THE ALIEN’S BOUNTY

OUTCASTS OF CORIN

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 © September 2022 by Ella Maven

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

Cover design by Natasha Snow Designs

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

About the Author

Also by Ella Maven

ONE

Lu

With his lips pulled back to reveal wicked fangs, he reached for me with massive five-fingered hands tipped with sharp black claws. Attached to a harness strapped to his back were two sword hilts which rose above his shoulders.

“No!” I screamed as I turned to run away. But he was too fast, too strong, and he had me in his grip before I could take a step. His massive blue-scaled arms circled around me in what felt like a mockery of a loving embrace.

At a hysterical pitch, Maisie’s voice called for me. “Lu! Help!”

I flailed toward the direction of her cries, but the blue alien wasn’t letting go. Suddenly a loud hiss blasted around us and a rush of air whipped at my clothes. The blue alien’s long black hair surrounded me in a swirling cloud. His deep voice rumbled at my back and then suddenly all I saw was sky. My stomach dipped as I realized we were in a free fall.

“Lu!”

The metal bars came into focus in front of me. Just beyond that was Maisie’s pale face pressed against the side of her cage. “Lu?” she called again, brown eyes wide beneath her thick dark bangs.

Groaning, I rolled onto my hip and pushed myself up into a sitting position. My head spun, and I closed my eyes until the nausea stopped rolling in my gut.

“Same one?” Maisie asked.

I nodded. I’d had the same vision about half a dozen times. And no matter how I tried to change the outcome, the blue alien always stole me away from Maisie. Usually my visions rendered me weak and useless for hours, but I always seemed to recover faster when I dreamed of the blue alien. Maybe it was because my mind had seen it so many times already.

Still, my head ached, and my tongue felt dry and swollen. I crawled toward the bowl of water in the corner of my cage. Some insect with four legs and fuzzy green antennae swam valiantly on the surface as it sought its way out of the bowl. I flicked it away and then tipped the bowl into my mouth. After guzzling some water, I swiped the back of my hand across my mouth. I marveled that in my life back on Earth I would have screamed at the sight of a harmless spider but here in this galaxy, I couldn’t have cared less about some foreign bug swimming laps in my drinking water.

Maisie and I were currently held in cages in a dimly lit room somewhere on planet Corin. Every once in a while, we’d hear rumblings like from an aircraft or vehicles, but the windowless room didn’t provide any clues as to our location. We were fed, our waste buckets cleaned, and other than that we were left alone. The aliens who held us now were greenish-gray with V-shaped faces, fangs and claws. They walked on two legs with a loping gait and they seemed to always be… wet. Dripping wet. And they smelled like day-old seafood.

We’d been passed between three species. The first ones who’d stolen us from our camp where we’d been living with four other human females—our friends—were smelly warthog-looking creatures. Then it was the four-armed red aliens who looked straight from hell. And I couldn’t be sure if these wet aliens were our final destination or not.

“It’s been…” I rubbed my forehead. “What… weeks? And no sign of this blue alien. Usually my visions come to fruition within hours or days of me having them.”

Maisie sat back on her heels. “Maybe your alter is changing.”

I shrugged. “Who knows?”

It wasn’t like I knew exactly what my alter was capable of. I wasn’t born with visions of the future. My brain had been experimented on in a lab full of evil gray aliens who wanted to make me into some sort of psychic. My visions were never completely clear, and they lacked context, but I’d never been truthful to the Uldani sadists who put me through hell. I’d acted dazed and vacant, like they’d scrambled my brains, and they’d assumed I was a lost cause.

But I had known the truth—that the other female humans and I who were used as lab rats would get free, and the Uldani would meet their demise. We had in fact escaped, and while I didn’t know the status of the Uldani city where we’d been held, I had seen visions of battle and bloodshed.

I hadn’t told Maisie that the blue aliens had been in those visions too—cutting down the Uldani with blades that emerged from their blue and black scales like something out of a horror movie.

But on this planet, in this galaxy, it couldn’t be assumed that an enemy of an enemy was our friend. My visions weren’t wrong. A blue alien would come for me. And I had to be prepared. I’d never been able to change the events shown in one of my visions before, but I had to do something this time. I couldn’t let myself be separated from Maisie. She was all I had left. Who knew where Tasha was and if Trix was alive? What happened to Amber and Neve? Knowing Tasha and Trix—the oldest of us women—they’d be worried about Maisie and I. We were like their little sisters, and I wished now more than ever that I had my big sisters with me.

Maisie nibbled on a tuber our captors had left us with our last meal. It tasted a bit like a carrot if we closed our eyes. I glanced at my meal but the thought of eating made the bile rise in my throat. I still felt light-headed from my vision.

“What do you think Trix is doing now?” Maisie asked.

The thought of our friends not being alive was something we never voiced. Ever. While they’d also been taken from our camp by the smelly warthog aliens, we always talked about them like they were free and looking for us. It was truly the only thing that kept us going. Well, that and each other’s company.

“She’s found a way to track us,” I said. “I know it.”

But the words we told each other were starting to sound hollow. I wasn’t sure I believed them anymore.

We sat in silence for a while until I couldn’t take it anymore. “Homework.” I blurted out. “No more essays.”

Maisie lifted her head, and I waited for her to blurt out her response. But she remained silent, and her eyes glistened in the low light. When her lips began to tremble, my heart sank. “I can’t do it,” she whispered.

Despair rose over my head like a threatening wave as I watched her struggle with our situation. Her reluctance to participate in our game left me hollow. When life threatened to suck us into oblivion, we would talk about things we didn’t miss about Earth. When Maisie and I had been stolen from our homes, we’d been college students—me in Ohio and her in Texas.

“Come on,” I pleaded.

She shook her head as tears spilled over her dark bottom lashes. I bit my lip as I held in my own cry. Maisie had been slowly slipping away from me, and I couldn’t do a thing about it. Both of us craved physical touch and to see each other but not be able to hold hands or embrace was torture. Maisie was slowly losing it, and I didn’t feel equipped to bring her back.

I could barely hold myself together. If Tasha and Trix were here, they’d know what to do. Instead I could only watch helplessly as Maisie broke apart. I hadn’t known her back on Earth, but she said she’d always been a timid, shy person who suffered from anxiety. Being a prisoner in a lab hadn’t helped that, but since we’d been free, her and I had established a sibling relationship where Maisie came out of her shell. We teased each other, bickered like sisters, and I’d really enjoyed getting to know Maisie once she was out from under the thumb of the Uldani. As for Tasha and Trix, she’d looked up to them like big sisters, but I hadn’t realized just how much she saw them as her anchors. I hadn’t realized just how much I relied on them as well.

Maisie wept silently and I did want I did best. I began to babble to fill the silence. Because anything was better than silence. Even my verbal diarrhea.

“So when we see Trix again, I think I’m going to ask her to teach me how to shoot.” I mimicked shooting a bow and arrow. “You know? I think I could be good at it. I’ve thought a lot about it, and I want to be more useful to the girls. Not just… the one who has weird visions. I think I get in the way a lot and annoy Tasha so I’m committed to learning some skills.”

Maisie still wept but at least she watched me talk and had lost that vacant stare in her eyes.

I tapped my chin. “Maybe shooting isn’t my thing. I could learn how to cook. I know I burnt that deer thing Trix killed but it was still sort of edible, right? Maybe with more practice and a bit of seasoning—”

The metal door opened with a bang, and I snapped my jaw shut with an audible click as five of the green, wet aliens strode into the room. Something was up—they usually only came in twos, and it was only to give us food or clean up after us. We’d been fed recently, so this visit must be for a different purpose. And unlike before, the door stayed open. I tried to peer behind them, but I could only see a large stretch of green dirt.

One unlocked my cage and tugged me out while another retrieved Maisie. As soon as we stood next to each other, I threw my arms around her. Maisie’s thin frame shook in my embrace, and I clutched her tighter. “It’s okay,” I whispered, even though I felt that we were far from okay. “I’m right here.”

Maisie only sniffed, and then something prodded my back. “Move, humans,” barked one of the aliens. They had bulbous eyes, small mouths, and wide slits for ears that wrapped around their heads. We’d found out quickly that their hearing was impeccable.

Both Maisie and I wore translator implants behind our ears as installed by the Uldani, and they were updated to the green aliens’ language. But they spoke to us through small floating devices that hovered in front of their mouths. I stumbled forward as my toe caught on the uneven planked floor. We’d long lost our shoes—I couldn’t remember which aliens had taken them, likely the red ones to deter us from running—but we still wore our pants and shirts. At this point, they were threadbare and filthy. I could barely stand the smell of myself, and I would have torn them off and sat around nude if I didn’t want the little sun protection the clothing provided.

One alien walked in front of us, two on either side of us, and the last two behind us as we made our way to the door and outside. I blinked at the sun and took stock of my surroundings. When we’d first arrived here, it had been dark, but I’d been able to make out large shapes in the moonlight.

Now I could determine we were at some sort of station in the middle of a barren area that was mostly dirt and weeds. Rising out of the ground on long metal legs was a dock of some sort. Parked along a plank, engine rumbling, was an aircraft about the size of a small jet.

“No,” Maisie whispered in horror. And I knew why. If we got on that thing… it was very likely we’d never, ever see our friends again.

“Wait,” I stopped, and the green aliens bumped into me from behind. I stumbled forward as they kept walking as if I was invisible. “Hold on,” I pleaded. “Can you tell me what’s going on? We’re not getting on that, are we?”

“Yes.” One answered.

Goosebumps rose on my arms as my legs turned to jelly. “We, uh, wouldn’t be returning to Earth or anything like that, would we?”

The bulbous eyes flashed. “No.”

“So we’re going to—?”

“Torin.”

My knees buckled, and Maisie let out a wail that cut me to my core. She fell to the dirt beside me but the aliens didn’t care. They only grasped the back of her shirt and dragged her along.

All dignity gone, I clutched at the thin pants of the alien closest to me. “No, you don’t understand. We can’t go back to Torin. We’ll die.”

I thought the muscle movement of his face was a frown, but I couldn’t be sure. He shoved me a few inches with the tip of his boot. “You are sold. It is done.”

I was going to hyperventilate. “Sold to who?”

Before he answered, a shout went up on the dock. “Quick!” boomed a deep voice.

“Please,” I tried again as I shuffled in the dirt. The alien hauled me to my feet and pushed me forward. I stumbled before righting myself. “Please, is there anything we can do to stay here? On Corin?”

But the conversation was over. He no longer even looked at me. I was cattle being pushed to my doom in a slaughterhouse. But I couldn’t go back to Torin. That was where my horror had started. Where the Uldani lived. Where the blue aliens lived.

Adrenaline surged through my limbs, and I whirled around with fists flailing. While Maisie had gone limp in fear, I went into desperation mode. I didn’t know how to fight, but this was just instinct now. Kicking, punching, biting. Dirt swirled around my feet, and I choked on dust. I couldn’t be sure what the wetness was on my cheeks. Tears? Blood? Still I lashed out at my captors as screams rent from my throat. But it didn’t matter. I was outnumbered and outweighed. When my strength flagged, one slung me over his shoulder like I was a sack of flour. A rope lashed my hands and my feet and all I could do was slump in defeat.

The alien carrying me walked up a ramp until we were on a platform even with the aircraft. A back hatch opened, and I twisted to see Maisie being carried inside. Our eyes met, and the desolation I saw in hers nearly broke me. “Mais,” I choked out past a dry throat. I didn’t hear a response.

They carried me through the hatch, and we walked down a narrow hallway. Up ahead I could see a larger room with a control panel that had to be the cockpit of this saucer-like aircraft. I couldn’t see or hear Maisie. When I tried to call out her name, my voice only rasped an intelligible few syllables.

“Calm or we chain you,” the alien said as he opened a door and dumped me in a small room. He slashed my bindings, tossed me a container of water and slammed the door shut.

Panting, I sat on the floor before guzzling some water. The room wasn’t much larger than a walk-in closet, and most of the floor space was taken up by metal chests. After trying to get into a few with no luck, I gave up on the locked chests. All I really cared about was the fact that Maisie was not in here. The room was lit by a row of lights around the border of the ceiling, and the floor and walls were a smooth metal surface.

With my throat now hydrated, I threw myself at the door and pounded my fists on it. “Hey!” I shouted. “Let me out! Where’s Maisie?”

I’d gotten a lot of things in my life by being super fucking annoying. If they planned to take me to—I shuddered—Torin, then they’d spend the entire trip listening to me holler and pitch a holy fit.

The hollow look in Maisie’s eyes haunted me. We took care of Maisie because we weren’t sure of her alter, or if she even had one. Underneath her thick bangs was a scar in the middle of her forehead in a jagged shape. She said it ached and burned sometimes when she was frightened, and since fear was a common state for Maisie, she complained about headaches frequently. I worried what effect that scar would have in the long run. We all did.

I continued to pound on the door and shout. Stopping after a few minutes to get a drink of water, I was about to resume my tantrum when the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I went still, fist raised to pound on the door. Someone was… watching me. And in the silence, I could hear a steady inhale and exhale. Something was in here with me, and it was alive.

A heavy object clinked against one of the chests. Sweat beaded on my temples, and the cold fingers of fear wrapped around my ribs. My legs itched to run, to flee, but there was nowhere to go in this small room.

My own breathing quickly turned to panting, and I couldn’t control the small whimper that left my throat as I turned slowly on my heel. Heart in my throat, I peered at the chests. A dark shadow hovered in the back corner of the room. I felt a shift in the air, and then the shadow moved.

From between two stacks of chests, two purple eyes glowed, muscles rippled beneath blue-black scales, and then the horned alien with the two swords from my vision stepped into the light.

With everything I had left in me, I screamed.

