couldn’t say how long I lay on the dirt floor and cried, my arm cradling my belly. Could I be pregnant? How could I bring a baby into this world? I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.

Eventually, I managed to crawl over to the bedding and cover my entire body with the furs. Luna nuzzled at my neck with her wet nose, and I absentmindedly petted her as my mind spun. I didn’t want to think about Ward betraying me. Maybe it was stupid but hope still hung in my heart. He’d told me about his brother, his sister, and all the antics of males in his clavas who he clearly loved. Who he’d do anything for. Could it all really have been an act?

I knew one thing for sure. I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t let a child be born into this. As much as it pained me to say, I’d kill myself and the fetus before I let Gaul get his hands on it.

When I finally drifted to sleep, I dreamt of a little blue body with short horns cradled in Ward’s arms.

THIRTEEN

WARD

The past six rotations were the longest of my life. At least during the virus that had all but depleted our race and the Uprising that had taken some of our best males, I’d been surrounded by my friends. My leaders. My brother.

Now I was on my own, playing a part I hated, when all I wanted to do was be everything I’d promised Reba.

My time was running out. I’d barely slept as I’d planned my escape, but with Reba locked up and eyes on me at all times, the only solution I could come up with was to escape while en route to the imaginary Uldani hand-off site. As much as it had pained me to wait this long, I didn’t have a choice. Beyond these walls, I was in my element. I had it planned out, so now I could do nothing but bade my time and hope Reba hadn’t given up on me.

Each rotation had been full of a strategy of words with Gaul. I had to be quick with my tongue to evade his questions and not get caught in a lie. So far, I hadn’t given him anything useful, but I wondered how much he had guessed anyway. His mind moved faster, faster than mine. I was confident only Daz could fully match Gaul in wits.

I left my room mid-afternoon, on my way to my daily meeting with Gaul. As I crossed the courtyard of the clavas, I spotted Gaul coming toward me, Barto at his heels.

Gaul was smiling, and it wasn’t the smile I’d grown accustomed to. This one was different. This was… victorious.

I stopped in my tracks, feeling like a cornered salibri. He stood between me and Reba’s hut, and the symbolism of that wasn’t lost on me. Fleck. He knew something. I wasn’t sure how. But he knew.

“Ward!” He stopped a short distance away, and my breath stalled in my lungs as males materialized out of the shadows and barracks to surround me. I held firm and braced. “I was just coming to drag you out of your cozy private room. You seem to like the accommodations here? More than with the Night Kings?”

I swallowed thickly. “They are more than adequate.”

“More than adequate, huh?” he strolled forward, kicking up dust underneath his boots. “Well I’m glad to hear that. I hope you got some beauty sleep, because I think the next few rotations, if you last that long, are going to be a bit rough on you.”

I didn’t run. There was no point. I held my ground and flexed my fists. “And why’s that, Gaul?”

“Because you’ve been keeping things from me. And you’ve been lying to me.” He jabbed a thumb at Reba’s hut. “The little human has a translator implant. You told me she couldn’t understand you.”

“The Rahguls installed it. They didn’t give her access to Drix—”

“She understands me, Ward. Don’t bother with the lies.”

She understood him? That meant he—I held back my reaction. Only just. “You spoke to her?”

“Sure. Just enough to erode the last of her trust in you.”

My gaze darted to her door, as if I could call out to her with my mind. I told you to trust me, mate!

He waved a hand. “You told me she was the only female, but funny thing about that is, I don’t believe it. And when I told her that you let me know there were other females, she looked positively betrayed. Imagine that.”

I fisted my hands at my sides. “The Uldani—”

“Fleck the Uldani. You think I’m stupid, Ward? They want her to breed more Drixonians. At least, that’s my guess. I’d heard they were collecting humans and it took me a while to work out why. But it makes sense, right?”

My cora stuttered. I hadn’t given much thought to it. My orders were to track down Reba, protect her, and bring her back to safety at the Night King’s camp. Whatever the Uldani wanted with her wasn’t going to be good.

“So, then I thought to myself,” Gaul kept going. “What if Ward sampled the goods? Given himself a delivery bonus. And when I told her you could get her pregnant, wouldn’t you know it? Her hand went right to her stomach, and she looked positively horrified at the idea she was carrying a bastard blue baby.”

I lost it then. My vision went red and I lunged at Gaul, machets out, tail lashing. And maybe, maybe if it had been just us two, I would have beaten him, but instead I was brought down before I ever got close. A tail swept my feet out from under me. I went down hard on my back and a bladed forearm pressed down on my neck. Hands held my legs. My arms. I thrashed and hollered, but there were too many warriors who were just as strong and skilled as me. Hell, I might have fought alongside some of them in the Uprising.

But none of that compared to the yawning hole in my gut, the one that told me I lost everything—Reba and possibly our chit. I’d blown it.

A shadow loomed over me. Gaul. I snarled and spat. “If you lay a hand on her, I’ll kill you. Slowly.”

“I don’t plan to hurt her. I want that chit for myself. And then I’m going to raid the Night Kings, and I’m going to take all their females to breed.”

“She is all!” I roared. “Have you forgotten all we stood for?”

He bent over me, lips pulled back into a grimace. “I haven’t forgotten. But she’s not a Drixonian. She’s a human with a womb that’ll take my seed. If she births a female chit, then I’ll honor the creed.”

“You’re a bastard,” I said. “She’s a sentient being. Emotions, thoughts, dreams—”

“She’s a human!” he hollered, spit flying in my face. “And we are Drixonians! We have a chance to carry on our race, and you want to coddle her and support her dreams. Fleck dreams! We are a dying race. You and Daz will place these females on pedestals until they die untouched and worthless.”

“Maybe,” I said, “If we share our ways with them, they will come to respect us and choose to mate with us. That precious human that you have locked in a hut welcomed me into her body because I cared for her. Fed her. Listened to her talk of her fears and hopes and—”

Gaul’s booted foot slammed into my stomach, cutting off my voice and forcing the air from my lungs in a painful crunch of my ribs. “Enough. We don’t have time for that. The only purpose you serve now is as an example. To my men. To that human. Cross me and we’ll tear you apart and leave you to die.”

My mouth went dry as he stepped back. “Have at it, Red Hands.”

The first kick slammed into my already damaged ribs. A thump of a tail slammed into my wrist. As blows rained down on me, I vaguely thought I heard screaming from somewhere in the distance, but that didn’t make sense. Reba wouldn’t care anymore. I’d betrayed her, after all. The last thought I had was that I’d never get to tell her the truth, right before a fist slammed into my temple and everything went black.

Ward

When I came to, I was upright. I tried to open my eyes, but my lids didn’t split very far apart. I prodded my teeth with a swollen tongue, happy that my fangs were still intact but there seemed to be a gaping wound where a back tooth had once been. Seeing as I wasn’t sure I’d ever eat again, it didn’t really matter.

I tried to get my bearings, but my vision was limited and blurry. The sun was just about to dip out of sight below the wall. My head spun with pain, hunger, and dehydration.

I finally surmised I was tied to a pole at the front of the Red Hands compound, near the gate. No one was guarding me, and that was probably because I was too beaten to do a thing. Added to that, I was locked in Drixonor. If I tried to raise my machets, I’d impale my own torso.

I willed myself to stay calm. In addition to the uncomfortable position, it was considered dishonorable, meant for the lowliest Drix who broke our laws or betrayed our race. I’d done none of that, and yet Gaul had not only beaten me and left me here to die, but he’d made sure everyone who saw me knew I was dishonorable. If I had any liquid in my parched mouth, I would have spat on the ground.

My elbows were bent, and a metal brace held them in that position and locked behind my back while also keeping me upright on the pole. The outside of my forearms, where my machets rested, were held tight to the sides of my stomach. If I lifted them, they’d slice me nearly in two.

I drifted in and out of consciousness until I opened my eyes to see night swiftly approaching. The sun was no longer visible, but its orange hue lit up the sky as one last hurrah before it disappeared for the night.

I closed my eyes. Reba. Her face swam in front of me, all big eyes and lush lips. I’d promised her I’d never let her be a victim again, and I failed. What would Gaul do with her once I was gone? I had to do something. I had to get out of Drixonor and regain my strength. I had to rescue her… But even lifting my finger hurt. I wondered if I could even walk let alone run.

I was delirious, probably from lack of qua and every pained breath through my cracked ribs. I swore I felt her fingers caress my jaw and heard her voice say my name. Was she crying? I opened my eyes as I felt the brush of her hair on my parched lips.

It took a moment for me to spot a retreating form. I blinked, because that couldn’t be Reba, could it? But it was her—her short legs and her tail-less body racing to the gate and throwing the panel cover up before slamming the lever down. The gate opened with a jolt. Metal scraped against metal, and I winced at the sound just as a male shout broke the silence. How had she gotten free?

Reba turned, her hair swirling around her shoulders, and Luna’s head peeking out of the fur back on her back. She met my eyes, and I nodded. “Go,” I murmured, even though I didn’t think she could hear me. “Get away. Save yourself.” I didn’t tell her I never lied to her. What was the point? I’d die here, and it wouldn’t be in vain if she could just get away. Her, Luna, and the possible life in her belly. I hoped she lived a happy life with the Night Kings and raised my chit with love.

Her jaw clenched, and she nodded before ducking under the gate and taking off into the darkness. The pain of the beating was nothing at the loss I felt when her form was no longer visible. Then it hit me… how would she get to the safety of the Night Kings? She didn’t know the way. I struggled, suddenly panicked that something terrible would get her, or worst that Gaul would capture her again. Despite the flames of pain consuming my limbs, I rocked and strained. Maybe I could weaken the bolt behind my back that locked me into Drixonor. If only I could get free, nothing would keep me from Reba, not even a whole clavas of Red Hands.

Several more shouts echoed through the camp as they realized there’d been an unauthorized opening of the gate. A few guards halted in front of me as they spotted the opened gate. They called for Gaul, and the whole clavas seemed to come alive in the near darkness.

He strode into the clearing at the front of the camp. “Who left?” He whipped his head to me, and I stared back at him through my swollen eyes. He marched over to me and gripped my chin. “Who opened this gate?”

“Does it look like I can see a flecking thing?” I spat at him.

He snarled and dug his claws into my cheek until the smell of my blood filled the air. With another sharp rake of his claws down my neck, he let me go. I didn’t even feel the pain.

“Gaul!” Came a panicked voice from behind me. “It’s the human! She’s gone!”

“How?” he roared as he whirled on his heel. “She’s guarded!”

Silence greeted his question, and I almost smiled to myself.

“Uh, maybe at shift change,” came the feeble answer.

Gaul roared in the sky. “Get the bikes!” He circled his hand over his head. “We’re going human hunting.”

My cora dropped into my feet and I felt my machets lift, unbidden, because my anger was too great to stop them. I fought against it, but I was losing control of my body, my mind. The tips of my machets pressed against my flesh and I waited for the moment they’d slice into me when I heard a dull buzz.

I glanced over at the garage, but no Red Hands had started the bikes yet. The buzz grew louder, less a vibration and more a constant barrage of sound that increased until my shoulders twitched, desperate to rid my ears of the irritant.

“Where is that coming from?” Gaul shouted.

Barto raised a hand slowly and pointed outside the gate. “It’s coming from that direction, drexel.”

Then, materializing out of the darkness like a body back from the dead came Reba, sprinting right toward us. Right toward the gate.

“What the fleck?” Even Gaul was stunned.

“No, Reba,” I shouted. What was she doing? “Go! Turn around and run!”

But she kept coming, her feet slapping the dirt and kicking up a cloud behind her as the buzzing grew deafening. I saw it then. A hunner horde, baring down on her like a cloud of death. “Reeebaaaa!” I roared in a surge of anger so white-hot that my cora pounded like a drum, sending new blood to every extremity. My machets sliced into my sides just as the metal brace gave way with a crack and I fell forward onto the ground on all fours. I scrambled toward her, reaching her first, before a stunned Gaul.

“Stay down!” she screeched just as she launched herself at me. My arms came around her just as a net of Numa settled over our shoulders. The swarm sailed overhead and converged on every unlucky Red Hand. Shouts, cries, and shrieks filled the air as the hunners attacked. For a moment, I didn’t move, stunned to see an entire clavas rendered immobile and shocked Reba was here. In my arms.