TWO

Lu

The alien darted forward so fast that he was a blur. A massive hand clapped over my mouth, but I continued to scream. The sound was muffled, but I couldn’t seem to stop. In my visions, he’d been scary. In reality he was fucking terrifying. Probably close to seven feet, he towered over me. The hilts of his swords were the size of my forearms, and his bulk nearly took up the whole room. Dark hair hung down to his waist, and a furred cape bracketed his shoulders. How had I not noticed him before? He was huge.

And those eyes, they glowed fiercely, menacingly, as his lips peeled back in a snarl to reveal those wicked fangs I’d seen so many times in my visions.

“No,” I shouted from behind his hand. Despite the ache in my muscles and my near exhaustion, I swung my fists at his torso and kicked my legs at his shins. But I might as well have been kicking a wall for all the good it did. He didn’t even look angrier. He just… continued to watch me with mild disdain. Like I was an ant.

Chest heaving, I tugged on his arm to get him to release my face, but a sound outside drew his attention.

“She screamed,” a green alien said on the other side of the door.

“She’s been screaming,” said another.

“This one sounded different.”

“You check her. I must return to the cockpit.”

Footsteps retreated and as the lock to the door clicked open, the blue alien pushed me against the wall face first. He held me there with a hand on the back of my neck. No one was my friend here, but at least the green aliens had kept Maisie and I somewhat together. This blue one would separate us. Plus, he was fucking scary.

“Help!” I called out just as the door opened.

But the green alien didn’t get very far. With an eerie shring, the blue alien unsheathed a sword from his back and cleaved the green alien in two. Blood sprayed in an arc across the once pristine room, and I couldn’t hold back my scream.

The blue alien muttered something in irritation and then once again clapped a hand over my mouth. The floor rumbled beneath us, and the alien let out a barked sound that could have been a curse. He took a staggering step as the aircraft lurched and the roar of the engines drowned out the sound of my heaving breaths and muffled screams.

Once he got his balance, he hauled me over the body of the fallen green alien and strode out of the room. In the hallway, he took a hard left away from the front control room, but the commotion we’d made had already drawn attention. A shout went up as a green alien spotted us. Soon, half a dozen pounded down the hallway after us.

From behind the blue alien’s bulk, I could see Maisie’s tear-stained face from where she sat in the cockpit. When she caught sight of me, her eyes went wide and she lurched to her feet. “Lu!” She cried.

With the last bit of energy left in me, I went into a crocodile death roll. The blue alien’s hands slipped from my body, and I hit the hard floor on my hands and knees with a painful jolt that clacked my teeth together. But I didn’t care, because I was free. “Mais!” I screeched as I surged to my feet.

It was just like my vision. I wasn’t fast enough. Those blue arms circled around me, and my head spun as reality clashed with my premonitions. “No.” I wept, because just like all my visions, even though I knew what was going to happen, I was powerless to stop it.

The green aliens were bearing down on us, and the blue alien feinted right and then left into a windowless room. A door slammed shut that separated us from the green aliens. “Mais!” I hollered.

I heard five words from the other side of the door that sent my heart thudding to my feet. “She’s a loss. Cut them.”

There was an eerie hiss, a blast of air, and then we were suddenly airborne. I stared up at the purplish sky, tears leaking out of the corner of my eyes as Maisie’s voice rang in my ears. Then the world tipped, and I was facing down, watching as a large stretch of green dirt grew closer and closer. Behind us was a vast ocean of rippling water that stretched to the horizon. Soon, the blue alien and I would be nothing but splat marks on the surface of Corin. A fitting end, maybe. I’d known it would end like this. I just… wanted more time.

The blue alien’s arms tightened around me. Even in our death fall, he wouldn’t let me go. The bastard. A strap tightened around my waist, and with a jerk that nearly snapped my neck, our mad descent stopped abruptly.

My bare feet dangled below me, and farther beyond were the blue alien’s big black boots. I looked up, to see a massive piece of fabric blocking out the sun and sky. A… parachute? This guy had a fucking parachute?

Of course, I’d rather be alive than a Lu-shaped pancake, but I was still stuck to this stupid alien who decided to steal me away from Maisie. I twisted around to get a look at the aircraft, but the alien was too big and bulky for me to see. All I knew was that Maisie and I were going in opposite directions. She was alone on her way to Torin and I was… well, I wasn’t quite sure yet of my current situation. Right now all I could do was float.

“Who are you?” I asked. I couldn’t turn around and face him as my back was strapped to his chest.

He didn’t answer.

“Hello? Do you speak my language? I don’t think I speak yours. What even are you?”

Maybe… just maybe if I annoyed him he’d leave me alone. I might have been physically exhausted, but my mouth never grew tired. Did I want to be abandoned on a part of Corin I wasn’t familiar with? Not really, but it would beat anything some warrior alien species likely wanted to do with me.

“Look, I’m not happy with you. You took me away from the only friend I have that I am sure is still alive. She’s terrified and alone. So the point of this is… what? What do you want with me? Because I’ll tell you right now, I’m not agreeable, and I can be super unlikable.”

He didn’t respond. He didn’t even grunt. I knew he could speak because I’d heard him use a few garbled words. His hands rested on the parachute strings above mine, and I couldn’t get over how long and thick his fingers were. A few thick golden rings adorned his knuckles. One had spikes. I shuddered.

But he hadn’t hit me yet. Even when I screamed, he hadn’t bashed my head or slapped me. He’d only covered my mouth, which hadn’t been very effective. So if he didn’t want to hurt me… what did he want to do with me? Save me for some virginal sacrifice? Because that ship had sailed in high school. I’d be happy to tell him my body count. It wasn’t like it was high, and Jason from the basketball team hadn’t been great around a clit, but I wasn’t a virgin.

Was I some sort of reward? Maybe a gladiator’s prize or a prince’s bride? I didn’t want to be either, and I would show everyone just how annoying humans could be.

The ground drew closer, and I wiggled my feet as I prepared to make a run for it. Would I beat this guy? Likely not, but I wouldn’t be his willing little captive.

As soon as we touched the ground and he loosened the strap around my waist connecting me to the parachute, I took off in a sprint.

Behind me, I heard a groan before there was a rustling of fabric and then the pounding of footsteps. I risked a glance over my shoulder and stumbled as I realized he was already right behind me. A hand closed around my hair and yanked back.

“Ouch!” My back slammed into his rock-hard chest, and the air rushed from my lungs. As I gasped for breath, he spun me to face him and clapped his massive hands on my shoulders.

The top half of his hair was pulled back at his crown, and his black horns jutting from the sides of his head tapered to sharp points. His prominent brow was studded with small nubs instead of eyebrows. In fact, other than the top of his head, he was hairless. Large gold hoops hung from the lobe of each blue ear. His purple eyes were stormy as they glared down at me.

And one thing I hadn’t noticed until now—he had a tail. Thick at the base, it narrowed to a point that was adorned with a studded armor of some sort that reminded me of a stegosaurus. One lash of that thing, and I’d be bleeding like a stuck pig. My situation suddenly felt a whole lot more serious.

He lowered his face inches from mine, peeled back his lips from his fanged teeth, and growled.

My flight instinct kicked in with superhuman strength. I was like those people who could lift a car off an injured person. Wrenching myself from his grasp, I tore away from him. His hand closed around a length of my hair and as soon as I cried out, he let go. I sped up the sandy shore. My toes sunk into the soft ground, impeding my progress, but I refused to give in. I had to get away. I had to survive. For Maisie and for all my girls.

I was nearly at the grass line when my foot sank into the sand deeper than ever. I flailed as the sands seem to cave in like a sink hole. Falling back on my butt, I scrambled away from the hole just as a hissing and eerie clacking filled the air. From beneath the sand emerged a crab-like predator, except this thing was the size of a damn SUV. Sand cascaded off its red-shelled back as it climbed to the surface of the sand on six legs. Four claws the size of a windshield snapped in the air over my head. Long antennae topped with black eyes twisted toward me as the alien crab fluttered its jawed mandibles the size of my arms.

Sand rained down on me as I screamed with every breath left in my body. The crab reared back at the sound, letting out a whistling hiss before its claw swung and closed around my torso. The ragged edges bit into my stomach, and my focus tunneled down to the white hot pain shooting through my middle. My first, and likely last thought, was gratefulness that my visions hadn’t shown me the horror of being ripped apart by massive red claws.

A roar filled the air. Something shiny caught the corner of my eye, but my vision was too blurry to see anything. A horrid, sickening crunch sounded somewhere close and then the tension in the claw holding me went slack. I cried out as I fell to the sand with a thud.

A severed claw lay in front of me, green goo oozing from the amputated end. What the—?

I shook my head and blinked until I could focus on what was in front of me. My heart skipped a beat as the blue alien leapt into the air, two swords flashing in the sunlight, before he landed on the crab’s shelled back and plunged his weapons straight between its antennae eyes.

The creature’s screaming sounded like a thousand dying cats. As the crab flailed in its death throes, the blue alien tumbled from its back and rolled into the sand before coming to a stop on a crouch, swords still poised. Green goo poured from the crab’s head and with one final weakened screech, it collapsed onto the stained sand next to its severed claw.

From my prone position, I stared at the crab as I half expected it to get up and attack me once more. But it remained still. Lifeless. Dead.

The sand stirred near me. Black boots came into view. I lifted my head to take in the blue alien who stood above me with his hand extended. It dawned on me with a bone-chilling realization that I would never survive alone. I wasn’t sure why this blue alien was willing to fight to keep me alive, but I wasn’t stupid. As much as I hated him for taking me from Maisie, he was also my best chance at survival.

THREE

Axton

None of this was going to plan. First, I hadn’t known there were two females. My assumption was they’d all been separated. While hiding as the Horazians boarded the aircraft, I’d only heard one very loud, very shrill female voice which belonged to the little thing currently sitting on the sand with fire in her eyes. I hadn’t intended to take a dive out of a flecking aircraft, but at least I’d grabbed a parachute before we’d been sucked out.

And I hadn’t intended to be stranded on a foreign part of the planet with a vast stretch of freshas making our return home very difficult. What had I been thinking getting on that flecking aircraft? I should have sent a comm to my drexel and then waited for back up. But no, I hadn’t done that, and my pack of supplies had fallen somewhere in the deep freshas during my descent. So now I was without a comm and an implant updater and stuck with a female with escape on her mind.

Really, all of this was above my ability. My main strength was in battle, and even then I was more brute force than actual skill. I wasn’t even sure why I was here other than the fact that I knew I was one of the most expendable of the Drixonian warriors. So I’d volunteered to go on a hunt for the captive females. I hadn’t realized I’d found two until it was too late.

Now this one—I was pretty sure her name was Lu—saw me as an enemy. And maybe that was for the better. It seemed all the rest of my friends managed to find their mates in one of these females. That would not be me, so she could spit and kick and be angry all she wanted. That didn’t change the fact that she was coming with me back to the village where her friends were waiting for her. She couldn’t survive on her own. If it wasn’t for me, she would be in several pieces by now—some in that crickle’s stomach.

She wore no shoes, a pair of threadbare pants and a shirt with enough holes in it to nearly render it useless. Catching my eye on the sleeve of her ragged hem was a dark red stain. I gripped her arm, pulled her to her feet, and yanked up her sleeve as she let out a yelp of protest. Ignoring her panicked sounds and flailing legs, I frowned at a bleeding gash on her arm.

As if she just noticed it too, she fell silent. “I don’t even remember that happening,” she said as if to herself.

My knowledge of humans was limited, and while my friends’ mates were tough, they were still slightly fragile. She couldn’t die from this, could she?

I still had my qua skin strapped to my harness. I untied it and poured the clear liquid over the cut to clean it. After that, I tied a strip of fabric around her arm to cover the cut and keep it free of dirt. While I worked, the female was silent—for once.

When I was finished, she remained watching with a wariness in her eyes. As soon as I let go of her arm, she tugged it to her stomach where she cradled it and took a step back. Her eyes never left me. “Why are you trying to help me?” Then her eyes went wide, and she shouted, “I’m not a virgin!”

I had no idea what a virgin was. I sighed and looked to the sky. This was going to be a long trek home. If I could even figure out how to get there.

“So I guess there’s no point in running.” She murmured to herself. “I’m not fast even for a human and you’re…” she gestured helplessly. “You’re not human.” Her eyes dropped to the dismembered crab claw and she shuffled away from it. “And I don’t want to meet another one of these crab things.”

I wasn’t sure what a crab was, but the crickle were solitary and territorial unless it was mating season. There wouldn’t be another within a rotation’s walk. I let out a huff of air from my nostrils.

She went still and then pointed a finger at me as she said accusingly, “You can’t understand me, right?”

My translator had long been updated to understand my fellow warriors’ human mates. But no way would I let on that I understood what she meant. She’d never stop talking then. So I stared at her as blankly as I could.

“Great,” she muttered with a frown. Her body swayed and dropped to a crouch. From that position she toppled over onto her side. “Fuck I’m tired. And my stomach hurts.” Shoulders slumped, she let her head fall forward.

The crickle had grabbed her around the middle. I quickly dropped down and yanked at her shirt to check her sensitive belly skin. She let out a squawk and tried to bat my hands away, but I ignored her. She fell onto her back as I ran my fingers over the pale skin of her back and stomach. While red and indented from the claws, no skin was broken. She’d bruise, but there wasn’t a worry of infection.

When I dropped my hands, she angrily yanked down her shirt. I wasn’t sure what to do. This human seemed a lot more volatile in mood than the others I’d met. So I crouched next to her and waited. We stared at each other for a long time until the anger had bled from her expression and was replaced by a world-weary fatigue. Something in my chest punched forward at her despair. “I guess I’m stuck with you for now. Just don’t hurt me,” she whispered in a hoarse rasp. Her blue eyes shone in the light of the setting sun.