She tugged on my biceps. “Can you walk? We have to leave now!”

Spurred into action, I tucked her under my arm, ignoring the stabs of pain in my bleeding sides and raced toward a bike, making sure to keep the tangled web of numa over our heads. Hunners pinged off of it like an ice storm on a roof.

When we made it to the nearest bike, I threw my leg over it, my poor balance nearly sending me off the other side. I hauled Reba in front of me, checked Luna was safe between us, and flipped the bike to life. As it lifted into the air, I heard Gaul’s anguished cry, but I didn’t look back. As much as I would have loved to exact some revenge, I was too weak, and Reba was too precious. Revenge could wait. Escape was the priority.

With Reba safe in front of me, I sailed the bike out of the gates and headed home. I wouldn’t stop until we made it to the Night King gates, no matter the pain or the fatigue.

Reba had saved me. I wouldn’t put her in danger again.

FOURTEEN

Reba

I still couldn’t believe that worked. The entire plan had to be made in a matter of hours. Sure, I had observed all the pieces I’d needed to escape, but they hadn’t fit together, and there hadn’t been an urgency, until I’d watched them drag Ward’s unconscious body through the center of camp and brace him to some pole in a complicated metal contraption that looked like some torture device straight out of medieval times.

For a split second, I’d contemplated getting the hell out of this place and striking out on my own. Ward had given me some lessons. I knew which plants were safe to eat and how to avoid the deadly animals. But that had been a fleeting thought. I refused to believe Ward had betrayed me. I was going to use my brain to escape this place, but I was going with my heart when it came to Ward. He’d shown me care and tenderness. He’d talked about his brother and his friends with love. I had to trust his heart was good. If I was wrong, then maybe I deserved to die a miserable death on this planet. But at least it had been my choice.

So, I’d taken advantage of the shift change. The evening crew was always a bit lax. They tended to enjoy a quick smoke of some putrid-smelling stick at the corner of the hut. Maybe they weren’t supposed to partake while on the job, so they hid? It didn’t really matter why, it just mattered that for a few brief moments they left my door unguarded. Just long enough for me to slip out and creep into the shadows. Dusk was perfect, because my hut sat close to the back wall and was the first to be thrown into darkness when the sun ducked beneath the wall.

From there, all I had to do was open the gate, and pray the hunner nest which I’d seen on the way in was still there.

It was. I’d hacked at a nearby numa vine, stomped it into a mat, and killed one of those fuckers. Then as I’d hoped, the nest converged on me like a swarm of locusts straight out of Revelations.

That was when I second-guessed my plan. Could I actually outrun these damn things? I had to lead them into the camp and get them to attack the Red Hands. But not Ward.

My plan was flawed.

But somehow, thanks to Ward hulking out and busting out of his torture device to lurch toward me like a living corpse, my plan had worked. I’d done that. Me. Miss Relies on Pepper Spray. Miss Kinda Helpless. Miss Often Makes Wrong Choices.

I sat on the front of our stolen bike with my hands gripping the handlebars, feeling mighty proud of myself until I remembered the reason, we were in this mess in the first place was … me.

I sobered quickly. I was the one who ran from Ward and got caught by alien crocodiles. I was the reason Ward was on his own, without backup, and got nearly beaten to death by those Red Hands assholes.

Then his arm wrapped around my waist and his raspy voice spoke in my ear over the rush of air. “My brave, smart little human. You saved me.”

The words warmed me, but I still felt guilty. “I’m the reason we were there in the first place.”

But my words were carried away on the wind, thrown out into the night as I willed them not to be true.

I wasn’t quite sure how long the journey was. A few times, my eyes closed, and I was jolted back awake by a turn that Ward took or a bark from Luna. But soon, the dense forestry cleared, and we roared up a tree-lined path on a steady incline. In the distance, I could see a looming shape. I squinted, but since moonlight was my only guide, I wasn’t able to discern what it was.

We were nearly upon it when two walls became visible, stretching in front of us to end on what seemed like a cliff on either side. “What?” I wondered to myself, just as Ward pulled to a stop. Two figures came toward us.

“Who is it?” one asked.

Ward dismounted and staggered a little. One figure stepped into a beam of moonlight, and I spotted blue skin, horns, and a red armband on his arm. Was this it? Were we home?

“Hey—” the warrior began.

“Get Daz.” Ward snarled. “It’s Ward.” As soon as his name left his lips, he stumbled and collapsed.

I shrieked and launched myself off of the bike to his crumpled form in the dirt. The two warriors shouted. The gates flew open, and one raced inside as the other hauled Ward over his shoulder like he weighed nothing. His dark eyes lit on me. “Human?”

“I’m … yes. I’m Reba.”

His expression softened. “Ward said he’d find you.”

“He found me,” I whispered, feeling tears prick my eyes. “In more ways than one.”

He turned and jogged inside. Holding on to the fur pack at my back containing Luna, I ran as fast as I could to keep up. Drixonians seemed to appear out of every corner, hulking blue beasts with piercings and horns.

“Take him to his hut!” I heard a voice call out, and the warrior carrying Ward changed directions. While dark, a few dim lights illuminated the area inside the walls. At first glance, it looked a lot like the Red Hands camp, with a few single huts lining the one side and a large apartment-type structure along the other. I didn’t have to time to gawk though. We headed directly to a hut. The door was already open, a smaller warrior standing at the entrance with a bag.

We burst inside, and Ward was placed on a pile of furs along the corner. I rushed to kneel at his side, and he moaned, semi-conscious. It wasn’t until now I noticed large gashes in his sides. Added to the mangled mess that was his face and bruised body, it was no surprise he’d collapsed once he realized he was home. How had he managed to drive the bike the entire way here?

A small light in the shape of a sphere illuminated the space. The smaller warrior stepped up to Ward’s side, and I appreciated the affectionate way he placed his hand on Ward’s forehead. “Hey there. We missed you for many rotations, and you greet us in this condition?” He tutted with a small smile on his face.

Ward coughed and then moaned with pain. “Fleck you. Just fix me, you bastard. And Reba has an implant. Found one in a hideout.”

The warrior’s nubbed brows lifted before he nodded at me. “I’m Rokas, the Night Kings healer.”

“Hi, I’m—I’m Reba.”

Ward groped blindly for my hand. “Rokas, make sure Reba is taken care of. Find Daz and the other females—”

“You know she’ll be safe here.”

“She is All,” Ward said, meeting Rokas’s gaze as best as he could. “And she,” his eyes met mine, “is all to me.”

“Ward—” my eyes watered, knowing I was the reason he was in this much pain. It was all because of me.

“Promise me,” Ward said.

“I promise.” Rokas held up a syringe and looked at me. “I’m going to stick him with this, and it’s going to heal his injuries, but it’s going to put him out for a while as it works on the more serious ones I predict are internal.

“Ribs are busted,” Ward mumbled.

“And you’re bleeding like a stuck pivar.”

“Red Hands,” he winced. “Had me in Drixonor.”

Rokas froze when Ward spoke the last word, and his eyes flared. “You lie.”

Ward snorted. “I wish. Gaul is even worse than I remember.”

Rokas placed a hand on Ward’s shoulder. “Sleep now and heal, warrior.” He plunged the syringe into Ward’s face, and then his side. I watched in absolute amazement, half wondering if my mind was playing tricks, as Ward’s swelling decreased and the cuts on his face closed. The slashes in his sides healed over more slowly, but soon the only clue he’d been injured was the tacky blood remaining on the furs under his body.

His eyes closed, his chest heaved with deep breaths, and he slept. I placed my hand on his cheek, happy to see that his face was no longer pinched in pain. “You healed him,” I whispered. “So quickly.”

“Valerie is still not used to how fast our medis works,” he said.

I was about to ask who Valerie was when heavy footfalls entered the hut, shaking the floor beneath my knees. I turned to find a gigantic figure—bigger than Ward—filling the doorway. For a moment, his upper half was in shadow, but then he stepped into the light, and I gasped. The left side of his face was marred by scars, and his horn was broken off in a jagged edge. He snarled, and his dark eyes, black as night, focused on me.

“My brother should have let you fend for yourself,” he growled at me, his voice deep and dark. Terror shot through me, raising the hair on the back of my neck as I shrank away from the imposing warrior. His brother?

“Gar,” Rokas said in a soft tone. “Watch your tongue. She has an implant and can understand you.”

“Even better,” he spat.

Rokas sighed. “Your brother will be fine. Don’t insult his female while he’s not awake to defend her.”

Part of me wanted to say I could defend myself, but I didn’t have a defense. I had run, and Ward had gone through hell because of my actions. I’d once been so eager to meet Gar, to see the warrior who Ward admired. And now he hated me on sight. I couldn’t even blame him.

“His female?” Gar snarled. “She bears no loks. He wouldn’t choose a disloyal, disobedient female like this one.”

The words were daggers to my heart.

“Gar!” Roared a voice from behind the big warrior. Gar stepped aside. Another giant stepped inside. His black and silver streaked hair hung down to his shoulders and his septum was pierced with a large gold ring. His armband matched the rest of the clavas, but his was rimmed in gold thread.

His eyes met mine, and where I expected censure, there was nothing but a confident kindness. He stepped forward but maintained a respectable distance, probably because I looked frightened for my life. “I’m Daz,” he said. “Drexel of the Night Kings. You’re safe here.”

I couldn’t help it, my eyes flicked to Gar, who crossed his arms over his chest and refused to look at me.

“Gar’s words are just that. Words. He won’t hurt you. No warrior here will hurt you.”

“Wh-where are the other women?” I needed to see them. I needed proof. I wasn’t taking anything to chance after all I’d been through.

A tall woman entered the hut, making the space rather crowded. She had dark skin and her long hair in braids down her back. She immediately crossed her arms over her chest and stood with her feet braced similarly to Gar. “Seriously?” she barked at him. “I could hear you yelling from my bed, you big asshole.”

This woman. Yelled. At Scary Scarred Gar. My eyes nearly popped out of my head.

He curled his lip at her. “You didn’t see my brother’s condition, Miranda. Right before I walked in, I overheard him say that Gaul had him in Drixonor—”

“And I’m sorry for that, but he’s here now, healing, and instead of comforting him you’re in here being a dick yelling at a woman who is clearly terrified of you. Did anyone ask what she’s gone through?” She waved around the room, and three males—even Gar—avoided looking at her.

With a toss of her head, her expression immediately softened, and she strode to my side, dropping into a crouch in front of me. “Hey you. You okay?” Her expression was so kind, so tender, and thank fuck so human.

Was I? Sort of. No. Maybe. I didn’t know what to answer, so I nodded, then shook my head, then nodded again before shrugging and bursting into heart-rending sobs. Miranda, bless her heart, gathered me in her arms. She let me bawl like a baby all over her shirt.

“S-s-so sorry,” I blubbered. “I sh-shouldn’t have run. But I was scared. B-battle and blood. B-but Ward rescued me and th-then he was hurt b-because of m-m-me.”

Miranda ran her hand up and down my back in a soothing caress. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. We were all scared then. I don’t blame you for running. None of us do.”

“G-Gar does and I w-was e-e-excited to meet W-Ward’s brother and n-n-now he hates me!” I wailed. I couldn’t hold it in. The many days of terror and uncertainty and mind-numbing captivity had broken me. It was amazing how our minds and bodies finally caved when we felt like we had a soft spot to land. My soft spot was Miranda. At that moment, based on her comfort and kind words, I would have done just about anything for her.

I felt Miranda turn, and I glanced up through tear-blurred eyes to see her turning a wicked, if-looks-could-kill death glare on Gar.

His nostrils flared, and while he didn’t apologize, he did drop his gaze and stomp out of the hut.

Daz spoke up now. “I’m sorry for Gar. Your name is Reba, right?” I nodded, at least comforted by this warrior who despite looking lethal, didn’t scare me. “You met Miranda, and I promise as soon as the sun rises, we won’t be able to keep the other women away, including my cora-eternal Fra-kee.”

I shot Miranda a questioning look at the phrase cora-eternal. “His mate.” She answered. “Frankie.”

“Oh,” I mumbled. “Wait, was she the one he took away?”

Miranda nodded with a sigh. “Yeah, but it’s okay now. We’re all okay. Look, I can tell you’re dead on your feet. Let’s get some rest, and tomorrow we’ll explain everything. Frankie and the other women will be so happy we’re all reunited.”

Fatigue had hit me a while ago like a wall. I nodded. “That’s probably for the best.”

“You want to come to my room?”

I glanced at Ward and bit my lip. I didn’t want to leave him. He’d meant safety to me for so long, and I wasn’t willing to give up his presence when I’d gone without it at the Red Hands’ camp.

Miranda spoke over her shoulder. “I’ll stay here with her, Daz. Can you send Frankie over in the morning?”

He propped his hands on his hips. “How come a few females come into my clavas and all of a sudden I’m not the feared leader but just a messenger?”

“Oh, you’re still feared and big and bad and oh so many muscles,” Miranda pitched her voice high. “Protect me, big strong male!”

He rolled his eyes and walked out of the hut, muttering to himself as he shut the door. “She’s mocking me. I know she’s mocking me…”

Miranda turned to me with a smile. “All right, Reba. Let’s get you horizontal. But no funny business.”

I snorted and despite the circumstances, felt my lips curl into a smile. “I can keep my hands to myself.”

FIFTEEN

Reba

I remembered Frankie as small, but loud and mighty. She’d fought like a wildcat when Daz had dragged her away from us. But now, she was all smiles, her hair in a shiny high ponytail as she greeted us the next morning the second we stepped out of Ward’s hut. She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed tight. “I’m so glad you’re okay! We were all so worried about you.”

She held me at arm’s length and surveyed my body as if checking for my condition. “Miranda showed you the cleanser and got you a change of clothes, I see?”

“She did.” I turned to smile at my new friend, who stood behind me like a proud mother.

“Well then let’s go get breakfast! We had to keep Xavy away from the cooktop because he fancies himself a chef, but everything he makes taste suspiciously of alcohol.”

I wrinkled my nose just as series of yips came from the hut behind us. Frankie reared back. “What’s that?”

“Oh, that’s Luna,” I said before calling over my shoulder. “Come here, girl!”

“She tamed a welf pup,” Miranda said. “The guys’ll just love this.”

Luna had grown considerably since I’d found her in the forest. Already she’d doubled in size. When she leaped into my arms, I grunted under her weight. “Meet Luna.”

Frankie blinked at my pet but made no effort to pet her. “Um.”

“What the fleck?” I heard and turned to see Daz striding toward us, gaze on Luna.

Instinctively I twisted at the waist shielding her with my body. “She’s my pet.” I lifted my chin in the air.

“Pet?” Daz looked absolutely puzzled.

“Is it that weird?”

“Only thing weirder would be a pet salibri,” he muttered. “Whatever. You three need to get to breakfast. The other females are waiting not so patiently.”

“What about Ward?” I asked.

“Rokas will be there in a minute to check him over. Based on his injuries, he’ll probably sleep most of the rotation. I’m going to sit with him until then.” With a kiss to Frankie’s temple, Daz retreated inside.

With one last look at the hut where Ward slept and healed, I followed Frankie and Miranda toward the large apartment building structure. Luna trotted behind me with her tongue lolling out of her mouth. Inside, warriors were everywhere, eating at tables, talking in groups, and sweeping the floor. Everyone had a job, and everyone seemed busy. Not a single one looked at me like they wanted to eat me, kill me, or hurt me. In fact, most of them ignored us.

The women were not who I remembered. The huddled group of half-naked, terrified, and traumatized women who’d been shoved off a spaceship on a foreign planet were no more.

They flitted around a large area that resembled an industrial kitchen. One stirred something in a pot while another flipped a bread-like disk in a pan. A purple-haired woman with skin still clinging to the remnants of a tan sang and swayed and her hips while she gathered plates. She glanced up as we stepped inside and nearly dropped her handful of dishes as she screeched. “She’s here! The gang’s all together now!”

In seconds, I was surrounded by women. Hair tickled my neck and arms wrapped around my waist and neck, while my hands was gripped in a firm hold. I stared at Miranda over a bare shoulder in front of me to find her smiling, her eyes a little misty. “We take support seriously here,” she said softly.

I almost burst into tears again, and only just held back a torrent of happy sobs.

“We’re crowding her!” Frankie yelled from somewhere behind me. “Back up! Introduction time.”

I learned the purple-haired one was Tabitha. The small one with long dark hair and very pale skin with freckles was Naomi. Justine was the one with a black bob and tattoos all over her light skin.

“I’m Reba,” I said. “And I’m sorry I caused all this trouble by running away.”

Justine waved me off. “Look, I’ll be honest, there were a good few days I was jealous you got away. Not that any of the males hurt us, but I didn’t trust them yet.” She shrugged. “You made a choice to try to save your life and I can’t fault you.”

I felt my cheeks heat. “Yeah, well, I made the wrong choice.”

“Hindsight is 20/20,” Frankie quipped. “We have plenty of time later for our horror stories. Let’s eat. Mama’s hungry.” She rubbed her stomach, and my gaze immediately landed on her belly. For a petite woman, she did have a small little bulge, but then I’d never been one for the media’s obsession with baby bumps. Still, I asked. “Mama?”

Frankie pulled her finger from her mouth as she’d just sampled whatever was in the pot. “Yeah, Daz knocked me up.” She grinned and Miranda threw her arm around Frankie’s shoulders.

This was the time I was supposed to say congratulations. I was supposed to return the women’s smiles. Yet all I could think about was Gaul’s words at a time where I’d never felt so hopeless in my life. I felt the color drain from my face and my skin grow cold.

My hand immediately dropped to my stomach as Gar’s insult about how Ward would never choose me echoed in my ears. “I—I—”

“Oh shit, she’s going down.” Miranda lunged forward just as my knees buckled.

Hands wrapped around my back. Strong hands. “I got her,” a firm male voice said. I blinked up into the face of a long-haired warrior. His dark braid swung in front of my eyes and his mouth split into a wide grin. “Hey there. Let’s get you sitting down. Some food in your belly. My lioness will be here in a minute to check you over.”

“Lioness?” I heard myself ask in a whisper as he placed me on a chair and held onto my shoulders.

Food appeared in front of me. A cup of qua. My stomach recoiled at the thought of food, but when the cup was brought to my mouth by a female hand, I drank. When food was placed at my lips, I bit, chewed, and swallowed.

When a female I hadn’t met yet with kind blue eyes and a soft smile picked up my hand and cradled it, she said. “Hi, I’m Valerie. I was a registered nurse back on Earth. Are you okay? How are you feeling?”

She pressed her fingers into my wrist, feeling my pulse, and still with that caring expression that made me want to melt into her, she touched my forehead. “You feel okay and your pulse is only a little fast. Just overwhelmed?”

My lip started trembling and I bit it. “I might be pregnant.”

Frankie sucked in a breath, and I heard Justine mutter under her breath. “Fucking virile bastards.”

Valerie didn’t even flinch. “Well we can check for you. Rokas has a test for Drixonian females that works on us.”

“Is that how you found out Frankie is pregnant?” I asked.

Valerie’s eyes flitted to the woman in question before shaking her head. “No, but we can explain that another time. Rokas’s test is how we found out that I’m pregnant.”

“Oh my God,” I breathed.

“Yeah,” she said with a quiet laugh. “Justine’s right. The Drixonians are virile bastards.”

“Or maybe just the Bakuts!” The male with the braid yelled from over by the stove where he was munching on a piece of fruit.

Valerie rolled her eyes. “That’s Sax. He’s—”

“I’m her baby daddy,” Sax waggled his brows and we all just started at him. He frowned at Tabitha. “Did I get the phrase wrong?”

Tabitha was bent at the waist, gasping for breath between peals of laughter. “Oh my God, no. You got it exactly right.”

Valerie ignored them. “What would you like to do? A tour? Get some rest? Or take the test?”

“I, um,” I swallowed and came to a decision. “I’d like to take the test. I wanna know.”

Val smiled. “I thought you’d say that. Come on.” She waved a hand at everyone else. “You all eat and come find us in Rokas’s hut when you’re finished.”

My eyes caught on a tattoo on her wrist, and I noticed she had a similar pattern on her other wrist. I reached out and ran my finger over them, amazed at the golden tone to the ink. “Wow, where did you get those done?”

She went still for a moment, and I withdrew my hand, worried I’d overstepped. “I’m sorry, I—”

“No, it’s okay,” she rushed to say. “They aren’t tattoos. They are…” She gestured to Sax, who thrust forth his wrists. I hadn’t noticed before with his blue skin, but now I saw he bore identical marks, like inked decorative bracelets.

“Did he put those on you?” I asked, mildly horrified.

“Fleck no,” Sax said. “They appeared when Fatas chose her as my cora-eternal.”

There was that phrase again. “What does that mean?”

Frankie stepped forward then to roll up the sleeves of her thin, long-sleeved shirt. “I have the marks too. Mine match Daz’s.”

Hers were a different pattern that Valerie and Sax’s, but no less real. “Who is Fatas?”

Frankie explained that Fatas was the center of their belief system. A bit like karma, she either blessed them or cursed them based on their actions. Cora-eternal pairings used to be rare, but then the Bakut brothers—Sax and Daz—both found their cora-eternals among our ragtag group of kidnapped women.

“I can’t communicate with Daz silently or anything,” Frankie said. “But I can always sense him in my mind and feel his emotions. We call that sensation our auras.”

“Wow.” I found myself rubbing my bare wrists. This Fatas wouldn’t choose me for Ward. Not when I’d nearly gotten him killed.

Valerie placed a hand on my forearm, stilling my movements. “Come on,” she said gently. “Let’s get you to Roka’s hut.”

Right, this was stupid, suddenly wanting something I hadn’t even known existed moments ago. It was probably some brother thing that Daz and Sax had anyway. I went to stand. Before I was even steady on my feet, Sax scooped me into his arms. “I got you. Can’t have you falling and hurting yourself or that little life you got growing inside you.”

He carried me outside and I squinted into the sun. “I might not be pregnant—”

“Doesn’t matter,” he shrugged. “Because if you aren’t, as soon as Ward heals up, he’s going to spend a whole lot of time making sure you do get pregnant.”

I didn’t have anything to say to that, so I didn’t say anything at all.

Ward

When I opened my eyes, the direction of the sun’s rays in my hut let me know it was late morning. I moaned as I lifted a hand to my head, which throbbed slightly. My mouth felt as dry as dirt and I smacked my lips.

I rolled my head to the side to see Daz sitting on a chair beside the bed, flipping through a tablet Nero had given him which held, among many things, the security feeds from the clavas perimeter.

“The Red Hands will attack,” I rasped, and he jerked in his chair, his dark gaze shooting to me before he dropped the tablet on the furs and reached for a jug of qua.

“Drink,” he ordered, and I guzzled a few mouthfuls before trying to speak again. “Nit,” he ordered. “More.”

I drank until the jug was empty and then gulped down a plate of food that he handed to me.

Only when I was finished did he permit me to speak. “Start from the beginning,” he commanded in a clipped tone.

I wondered how much he knew. Had he talked to Reba? What had she told him? It didn’t really matter. As commanded by my drexel, who I respected more than any male on this planet, I indeed started from the beginning. I told him how she’d been taken by Rizars and I led us to an escape. I explained how we’d found an old hideout with a stash of tech so that I was able to update my implant and give her one so we could communicate. I glossed over that time, not yet ready to tell him the more intimate details of what Reba and I had done.

Next I told him how we’d been caught by the Red Hands, and all I’d had to do and lie about to stay alive. Yet Gaul had sensed my deception anyway and sentenced me to rot while he planned to keep Reba for himself and raid the Night Kings clavas for the remaining females. “I didn’t tell him we had more,” I said. “He guessed correctly.”

Daz stared out my window, his jaw clenched. “I wouldn’t expect Gaul to believe the Uldani only requested one female.”

“But,” I swallowed around my dry throat. “I failed you, drexel.”

His head snapped to me and his brows drew in. “How so?”

“I took what wasn’t mine to take.” Daz’s brows furrowed, and I soldiered on, knowing I needed to accept whatever he felt was a sufficient punishment. “I mated with her. I don’t regret my actions, because I couldn’t ever forget what Reba and I shared, but that was against your wishes. For that, I’m sorry. The women were supposed to remain untouched and unharmed. In that, I failed you.”