My cora pulsed. Fleck, was this how it had started for my fellow warriors? I reached out and brushed a spot of wet sand off her forehead but gentle wasn’t something I did, and I ended up poking her with a wayward claw. Yanking my hand away quickly, I hid the offending finger behind my back. She flinched, but then snorted as her lips formed a small smile. “Yeah, you have to watch those things I guess.”

Her gaze traveled to the wrapped injury on her arm. Had I done that with my claws when I’d grabbed her? I lifted both of my hands and studied them for the red of her blood. I found nothing, but that didn’t reassure me that I hadn’t been the one to hurt her.

“Lu,” she said, drawing my attention. I met her eyes as she placed a hand on her chest. “My name. Is Lu.”

She pointed at me and raised the thin strips of hair above her eyes.

“Axton,” I answered.

“Axton?”

I stayed still and silent.

“Axton.” She repeated again. I liked how she said my name.

I peered up at the sky. Soon, the planet would fall dark, and while I was somewhat familiar with where we are, I couldn’t be sure what predators would come out at night. I could defend us, but I didn’t want to be caught out in the open like this.

The lapping waves of the freshas crashed to shore behind us. The green dirt of the plains where we rested was mixed with sand. The air was cooler here, and already the human shivered slightly as the breeze kicked up. I wasn’t sure, but I estimated we were on the second largest land mass of Corin, which was home to the Priedans. They lived in a large mountain range to the north and were extremely territorial. The farther we could get away from the open shoreline of the freshas and under cover, the better.

I tugged Lu to her feet, but her legs buckled. Her small feet looked swollen, and when I picked up her ankle, I saw the sole of her foot was discolored as if blood was close to the surface. She sucked in a pained breath. “Yeah, no shoes is a killer.”

Knowing she could never keep up my pace, I hauled her into my arms. At first she struggled, but then she settled in as I began to run at a fast clip away from the coast and toward a dense copse of trees in the distance.

As I ran, I tried to keep to the shadows of the cliffs and hills around us. Quiet for once, Lu bounced in my arms. Her eyes were open, and while I preferred to remain hidden during the night, I felt it best to cover as much ground as I could. The farther we could make it from the Priedan territory, the better.

I stopped at a stream to fill my qua skin and left Lu sitting on the bank. Standing up, I took a few gulps and was about to fill it more when Lu gasped from the bank, a strangled choke that sounded a bit like, “Ax.”

I whirled around, terrified I’d find her surrounded by enemies but instead she was alone… but she was not okay.

Shaking, teeth rattling, and the whites of her eyes showing, Lu writhed painfully.

“Please, Fatas, no!” I shouted and sprinted toward her. The qua from the stream splashed around me as I tore to Lu’s side. I reached her just as her eyes fluttered, and she fell limp in my arms.

Lu

A dry nose prodded at my arm, and I yelped as I shied away from the touch. A gray and black furred face peered up at me with large yellow feline eyes. The mouth stretched open and a pink tongue flicked out. Furred hands tipped with sharp black claws reached for me, and as I whimpered, the head rose as the creature towered over me. A tail flicked along a stone’s surface behind it.

Where was Axton? I looked around but couldn’t see past the crowd of furry bodies. My eyes settled on a pair of blue hands in chains.

“Axton!” I cried out. I scrambled away but found my space limited. Then the giant bipedal lion opened his mouth and roared.

My eyes shot open. My heart raced, and my head pounded. For a moment, all I saw was black until I could just barely make out Axton’s large head looming over me in the moonlight.

His fingers ran through my hair clumsily, and he was talking in a deep low voice. Suddenly he stopped and bent down until our faces were inches away. Then he rumbled in a surprised tone, “Lu?”

“Yeah, Ax,” I murmured. “I’m alive.” I struggled to sit up, but he held me firm. I realized I sat in his lap, my head cradled on his thick thighs, and the fur cape he wore over his shoulders was draped over me. I settled into the warmth of it. “Um, water?”

I was about to mimic drinking when his water skin appeared in front of my face. Wait, could he understand me? Nah, it was probably just a lucky guess. Sitting up, I took a few gulps of the cool water he’d gathered from the stream and then let my head fall back into his lap.

I hated the visions. They always left me weak and confused. My hands felt cool and clammy when I touched them to my forehead. And there wasn’t a way to explain any of this to Axton. Maybe he’d realize I was damaged goods and wouldn’t try to sell me to anyone.

So far, he’d been… kind. Sure, he’d stolen me from Maisie, but I’m not sure separating us was part of his plan. He seemed to just want to take care of me, from wrapping my injury to carrying me. Other than that initial growl, he hadn’t even been aggressive. What was his deal?

And in this latest vision… I’d been looking for him for protection. For safety. If the lion-looking aliens had him in chains, then he wasn’t working with them. So who were they?

I tried to sit up again, and this time, he let me. I groaned as I rubbed my forehead. My visions were accurate but sometimes hard to decipher. Sometimes I felt an urgency behind them, but this one didn’t feel that way. But really, I couldn’t be sure. All I knew was that I’d definitely be meeting these furry aliens in the future. There was no way to avoid it. It was only a matter of when.

Axton let out a huff, and his jaw ground together. He seemed to be thinking quite deeply and eventually he settled on something, because he positioned me under the cover of a nearby bush and then crouched to meet my eyes. He mimed eating, and then pointed to one of his swords.

“Food?” I asked, using the same gesture.

His lips worked awkwardly, but then he echoed. “Fud.”

I hadn’t even thought of food because I’d been too damn scared up until this point, but the visions always sapped my energy. Food would be great. “Okay.” I nodded.

After another long look at me, he rose to his feet. The metal hilts of his swords glinted in the moonlight. A breeze swirled his hair around his shoulders. His wet pants clung to his legs, revealing every muscular inch of him. I swallowed before looking away. Yeah, that vision messed me up if I was ogling this guy’s legs. “Freaking weird perving on him, Lu. What is wrong with you?”

When I looked up again, he was gone.

Juices dripped down my arm as I chewed the pieces of cut meat that Axton prepared for me. He’d returned with the meat already cooked and smelled like a campfire, so he must have prepared it somewhere away from me. Maybe he hadn’t wanted to make a fire where we could be detected?

By the time he handed me the meat, I was ravenous. He sliced the meat into strips, and I ate three of them before I began to feel full. The meals the green aliens had provided us were small, so my stomach had drastically shrunk since my captivity.

Before I finished eating, Axton settled with his back against a tree, closed his eyes, and…slept. Just like that. He reminded me of my best friend’s brother who was a naval officer and could doze off in any position at any time of day at any temperature. In my room in college, I’d had a fan, a dehumidifier, and a white noise machine.

With my belly full and my body warm with Axton’s fur, I nodded off as well. When I woke up, I didn’t feel very rested, but the sun was rising, and Axton hadn’t changed position. He remained crouched with his back to me, his head on a swivel as he gazed around us. I wondered how long he had slept.

His broad back was corded with muscle, and the tip of his tail remained poised and tensed at his side like a cobra waiting to strike.

“I’m awake,” I murmured, and he glanced over his shoulder before shoving the water skin at me as well as a small pile of brown berries. I’d never eaten them before, and I was too wary to ingest them, so I only shook my head and drank some water.

He pushed the berries toward me again, this time with a grunt, and I pushed them back. “Not hungry.”

After wrapping the leaf around the berries in a little bundle, he shoved them in the pocket of his pants. Then he gestured for me to get on his back. As much as I would have liked to walk myself rather than be carried like a child, the soles of my feet resembled raw meat. I could barely put pressure on them anymore. So I climbed onto Axton’s back. He rose to his feet in one fluid motion and set off in the direction of his choosing.

I wished I had another vision of Axton, one that would lead me to understand what he wanted with me. I wanted to trust him—he’d tended my wounds, fed me, and had been kind—but that didn’t necessarily mean he was my friend.

Guilt rode me hard when I thought about Maisie. She was alone, on her way to Torin, with green aliens who saw us as nothing more than caged pets. And I… well, I had Axton.

The air grew colder as we left the dense cover of the trees and began to ascend in elevation. In the distance, a mountain range topped with white peaks rose into the sky. I shivered just looking at it. Even with Axton’s fur, I wasn’t dressed properly for that type of weather.

“Are we going to those mountains? Because unless you have something else that’s white on this planet, that’s likely snow. I’m not dressed for snow, and even if I was, cold isn’t really my thing. I don’t do cold-weather sports, you know? Skiing was never my idea of a good time. I went once with a few friends and spent the whole time in the lodge drinking hot chocolate spiked with Kahlua. By the time they got back, I was singing Adele karaoke for a bunch of retirees.”

I hummed Someone Like You for a few minutes.

“You might think Adele isn’t your jam, but she’s everyone’s jam. I’d give anything for my Spotify account right about now.”

I let my chin fall onto his shoulder and sighed as I launched into Rolling in the Deep.

We’d made it into the center of a plain with low, tough grass when a whistling sound pierced the air. Axton immediately crouched and dodged left just as a spear point slammed into the ground right where we’d been walking.

I screamed, because I could never seem to keep my big mouth shut, as more spears whistled all around us, hitting the ground in a circle that caged us in. Axton swung me to the ground, keeping a firm hold on my arm, while he unsheathed one of his swords.

Hacking at the spear shafts, he found us an exit, only for it to be blocked by more spears, so many they seemed to blot out the sun, and I felt like I was in the movie 300.

A rumbling roar echoed in the distance and then furred figures emerged from the trees, some galloping on four legs and others speeding toward us on powerful hind legs.

I clutched Axton, heart in my throat, as our attackers’ faces became clear. Gray striped fur. Orange feline eyes. Black claws.

My vision was coming true, and I was helpless to do a thing about it.

FOUR

Axton

The Priedans raced toward us with spears raised and teeth bared. I counted twelve, no twenty-four, no more. Priedans were a territorial species who kept to themselves, and we’d never had bad relations with them—as long as we didn’t touch their land. But that truce was about two hundred cycles old as we hadn’t been on this planet since then. Did the current leaders even know about us?

They didn’t view their warriors as expendable. If I killed one, they’d plug my body so full of spears that I’d be nothing but bleeding holes. And then Lu…

I didn’t know what they’d do to Lu. They’d probably never seen a human.

Despite my instincts screaming at me to fight, I let my swords fall to the ground and encircled Lu with my arms to protect her. I only knew battle. I didn’t know how to communicate and negotiate. How had this rescue mission gone from bad to absolutely flecked?

The Priedans came to a halt outside the circle of spears that encased Lu and I. Some sat on their haunches, but others stood on their back feet as they clutched spears in their front paws. Many wore harnesses adorned with laser guns and sharp blades. They all donned thick swaths of fabric that wrapped around their waists and ended just above their knees.

Dust swirled around the attackers as they went still, until one stepped forward. With a swipe of a massive paw, he snapped a few spears stuck in the ground and stepped into the circle. He was the largest among them, and gray streaked his gray and black fur. One shoulder was mangled with scars and twisted flesh where fur no longer grew. He also wore a simple gold band around his head with an ornate jewel resting on his hairline.

He had to be the quozel, the leader of their pried. The quozel stood as tall as me, and his orange eyes shone with wisdom, experience, and age. They also flashed a warning.

“I heard the Drixonians had returned.” His voice wasn’t much more than a rocky growl. “I expected our truce to be honored as it was signed in blood.”

It had been. Long before I’d been born, the Priedans and the Drixonians fought a bloody battle for control of Corin. When neither side showed signs of winning or losing, the leaders came to a truce to remain on our respective land masses. Drixonians continued their defense of the planet from all outsiders while Priedans kept to themselves.

His gaze shifted to Lu in my arms and darkened. His maned head tilted. “Has this much changed? I didn’t think Drixonians were interested in other species.” Nostrils flaring, he took in Lu from head to toe. “What is this thing?”

Lu trembled and seemed to want to burrow under my scales. By the way she fought me when we first met, I’d never expected her to trust me at all. But now she clearly found me the lesser threat of the two species. I wasn’t sure whether to be offended or honored.

I wished Kutzal was at my side. He was gruff and uninterested in making friends, but he was smart and would know what to say. My tongue felt thick in my mouth, and I swallowed as I sought to communicate what I needed to. “The truce is still honored. I’m not here because I want to be. In trying to save this human, I was launched out of a Horazian aircraft and landed in your lands.” I chewed the inside of my cheek. “I apologize. I only want to return to Granit.”

He didn’t speak for a long moment until finally he queried, “Human?”

“Yes. We mate with human females.”

That must not have been the right thing to say to the quozel. His lips peeled back. “Oh, how far the Drixonians have fallen from She is All.”

My cora stuttered. “Wait—”

“Separate them!” he roared. Paws grabbed at Lu, tearing into her clothes, and her screams ripped apart my insides.

“Don’t hurt her!” I thrashed to reach her, but with my swords on the ground, I was helpless against the pile of Priedan bodies pouncing on me. My hands were bound behind my back with chains and my arms lashed to my torso. Unable to run with my feet also hobbled, I could only watch as Lu was dragged away from me.

“Axton!” she screeched, her small hands reaching for me as she twisted and writhed in the grip of a Priedan.

The sight of her crimson face and heaving chest had me fighting my bonds. “You’re hurting her!” I lurched forward and fell to one knee before surging upward again. I heard a snap as the rope around my ankles gave way. “She can’t breathe!”

Her fists pounded the back of her captor before she reared back her leg and socked him right in the gut. With a grunt, he dropped her on the ground. She didn’t hesitate to spring to her feet and sprint toward me.

She didn’t get far, as another Priedan plucked her off the ground like she was a bloom in the breeze. Her desperate cries spurred me on until a yank on my chain took me off my feet. I hit the ground on my back with a dusty thud. Breath vacating my lungs, I sought to inhale through the pain radiating down my spine. Something cracked in my arm, but I gritted my teeth through the pain and rolled to my feet once again. Even though I was chained, outnumbered, likely moments from being killed, Lu’s cries forced me to keep trying.