Daz exhaled and dropped his head. He rubbed his forehead, and his shoulders shook. I struggled to a sitting position. “Are you laughing?”

He raised his head with a smile splitting his face. “Yes, I am.”

“Why?”

“Because you’ve missed much since you’ve been gone.” He unsnapped a leather bracelet from around his wrists. When I saw the markings there, I sucked in a breath. “What… what is that? Loks?”

“Frankie is my cora-eternal and is pregnant with my child. Sax met his cora-eternal in the Uldani dungeons, and she’s pregnant as well.”

I blinked as I processed his words. “Sax? Sax is here?”

His grin widened. “He and his human busted out of that prison leaving behind a blood bath and a crashed hover car. They only just got back and recovered.”

“What?” I hollered. “I’ve been gone, what, nine rotations? Ten How has this much happened in that time?”

Daz leaned back in his chair and stretched out his long legs in front of him. “I should be asking you the same thing. You were locked up for six of those rotations and still managed to get your cock wet.”

“So, you’re not angry with me?”

Daz barked out a laugh. “Angry? No. I’m angry at the Uldani for bringing these females here in order to breed them with us.”

I was so shocked, I couldn’t speak.

He nodded and explained the Uldani were holding Sax and Valerie in order to get them to procreate to recreate a new race of Drixonian warriors that the Uldani would be able to train from rotation one.

“That’s…” I nearly sputtered. “Is that why they’d been experimenting on us?”

“We think so. When Sax escaped, he stole a data chip that Nero has been working on decoding. We are hoping more information on their breeding program is there.”

Breeding program. My hands curled into fists, and I had to work to keep my machets calm.

“Frankie is pregnant, Ward,” Daz said.

My mind reeled at what this meant for our species. I clutched at my chest which had grown tight and briefly closed my eyes. “So, the Uldani were right. We can mate with humans successfully.”

“We can. But they didn’t want us to know. Now we know.”

“So why did they want us to deliver the females to them in the first place?”

Daz jabbed his finger at his chest. “They wanted me. As a breeder. The Bakut brothers siring a whole new litter of Drixonian-human hybrids to do the Uldani bidding.” He rubbed his palms together. “Valerie, Sax’s cora-eternal, is pregnant too.”

“Two cora-eternal pairings?” This was almost too much for one conversation. My brain was spinning as I contemplated all the implications of this news.

Daz grinned. “Thank Fatas.”

“Thank Fatas.” I murmured.

“One more thing.”

“Not sure I can take more.”

“I met with Tark,” he said. Tark was a lonas, a male without a clavas after challenging and killing his corrupt drexel. “He is a lonas because he has a human female. She arrived about ten cycles ago.”

“Fleck,” I gasped.

“And they have a chit. A female. About five sun-cycles old.”

My mouth dropped open, and my cora picked up a steady pulsing rhythm. “So, it’s possible for the females to have our young?”

“It is,” Daz said. “It’s not just possible. It’s been done.” He clasped me on the shoulder. “You’re my most loyal warrior. My right hand where my brother is my left. You fulfilled your duty.”

I lifted my chin in the air, thoughts of chits and loks and the future of our race whirling in my head. “I don’t know if she’ll have me, but if she does, I’m declaring my intent to claim her.”

Daz tilted his head. “Is there a reason she wouldn’t have you?”

The food soured in my gut. “After I rescued her from the Rizars, I promised her I’d never let her be a victim again. I failed her in that. While she was held by Gaul, he did his best to erode her trust in me. I want the time to regain it and to make her feel safe.”

“You can have that time, but ultimately it’s her choice, Ward. She will choose where she lays her head.”

I nodded. “I accept that. Please make it known I want her in my hut, in my bed, until she decides she no longer wants me. She is mine, Daz.”

“Ward?” A soft voice filtered in from the doorway and I turned to see her standing there, hair a soft cloud around her as the sun melted in the strands.

“Reba,” I murmured.

For a moment, she didn’t move, and I expected rejection. Just because she rescued me didn’t mean she wanted to pick up things where we left off before we were captured. But then my arms were full of soft human and a wiggling ball of fur. Reba clutched me, burying her head in my neck as Luna lapped at my face with her wet tongue.

“You’re awake!” she cried, and I spotted the familiar drops of wet leak from her eyes. “I tried to get back as soon as I could, but I had to eat, and then Valerie wanted to, uh, give me a checkup.” She looked over her shoulder, and I spied more females in the doorway, craning their necks to look at me.

I nodded at them. “Hello, females.”

That seemed to be some sort of invitation, because they poured into the room, chattering and touching my things, filling the space with their hair and soft skin and pretty smiles.

Reba perched on the edge of my bed with her hand on my thigh as she engaged them all in conversation. Daz sat in his chair, arms behind his head and eyes half-closed as his mate sat on his lap. I’d never seen Daz this relaxed and happy with a small contented smile on his face. It wasn’t until I met Reba’s happy gaze that I realized I was smiling too.

She cupped my face as some of the women played with Luna. “How are you feeling?”

“Good,” I said. “Eager to get out of these furs and do something productive.”

Daz cracked open an eye. “Not until tomorrow.”

“What?”

“Rokas’s orders. Furs until sunup tomorrow.”

“That’s—”

“My orders too.” Reba crossed her arms over her ample chest and shot me a stern look.

I pretended to think hard about it. “I concede as long as you join me in the furs. Until sunup.”

She rolled her eyes, but I didn’t miss the pink flush in her cheeks. “Well if you insist on my company.”

“I do.” I tugged her to me until she was forced to lay her head on my chest. I prodded my ribs with my fingers, but they were only marginally sore. As much as I wanted to get out and about, Rokas was probably right.

Daz tapped Frankie on the shoulder. “Up, cora-eternal. Let’s leave them alone to sleep.”

As the rest of the women said goodbye to Reba and filtered out, I spoke up to Daz as he approached the doorway to leave. “I told the Red Hands we have a weakness along the southeast perimeter.”

Daz stilled and met my eyes over his shoulder. A smile played at the corner of his lips. “Smart. Wouldn’t expect anything less from you. I’ll meet with the warriors. You rest.” His gaze touched on Reba. “Sounds like they will take a little bit of time to come to full strength again before they invade.”

“That sounds about right,” I answered.

With a nod, Daz left and shut the door behind him.

SIXTEEN

WARD

We drifted in and out of sleep. As much as it pained me to remain among the furs and not out with my clavas, Daz was right. I needed to heal completely before I began my regular duties.

During our moments of wakefulness, Reba told me how she escaped—that she studied her surroundings just like I taught her. She knew when the guards had a lapse in coverage. And best of all, she remembered spotting a hunner’s nest outside the gates. When I’d thought she’d left me, she’d instead been harvesting a numa vine, killing a hunner in sacrifice, and then leading them to the Red Hands compound.

“I never intended to leave you,” her small fingers were running circles on my chest.

“After what I had to do in front of Gaul, and all his lies to you—”

“I went with my heart,” she said. “My heart told me to trust you.”

I wanted to say more, to apologize for failing her and asking for another chance, but fatigue pulled me under again. When I opened my eyes next, Reba lay on her side facing away from me with her back mashed up against my side. I blinked at the ceiling for a few times, noting the setting sun, before I realized someone else was in the room with us. I turned my head to find my brother sitting in the chair beside me. His head was bent with his hands clasped between his knees. He sat still and silent.

“Brother,” I murmured.

He slowly lifted his head. He made no sound other than to lean forward and clasp the back of my neck. I did the same to him, and he brought his forehead to touch mine in the official warrior greeting. As brothers, we held the position for a long time, breathing each other’s air. Finally, he let me go and sat back, but his expression, normally stoic, was troubled.

“We were organizing a search for you,” he said. “We were to leave the morning after you arrived.”

“I appreciate that,” I said. “Fortunately, we made it home. Did you meet Reba yet?”

His rings in his nose caught the light as he flared his nostrils. “Yit.”

It was one word, but I knew my brother and this question had bothered him. “What’s wrong?”

“Her,” he grunted. “I don’t like her.”

That was the last thing I expected him to say. “How can you say you don’t like her? Did something happen when you first met? I’m sure she was scared—”

“She almost got you killed.” He spoke through gritted teeth as his black eyes flashed at me.

I stared at him for a moment, searching his face until he turned away. “Brother.”

“Nit, she is not worthy of you.”

“Gar,” I said firmly. “Did you know that Gaul had her alone in a hut for six rotations? He filled her head with lies to turn her against me. I’d only had her for a few rotations, long enough to fall for her and her kindness but not long enough to prove I was a male she could depend on for the rest of her life. I wouldn’t have blamed her if she turned against me. But she didn’t.”

Gar still wouldn’t look at me, but I knew he was listening because a muscle in his jaw ticked.

“When they had me beaten and placed in Drixonor to die, she got out of her locked hut by observing a weakness in the guard shift. She opened the gates, found a hunner nest and led the entire swarm into the camp to attack the Red Hands all while covering the two of us in numa. She did that,” I nearly growled. “This small human who you seek to blame.”

“You wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for her,” he protested. Weaker this time.

“And if it wasn’t for us, she wouldn’t be here at all. Daz told me the Uldani brought these females here because of us, because they want to breed us with them. She was brought here against her will. She was terrified and ran from me to try to save her own life. I call that brave. She’s kind and loves that little welf pup like her own child. I could list numerous ways in which she’s the perfect mate for me.”

Gar’s gaze shifted toward her, and I saw the slightest softening in his expression.

I tempered my tone. “You will need to learn to accept her. She is important to me. She is all, Gar.”

His eyes dropped, as if ashamed. “She is all.”

I sighed, trying to be understanding. “If it makes you feel any better, I would have reacted the same way if our positions were reversed.”

I thought it would appease him, but he shook his head, still not meeting me eyes. “No, you wouldn’t have. You would have remembered our creed and treated her well. I did not, and I think it will take me time to correct my thinking.”

“You can have that time,” I said.

“So much is changing,” he said. “It is a lot.”

Gar hated change. Each time our lives were uprooted, I felt like he retreated further and further into himself. “I know. But I’m always here. And I will always be your brother.”

He lifted his head then, and his eyes finally held a small spot of purple warmth, so rare for my cold brother. “Promise.”

“Promise.”

His eyes shifted to Reba. “She is pretty. And if she did what you say—”

“—she did—”

“—then I admire that.”

I smiled. “Well that’s a start.”

He rose and strode over to the corner where Luna chewed on a bone. He knelt down and let her sniff his fingers before she licked at his extended claws. Before standing up, he ruffled her ears.

“Her name is Luna,” I said.

He raised a nubbed brow. “She has a name?”

“Of course, she’s a pet. Reba said she needed a name.”

“Oh, well if Reba said…”

I almost snapped at him until I saw the faintest upturn of his lip. I laughed. “Leave us be, brother. I need sleep so I can get up tomorrow and yell at you for your dirty hut.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

With a short jerk of his head, Gar left me. I spent the next few minutes staring at the ceiling. My mind was still a jumbled mess from my conversation with Daz. Our race had the possibility of a future. I didn’t want to thank the Uldani for a thing, but if they hadn’t brought these females to Torin…

“Did you mean what you said?” a soft voice filled the darkening room. Reba rolled over to face me, her eyes wide awake and alert. Had she been awake during my conversation with Gar?

Reba

I didn’t want to let on that I’d been awake when his brother visited, but I also really needed to know if what Ward said was just to appease his brother or if he really meant it.

“Were you awake this whole time?” he asked. There was no censure in his voice.

I bit my lip and nodded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to interrupt.”

He rolled to face me. “It’s fine. I didn’t say anything you couldn’t hear.”

I was so nervous my voice shook. “So, you meant what you said?”

“I meant it all, but I don’t know which part you’re referring to.”

When I’d first met Ward, I never would have thought him capable of a soft, affectionate expression, but he looked at me now like I was delicate. Precious. We’d come a long way since the Glower days. “You said you don’t blame me for what you went through.”

He jerked. “I don’t blame you. If you heard that, then you heard what else I said. If it wasn’t for us, you wouldn’t have been stolen from your home on Earth and brought here. Sure, I was angry you ran away from us on the rotation you arrived, but I never blamed you for that.” His hand sifted through my hair, clean now from the cleanser I’d used this morning in the back of his hut. “If anything, you should hate me. I promised you I’d never let you become a victim again, and I failed that.”

I shook my head. “No, no you didn’t.” He tried to speak over me, but I placed a finger on his lips. He narrowed his eyes at me and hmphed a protest but didn’t speak. “Listen. There were many moments in that hut where I felt like a helpless victim. But then I remembered all you’d taught me. To pay attention to my surroundings. To make note of everything that could be important later. I did that because of you. You empowered me not to be a victim.”

I hadn’t realized I’d felt that way until the words were out of my mouth. I’d been attempting to reassure Ward, but in doing so, I’d found my truth.

“I don’t think I can take credit for your bravery,” he said.

I smiled at him. “How about we agree that we both played a hand in keeping ourselves alive? If you hadn’t played your part with Gaul for all those rotations, I wouldn’t have had the benefit of observing all I did.”

“Staying away from you during that time was the hardest thing I’d ever done. But Gaul saw me leaving your hut after the first visit and threatened me. Well, he threatened you in order to keep me away.”

“You did what you had to do,” I brushed my fingers along his jaw. “And I’m grateful for it. I am so, so sorry you had go through the pain you did. When I saw them dragging you through the camp I thought—” I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “I thought you were dead.”

“I thought I was dead too. When I heard your voice and saw your face, I thought it was some sort of dream before Fatas took me home.”

“I just couldn’t help but think if I stayed on your bike, then none of that would have happened.”

He reached for my hand and squeezed it. “I don’t condone placing blame on people for doing what they thought was right. Gaul is responsible for his actions. Not you.”

I bit my lip and thought about that. For a long time, I’d placed some blame on my sister’s best friend. Paula had been the reason Zara was near that alley. She’d been getting another bottle of wine for their girls’ night because Paula had been too tired after work to get it herself.

I’d blamed her so much that I’d shunned her at the funeral. That hadn’t been fair of me. It wasn’t Paula’s fault. Or Zara’s. Or the maintenance man who hadn’t fixed the broken streetlight. It’d been that asshole who’d raped her and choked her and who now rotted in prison. It was his fault and his alone. Part of me wished I’d get the chance to apologize to Paula for how I treated her. “I’m sorry, Paula,” I whispered to myself. Maybe she’d hear me from galaxies away. Her nose would itch, and she’d know someone had been thinking about her. Something had to be said for putting good karma out in the world.

“Who’s Paula?”

I shook my head. “I’ll explain another time. But here’s the agreement. You don’t get to blame yourself for the Uldani bringing me here, and I don’t get to blame myself for what Gaul did to you.”

He laughed then, a soothing sound in the moonlit dark. “I will agree to that.” He rolled on top of me, bracing his elbows on either side of my head so I wouldn’t have to take his weight. He nuzzled his nose to mine. “Tell me, clever Reba, will you take me as your mate? Will you claim me as I claim you?”

I mock-gasped. “Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?”

“Girl … friend?” he frowned. “I don’t know that term. I’m asking you to be mine until we take our last breaths.”

I bent my knees on either side of his hips and ran my fingers down his spine. “But we don’t have the loks, like Frankie and Valerie have.”

“That doesn’t matter. In our civilization, we mated for life and at our choosing. Finding your cora-eternal was rare. Almost a myth. The fact that we have two in our clavas is… it’s unheard of. So, the loks don’t matter. Not to me. Not when I know you are the one I want by my side.”

My heart skipped, and my blood warmed. His words settled something inside me that hadn’t been right since before my sister died. Maybe even never.

“Claim me,” I said. “I claim you too, Ward. Only you. Forever and ever.”

His chest began to vibrate, and soft puffs of breath left his lips in a “ch-ch-ch” sound. I relaxed further into the furs as the sound calmed my beating heart. His lips touched mine, and I lost myself in the taste and feel of Ward.

He tore off my clothes and plastered his already naked form to mine. My stiff nipples and sensitive breasts rubbed against his hard chest, sending bolts of pleasure to my core. His hard cock with its metal tip rubbed against my clit, and I was about to beg him to fuck me already when he pulled back, mouth open and fangs shining.

“It’s been too long since I’ve tasted my clever human,” he slid down to the edge of the furs, threw my legs over his broad shoulders and lowered his mouth to my pussy.

I cried out at the first lap of his tongue. He sucked and nipped at my clit, driving me half mad. My heels dug into his back as I gripped his horns and thrust against his mouth. He speared his tongue into me and when it began to vibrate, I came on a shout, bucking against him as I relished in the sweet friction.

Before my legs could hit the furs, he was over me and inside me, his thick cock spreading me to bursting. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on. “Yes, please, fuck me, Ward. Fuck me!”

He thrust into me hard, holding himself over top of me with extended arms. He watched his cock enter my body over and over again, the shaft glistening with my juices from his oral attentions.

“My cunt,” he grunted. “My clever human. My mate.” His violet eyes met mine before he threw back his head and came on a roar.

After, he cradled me in his arms, and I smiled to myself that this big alien male was a cuddler.

My head, which had been a whirling mix of emotions since that morning, finally calmed. I knew my place, which was here with Ward at my side. I could plan a future around that, for me, Ward, and our baby.

“I’m pregnant,” I whispered into the night air.

Ward, who had been slowly stroking my back, froze. For a long time, he didn’t speak, until finally he whispered in a monotone, “What did you say?”

“I’m pregnant,” I said. “Gaul had told me it was possible, and then when we arrived everything felt so uncertain, but I wanted to know. Valerie tested me earlier today. I’m … I’m going to have your child, Ward.”

He gripped my face almost to the point of pain as his eyes went so wide, I could see an entire ring of white. “You’re sure?”

“Well, as sure as I can be based on the accuracy of Valerie’s test. Apparently, you Drixonians are a virile bunch.”

“You’re to have my chit?” he still seemed a bit shell-shocked.

I’d never seen him like this, even when faced with Gaul or a horde of angry crocs.

“I am.” I squeezed his wrist. “We will have a couple of little ones running around this camp soon.”

His eyelashes fluttered and he exhaled on a shaky breath.

“Are you … happy?” I bit my lip.

His eyes popped open again. “Happy? There is no word to describe how I feel. So much more than happy. Excited. Grateful.” He pressed a savage kiss to my lips before sliding down my body to rest his ear on my now-flat stomach.

“I never thought this would be possible,” he murmured. “A chit to call my own. A clever beautiful mate. A future for my beloved race.” He lifted his eyes to me. “I will spend every breath proving that I am worthy of you.”

I ran a hand over his bald head and smiled. “Consider it already done.”

SEVENTEEN

WARD

Daz sat at the head of his meeting table, flanked by me and Sax. Also, in attendance were Gar, Xavy, and Nero.

We met in a back room of the barracks, where Frankie insisted we have snacks and had snatched away the bottle of spirits with a glare at Xavy. “You can’t plan a battle while you’re drunk,” she snapped.

After she left the room, he grinned and produced another bottle from his pocket. He took a swig before plunking it down in the center of the table. Sax snatched it up and guzzled down a quarter of the bottle before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Daz glared at him.

“What?” Sax shrugged. “I have a pregnant mate.”

Daz leveled him with a look. “So do I.”

I cleared my throat. “I have announcement to make before we begin. My Reba is with child as well.”

Gar’s chair squeaked as he jerked to his feet. “What did you say?”

I remained calm despite the aggression rolling off his body. “I said Reba is pregnant. Valerie tested her and she told me last night.”

Gar’s massive body heaved as he fought to keep himself under control. I’d known this would affect him greatly, which was why I wanted backup when he heard.

“Sit down, Gar,” Daz ordered.

Gar plunked down into his chair, his expression stunned as he murmured. “A Garundum chit.”

“You will make up with Reba,” I said, before turning to Daz. “She has agreed to be my mate. I’ve claimed her.”

“Congratulations, Ward,” he said. “Clever female for a loyal male.”

I met Gar’s eyes, but his were unfocused, probably remembering another time. Another female. His twin. I would speak to him later but knew the talk of battle plans would distract him for the moment.

“So,” Daz began. “Ward told Gaul we have a weakness in our southeast perimeter and that we often leave it unguarded.”

Nero rubbed his finger along his lips in thought. “Smart. It’s where my eyes are most hidden.”

His eyes were what Nero called his sensors. They detected and recorded movement and heat. Nero studied the recordings every rotation. He was only alerted via an alarm if the movement and heat signatures identified an enemy—such as a Drixonian warrior body or another predator.

“So, we expect them to enter our territory there?” Xavy asked. “Seems a bit too easy, Does Gaul believe you betrayed Daz?”

It was hard to say. “I am guessing he will question everything I told him.”

The room fell silent until Daz spoke up. “He will enter the territory in the southeast as you led him to believe.”

I frowned. “Are you sure?”

He raised a nubbed brow. “I’m not finished yet. He will send a few males there as a diversion. He will send his main contingent in the opposite direction to catch us off guard.”

“How can you be so sure?” Sax asked.

“Because that’s what I would do,” Daz said. “And Gaul thinks like me. He just hopes for a different outcome.”

“So, you don’t think we should strike first?”

Daz shook his head. “No. The females need guarded, so we’d have to split our clavas, leaving us with half our males. Plus, we are defended from three sides thanks to the cliff. So, no. We will wait for them. And be ready.” He pointed to Nero. “Strengthen your eyes at the main gain and the northwest perimeter of our territory.”

While our camp remained enclosed behind walls on the cliff, we claimed territory past the reaches of our walls. All clavases did. It was where we were allowed to hunt, grow crops, and claim anything that entered our perimeter. Much of the center part of the western continent was mutual territory.

Nero nodded at the order. “Consider it done today.”

“I expect they have been planning as they’ve healed and gained strength, so we should expect them any rotation now. Understand?” Daz knocked his knuckles onto the table’s surface.”

Everyone responded with, “Yes, drexel,” except for Sax who quipped, “Got it.”

We spent more time going over the final details of preparations, delegating tasks to the six of us and to other responsible members of the clavas. By the time we were finished, my mind ached with tactical strategies and I was eager to stretch my legs. See my Reba. Throw a stick with Luna.

But as the rest of the males rose to leave, I remained seated, because I knew I had unfinished business with my brother. Gar, who sat with his elbow propped on the arm of the chair, chin on his fist, staring at the wall deep in thought.

Daz clapped me on the shoulder with a squeeze as he was the last out the door, leaving Gar and I alone.

“Brother,” I called out.

He didn’t speak for some time, and when he did, he rubbed at his chest, claws scratching at the scales there until vivid black lines appeared on his abused skin. “She would have made a great mother,” he said. “A wonderful role model to our chits.”

“She would have,” I said softly. “I mourn she never got the chance, just like you do.”

He closed his eyes briefly and inhaled sharply. “I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to claim a non-Drixonian female as my own, but I respect the humans. I will accept Reba, and I will be an uncle to your chit.”

“One rotation, I think you’ll find one of these small females have grit behind their blunt nails and teeth. They will hook you too.”

He shook his head but wouldn’t look me in the eye. “Fatas will not choose that for me.”

I sucked in a breath, knowing the wounds he carried inside were far worse than the marks visible on his skin. “Fatas surprises us.”

He met my eyes then, and they were black pits of nothing. “She is done with me, as I am done with her.” He rose quickly, and while my cora ached at the emptiness in his eyes, I knew I couldn’t fill what was missing in his life. Nothing could.

He clasped my neck and brought our foreheads together. “Fatas chose the right brother to carry on our bloodline.” He squeezed and walked out, leaving me alone with a feeling of dread in my stomach. War was coming. I could feel it in the air and in my bones. Gar lived for battle, and every time he lifted his machets and fought for his people, I held my breath. He fought selflessly. He didn’t care about injuries or his life. He stayed alive long enough to wreak as much destruction as he could, but he’d willingly throw himself in a ball of fire to protect his clavas.

Now that he knew Drixonians had a future? I dreaded his mindset once we met with the Red Hands. And I begged Fatas to spare him, because while he was done with her, I knew she wasn’t done with him.