“Enough!” The rumbling voice of the Priedan called out. The pried halted and I hit my knees once just as Lu wriggled free of her captor again and launched herself at me. She hit my chest with a squeak, and I grunted at the impact. Her arms wrapped around my neck, and her hair blocked my vision in a sheet of yellow.

As the strands shifted, I saw the pried part in front of me as we were once again approached by the quozel. He held my swords in his hands, and I wondered if this was the moment he’d chop my head off with my own weapons.

Panting, I knelt on the ground while Lu clung to me and stared up at the quozel. He stopped in front of me and leaned on one of my swords. Silence reigned over the pried, and a distant call of a brigger sounded on the breeze.

Finally, he spoke. “I’m Gragic Takir of the Priedans. What’s your name?”

I blew Lu’s hair out of my face. “Axton Viran.”

“Does the human have a name?”

I swallowed. “Lu.”

At her name, her head perked up. She turned slowly in my arms and looked the quozel in the eye. “Please leave us alone.”

He seemed uninterested in her. “I don’t know what she’s saying.”

“She’s asking you to leave us alone.”

His lips quirked. “You would say that.”

Lu wiggled her finger in her ear. “This is so frustrating that I can’t understand either of you.”

I rubbed my cheek on her head to reassure her. “She can’t understand me, but I can understand her. I lost my updater for her implant. If you have one, she can tell you her truth.”

“And who gave her the translation implant?”

“The Uldani.”

He went silent again. Then he turned to the nearest Priedans. “Keep him in chains but his legs free. Let her walk with him until we reach the Pims.” He eyed me one last time and pointed my sword tip in my face. “Act out or touch any of my pried, and I’ll make you bleed in front of your human. Understand?”

I nodded, grateful he hadn’t threatened Lu. Priedans weren’t known for their violence against others, especially species they viewed as lesser. Lu, with her small size and thin skin, wouldn’t threaten them. I, however, was a threat.

Gragic nodded in return and then strode back to the front of the pried. When we began to walk again, Lu raised her fists as if getting ready to warn off any of them from grabbing her. “Don’t touch me,” she hissed at anyone who looked at her. When she realized no one was going to take her away from me, she slowly lowered her fists and jutted her chin out as she glared. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

Her small hand gripped my elbow, and despite her words, I could feel her body trembling against mine as we walked.

Lu

My feet were killing me. The dried grass we walked on might as well have been gravel, as the thick, hard blades dug into my skin. My already ripped up soles protested every footstep. Add in the increasingly lowering temperature, and I could barely feel anything below my ankles but pain. Eventually, they went numb, which alarmed me even more. But I didn’t say a word. Not that saying anything would make a difference as no one could understand me anyway.

I kept glancing at the lion-like warrior who walked closest to me, amazed at his anatomy. He walked upright on two legs, but I’d seen a few run on all fours when they’d first approached us. He wore only a kilt-like cover over his bottom half and a whip-like tail topped with a black tuft of fur waved back and forth behind him when he walked. Fur covered his head and shoulders like a mane, as well as his upper back and chest. Most of them were all built like lumberjacks—not quite as lean as Axton but barrel-chested with thick thighs and massive paws.

They were like humanoid Mufasas but armed like a science fiction Roman army contingent with spears, blades, and the non-Roman-like addition of some curious-looking gun things.

The one caught me looking and flashed a curled lip, showing off a fang the size of something I saw on a saber tooth tiger exhibit. I looked away quickly and smashed my body next to Axton’s.

The chains around his big body rattled, but he remained composed as he strode forward with his chin held high with dignity. His deadly tail curled around my back protectively and the spiked end hovered near my head.

I glanced up at him and he shot me a sideways glance. His eyes flashed for a moment and he dipped his chin once. I could have been reading too much into it, but I swore he was trying to tell me it would be okay.

As we emerged out of a tree-shaded valley which had blocked most of the vision of what was ahead, a series of green mountains rose into the horizon. I gasped at the sight of them, as it was unlike anything I’d seen on Earth. Shaped like nearly perfect cones, their tips were ringed in white clouds. Small holes and ledges dotted the outsides, and as we drew closer, I could see movement as figures peered out to catch a glimpse of our procession. The front cone was the largest, with two smaller ones flanking it.

I shifted closer to Axton, wishing I could melt into his scales. Everything about the massive cones felt foreboding, from the subtle drum beats that carried in the wind to the large stone doors at the base of the largest cone surrounded by stalks of ten-foot-tall black flowers.

I shivered as we walked down a path lined with short stone walls, and I could have sworn I saw a few bones scattered throughout the thick mud holding the walls together. I tried to hold my panic attack at bay as my heart hammered in my chest with the drum beats which now seemed to shake the ground. Where were those coming from?

I peered up a the front cone and finally spotted the source of the drum beats. Near the top of the cone just below the ringed clouds was a notched alcove with a massive upright drum. Beating it with mallets were two lion-like figures. They were two far away to determine gender, but they wore the same kilts and the silver color of their manes shimmered in the sunlight.

Our small contingent halted when we reached the stone doors. Silence reigned, and I gazed up at the still black flowers that were bent inward, partially covering the stone doors. They reminded me of closed tulips, and I wondered what their purpose was. Were the lions into goth aesthetics? The lion leader stepped forward and tossed two small bloody, furry animals at the base of each flower. The animals, about the size of cats, remained frozen in terror. Then one decided to make a run for it. It took one leap but didn’t get far. The nearest bloom suddenly snapped open to reveal rows of jagged teeth. Tear-shaped drops of slimy liquid escaped the inner petals and splashed onto the animal. I shuddered at the creatures pained screeching while its skin and fur sizzled like it had been burned with acid. But the agony didn’t last long because seconds later, the flowers stretched out like a chameleon’s tongue and closed their petals around the furry animals. A smoky stench leaked out from between the seams as the flowers consumed the sacrifices. Then they stretched back upward, this time turning away from the stone doors. The lumps inside the petals moved before quickly falling still.

My heart lodged itself in my throat. The flowers were absolutely not for aesthetics. They were guarding the doors to the lion’s home. And they’d just been given their lunch. Bile rose in my throat, and Axton’s tail braced against my back as if he knew I was one second away from my knees buckling.

The stone doors slid open, and the lion leader walked inside. My feet felt rooted to the dirt. I felt like if I walked in there, I’d never come back out. Why hadn’t my visions shown me this? But there was no other choice. A spear at my back prodded me forward. Axton snarled at the lion behind me and earned a crack on the head.

I stumbled forward. The message was clear. I walked or they’d make me. I walked or they’d hurt Axton.

Worried I wouldn’t see it again, I glanced at the sun one last time. A sob bubbled up in my throat as I stared up at the top of the doors as we entered the cone-like home of the lion aliens.

The inside of the cone was brighter than I thought. Strategically placed holes in the walls let in enough sunlight, and the darkened areas were lit with rocks that glowed. We entered into what felt like a great hall. Large columns held up the ceiling, and etched stone reliefs lined the walls with images of battles and celebrations. And everywhere I looked, there were chains. Metal chains lined the pathway leading to a large throne made of stone links. The columns themselves were wrapped in chains like Christmas lights. The lion leader wore thick chains around his chest and as he approached the throne, a figure stepped out from behind the seat.

She wore only a long skirt with high slits up each side and her long mane was studded with gold links and decorated with intricate braids while a small crown sat on top of her head. Six breasts hung from her torso, and multiple strands of golden chains strategically covered her nipples. Large hoops hung in her triangular cat-like ears and her eyes were rimmed with a dark kohl. She placed a delicate paw on the lion leader as he stepped up to the throne. I expected him to sit down but instead she sank elegantly into the seat while he remained standing behind her.

I swallowed as the leader gestured to the lion next to me with a jerk of his chin and a few guttural words.

A hand clamped on the back of my neck and on instinct, I twisted away as goosebumps rose all over my arms. “No!” I screamed, but it didn’t matter. The clawed paw dragged me away from Axton.

He lurched toward me, eyes firing, as he growled some unintelligible syllables. While he tried to reach for me, his chained arms held him back.

“Axton!” I screamed his name as a furred arm banded around my waist and hauled me in the air.

“Lu!” He called out, and my name in his deep voice sent my heart into overdrive. He managed to take out a few lions next to him with a massive sweep of his tail. But there were too many, and as I was hauled out of the hall and into a narrow tunnel, the last thing I saw was the sight of him buried underneath a pile of furred fists.

FIVE

Axton

“Enough!” Gragic’s voice boomed into the great hall. The furry bodies holding me down went still, except for one near me that landed a sucker punch to my temple. My head rang as the weight on me disappeared. I shook my head, finding myself flat on my stomach on the stone ground with a massive, furred foot holding me down.

Gragic’s eyes fired a bright orange as he peered down at me. “We will not hurt your human, but her stench is offensive to our senses. She will be cleaned and returned to you.”

He spoke of her like a possession. I remained on the ground, spitting angry and poised to leap up and do some damage.

Gragic cocked his head. “Do you understand?”

I gritted my teeth as I nodded.

“Good. Now we will let you stand because we need to have a conversation. I will show you the same respect you show me, so I suggest you act accordingly.”

With a yank on my chains, I was hauled to my feet. The room spun for a moment, and I shook my head to clear the pain of that last blow. Gragic returned to stand beside his mate where she sat on the throne.

“I’m Marrin, the rozel of the pried,” she said. Her voice was deep and refined and her intelligent eyes watched me carefully. “We know of the virus that affected the Drixonians, how the remaining living males traveled to Torin to work for the Uldani, and how you fought to gain your independence from them. We also know of the final battle where you defeated them for their transgressions against you.”

Transgressions was an understatement. Unbeknownst to us, the Uldani released the virus that killed our females and most of our elderly males, used our grief to enslave us, and then performed experiments on many of our warriors. We gained our freedom, but when we found they were kidnapping human females from Earth, we marched on their city and took down the elite. The Uldani that remained alive had committed to a truce and a promise not to hurt others.

I remained silent as nothing she said was incorrect.

Her head cocked. “But we don’t understand what you are doing with this human creature. What is it to you?”

I didn’t want to set off Gragic again, so I thought of my words carefully before I spoke them. “We still abide by She is All, and that applies to human females. We found the Uldani were taking them from their home on Planet Earth with the intention of creating a race of Drixonian and human offspring to work as their servants. We rescued them, and during that we found that Fatas chose them as our mates. Many of the warriors have formed cora-eternal bonds with the human females, and we have settled once again in our former city of Granit.”

Marrin made a soft sound of surprise. “But that bond is rare for Drixonians even among your own race.”

“It is.”

She tapped her chin and the chains dangling on her chest rattled. “And these humans accept the bond?”

“Although fragile, they are an intelligent and resilient species. They have taught us a lot and given us hope, not just for the future of our race but also because the bonds have provided us with purpose again.”

“She did seem to favor him,” Gragic said with a hand on his mate’s shoulder.

Marrin remained silent for a moment before tilting her head up to Gragic. He crouched until her lips were at his ear. She whispered something, and he gave her a nod before stepping toward me with his paw braced on the blades strapped to his waist.

My gaze drifted to Marrin, and for the first time, she seemed to look worried. I braced for violence.

Gragic noticed my stance because he held up his paws palms out and claws sheathed. “I do not approach for violence.”

I still watched him warily, and he seemed to find it slightly amusing as one corner of his lip curled. “I have a mission for you before I let you free.”

“A mission?” I glanced around at the members of his pried lining the great room. “You look like you have plenty of warriors for a mission.”

He flinched as if I’d struck him. “A lot has changed on this planet since you’ve been gone.”

“You don’t have to tell me that,” I murmured under my breath. We’d had enough run-ins with other species who’d taken advantage of our absence and settled on Corin.

Gragic lifted his chin. “Rescue our son, and I’ll escort you and your human back to Granit myself.”

Surprise nearly knocked me back on my heels. “You want me to rescue your son?”

“I have lost many warriors attempting to retrieve Farron, and we are running out of time. I need a non-Priedan to rescue him and return him home.”

I tugged at the chains binding my arms behind my back. “Where is your Farron?”

Gragic swallowed, and his paws flexed at his side. Behind him, Marrin’s head bowed. The Priedan quozel held my gaze solemnly as he said, “He’s being held by the Cors, and if we don’t reach him in a lorotation, then he will be dead.”

My scales rippled and my machets threatened to unfurl at the name we rarely dared to speak. The Cors were an old species of large winged creatures who hibernated for hundreds of rotations, only waking to eat and breed. They usually feasted on creatures from the freshas, snatching them out of the qua with their massive hooked claws. But sometimes for their elders who required more sustenance, they capture larger prey. Cors were dangerous, angry, and hungry. From the apology in Gragic’s eyes, I knew he was aware that he was sending me on a nearly impossible mission that would end in my death.

“And if I don’t return?”

Gragic’s jaw shifted. “Then I will return the human to Granit once we have confirmation you attempted but failed.”

And that was really the final piece of information I needed to make my decision. I had to do everything I could to return Lu to her friends. And if anyone was willing to take on the Cors, it was me. My odds were terrible, but they weren’t zero. All I had to do was try. Even if I failed this mission, I would succeed in my greater one—saving Lu. So I lifted my chin and spoke the words that I would likely come to regret. “I’ll do it.”

Lu

I fought until I was too exhausted to even swing a fist. The lion aliens took me down a corridor before handing me off to a group of female aliens dressed similarly but less elaborately than the one I had seen in the main room. They bore fewer chains, their breasts were smaller, and they wore long skirts with high slits. I could have been wrong, but they seemed younger even though they still towered above me.

With soft paws and sheathed claws, they handled me more gently than the warriors had. In fact, they touched me as if I was a stinky rag—pinching the edges of my clothing with their paw pads and turning away from me with wrinkled noses. They talked amongst themselves in higher-pitching rumblings and purrs as if I wasn’t there, and I got the sense they were talking about me—and not in a nice way.

“Hello?” I called out just to see if they’d respond. The nearest lion made a face like my breath was rank but otherwise ignored me. I breathed into my hand and had to admit I was less than minty fresh.

I was just about to launch into another struggle again to see if I could run back to Axton when the sound of rushing water drew closer. After another turn, we entered a large cavernous room filled with a murky liquid that didn’t smell like water but flowed like it. In the middle of the underwater lake was a platform with a thin, curved wall where the liquid cascaded in a neat sheet. As we stopped along the outer edge of the lake, I looked down into the water. Snake-like shapes about the width of my thigh slithered beneath the surface. I yelped and tried to leap back, but the lions held me firm.

One hissed at me, and I shrieked just as she tossed me onto her back, lowered on all fours, and leaped into the air. A scream bubbled up my throat as the shapes beneath the surface seemed to shadow us. What the hell? Was I going to be some sea-creature food?

We landed neatly on the platform in the center of the lake and the lion dumped me unceremoniously from her back. With a slash of her paws, she tore the clothes from my body and tossed them into the lake. The slithery shapes consumed them quickly and sucked them below the surface. “Hey!” I shouted at her. “What was that for?”

With a wrinkled nose, she leapt back to the outer edge, leaving me there huddled and naked. My nudity the least of my problems, I remained on the platform cold and alone. About half a dozen female aliens remained on their haunches around the edge of the lake watching me. Some appeared bored and licked their paws while a few scratched their ears.

I slowly rose to my feet and took one step toward the edge of the platform. The one who’d left me here hissed and made a motion with her paw for me to step back.

I did. Slightly. But the only other way to go was directly under the waterfall. She motioned for me to back up more. And more. I kept going until I felt the liquid hit my back in an icy spray. I gasped and stopped abruptly but a chorus of growls rose up around me until I continued to step back. The reddish water felt thick like whole milk but it didn’t have much of a smell. The lions clearly wanted me… wet. For what purpose? I had no idea. But my goal was survival and so that meant playing along for now. I could only hope Axton was safe.

I tilted my head back and let the water wash over me. I soaked my hair and slicked the thick liquid over my arms. Beneath me, the dirt and muck ran down my body and spilled into the lake around me. The slithery snake-like animals below the surface swarmed the platform, seeming to feed on the dirt from my body. I studiously ignored them and cleaned my body because if I looked too closely, I was going to have an absolute breakdown from fear. Was this what they wanted? They’d clearly been offended by my smell and appearance, so did they just want to clean me?

Naked and soaking wet but feeling clean for the first time in a long time, I finally stepped out from under the thick waterfall. The lions on the edge of the lake seemed less agitated now. I swore some sighed in relief as they twitched their noses.

A lion jumped from the edge, tossed me on her back, and then leaped back to the edge with the rest of the group. Two came toward me with a skirt that had clearly been slashed at the bottom to fit my short stature. The hem still dragged on the ground, so I rolled the waistband a few times. My hair was oddly mostly dry, as well as my skin. I couldn’t understand what the liquid was that had cleaned me, but I couldn’t deny I was actually clean.

After fixing my skirt, I waited for them to hand me a shirt. Some chains. A mere scrap to at least cover my nipples, but they were empty-handed.

“Do you have… something to cover there?” I pointed to my bare breasts.

The lions ignored me. One yawned. Two others seemed to be involved in a play fight. One chased her tail.

“Hello?” I queried. “So we just go topless here?” They might have been fine with their teats out, but the aliens surrounding me were A-cups. I was… a C. Despite being on an alien planet and eating not well, my breasts had only gone from a D to a C which was total bullshit. Back on Earth I’d contemplated a breast reduction but clearly that had never happened, and now I was stuck in some far away galaxy with big titties.

I braced my forearm over them but still felt oddly exposed. It wasn’t that I minded being naked, but I did mind being naked around aliens I didn’t trust. It didn’t seem like they viewed me as a sexual object, but I couldn’t be sure. And what about Axton?

My nipples tightened beneath my arm as I thought about those purple eyes seeing my bare skin. What would he think?

A cat-like yowl sounded from one of the aliens and suddenly we were on the move, heading back down the corridor where we’d come from. I still had no shirt and no shoes, but at least the ground was smooth and covered in a soft moss which was kind to my savaged soles.

I couldn’t be sure of the direction we were going—back to the main cavern and Axton or somewhere else. Was this where I’d be delivered as a prince’s bride? A gladiator’s prize? A virgin sacrifice? In any of those scenarios, someone was going to be very disappointed. I was not a good bride, a worthy prize, or a virgin. I was a messed up human with a battered body and a warped mind.

Suddenly, I very much missed Maisie.

I was marched inside a room with ceilings about two stories high and walls angled with cutouts that allowed the sun to brighten the room. Ledges all along the edges of the room as well as a stone platform in the middle were covered with what I could only describe as junk. Scavenged scrap. Warped pieces of crashed aircrafts, frayed ropes and wires, and twisted cages. Goosebumps rose on my arms as they led me over to a wall where they tied me to a ring with my hands behind my back. I tugged on the bonds, but they were firm, so I could do nothing but stand there in my bare feet, thin skirt, and bare chest.

I struggled as tears welled in my eyes at my helpless and vulnerable position. What was this place? What did they want with me here? “Please,” I begged the young female lions. “Please don’t leave me here.”

But they didn’t even look at me as they turned on their silent paw pads and left. The door slammed shut behind them, and I was left alone in a room full of junk.

SIX

Axton

“You have until the next meal time to find what you want,” Gragic grunted at me while he stopped in front of a large door in the tunnels of the main Pims.

“Is there one in there?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Maybe.”

The door opened, I was thrust inside, and I heard the bolt of the lock behind me. Growling, head aching, I stared at the mess in front of me.

Junk was everywhere—a collection of scraps and piled on tables and the floor. This was going to take flecking forever.

“Ax,” came a breathy voice. I whirled around to the sight of a bound Lu. She stood along the wall with her arms tied behind her back wearing nothing but a skirt. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her cheeks stained with tears. Her body trembled, but her gaze roamed me from head to toe as if taking an inventory of my condition. Her eyes lingered on the side of my face, and she tugged on her bonds as if wanting to reach out to me. “You’re bleeding.”

I barely registered her words as I sought to check her over myself. While Gragic had said she would only be bathed and unharmed, I needed to see it for my own eyes.

Her chest was bare, and only her yellow hair covered some of her breasts. Her pink nipples peaked out through the strands. When she caught me looking, she seemed to hunch in on herself, and I looked away quickly. The human females I’d met were not known to walk around unclothed. Vinz had accidentally walked in on Trix changing her shirt, and she’d beat him over the head with his own axe handle. Amber, his mate, had found it funny.

So I couldn’t imagine Lu was happy about her topless state. Yet despite that, her first reaction had been to make sure I was unharmed. Me. A Drixonian warrior. While she stood tied and vulnerable in a messy, dirty room that had far more scrap in it than I imagined. The Priedans must have been hoarding this for many cycles with no intent to organize or use it. I couldn’t imagine I’d find an implant updater in here, but I had to try. I could not abandon Lu here without explaining why I had to leave.

But first, I had to find something to cover her chest, and maybe something for her feet too. I noticed a heap of discarded clothing in a pile and clawed my way through it until I found a long length of fur.

When I hurried over to Lu, her gaze was still on my head. “Those jerks,” she muttered. “They hurt you. You’re bleeding.”

I wasn’t concerned with my injury as I stretched out the fur to judge how to put it on her body to cover as much skin as I could. I remembered Amber had arrived at a morning meal one time with a complicated wrap around her chest. I scratched my head trying to decipher how to tie it around Lu.

“Ax?” My name was a question.

I hadn’t wanted to converse with her when we first met, and now I would have given all the claws of my left hand to explain to her who I was.

I eyed the fur in my hands one last time and then looked down at Lu. She shivered slightly and when her teeth clacked together, she gritted them. Of course she was cold. Fleck, I had to get her dressed. I carefully reached out and brushed her hair back off her chest so it didn’t get tangled in the wrap. But I hadn’t thought that through, because now her full breasts were on display. With her hands tied behind her back, her chest was pushed forward, and I couldn’t look away from the hard bud of her nipples.

My cock stirred in my pants, and I whistled out a breath between my teeth at the unfamiliar hardening of my shaft. I’d never felt arousal before—the Drixonian male libido died with our females. But now I understood why my fellow warriors found the human women so enticing. I imagined palming the soft skin of her perfect breast and delivering that hard nipple to my waiting mouth. I’d roll my tongue around the peak and suck until she cried out beneath me. Then I’d slide down to my knees and bury my face between her thighs…

Fleck, I was disgusting. Imagining taking her while she was tied up and helpless in front of me. I ground my molars together and avoided her gaze. I’d stood too long staring at her breasts, so surely she’d caught me. I didn’t want to look up and see the utter disgust in her eyes, but as I wound the fur around the back of her neck, our eyes met.

Her cheeks were flushed with pink, and despite the cool temperature in the room, a drop of sweat slid down her slender neck. She strained against her bonds toward me, and her breasts swayed with the movement. Her blue eyes seemed almost feverish. There was no anger or disgust. If anything she looked… as aroused as I was.

A scent perfumed the air, something delicious that I wanted to wrap my tongue around, but as quickly as it came, it was gone. I had to have imagined it.

I quickly crossed the fur below her throat and then spread each end to cover her breasts. The back of my knuckles brushed a nipple, and a bolt of heat slid up my arm. Her breath hitched. A sound, something like a groan, filled the air between us and I couldn’t tell if it came from her or me. Swallowing, I focused on my task. The quicker I finished, the sooner I could step away before I lost all control and ravaged her. I wrapped the fur around her back, crossed it and brought it forward again where I tied a tight knot below her breasts. By the time I finished, I was panting, hard as a rock, and salivating.

I whirled away from her to face the opposite wall, but I couldn’t get the sight of her heated blue eyes out of my mind or the way her breath caught in her throat when I brushed her nipple.

Without looking back, I busied myself looking for a pair of shoes. The Priedans didn’t wear them, but most of the items in this room were scavenged, so hopefully they had something that would work on Lu.

I grunted in triumph when I found a pair of Rogastix boots. They were a large species but their kits were about Lu’s size. I turned back around and approached her. Kneeling at her feet, I lifted up one of her ankles and slid it into the shoe. Luckily, the fit was snug.

I palmed her other foot, and the soft skin of her ankle made me pause. I ran my thumb beneath her prominent bone there, over the delicate tops of her toes, and brushed a knuckle on the arch of her foot. I couldn’t seem to help myself, and was rewarded with a soft groan that was unmistakably Lu.

A scent wafted in front of my nostrils—the same delicious aroma as before but stronger now. I lifted my head and glanced up at Lu just as she brushed her thighs together. The enticing scent filled the air and sent my mind into a tailspin of need. My head fell forward, my nose pressed against the front of her skirt, and I inhaled on a rumbling growl just as the beginning vibrations of a prush began to emanate from my chest.

Lu

Only the thin fabric of my skirt separated my bare pussy from Axton’s nose and mouth. With one hooked claw in the slit of my skirt, he could shove it aside and be right there. Smelling me. Tasting me. A purr-like sound rumbled from his chest and the vibration sent me on another plane of need.

My head spun as I imagined how he’d hook one of my legs over his shoulder and lap at me with that long blue tongue. The edge of Axton’s nose brushed my clit, and his eyes fluttered closed. He was smelling me. Like some sort of primal animal. And he seemed drugged by the smell of my wet pussy. I made a strangled sound in my throat as a drop of my arousal slid down my inner thighs. I’d never felt this turned on, this heated, like I would come out of my skin if I wasn’t touched.

Straining against my bonds, I clenched my damp palms. What was happening to me? How had I gone from terrified and vulnerable to getting wet over this big blue alien?

“Axton,” I whispered. I wasn’t sure why I said his name. I didn’t even know what I wanted.

His eyes fluttered open, appearing glazed and unfocused. But with a shake of his head, his pupils cleared the haze. With a quick flick of his wrist, he shoved my foot into the shoe and leaped back.

His chest heaved, and my gaze roamed down his chest to the obscene bulge in his pants, like he had shoved a damn baseball bat in there “Holy shit,” I murmured.

“Fleck,” he barked out like a curse and whirled away from me. His arm moved as if he was adjusting himself and for some reason that turned me on even more. But my mouth had gone dry. My legs trembled. My shoulders ached.

His head tilted back as he looked at the ceiling. Suddenly his body tensed and black blades emerged from the outside of his forearms and from the top of his head down to the base of his tail. He turned toward me, eyes flashing.

I wasn’t scared. I should have been, and the Lu of two days ago would have been absolutely terrified. But I wasn’t afraid of Axton. Every instinct in me screamed to trust him, that he would care for me. He was bleeding from the head and a little battered but he’d taken the time to dress me. He’d covered my chest as if he knew I was uncomfortable.

He stalked toward me, reached behind my back, and with a jerk of his hands, the bonds around my wrists went slack. As soon as his blades appeared, they sank back beneath his skin.

The rope fell to the floor at my back, and I rubbed out the soreness of my wrists. The bonds hadn’t been too tight, but the soft skin was still chafed. “Thank you,” I said even though he couldn’t understand me. I pointed to my chest. “For the wrap.” Rotating my hands, I added, “and for this.”

But he wasn’t even looking at me. He was over in front of a table digging through the piles and piles of junk with a grim line of determination to his brow. I stepped over next to him, trying to forget about that weird moment of aroused insanity. I plucked at a warped metal box. “So… are we looking for something? Why are you even in here with me? They made me bathe in this weird lake with snake things in the water and then tied me up. I figured they saw me as junk so they left me as junk.” I glanced up at the window cutouts. “Are we going to MacGyver our way out of here?”