Later that night, Xavy started a fire outside in the center of camp. Normally this would be a raucous affair with spirits flowing, good-natured fights over game betting, and storytelling, but the atmosphere was a subdued. Daz had already informed the whole clavas that the Red Hands would most likely attack with the intent so steal the females.

I sat on the outskirts of the fire, my back against a log, with Reba settled between my legs. Luna lay on her lap, twitching in her sleep. The fire warmed my skin, and the cup of Xavy’s spirits in my hand warmed my blood. “This reminds me of how we slept that first night in the Rizar camp.”

“I remember,” her hair tickled my arm as she leaned back to look at me. “You got caught on purpose, didn’t you?

I laughed. “Of course. A Rizar pack might catch an inexperienced warrior, but not me.”

She sighed and faced the fire. “That was the night I realized I’d made a terrible mistake.”

From this angle, I could see her biting her lip. “It’s not your fault that war looms,” I said.

“I know we talked about that, but it’s so hard not to… blame myself for bringing the Red Hands to your front gates.”

“This was going to happen eventually.” Daz sank down beside us, Fra-kee at his side. “Gaul has been waiting for an excuse to give to his men to take over our territory. And kill me. You didn’t start this war, Reba. If anything, I’m grateful for the opportunity to get it over with. I’m tired of looking over my shoulder all the time, waiting for him to strike.”

Sax joined us, stretching out on the ground in front of us, Valerie tucked into his front.

“The way you talk about this guy gives me the creeps,” Fra-kee muttered.

“He is creepy.” Reba sat up and crossed her legs in front of her. “And he’s smart and manipulative.”

“I’ll never get over why some Drix turned.” Daz took a swig of his own spirits cup. “So many good males died in the Uprising who would have upheld our beliefs. Gaul had always been a bad seed.”

I knew he was thinking about his youngest brother, Rex, who died during our battle with the Uldani. He had been a great warrior, young but focused. His loss had been felt by us all.

“His men could maybe be turned if they elected a good drexel,” I said. “Barto, his second, is just as dark as Gaul is. He’ll be just as hard to defeat as his leader.”

Another body dropped down beside me, and Xavy tipped his cup in my direction before upending the contents into his mouth. “Have we met?” Xavy asked Reba.

“I don’t think so.” She smiled.

“Well I’m Xavy,” he grinned, his lip tattoos catching the light of the fire. “I heard of your beauty, but it’s nothing compared to seeing you in person.”

I shoved him with a laugh. “Oh, fleck off. Go charm someone else.”

He widened his eyes in mock innocence. “I’m just giving the female a compliment.”

Reba giggled. “Thank you, Xavy. It’s nice to meet you. Your reputation precedes you.”

He placed a hand on his chest. “Me? A reputation. I’m humbled.”

“Humble,” I snorted. “You don’t have a humble bone in your body.”

Laughter rang out across the camp. Near the fire stood Tabitha and a younger warrior named Hap. They were moving their arms and legs in a coordinated fashion. When Hap tripped over his feet and landed on his face, Tabitha nearly fell over with peals of laughter.

Hap recovered quickly and grinned.

“What’s that about?” I asked. Hap was a good Drixonian, but he wasn’t quite made for the way we lived now on Torin. If our civilization had remained, he wouldn’t have been on the front lines of battle. He probably would have been a mechanic or a cook, which were both necessary and important jobs. He didn’t quite have the warrior mentality, and we had sheltered him during the Uprising. Daz had a soft spot for the younger warrior. We all did.

“They bonded when stuck in that hideout.” Fra-kee said.

“Bonded?” That was Xavy, all traces of humor gone.

Fra-kee blinked at him for a moment. “Yeaaahhh. Bonded. As in they became fast friends. They get along. What did you think I meant?”

Xavy opened his mouth, closed it, and then shook his head. He stared straight ahead into the fire, a dark look on his face.

When Tabitha shrieked with laughter again and hugged Hap, Xavy stood and stomped away.

“Uh, okay,” Reba said in a low voice. “What was that about?”

“Methinks some blue playboy has a crush,” Fra-kee sang in a soft voice.

“Playboy?” Daz asked.

Fra-kee waved his question away. “Well, I think Tab is clueless and also a little wild.”

“She does seem to love having a harem of blue males hanging on her every word,” Valerie smirked.

I watched Tabitha, though, and every so often, her eyes would scan the crowd as if looking for a particular face.

Soon two three other females joined us—Naomi, Miranda, and Justine. Gar wandered over eventually too, so instead of brooding across from us, he brooded behind us. Reba stole glances at him every once in a while, and I’d do my best to give her a reassuring squeeze. “He needs time,” I whispered in her ear.

“I get that,” she said back softly. “I just… want to be here for him. When he’s ready.”

“I need to send everyone to get sleep,” Daz said with a stretch of his arms over his head. “No late nights. No abuse of spirits. Not until the Red Hands are taken care of.”

We herded the females out first, while Daz stayed behind to try to convince the males to quit their drinking and mischief.

Safe behind the walls of our hut, with a slumbering Luna, Reba and I collapsed into the furs. She held me tightly, clinging to my chest in a way that felt panicked.

“I’m worried,” her small voice confessed in the dark.

“Fatas has blessed us with you and the other females. She has sought to create life in you. She would not give victory to the Red Hands.”

She was quiet for a long time. “You really think that, don’t you?”

“I do.”

“I don’t… I don’t know I have that kind of faith in an intangible being. If Fatas has an authority on Earth, then I have a bone to pick with her about my sister.”

“I don’t believe she takes life, or decides which life to take, but I think she chooses to bless us with or curse us based on how we live our lives. The details are up to our free will.”

She sighed. “Well I’ve met the males in this clavas, and I gotta say, if anyone’s got Fatas in their corner, it’s you guys.”

“That’s my clever Reba,” I pressed a kiss to her temple.

“I reserve the right to denounce Fatas if she dares take you from me,” she said.

I smiled at my fiery mate’s words. “I will accept that.”

Reba

Three days passed—or rotations as the Drix called them. These days were filled with battle preparations. Repairs were made to the structure of the walls, and the insides were fortified with slabs of hard wood. Nero spent almost all his time in his hut watching the feeds to catch any glimpse of the Red Hands.

I hated it. I hated the tension and the waiting. I threw myself into preparing food ahead of time, racks and racks of tein bars which the females said were like Drix protein bars, easy to grab and go for energy.

Multiple times a day, Xavy led the warriors through training exercise. They jogged, did pushups, pull-ups, and some complicated maneuver that looked like a nearly impossible burpee. They sparred with each other, machets out, until black blood stained the dirt ground.

When I suggested they fight with props, like gladiators did with wooden swords to prevent injury, Ward had looked at me like I was crazy. I didn’t try to give warrior advice after that.

Luna had grown considerably in a short amount of time. She could no longer be bundled in a pack on Ward’s back, let alone mine. She was now about the size of a husky, and Ward said she wasn’t even close to full grown.

She followed me around everywhere, and while some of the Drix males still gave her a wide berth, they had grown used to her. Ward liked her at my side. I’d been bumped by pure accident in the mess hall by a Drixonian holding his massive dinner plate and Luna had nearly taken his throat out in my defense.

At nights, as the sun dropped, us females gathered on the cliff edge to look out at their green ocean, or freshas as they called it.

“I’ve never seen any ships or boats,” Miranda observed, shielding her eyes from the sun as she gazed at the calm waters.

“Daz said the freshas is off-limits,” Frankie said. “They have a few vessels in case of an emergency, but the freshas has its own hierarchy of alien sea life. Land lubbers are not welcome.”

I gazed down into the water, which seemed so placid from here with gentle waves lapping at the cliff face. “Well now I’m imagining giant squid and megalodon.”

Tabitha shuddered. “I visit the ocean for beer, beach, and boinking. I don’t get in the ocean. Fish pee in there.”

“I pee in there,” Naomi giggled.

“My point!”

We chatted some more until the males insisted we retreat to our beds. Daz had been keeping a strict curfew. Everyone agreed waiting was the worst part.

That night I woke in the dark to Ward shaking me. I knew right away by the set of his jaw that the waiting was over. My stomach plummeted as I leapt out of bed. We’d practiced this routine, and I knew what to do but my hands shook as I pulled up my pants.

“What’s happening?” I wanted details.

“Nero spotted several Red Hands in the southeast of our territory. It is time.” Ward said.

The unspoken words hung in the air. Time for battle. Time for blood. Time for death.

“Hap will lead you and the other females to the bunker,” he said just as a knock rapped at our door. “Stay alert.”

My heart pounded in my ears when I turned around to see my mate standing in full battle gear. He wore a vest and a belt strapped with weapons, including a solar gun. On his tail was a reticulated band that spanned the entire length, sharp blades jutting from the top.

His blue scales rippled in color, signaling his agitated state. Despite that, his eyes were clear, dark, and focused.

He took a step forward and placed his hand on my stomach. “Take care of our chit, my clever human. Keep Luna at your side.”

“I will,” my voice choked with tears. “Please be safe, Ward. And kill that Gaul asshole.”

Just a hint of a smile appeared on his lips before it was gone. He swept the door open and Hap stepped inside. Behind him stood the rest of the women, guarded by a dozen males of the Night King clavas. Hap nodded at Ward and gentled his expression for me. “Let’s go, Reba.”

I patted my leg, and Luna rose from her bed and trotted to my side. We stole out into the night, walking fast to the back of the clavas, right to the cliff edge. This was the part I dreaded.

Hap unrolled a vine and wood ladder at the edge of the cliff, securing it with pre-embedded hooks in the ground, and swung himself down as if there was no big deal to descending a rickety ladder over a two-hundred-foot drop. I wanted to vomit even thinking about it. His body bobbed down the ladder before he disappeared in a small bunker cave sunk into the cliff face. That was our panic room, stocked with supplies for seven rotations. We were to remain there, guarded by a dozen warriors, until the battle was finished. The Night Kings were taking no chances at protecting their precious females.

Miranda went next, then another Drix, and we alternated like that until the last female—Justine—was in the panic cave, as we called it. Luna was lowered from the top with a rope harness. The last warrior remained at the top in order to roll up the ladder and toss it over the cliff. We watched it sail past us only to land long moments later in the freshas below.

The only way out of here now was from inside the panic cave. Supplies sat in the back corner and a warrior would scale the cliff with his claws, a new ladder on his back. From the top, he’d drop it down and free us.

We’d done our best to make this as cozy as possible. The warriors remained at the front of the cave, all but Hap, who sat back with us among the furs and food. We had a small solar light we tucked far back inside so it wasn’t visible from the outside… even though the only one to see would be the freshas underwater inhabitants.

“Anyone hungry?” Hap asked. “Want some qua?”

We all stared at him.

“Not really in the mood for a snack right now while our men are up there possibly getting gouged,” Frankie grumbled.

Hap deflated. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

Tabitha placed her hand on his and urged him to sit next to her. “We know you’re just trying to help out.”

“I wish I had something to do.” Valerie paced the length of the cave as she ticked off items on her fingers. “For the last few rotations, I prepared bandages, medis vials with correct dosages, pallets for the injured. Everything. I worked until my fingers bled, and yet that was when I was in my element. When I was doing something.”

“You’re amazing, Val,” Naomi said. “Sax struts around the camp every day telling everyone about you. It’s really adorable how proud he is.”

Val blushed. “Yeah, well, I like helping. I find this planet and everything on it fascinating. Now that I’m not locked up in a prison to be a breeder.” Her hand dropped to her stomach as she swore fiercely. “I hope they’re okay.”

“Daz is a great battle strategist,” Hap said. “He’s one of the main reasons we won the Uprising. Gaul’s smart, but not as smart as Daz, especially now that Daz has his two best warriors back in Sax and Ward. Plus,” his fangs chewed on his lower lip, “No one has a warrior like Gar. The rotation he falls will be the rotation pivars fly.”

“He didn’t talk about all the details with me, but he’s confident,” Frankie said. “He has plans A to Z.” Despite her words, her chin wobbled. She looked away and blinked her eyes rapidly. “Shit.”

Valerie stopped her pace and sat down next to Frankie, taking her hand and squeezing it. We all huddled into a circle, holding hands, all the women and Hap. We didn’t pray, and we didn’t talk, but we remained silent.