Of course he didn’t answer me as he continued his search. Wandering over to another table, I pawed my way through it even though I had no idea what we were looking for. I didn’t think a hooked ladder or climbing gear was going to magically appear.

Underneath a pile of rusted wires was a shape that caught my eye. I’d seen it before. It was a translator implant updater. This one looked a little worse for wear and about three models ago. I was about to toss it back into the pile when Axton appeared at my side like a ghost and snatched it from my hand.

He fiddled with it, smacking it a few times and making a series of frustrated grunts. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s working.” I said, strolling away to examine another table. “It’d be nice to talk to you, but I guess it’s not meant to be.”

The room went silent, and when I turned to see what Axton was doing, I found the updater gun pointed at me. I had to cross my eyes to see it. “Wait, what—?”

He shifted it toward my ear, pressed a button, and pain shot through my head like laser fire. I gripped my skull and screamed. I’d forgotten what it felt like to have the implant installed, and the updater pain wasn’t much better. But the pain faded quickly and when I blinked my eyes open, I found myself on my knees, hands cradling my head, and Axton crouched beside me.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

I stared at him, barely able to believe that I could understand his words. “I-I’m okay,” I answered.

His face creased in an almost smile. “You can understand me?”

I nodded, still in awe. “C-can you understand me?”

“I can.”

“Does it not hurt when you update your implant?”

He shrugged. “The pain is minimal.”

Well, mine had felt like my skull was on fire. “You didn’t even make a sound.”

“I didn’t update mine now.”

I felt like we weren’t having the same conversation. “What? Why?”

He answered calmly, as if this wasn’t brand new information. “My implant has been updated to your language for cycles now.”

I blinked. “I’m sorry… cycles?”

“Rotations around the sun.”

“Years?” I screeched. “You’ve been able to understand me this whole time?”

He nodded and then cocked his head. “What is an Adele?”

I collapsed onto my butt as I stared at him. “Oh my God. Oh my God.”

He reached for me. “Are you hurt again?”

I batted his hand away. “I’m not hurt, but why didn’t you let me know that you could understand me. That would have changed everything!”

“What would it have changed?”

“J-just…” I sputtered. “I don’t know. Everything!” Then I narrowed my eyes as a thought occurred to me. “Wait. Why do you know my language? Have you met humans before?”

This time he did sort of smile, and the expression brightened his face into something alien-handsome. “Many.”

The door swung open with a bang, and Gragic strode inside with two of his warriors behind him. He barked some words at Axton, who rose to his feet and nodded. “I found it. I still have to update her implant to your language yet.”

Gragic growled a few more words and gestured toward me, like get to it.

Axton pulled me to my feet and murmured a soft, “I’m sorry,” before firing the gun at my ear again. This time, I braced for the pain and managed to stay on my feet as my brain scrambled for a moment.

“Is it done?” Gragic asked.

I looked at him and nodded. “It’s done.”

Gragic looked down his nose at me before holding out his hand for the implant updater. “I guess I should understand it too.”

I should have been offended he called me an it, but honestly that was the least worst thing the lions had done since I’d arrived here.

He barely flinched when he held the gun to his ear and fired. His eyes went unfocused for a moment before he looked right at me. “I see you smell less offensive now. In fact, there’s a new scent in here that is somewhat appealing…” he sniffed the air, his nose drifting toward where I’d been tied up. Immediately, heat flooded my face. Did he smell my arousal too? This was mortifying.

Axton let out a low growl and stepped in front of me. “I need time to speak with her.”

Gragic thankfully stopped sniffing the air and leveled a glare on Axton. “That should have been completed already.”

“I had to find the updater.”

“That’s not my problem.”

Axton made a displeased sound. “I never saw the Priedans as cruel.”

Gragic nostrils flared, and he bared his teeth. “Then you have until after the next meal. Do not take my kindness as weakness.”

Axton clenched his fists. “I’d never dare.”

“I’ll send a few guards when the meal is ready,” Gragic said. “Use your time wisely.”

He turned on a heel, his guards at his back, and left the way he came. The door slammed shut and a click of a bolt signified they’d locked us inside.

Axton braced his hands on his hips and looked up to the ceiling with a long sigh. Then with heavy footsteps, he retreated to a darkened corner, sat on the ground, leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes.

Closed his eyes. Just like that. Like I wasn’t even there. “Um… hello?” I called into the silence.

He cracked an eye open before answering me. “I need to get some rest. We can talk when I wake.”

Some rest? My nerves were on edge and I felt like I was going to crawl out of my skin. Sure I was exhausted as hell too, but I was also terrified for my life. “I’m sorry to postpone your nap, but could you let me know what that was all about with the lion guy?”

“Gragic.”

“Huh?”

“He’s Gragic, quozel of the Priedans.”

None of those words made sense to me. “Okay?”

“I have a deal with him. They need me to complete a mission and once I do, they will give us safe passage back home to Granit.”

I frowned. “Us? Home to Granit?”

“Yes,” he said quickly, almost impatiently. His eyes were open now, and he didn’t look happy about it. “That’s the Drixonian city.”

He was confusing me. “What’s a Drixonian?”

“Me.” He puffed out his chest. “I’m a Drixonian.”

“Okay but… I, um, do appreciate you and all, but that’s not my home.”

“It is.” He nodded very emphatically.

“No,” I said carefully, not wanting to anger him. “I’m from Earth. And my home now is with my other human friends—”

“I know,” he cut me off. “Waiting for you at Granit are your friends.”

I raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Um, I highly doubt it—”

“Tasha, Amber, and Trix miss you,” he said. “And I was sent to bring you home.”

For once in my life, I was rendered speechless.

SEVEN

Lu

My mouth flapped open and closed like a fish out of water. And the most infuriating thing of all was that Axton had closed his eyes again. Like this talk was over. And it most definitely wasn’t over. As soon as I found my voice again, it was on. Gathering my anger in my chest like a fireball, I stomped over to where he leaned against the wall. One of Axton’s eyes opened to a mere slit, and he had the audacity to sigh.

“I understand you are a creature of few words,” I said with my fists balled at my sides. “But I’m going to need you to find your latent conversation skills and give me an explanation. How do you know Tasha, Trix, and Amber? Are they okay? What have they told you about me?”

He blinked at me lazily. “Which question first?”

“Oh no,” I wagged my finger at him. “We’re not doing this by question and answer. You’re going to have to explain from the beginning providing your own details and anecdotes.”

A flair of panic flashed in his eyes before he scoffed. “They can explain when you see them again.”

“What?” I shrieked, and he winced at the sound. I kept on going. “How do I know I can trust you? What if you have them locked up somewhere?”

“Locked up?” he frowned. “Their mates would never allow it.”

“Mates?” My voice reached an octave I hadn’t thought possible.

Axton stuck a finger in his ear with a grimace. “I cannot handle these sounds you are emitting.”

I nudged him with my foot. “There’s more where that came from. Start talking.”

His nostrils flared as he slowly rose to his feet and stretched his hands above his head like he had all the time in the world. “I will condense.”

“Fine.” I spat.

He pointed to himself. “Drixonian.”

I braced my hands on my hips. “Yeah, I got that already.”

He gestured to me. “Human.”

“Uh-huh. I’m very aware.”

“We are stronger than humans. We rescued Tasha, Amber, and Trix from the Wutarks and Joktals. Human females are attractive to some Drix, and some Drix are attractive to human females.”

Because I was angry, I snorted and crossed my hands over my chest. “Sounds impossible.”

His lip curled. “I agree.” But his heated eyes fluttered down to my chest. I ignored the way my nipples pebbled beneath the wrap, and I pretended like I couldn’t remember the brush of his fingers on my sensitive skin.

“Anyway,” he continued. “Tasha, Amber, and Trix mated with some warriors from my clavas—we are called the Lone Howl. They are happy and cared for. They want you back and…” he squinted. “The other two.”

“Maisie and Neve.”

“Sure.”

“Maisie was on that plane. You separated us.”

“I was not aware she was there until it was too late.” He swallowed and his eyes softened a fraction. “I am sorry for that.”

“So you’re not going to give me away to some king as a bride or award me to some gladiator as a prize or use me for a virgin sacrifice?”

“You make a lot of mouth sounds. I would not award you as a prize.”

I ignored the insult. “So you’re telling me that you Drixonians are just nice. And your blue women are okay with you bringing home humans and diluting your gene pool.”

“We have no Drixonian females,” he said before pointing to the floor as if that wasn’t a mic drop. “Can I get some rest now? I have a large task ahead.”

“You have no females? How do you procreate?”

“We had females. They died from a virus. We have not procreated for many cycles. However, some Drixonians have had offspring with their human females.”

My knees nearly buckled. “How have my friends already—?”

“Not Tasha, Amber, or Trix,” he frowned at me like I was a moron. “The drexel of the Night Kings clavas has two chits with his human mate.”

My head was spinning. “You’re telling me there are more human females mated to your Drixonians than just my three friends?”

He nodded. “Over twelve.”

Reeling, I braced my hand on the wall to keep from falling over. I took a few deep breaths. “And they live at this place called Granit.”

He nodded before sliding back down to the floor. “Rest now.”

“I’m sorry, but this is just… a lot to process.”

He settled in with his arms crossed over his chest and his head leaned back against the wall. His eyes fell closed. “You will get back to them. But first I must complete the mission for the Priedans and to do that, I need some sleep.” He yawned. “They will come for us when the next meal is ready.”

I sank down on the floor next to Axton as he once again closed his eyes. I watched him for a while and marveled when his breath evened out in mere seconds. I couldn’t understand much of what had happened in the last day. Had it only been a day?

Axton had gone from sniffing me like a bloodhound to dropping the mother of all bombs into my life to sleeping. Like a baby. I knew I should be sleeping too, but I was too keyed up. My friends were… mated to aliens? It was nearly impossible to believe. But I couldn’t find it in me to heavily doubt him. He hadn’t hurt me. He’d protected me. And now he vowed to get me home to my friends. And I had to admit… even if they were locked up in a dungeon somewhere—call me crazy—but I wanted to be locked up with them.

I just couldn’t picture Axton being cruel. The rage and desperation with which he’d called my name when the Priedans dragged me away wasn’t fake or rehearsed. And the relief that had been etched on his face when he saw me again… I just couldn’t believe he would hurt me.

Maybe I was crazy or maybe I was just desperate to trust someone who was stronger and more capable than me. I’d been treated like property from the moment I’d been dropped into this galaxy from my abductors. But Axton hadn’t made me feel like that.

“Are you really going to be my hero?” I whispered.

His nose twitched, but he didn’t wake.

“Please be a hero,” I said into the quiet room. “Because I really, really need one.”

Axton

Lu’s head rested on my thigh. Her hair lay splayed over my groin, and a knot in the yellow locks near her temple caught my attention. With the tip of my claw, I tried to detangle it, but only succeeded in snagging her scalp. She wrinkled her nose and let out a little grunt of protest.

Huffing quietly to myself, I snatched my hand away. What was I doing? Why did I care if she had knots in her hair? She settled quickly, and her lips fluttered with a long exhale. Her skin seemed so thin it was nearly translucent, and her cheeks were blotted with a pink flush. I hadn’t paid much attention to her looks at first as she’d mostly been a dirty, bedraggled human, but now I begrudgingly had to admit she was… pretty. So pretty that I’d nearly lost my head there for a moment when I’d smelled her. But fleck, for such a small thing, she had large breasts and rounded hips that beckoned for me to touch and lick and squeeze.

My cock once again stiffened in my pants, and I sucked in a breath as I shifted. With my movements, the soft strands of her hair brushed over my hard shaft. Flecking thing had a mind of its own. I needed thicker pants to contain it. Maybe chains. A cage.

I sighed and thunked my head back against the wall. It didn’t matter. I’d leave her soon anyway, and I likely wouldn’t return. She’d get home safely to her friends and make a life for herself. I’d be but a distant memory for her soon, and it was better that way.

I wasn’t like the other Drixonians. I was of the Lone Howl clavas and I was an outcast. I had the brand on the back of my neck to prove it—burned there when I was a chit and my father deserted the Drixonian army. Punishing the sons of deserters was an effective deterrent for most of the army, but a few—like my father—did it anyway. Because of that brand, I would always be lower class. Less desirable. Sure, some of my fellow outcasts in the Lone Howl had found mates, but they were the exception. I would not be, no matter how much Lu smelled and looked like a flecking dream.

I wasn’t like Kutzal, or Lukent, or even Vinz. They had skills and smarts and charm. I was just killing time until Fatas decided I’d been alive long enough.

Lu shifted in her sleep, and I looked down to find my claws once again tangled in her hair and combing out the knots. I growled to myself and shoved my hands behind my back. Stop touching her! She might be tempting, but she talked a lot and she couldn’t fight a sand crickle on her own. I tried to talk myself out of liking her with more examples, but those were her only two negatives that I could think of for the moment. I’d work on more later, when I was on the mission and trying to convince myself I’d done the right thing for us both. After all, we weren’t cora-eternals.

The door to our junk room opened with a bang, and I tensed. Lu groaned and her eyes fluttered open just as two Priedans strode inside. “The meal is ready,” one announced. “Follow us.”

Lu ran her hands through her hair as she struggled to sit up. “What’s going on?” she murmured in a rough sleepy voice that made my cock twitch.

“Food.” The one word came out gruffer than I intended.

She shot me an annoyed side eye. “Full sentences, maybe?”

“Food is ready,” I countered.

“Good enough,” she sighed.

She rose to her feet and wobbled for a moment. I steadied her with a hand on her elbow. Her gaze strayed to where I gripped and I thought she’d shrug me off, but instead she glanced up at me, all blinking wide blue eyes. “Thanks.”

“Let’s go,” barked one of the Priedans.

“Yeah, yeah, hold your horses,” Lu muttered.

“Horses?” he responded.

She waved a hand at them as she crossed the room. “It’s an expression. Hold your… spears then.”

His eyes narrowed in confusion. “I am holding my spear.”

“Oh jeez, never mind,” she snapped.

The Priedan bristled at her tone, and in two strides, I stood between her and the Priedans. I had already made a note she was cranky when she woke up—enough to mouth off to two warriors who could snap her in half like a twig.

“Tell her to watch her words,” he growled at me.

Lu jerked indignantly. “I’m sorry—”

I cut her off with a squeeze to the back of her neck. This time, she did try to shrug me off, but I was stronger. Through gritted teeth, I told the Priedan, “She’s just hungry.”

“Hey!” Lu protested.

I leaned so only she could hear my next whispers. “You can say whatever you want to me, but while we’re under the care of the Priedans, please try to be pleasant.”

“Pleasant?” she hissed back. One of the Priedans slammed his spear butt on the ground in warning, and she made a face before her cheeks flushed a deeper red. Her eyes lowered, and her shoulders slumped as the fight faded. “Fine,” she said in a small voice. “I am really hungry. Sorry.”

My grip on the back of her neck went from a warning to a soothing caress. I didn’t like Lu without the fight in her. She’d been fighting since we met, and oddly enough I already missed her smart retorts. Maybe I was really hungry too and that was why my thoughts were off-kilter.

The Priedans turned to leave, and Lu shuffled beside me. I squeezed her neck before letting my hand drop, but she didn’t acknowledge the gesture. Her hands smoothed down her skirt and she fiddled with the tie of the chest wrap I’d given her before petting the dark fur. When she lifted her head again, her gaze seemed less stormy.

And for some reason, I felt the need to say to her in a low voice, “You’re doing good, Lu.”

Her head shot up, and her eyebrows lifted toward her hairline, but then her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Yeah, I don’t know about that. Clearly I’m just good at annoying everyone and nearly getting a spear point up my ass.”

“You stick up for yourself,” I grunted. “Nothing wrong with that.”

Her gaze stayed on me a long time after that, but I didn’t say anything else. I’d said enough.

The Priedans led us down a series of hallways and up stairs until we reached a large doorway where sunlight streamed onto the ground. As we reached the edge, a natural bridge became visible which led to a large valley alongside the back of the mountain cone. In the valley, dozens, maybe hundreds of Priedans lounged around on rocks and hammocks amid leafy trees. The ringed white clouds were closer now, and I could see more platforms and valleys etched into the mountain side as it rose to the sky.

Carcasses roasted over open fire pits, and platters of raw meat lay on rock tables. Fighting over what looked like a liver, a few younger Priedans snarled at each other. One eyed Lu and licked his lips before an older female Priedan cuffed him on the head. After that, he ignored us, but I didn’t take my gaze off him for a long time. Despite the plentiful meal, a somber tone hung over the Pried, and I expected it had to do with the missing son of their quozel.

What caught my eye after that was a Priedan wearing a long robe made of linked chains sitting under the shade of a tree. They remained still and silent, but their orange eyes glowed as they surveyed the valley. Suddenly, their head tilted to me, and our gazes locked. I refused to look away, even as my cora beat rapidly and my scales seemed to itch around my machets. The robed Priedan nodded at me once, and then closed their eyes.

“Drixonion!” I turned to find Gragic walking toward us with his mate at his side. I kept a firm grip on Lu’s arm as he approached. He pointed to a platform nearby with plates heaped with meat. “Sit, please.”

Surprised by his manners, I sat and tugged Lu down next to me. She stared at the meat with large eyes, and I noticed why moments later. The meat was raw. She leaned in to say something to me, but I was one step ahead. “I’m sorry, but the human can’t ingest raw meat.”

Gragic stared at me blandly. “And you?”

“I can, but I prefer not to.”

His long tongue licked his nose. “Well, if it’s your last meal, I guess I should feed you something you prefer.”

Lu elbowed me in the side. “Last meal?”

“He’s just talking,” I muttered back. Which wasn’t really a lie.

Moments later, cooked meat still sizzling from the fire was placed in front of us. My mouth watered at the smell. I’d been hungrier than I’d wanted to admit. I thought I’d have to slash the meat into smaller strips with my claws for Lu, but she was already holding the large slab of meat in both hands and tearing into it with her blunt teeth. She struggled a bit, but in the end, she was able to chew and swallow with satisfied little grunts. I ate quickly, barely chewing.

Gragic plunked a beverage in front of me, and by the smell, I could tell it was fermented. It didn’t smell like a spirits I’d had before. When I sipped, bubbles fizzed on my tongue and despite the coldness of the brew, the liquid felt warm sliding down my throat.

I glanced around, seeing that only Gragic and a few of the more decorated warriors enjoyed the drink. My suspicion grew. “What’s with the hospitality?”

Gragic watched me over the rim of his cup before he plunked it down on the table with a satisfied exhale. He licked a drop of the brew from his chin. His mate’s tail swept the ground as she tapped a claw on the table.

Gragic’s nose twitched. “I’m hopeful of your success.”

I laughed bitterly. “That makes one of us.”

“Wait, what?” Lu cut in.

I wiped away a drop of juice that snuck out the corner of her mouth as I thought about what to say. “It’s a difficult mission.”

Her eyes turned to Gragic, and the fire returned to her eyes like a smoldering ember as her back snapped straight. “What exactly is this mission? How long will it take?”

Gragic’s posture stiffened, and I knew this topic made him uncomfortable. I got the sense he didn’t like that he had to ask for any help at all outside of his Pried. “Our son has been taken.”

Lu held her arms out at her sides as she gestured to the warriors around us. “And none of these jerks can go get him? You have to send him?” She jerked her thumb toward me. “If you won’t send any of your men, your son must not mean a lot—“

“Enough!” Marrin shouted as she pounded her thick paw on the table.

Lu nearly toppled to her back in shock as her face blanched white. Rolling her lips between her teeth, she braced herself against my side as I readied myself to fight.

Marrin’s chest heaved as she panted and the chains on her neck rattled. “Our son means the galaxy to us,” she said, gaze steady on Lu. “We have lost many of our Pried in an effort to rescue him. And even more—” her voice cracked, and Gragic palmed the back of her head in a comforting gesture. Her paws flexed on the table. “I have never been more heartsick.”

Lu sucked in a breath as she bowed her head and murmured a sincere, “I’m sorry.”

“You did not know so I will not hold your words against you,” Marrin said, even though Gragic absolutely looked like he wanted to send Lu flying off the mountain. “Our greer told us that a foreigner would be our hope, and when you arrived, they said you will be the catalyst for us getting our son back.”

“Who’s the greer?” I asked, even though I had an idea already.

“Them,” Marrin pointed to the robed Priedan who remained still with their eyes closed.

“So, wait,” Lu said softly. “Is this mission really difficult?”

“Our greer did not say the Drixonian would be successful.” I could see Marrin choosing her words carefully. “Only that he would be influential.”

Lu wasn’t satisfied by Marrin’s answer “So if Axton isn’t successful, you’ll still let us go home?”

Gragic spun his drink cup. “If he’s not successful, we will still take you home.”

Lu’s browed furrowed. “But why not him?”

“If he’s not successful,” Marrin said in a firm, but kind voice, “Then that means he is dead.”

Lu’s raspy breathing was deafening in the pregnant pause after Marrin’s words. “I’m sorry, what? Dead?”

“He’s either successful or he’s killed by the Cors.” Gragic’s voice was a growl. “Those are the only two options.”

Lu’s head spun so fast to face me that I thought she pulled a muscle. “Did you know this?” Her voice had raised a few decibels and some of the Pried had begun to fall silent and look at us.

I swallowed. “I did.”

Her eyes bugged out. “And you didn’t tell me? You just… just… slept?”

“I told you I needed sleep—”

She reared back her fist and punched me in the shoulder. Hard. It didn’t hurt, but I was surprised at her strength. “You asshole!”

Marrin leaned toward her husband. “That word isn’t translating.”

I’d heard Tasha use that word a time or two toward Kutzal. “It’s not nice,” I said to Marrin.

“Look at me!” Lu demanded.

Fatas help me, I didn’t want to. But I did, meeting her eyes and seeing the broiling emotions plain as the sun—anger, betrayal, and worst of all fear.

“Lu,” I placed my hand on the back of her neck. “The priority is getting you home.”

“Why am I the priority?” She looked at Gragic and Marrin helplessly as the panic began to cause her lips to tremble. “What am I missing here?”

“She is All,” Gragic muttered after taking a long sip of his drink.

“What?” She snapped.

He didn’t correct her on her tone. “Your male here. He’s a Drixonian.”

“I know that already,” she said dismissively.

“But do you know what that means? What he stands for?”

She eyed me, nostrils flaring, before shaking her head. “No.”

“Drixonians originally lived on this planet in a society ruled by their beloved females. She is All, they proclaimed as their females were prized. Until a virus killed them, but the Drixonian males still believe She is All, right?”

I nodded, cora pounding as he summed up our tragic past in few words.

“So he will do anything for you. They all will do anything for their females. That includes you, even as a human. He’ll fight for you and die for you. Because you’re his purpose.” His gaze shifted to me and held mine.

Lu’s hand touched my arm and the warm puff of her breath blew on my chest. “Axton?” She was closer now, but I refused to look at her as I held gazes with Gragic. “Is that true?”

“Yes,” I answered as an invisible heavy weight settled on my chest. I hadn’t wanted her to know this much about me. “It’s all true. Every word.”

Lu opened her mouth to speak but before she could get a word out, she began to shake. Panic seized me with icy fingers as Lu’s eyes rolled into her head, and she went limp in my arms.

EIGHT

Lu

The smoke was so thick I could almost pet it, like a big gray tomcat. But the cloud was choking me, cutting off my air, and through it all, I could hear my name in a deep, raspy voice.

I couldn’t figure out who was speaking, but all I knew was that I wanted to get closer to the one who spoke. I needed to see them.

Stumbling on uneven ground, I dodged flames and steaming rocks that burned my skin. “Where are you?” I cried. “Axton!”

The only response was muffled jargon, as if he was underwater.

I wasn’t supposed to be here. I was supposed to be gone, running away, getting safe. But something held me back, something important, something I needed like air.

Suddenly a blue face streaked with oily black liquid appeared in the smoke. The smell of burnt flesh stung my nose. Was that my skin or theirs?

“Why are you here?” The fanged mouth yelled at me in a pained growl.

“For you,” I answered. “I’m here for you.”

My head pounded, and I felt a trickle of something wet slide down my cheeks. That voice was back, but less broken now. Stronger. Healthy.

“Lu!”

The voice dug into my brain like a spike, and I groaned. “Stop yelling.” I didn’t think any sound came out of my throat, so I tried again. “Please. Stop yelling.”

“Qua!” The voice shouted. “Give me qua!”

Something was held to my lips, and I instinctively swallowed the water. Finally my eyes opened and despite my blurry vision, Axton’s face came into view. The nubs on his brow were all clumped together with his pinched expression. I reached up to try to smooth them out, and he flinched when I touched him.

“Lu? Are you okay?”

I rubbed my forehead as my stomach rolled. Please don’t throw up all that meat. Please don’t. “I will be. Fuck, that one was a doozy.” I blinked and turned my head to the side to see Gragic and Marrin standing over me. They wore matching expressions of concern, and I thought that was kind of sweet they gave a shit about me. Or maybe they just knew they needed me to hold over Axton’s head. If it wasn’t for me, he could tell them to take their dangerous mission and shove it.

A blanket lay over me, woven with a type of fern. I guessed the Priedans weren’t huge fans of using furs as clothing. Was that why they kept glaring at me? Was I covering my boobs with Cousin Vinny?

I had to make some sense of the vision before the entire thing evaporated from my mind. The voice had belonged to Axton. He’d been hurt. Dying, maybe? And I’d been there. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

I stared up at Axton. I couldn’t be sure of my vision’s purpose. But the thought of Axton going on this mission alone without me filled me with a choking dread. I licked my lips and swallowed. “I have to go with you.”

Axton blinked at me, before his lips pulled back in a snarl. “Absolutely not.”

“I have to go,” I repeated. “I can’t explain why but… I have to.”

“You just passed out, you can’t—”

“I didn’t pass out.” I pushed at him and struggled to sit up. My head swam, but I managed to get upright with the help of the table.

“Then what was that?” Axton snapped.

I didn’t know what to say to him. How much did he know about us? “Do you know anything special about Tasha, Amber, and Trix?”

He looked even more confused. “What does this have to do with anything?”

“Just answer me.”

“They are stubborn human females like you,” he growled.

I pressed my lips together. They must not have disclosed all their secrets. I didn’t blame them. “Look, I’m not a normal human, okay? I just… know things sometimes, and…”

My voice trailed away as the clinking of chains echoed across the valley. I glanced up to see the Priedan who they’d called the greer gliding toward us on four silent paws. Their gaze remained on me, and their eyes seemed to glow a bright orange from within. Once they reached our table, they sat on their haunches. In a deep voice that felt one step above a lion’s growl, they rumbled. “She must go.”

Okay, so this was not who I thought would be my ally. “Uh, yeah,” I echoed. “See? They think so too.”

Axton did not look pleased, at all. He turned a furious gaze on Gragic. “What’s going on?”

Gragic held up his paws, palms out. “I have no part in this. Our greer only repeats what they see. And it sounds like your human does too.”

“She must go,” The greer said again, this time speaking directly to Axton.

And with that, they returned to their spot under the tree. After turning in a circle on the matted grass, they settled down into a ball like a contented housecat.

Axton remained furious. “I don’t know what’s going on, but—”

“The greer is right,” I interrupted him. “Please, Axton.”

“No,” he barked at me, and his eyes took on a wild, panicked desperation. “You can’t. This is a mission that will only end in death and you cannot join me.”

My heart pounded so hard I thought it’d fly out of my chest. I thumped the table with my palms. “Then why are you willingly going?”