Just as a dull buzzing sounded from above us, Frankie gasped. “They’re here,” she said, eyes open as they stared unseeing out into the sea air. “I can feel Daz. He’s focused and confident.”

“Sax too,” Val murmured. “Actually, Sax is happy. He loves this.”

I wondered if I tried really hard if I could sense Ward, but I didn’t feel his aura as the women called it. Just me, my brain rattling in my skull as I searched for my other half, and I hoped like hell he was okay.

The Drix at the entrance shuffled their feet and remained alert, machets out. Minutes passed or maybe hours. I couldn’t be sure. All I knew was I sat with every muscle tensed, my ears strained. The sounds of battle above reached us, and I worried they were within the walls, and when I voiced this concern, Frankie shook her head. “If they were in the walls, Daz would be losing it. He’s still confident. Tired, but not alarmed.”

I relaxed a bit at that, but I still flinched every time I heard grunts and cries of pain in the distance, carried down to our safe space by the humid air.

Then an awareness slammed into me. For a moment my head spun like vertigo. I tore my hands away from the ones I’d been holding to grab at my head. “Reba?” Hap said in alarm just as Frankie and Valerie both gasped simultaneously.

I glanced up to see their faces drain with color.

“There’s a problem,” Frankie whispered just as all dozen Drix warriors guarding the front of our panic cave collapsed in unison.

I spun around just as I heard his voice. “Where’s my female and her little bastard?”

EIGHTEEN

WARD

I wiped the back of my hand across my forehead to get the blood and sweat out of my eyes. It wasn’t my blood though.

I did not relish killing Drixonians. Any of them. Even the ones whose faces I remembered as they beat the life out of me. But the battle had to be won or lost. I had Reba to go home to, so the Night Kings would be victorious. The battle waged in the air and on the ground. Several of our best riders, like Sax and Xavy, headed up our bike fleet, weaving in and out among the Red Hand battle formations, taking out their own riders with machets and solar guns.

The rest of us remained with our feet planted in the dirt, slashing and hacking at our opponents with machets, claws, teeth, and armed tails.

So far, we’d lost two Kings warriors and a half dozen had been wounded severely enough to be carried back to Rokas, who worked near the gates on any injured.

The Red Hands had more casualties. The only one I cared about was Barto and Gaul. The drexel coward had only shown his face at the beginning of the battle, and now hung back as his warriors sacrificed for his fool mission.

“We have to draw Gaul out,” Daz spat as he kicked a young warrior in the back, sending him sprawling into a group of five, who all went down. He panted as he eyed the return attack. “Why’s he not leading his warriors? I’ve never seen a drexel do that. And it’s not like Gaul. He loves a fight. He’s been itching to kill me for many cycles.” He held his arms out at the sides, machets gleaming with black blood. “Come fight me drexel to drexel!” he roared over the sounds of battle.

He got no answer.

I slashed at an attacker as I peered through the bodies fighting between me and where I’d seen Gaul last. When I didn’t see his ugly face, a chill went down my spine. “Daz?”

“Yeah?” He plunged his horn into the chest of an oncoming warrior. He’d live, but he’d be down until the end of the fighting.

“Do you see Gaul?”

Daz went still at my words for a brief moment before he screamed a cry of anguish into the sky. My cora thudded as we plowed through the ground, shoving bodies out of the way. When we reached the back edge of the fighting, we saw no sign of Gaul or Barto.

I turned to Daz slowly as his chest heaved. “The females,” I whispered. “This entire battle was a diversion.”

“He wouldn’t attempt to travel on the freshas?” Daz said incredulously.

I nodded and said the words even though I felt like I’d been speared in the gut. “He would Daz. He absolutely would to get his hands on a female.” I swallowed as bile rose up my throat. “A pregnant female.”

I hesitate a moment longer. I took off running toward our gates. Daz’s boots pounded the ground behind me, but I didn’t look back, not even as I heard him shouting orders to our warriors and recalled Sax from picking off warriors in the air.

“What’s going on? Why are we retreating?” he called above the roar of his bike. “My aim was ten out of ten.”

“Yeah and mine was twenty out of twenty,” Xavy shot back. “Gotta get faster.”

“Oh, shut up—”

“The females!” Daz roared. “Gaul disappeared from battle. This was all a diversion. He must be using the freshas to get in the back door of the camp.”

For a moment, there was no response, and then Sax growled, the rumble increasing in crescendo until it ended in a blood-curdling cry. “Val!”

The four of us raced into the compound, leaving Gar and Nero in charge of the fight. Gar alone could have taken the rest of the Red Hands, so I didn’t worry about that. My focus was on Reba.

Just as the gates closed behind us, we heard a scream drift up from the panic cave, as the females had called it. “Fleck!” I shouted. Sax and Xavy leapt off their bikes as we sprinted to the edge. I didn’t waste time getting a rope or ladder. I swung over the side of the cliff, scraping my claws along the rocks to slow me down. Grabbing the lip of the cave with my hand, I swung inside, only to land on the bodies of a dozen unconscious warriors.

“What the—”

Gaul stood holding my female pressed to his chest, his clawed fingers around her throat. Barto held a struggling Fra-kee, and the rest of the females were guarded by a few Red Hands warriors. Hap sat slumped against the side of the cave, his skin a grayish blue and a massive wound in his chest. Anger surged in me as I watched Gaul grin. Three more thuds sounded behind me. Daz stepped up beside me, eerily calm at the sight of his female being held by an enemy. Sax pushed through from the back with his fists clenched at his sides. “Lioness!”

“Here,” a small hand lifted at the back of the cave and Val’s face peered around him. “They won’t let me see to Hap!”

“Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m not hurt!” she sounded pissed. “Hap is though.”

I glanced behind me long enough to see Xavy check on the bodies behind us. He nodded with a small smile, so I knew they were alive.

“So, what’s your plan, Gaul?” Daz crossed his arms over his chest. This was why he was the drexel. Despite the threat, he remained calm.

“My plan? You know, I’m winging it a bit, but I’m thinking harem. I hadn’t known they were all so attractive and smelled so good.” He grinned and jerked his head toward Justine. “That one’s even pierced.”

“I’ll pierce you,” Xavy growled behind us. “Pierce you from your gut to your throat and watch you bleed out.”

“Enough,” Daz said. “You’re cornered in here.”

“Cornered? All I see is the numbers. That big beast with the broken horn isn’t here, so I’m looking at odds and I think mine seem pretty good. I got a few goodies up my sleeve. How do you think I took out twelve of your warriors before I stepped foot in here?”

“Trading with the Uldani now?” Daz sneered.

“I might have told them they could have one female. I won’t deliver though, but they don’t know that. So, they helped me out with a little weapon. Puts warriors right to sleep like chits.” He laughed. “Welfs too.”

I just noticed a ball of fur in the background, and my mouth went dry. If they’d killed Luna… but then I saw her sides rise and fall. She wasn’t dead. Yet.

Reba’s green eyes were luminous, and she hadn’t taken her gaze off me for a moment. I wished I could reassure her this would work out. I knew it would. Fleck numbers. Gaul didn’t know what I’d be willing to do for her.

“I swear to God,” came Justine’s voice from the back of the cave. “If one of you motherfuckers sniffs me one more time, I’m going to slam my entire fist up your nostrils. Smell that, you pieces of shit.”

“Justine,” came a sharp reprimand from Miranda.

“I’m so fucking pissed, I might just have Drixonian strength right now,” she snapped back. “I feel like I could lift a damn Hummer.”

Daz took a step forward, and Gaul tensed, his claws tightening around Reba’s throat. She made a small panicked sound in her throat and my vision went hazy. “I don’t need Gar to take you out,” Daz said.

“In a moment, you’ll be on the ground like the rest of your men,” Gaul said. “And then I’m going to take these females, drop down to the qua, and take a little freshas trip back home.”

“You plan on swimming?” Daz said.

Gaul grinned. “Our transportation should be pulling up now.”

“Uh, you mean the transportation that is currently being pulled under by a pissed off pocrewller?” Xavy said from behind us.

Gaul, for the first time, showed a crack in his armor. “What?”

Crashing sounds followed Xavy’s words. Cries and groans. A shrieking roar that sent a shiver of dread down my spine even though I knew my males were safe. A pocrewller would not take kindly to a strange vessel on the surface of the freshas. However Gaul had planned to get home was no more. He should have known better than to try to escape the ruthless residents of Torin’s freshas.

Gaul’s eyes went wide. Reba met my eyes and brought up her hand. Before I could shout no, she slammed her elbow into Gaul’s gut. He doubled over, claws piercing her throat. She cried out, and then a ball of gray fur streaked through the air. Luna barreled into Gaul’s back, and he fell to the ground on top of Reba.

The scuffle sent Barto and Fra-kee to the ground. The peaceful standoff turned into a cluster fleck. Justine screamed and slammed her fist into a warrior’s nose. Val crawled on the floor amid bodies to get to Hap, and Sax dove on top of her while Miranda covered Tabitha and Naomi. Daz launched himself at Barto, slicing his head clean off his body.

Fra-kee didn’t even scream, just flew into Daz’s arms. Xavy went ballistic—slicing at the remaining warriors with Daz on his heels, machets flying and blades—his specialty—whistling through the air.

Three Red Hands placed themselves between me and my female. I gave them no mercy. They wouldn’t live to see the sun rise. I barely even registered their machets slicing into my flesh as I took all three of them on at once. I didn’t remember killing them. I blinked and somehow the three of them were at my feet, while I dropped with their blood.

I headed for Gaul. Daz had promised me his head, and I intended to take it. He was wrestling on the floor with both Luna and Reba. She was pummeling him with her tiny fists. But he’d regained awareness quickly. With a vicious heave, he tossed Luna against the wall, where she hit with a crack and a whine. Reba shrieked, and Gaul punched her in the face so hard that her head whipped to the side.

I picked him up by his hair and dragged him off her. He hadn’t seen me coming, and his eyes widened at the sight of me. “Ward,” he whispered before he snarled. “The Uldani know. They’ll come to steal what’s theirs. You’re not evolving. None of you are. You’re too stuck in the past!

“Stuck in the past?” I spat in his face. “We have the future right here.” I didn’t wait for his response. I was done hearing his voice. Forever. I slammed my forearm into his face. Machets out.

The first blow took off his nose. The next poked out an eye. I kept going until his skull was caved in and even then I wasn’t done until I sliced him from guts to throat. That one was for Xavy.

When I stumbled away from Gaul’s body, I lifted my head to look at Reba. She stared at me with wide eyes, cradling a whining Luna in her arms. “Ward,” she murmured as only the heavy breathing in the aftermath of battle surrounded us. Daz held Frankie while Val fussed over Hap.

“My mate,” I said just as my knees buckled and I hit the ground.

Reba scrambled over to me, running a wet cloth over my face, ignoring the bloody black streaks that stained the fabric.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry he got to you.”

“He didn’t get to me,” she said. “I knew you’d come. I knew you’d defeat him. I only had to wait.”

I felt a wet tongue on my face and looked up to see a limping Luna giving me her best welf-grin. “Hey girl. You did good protecting our human.”

Luna licked Reba’s face and then sat on her haunches. I lifted my hand to brush Reba’s wild hair off her face when I felt a strong burning sensation in my wrists. “What the—” I whispered just as golden lines appeared on my skin, running parallel to each other around my wrist.

“Oh my God,” Fra-kee murmured. “Reba, your wrists. The loks!”

Reba stared at her arms in disbelief as golden lines appeared on her skin to match her golden hair. The etchings appeared between the lines simultaneously, a soft peaked pattern like the rolling of waves.

Reba’s eyes were huge and round as she alternated between staring in shock at me and her wrists. “But… but…” Suddenly her eyelashes fluttered, and she raised a hand to her head with a wince. “Wow, I can feel you. You’re there, Ward. In my head. Your aura!” Her smile lifted her lips just as the morning sun crested the horizon and spilled its yellow light into the dark recesses of the cave.

I felt her too, crowding into my head with her excitement. She glowed in the corner of my mind like a beacon of yellow light.

“You’re like a wave,” she said. “Blue waters. My ocean.” Her eyes glazed over as she breathed in deep. “You’re calm now. Steady.”

“You’re excited and pulsing,” I said in awe.

A shadow moved, and I glanced up to see Daz smiling down at us. “Congrats, warrior.”

“How?” I asked.

“Gaul, he struck her. Drew her blood. And you killed him. That confirms the bond.”

“He hit me the day we first met too,” she said.

“So, if I never killed him…”

“I’m not sure how Fatas makes these things happen. All I know is that Sax and I killed the males who made our mates bleed. And that was when the loks appeared.”

I clasped her hands in mine and pressed a kiss to each of her wrists. “This doesn’t change how I feel.” I looked into her eyes. “I was yours before the loks. And I’ll be yours with them. Forever.”

Reba’s eyes watered.

“I’m so happy for everyone involved, really,” Val said hurriedly. “We can throw a ‘You Got Your Loks’ shower later. Right now, can we get Hap and the rest of the males to safety?”

I groaned, feeling the pain in my own limbs. I didn’t even want to catalogue my injuries. The thought of crawling up the cliff face to the surface didn’t sound appealing either.

But then Reba pressed her lips to mine, and her little arms helped me stand. I could do this with my mate at my side.

NINETEEN

Reba

The adrenaline of the battle didn’t wear off for five days.

Ward’s injuries were superficial, and he healed with one vial of medis. Several Night Kings had more serious injuries and were taking time to heal. When the green dust settled, the Night Kings had lost six warriors, which we mourned as a group.

Several of the Red Hands defected to us, having been unsettled by Gaul’s rule. The rest turned tail—literally—and ran with the promise they’d remain in their territory and restructure.

Hap’s injuries were the most serious. Not only was he in pain and had lost use of his left arm, but he was mentally checked out. No matter how many times we all assured him that he hadn’t failed us, he refused to come out of his hut where he was convalescing.

The next day, we hadn’t seen a single bit of the vessel Gaul had hoped to sail home with us stolen females. The Drix told us that a creature called a portcrewller took down the ship, and all I could picture was a giant squid. It made me shudder. Ward had said Gaul should have known better than to travel on the freshas, but his desperation had led him to take a risk. A risk that hadn’t paid off.

“We’ve called Tark and Shep,” Ward said one night as he and I lay in bed. His aura was calm, the surface of his waters barely a ripple. I rested my head on his chest, running my fingers over some of the scars he’d sustained in battle.

I remembered who Tark was—a lonas who was a tech expert with a human wife and a child. I was eager to talk to her about childbirth. “Who’s Shep?”

“He was the healer of Tark’s clavas before he went lonas too. He’s one of the oldest of us, and the most experienced healer. In fact, he taught Rokas everything he knows. Daz wants him to help Hap.”

“He won’t even talk to Tab. They’re like best friends. She’s heartbroken.” Hap was always a bright light at the camp, always ready with a smile and eager to help anyone with anything. I’d never seen someone so selfless. We all hated to see him struggle with his injury and guilt.

Ward pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “I know. We’re all worried.” He reached down and palmed my flat stomach. “How are you feeling?”

I didn’t feel much different other than bloated and tired. Val had a few bouts of morning sickness, but I’d been lucky to avoid that. So far. “I’m good.”

“Your nightmares have stopped.”

Yeah, that had sucked. For three nights, I’d woken up in a cold sweat with the phantom feeling of Gaul’s fingers around my neck. I shuddered. “I hope the worst is over. The girls are getting me through it. They have their own nightmares.” I propped my chin on his chest. “Do you think someone like Gaul is born or made?”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Was he born thinking that violence was the answer and taking something that isn’t his is okay? Or do you think that he evolved that way based on all you’ve been through as a race?”

He sucked in a breath and stared at the ceiling before exhaling with a long sigh. “I think that Gaul wasn’t evil. I don’t know that I believe in evil. Gaul thought what he was doing was the right way. He might have been rude and crude about it, but he thought keeping you and stealing the rest of the females was the way to ensure his blood—which he considered superior to everyone else’s—would live on in the species.”

“The hero of his own story,” I murmured.

“Hero?”

I shook my head. “And what about the Uldani?”

“Same thing, I guess. They think they are doing what is right to ensure the success of their race.”

“So, it’s a problem of who thinks they are more superior?”

“Sure, but don’t we all place our lives and those of our loved ones over others? We all live based on some sort of hierarchy like that. I’d kill a salibri mom in front of her cubs if she were to attack you. Did that salibri deserve to die? No, but she threatened my female, who I treasure most on this planet.” He shrugged. “To Gaul and the Uldani, we are attacking salibri.”

I hadn’t thought of it that way. As much as I considered Barto and Gaul evil, I could see where Ward was coming from.

I plunked my cheek back down on his chest. “That’s too much thinking for me this late.”

He chuckled, and my head bobbed up and down. His hand caressed my hair. “There are plenty of things I’d rather do than think about Gaul.”

“Oh yeah?” I smiled. “You want to bathe Luna?”

“No,” he narrowed his eyes.

“Hmmm? Wash the furs?”

“No.”

“Wash the dinner dishes?”

“What the fleck?” he growled. “No.” With a flick of his tail and a grunt, he rolled on top of me, pinning me to the furs.

I giggled as his head descended to lick a long path up my neck.

“Teasing female,” he murmured as he nibbled on my lobe.

“I’m still not sure what you want to do. Do you want to eat me?”

He pulled back, violet eyes glittering in the moonlight. “I do want to eat you.”

I squirmed at his smirk. “I was trying to make a joke.”

“I know, and for that, I’ll make you come twice on my tongue before you get my cock.”

He did, in fact, make me come twice with his head between my legs before he reared up, flipped me over onto my stomach, and took me from behind until the whole camp heard me scream.

Ward

I sat drumming my hands on the table, concentrating on Daz’s words even though I would have liked to be outside in the sun with Reba instead of stuck in the meeting room dealing with clavas business. She was happy, her aura pulsing a bright yellow light. I imagined her head thrown back in laughter, golden hair glittering in the sun.

“We’ve sent five warriors to Tark’s to help guard his family as they all travel here,” Daz said. “Tark is no longer confident he can protect his family as the Uldani are becoming more aggressive. He will now reside here. Gar is overseeing the construction of a larger hut now for them.” He took a drink of qua. “It will be interesting to have a family in the camp, but I think giving the warriors a chance to see a glimpse of our future will be great for moral.”

“Val is eager to talk to Enna about childbirth,” Sax said.

“Reba too,” I chimed in.

Daz nodded. “Yes, my cora-eternal feels the same way.” He flicked his fingers toward Nero. “Go ahead with your report.”

The warrior tongued his lower lip piercing and clasped his hands together on the table. “I’ve made some progress with the Uldani data chip Sax stole from the lab. I found the information on Frankie and Valerie. To be honest, it wasn’t much. Biological details about blood and body temperatures. Things like that. But I found more and it’s…it’s not good Daz.”

“Not good?” he frowned. “In what way?”

“So, the data chip had information on the entire Drixonian breeding program. I don’t think this was sanctioned by the elite. As in, they didn’t fund this. I’m not sure they would have.”

“When we were held,” Sax said. “They brought in an elite female with her males. They paid to view us. She didn’t seem to know what we were there for. She just thought we were her entertainment.”

Nero nodded. “That’s true. They would charge elite to see the warriors they held, but that wasn’t enough to buy the supplies they need. Most of those had to be obtained off-world—”

“I need the point soon, Nero,” Daz growled, his nostrils flaring.

“They sold us,” Nero blurted out.

The entire room went still as all of us stared at him in order to process what he was saying.

“What did you say?” Xavy’s words were barely a whisper.

Nero licked his lips, face pale and eyes pitch black. His voice shook slightly, but I knew it was anger. Nero was the calmest and most patient out of all of us, but when something angered him, he raged like a bush fire. “Before the Uprising, many warriors who were listed as killed on duty were actually sent to planet Vixlicin to be sold as laborers or gladiators.”

I felt like I’d been punched. All the air left my lungs in a whoosh and I bent at the waist, bracing my hands on the table in front of me as the room swam. “No,” I whispered, imagining proud Drixonian warriors, once the most feared in the galaxy, stuck on that backwater, lawless planet.

When I looked up, Daz had turned away from us to face the wall. Sax looked down at the ground, shaking his head. Gar paced the far wall, and Xavy’s machets were lifted as he bared his teeth, eyes a deep black as he worked to control himself.

Nero looked the calmest, but then I figured he had longer to process this. “Do we know who? Names?” Daz spoke with his back still to us.

“No,” Nero said. “Only numbers and dates. All in all, there’d been a few dozen.”

“They sold us to fund their experiments on us.” Daz’s voice was low and monotone.

“Correct,” Nero answered.

When Daz turned around, his jaw was clenched so tightly I could hear his teeth grinding. He placed his palms flat on the table and looked at each of us. “Not this rotation, and not the next, but before I die, I will personally see the Uldani fall. They will pay for sending our males away. And once we steal back our ships, we will rescue our brethren. They will not be forgotten.” He slammed a fist on the table so sharply that we all jumped. “Who is with me?”

Firm statements of “Me,” and “Us, drexel,” and Gar’s growled, “I,” echoed around the room.

Daz swallowed. “We will plan. In order to defeat the Uldani, we’ll need to unite the clavases, and we all know that will take time.” He turned to Nero. “Keep working on the data.”

“Yes, drexel. There is still more to uncover.”

“Tark can help when he gets here.”

Nero finally let a hint of a smile pass over his face. “That would be appreciated.”

Daz nodded and stood. “Go. Spend time with your friends. Your females. Appreciate what we’re fighting for.”

When I walked outside, I found the females sitting in a group near the edge of the cliff. That seemed to be there favorite part of camp. They’d arranged benches around a small fire pit. There, they talked and laughed and mended clothes and snuck Xavy’s spirits. Seeing them there, hearing their laughter, reminded me exactly why the Uldani had to be defeated.

Reba’s long hair sparkled in the sun. The more time she spent outdoors, the lighter it got, and her color-changing hair fascinated me. She laughed now, her head thrown back, her palm on her flat stomach. I couldn’t wait to see her round with my chit. Even now, Fra-kee carried a small bump. Daz bent down behind her and whispered something in her ear before pressing a kiss to her shoulder.

I stood in place, wanting to touch my Reba but also enjoying watching her joy. Finally, she must have felt my eyes on her because she turned her head and held my gaze. Her smile softened, and she rose. The shirt she wore hung off one of her slender shoulders, and I loved catching a glimpse of her exposed flesh.

She stopped in front of me, and when I didn’t speak, she cocked her head. “Is everything okay?”

I reached for her and drew her against me. “Now it is.”

She wrapped her arms around my waist and sighed. “If I could go back in time, I’d tell baby Reba not to run away from the big bad blue alien.”

I ran my hand down her back. “But I wonder how things would be if we didn’t go through what we did. Maybe Fatas was testing us to see if we were meant to be together.”

“Well we passed that with flying colors, don’t you think?”

“What does that mean?”

She laughed. “It means we showed her we’re a great team.”

I cupped her face and stared down into her green eyes I knew I’d never grow tired of. “You and me. Until the end.”

She stuck out her hand. “Let’s shake on it.”

I smirked, remembering the human custom. Grasping her hand, I shook it before gripping her wrist, twisting it to her lower back and tugging her against me. “I think, with my clever Reba, I prefer a kiss.”

She pressed her lips to mine, her yellow light glowed, and I was home.

Thank you so much for reading The Alien’s Undoing! Want a free bonus story in the Drixonian universe? Get it FOR FREE along with loads more bonus content when you sign up for my newsletter.

Thanks for reading about my Drixonians! I’d love it if you’d consider leaving me a review on Amazon or Goodreads!

If you missed reading about Daz and Frankie, you can get their story in The Alien’s Ransom. Sax and Valerie’s story is in The Alien’s Escape.

Curious about Drak? He and Miranda meet in the next book in the Drixonian Warriors series: The Alien’s Revenge.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I can’t thank the readers enough for embracing this series. I wrote it because it was exactly what I wanted to write and the kind of book I wanted to read. So to have readers respond to this passion project of mine is so special!

Thank you so much to Natasha Snow, my cover designer, who continually inspires me with her amazing work. This series might not have ever gotten off the ground without her amazing covers!

Thank you to Del for the thorough edits. I appreciate you working with me during the craziness that is homeschool and quarantine!

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

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

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Acknowledgments

About the Author