“For you!” he shouted, spit flying from his fangs. “I’m going so you can go home!”

“Maybe I don’t want to go home at the expense of your life!” I shouted back. “Did you ever think of that, you big dumb asshole?”

His nostrils flared. So did mine. We were in a standoff, and I didn’t care that he had a tail, horns, black blades under his scales, and weighed three times the size of me. I was going on that damn mission if it meant chaining myself to his back.

Axton’s expression lost some of its fierceness. His clawed hands clenched on top of the table. “I can’t allow it,” he said in a pained voice.

I nearly caved, but the images from my vision were still fresh in my mind. I shook my head. “It’s not up to you.”

“Your friends will never forgive me if something happens to you.”

“This is my choice.” I found a grit in my tone I hadn’t known was there. “My choice, Axton. Please respect it.”

His eyes closed, and he leaned his head back as his shoulders slumped. I knew I’d won, but the victory didn’t feel triumphant. I worried my instincts were wrong, that I was only leading both of us to our deaths. What if I was more of a burden and less of a help? How could my presence be an asset? But I couldn’t deny the way my heart pulled me in his direction. This was something we had to do together, and if I was wrong, then it was my choice.

I turned to Marrin, trying to appeal to her as another female. “If something happens to me, and you ever speak to my friends, please let them know this was my choice.”

Marrin held my gaze solemnly. “I will.”

Axton drank the rest of his brew and slammed the cup onto the table. “Then you must let us rest here for the night in a proper room and be given supplies at sunrise for our mission.”

Gragic opened his mouth, but Marrin placed a paw on his arm. “We will agree to that,” she said, and her gaze shifted to mine. I swore I saw a flash of guilt before she ducked her head.

I wasn’t hungry after that. Axton ate with jerky motions and refused to look at me as he muttered under his breath. Doubt plagued me as I watched the rest of the Pried continue the feast. Gragic ate too while Marrin picked at her food with a sharp claw.

When I hadn’t touched my food for what felt like an hour, Marrin beckoned to me to stand. “I’ll show you to your room for the night.”

I hoped it wasn’t the junk room again, and I wanted to say something snarky, but I couldn’t find it in me. I worried that the minute I opened my mouth I’d burst into anxiety-ridden tears.

“I need to speak with the Drixonian,” Gragic said.

Marrin nodded and motioned for me to walk back into the mountain tunnel. When I glanced back at Axton, he didn’t meet my gaze. I didn’t like the defeated slump of his shoulders.

I followed Marrin down a series of tunnels and stairs before she stopped in front of a solid door. With a flick of her paw, she opened it, and I followed her inside. The room wasn’t large, and it was mostly dominated by a massive bed palette hanging from the ceiling by chains. Seriously, they loved their chains here.

Marrin lit two lanterns hanging on the walls, which illuminated the space. The floor was made of a colored tile that was warm beneath my feet. A pitcher of water and a basin sat in the corner near a ringed curtain that hung from the ceiling from… yep, chains.

“This is where you can relieve and bathe yourself,” Marrin pointed to the curtain. “I trust you want to sleep, so I’ll leave you to it.”

She took a step away as I blurted out, “What’s with the chains?”

Her head went up, and her eyes widened in surprise for a moment before her paw drifted to caress the chains on her chest. “They are a symbol that our Pried is linked. Everyone means something to us. No one is expendable. We are stronger together.”

I remembered how angry she’d been when I’d suggested they send their own warriors to rescue their son. “I see.”

She turned fully to face me and lifted her chin in the air. Her whiskers twitched. “I realize we are asking a lot of you and the Drixonian.”

“You think?” Well, apparently I did still have snark.

“There are those who you care about, right? Who you’ll do anything for?” Marrin took a step closer to me. “That’s how I feel about the Pried and my son. I’ll do anything for them. I know I’m using you and the Drixonian to get what I want, but I’m a mother and a Priedan first.”

She was a desperate parent who wanted to rescue her son while also ruling as the queen of this colony. To her, I was an expendable human, and Axton was just another blue-scaled Drixonian. I didn’t like her, but I also understood her. I couldn’t deny that I would consider sacrificing a stranger for Maisie’s life. For Trix, Tasha, Amber, and Neve. I remembered their screams when our camp had been invaded. I pictured that last time I saw Maisie’s face, and the tears pricked the back of my eyes. “I’m not judging you,” I said. “I don’t like your choice, but I understand you will do anything to get your son back.”

“Are you a mother?”

“No.” My voice cracked. I would have given anything to hug Maisie and to feel Tasha’s fingers comb through my hair. I wanted to eat Trix’s meat she roasted over the fire. I wanted to fall asleep on Amber’s thigh. “I’m not a mother. But my friends are my family. If they were in danger, I can’t say I wouldn’t make the same choice if I was in your position.”

“I do feel guilt,” she said, and I was surprised at her honesty. “But not enough to forsake my son. Not after I’ve already lost so much.” I sensed there was more to that last statement, but when she didn’t elaborate, I let it slide.

“We will do our best to bring him home.”

Her eyes glowed. “And then we will bring you home.”

My throat closed up, and I knew I was about two seconds away from bursting into tears. So I only nodded. Maybe Marrin knew I was on the verge of a breakdown, because she ducked her head and said in a soft voice, “See you at sunrise,” and walked out the door. As soon as it clicked shut behind her, I began to sob.

I did want to go home and see my friends—more than anything. But I couldn’t ignore the feeling that my only purpose wasn’t to get home. I had to go on this mission with Axton, even if it scared the hell out of me.

Axton

My stomach threatened to dispel its contents, and I didn’t understand. The meat wasn’t bad. The brew wasn’t strong, and I had drank plenty of qua. But my scales itched, my head ached, and I wanted to vomit. Had Gragic poisoned me?

I eyed him as I placed a hand over my stomach.

He lifted one brow at me. “Sick?”

“Did you taint the food?”

He lifted one lip in a sneer. “Absolutely not. You’re just nauseous over the human.”

That didn’t make sense. Whatever I felt had nothing to do with my digestive tract. “That’s impossible.”

“You’re worried. That can make you feel ill.”

“I’ve never felt this before.”

“Have you ever been this concerned about something?”

I tried to remember. I’d been so young when the virus had taken our females, and at the time, I hadn’t realized what was happening and what was to come. But now… now I was very much aware of what was to come, and the thought of Lu at risk sickened me.

I flinched at my thoughts. Could my feelings actually manifest physically? What the fleck was that about?

“You get it now?” Gragic was smug.

“Shut up,” I growled at him as I took another sip of my brew.

By now most of the Pried had finished eating and had retreated inside of the mountain. The sun was nearly gone over the horizon, but the greer remained sleeping under their tree as flickering torches lit the valley. I remained at the table with Gragic and fretted over whether Lu was all right. In a way, I hated her for making me worry. And for upsetting my stomach.

Gragic drummed his claws on the table. “Do you have any questions?”

“How long have the Cors been out of hibernation?” They typically only stayed awake for less than half a cycle. Their sacrifices were kept alive until they returned to slumber.

“As I said before, we have about a lorotation before they sleep again.”

Fourteen rotations. Not a lot of time to take on a Cors clan.

“I don’t make this request lightly,” Gragic added.

“Request?” I barked out a sour laugh. “This is a demand.”

He shrugged. “And you’d do the same to me if your female was in the clutches of the Cors.”

“She’s not my female.”

“She’s a female. That’s all that matters to you.”

He didn’t phrase it as a question, and he didn’t need to. I’d throw him off this mountain if it meant saving Lu from a splinter. I was over this conversation and just wanted to see Lu and rest. It wasn’t that I required more sleep than other Drixonians, but sleep was a way for me to pass the time until my next mission. This was the first time I didn’t want the time to pass quickly.

I ground my teeth together. “I’d like to check on Lu now.”

Gragic nodded. “I’ll take you to her.” He led me back inside the mountain to a solid door. Inside was a small room and in the center was a bed platform hanging from the ceiling with chains. Flames flickering from lanterns on the wall highlighted a lump under a woven blanket. At the sound of my footsteps, a head of tangled hair rose from the bed. Lu looked at me with alert eyes.

“I’ll leave you to rest,” Gragic said and before I could utter a word, he closed the door and locked it behind him.

I stood awkwardly just inside the door. I hadn’t expected to be left in the same room as Lu. But as I turned around to see her pale face in the large bed, I had to admit that I was happy she remained in my sight.

I walked over to a pitcher of qua and poured a cup for myself. As I drank, Lu sat up in the middle of the bed with her legs crossed in front of her. She plucked at a few loose strands on the blanket and watched me from under her lashes. “Are you mad at me?”

I finished my cup of qua and placed the cup near the pitcher. “No.”

“No?”

I didn’t repeat myself.

Her face flushed. “Are you frustrated with me?”

“No.”

A muscle in her jaw ticked. “Do you have any feelings toward me?”

I understood what she was asking—if I held a grudge over her insistence on coming with me. But the open-ended question made me feel like squirming. “I’m not having feelings right now.” There, that wasn’t really a lie. “If anything, I’d like to strangle that greer for opening their mouth.”

Her eyes narrowed. “But they only spoke on what they believe.”

I scoffed. “And I’m just supposed to take their word for it?”

“Sometimes, people just know things,” she said.

I shook my head. “Well I don’t believe that.”

She sighed. “Look, I’m sorry. I promise not to be useless. If you give me a few directions, I can maybe even be useful.”

I sat on the edge of the bed and bent forward to clasp my hands between my knees. “I need you to know what we’re getting into.”

“Okay.” She nibbled her lip.

I explained about the Cors, and how the mission would be dangerous.

“So how big are these things?” she asked.

“Maybe five times the size of me.”

“Oh damn,” she whispered with a wince. “And they have wings?”

“And claws and lots of teeth.”

“Cool, cool,” she nodded while her hands fidgeted. “No problem. Just alien dragon things. Do they have a weakness?”

“Fire.”

“Fire? So they aren’t dragons.”

“I don’t know what dragons are.”

“They are mythical winged creatures that breathe fire.”

“Breathe fire?” I frowned. “How does that work?”

“I don’t know.” She scoffed. “I didn’t write Game of Thrones.”

“What?”

“Nevermind. So these Cors things don’t like fire.”

“They have thin bones so they can fly, and the oil of their feathers is highly flammable.”

“So the Priedans don’t have a rocket launcher? Flare gun? Anything like that?”

I rubbed my forehead. “Gragic told me the methods they used already to try to rescue his son. Cors are fast and live near water for this very purpose. You have to corner them where they can’t get away and light them on fire.”

She grimaced. “Sounds horrible.”

“So is being eaten alive in a sacrifice, and that’s exactly what will happen to their son in fourteen rotations.”

Lu gagged and placed her hand over her mouth. “Alive?” she said in a muffled voice.

“One piece at a time.”

Face paling, she gagged again. “How old is their son?”

“Still a juvenile. Nearly an adult. Cors prefer younger meat.”

Her body bucked and she waved her hands in the air. “Oh God, stop. Jeez. My bad for asking.” Glaring at me, she turned and laid her head on a pillow. “Now that I have that image in my head, I guess I’ll go to sleep and have nightmares.”

I slid off the bed and the chains rattled as the pallet swayed. “I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“Why?” She shot up again, hair in a disarray around her face.

I retreated to a corner of the room. “You can have the bed undisturbed.”

“But it’s huge? This is bigger than a king.”

“What does that mean?”

“Axton, it’s stupid for you not to sleep here. There’s no way you get proper rest on the ground.”

“If I’m sleeping, all my rest is equal.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Okay, how’s this? I don’t want to sleep here by myself.”

I pointed to the corner. “I’ll be right—”

She pounded the blanket with a small fist. “Get in the fucking bed, Ax.”

I blinked at her tone. She seemed to realize her anger and slowly withdrew and unclenched her fist before smoothing the blanket with her palm. Her lashes fluttered as she said in a sweet voice. “Please sleep in bed with me.”

She smiled at me, and I nearly lost my balance. The blanket had fallen to her waist, and she still wore the fur wrap I’d tied around her chest. The fabric had slipped lower to reveal the valley between her breasts.

Lu talked a lot. She infuriated me. And she was stubborn. But she’d been burrowing under my scales with her inner fire and bravery. And fleck it, I couldn’t deny that I was attracted to the little human. If I got into that pallet with her, I wasn’t sure how my brain and body would react. I had to warn her. She wanted to make her own choices, and I’d let her have one more. “What if I told you I’m having feelings about you now?”

Her smile faded, and her eyes widened as the flames flickered across her dark pupils. Her fingers curled into the blanket as she swallowed slowly. “Feelings?”

I nodded.

She spoke slowly. “Are these negative feelings?”

I shook my head.

Another swallow. “Positive feelings?”

“Depends on how you look at it.”

Her hand slid up and settled at the base of her throat. I wondered how she’d taste there. My head swam as I remembered that musky scent she’d given off when she’d been aroused. Could I smell it again now or was I imagining it? I took one step toward her, and her chest hitched as her breathing sped up. “Do you still want me in bed with you, Lu?”

Her gaze dipped lower, to the bulge in my groin that I could feel growing with every passing moment. Fatas help me, but I wanted this stubborn human. At first, she’d been nothing but a parcel I needed to retrieve, but she refused to remain a quiet charge. Stubborn, feisty, and not afraid to face what terrified her, Lu had wrapped her slender fingers around my cora.

She remained frozen, and the fingers around my heart turned cold. She’d reject me now, and I’d come back to my senses. Maybe I’d finally pushed her too far, and that was for the better. I’d nearly forgotten what tomorrow would hold.

Slowly she leaned forward onto her hands and crawled out from under the blankets. I hadn’t realized she wore no skirt, and only a small scrap of fabric covering her cunt. Her scent perfumed the air as she rose up to her knees and reached out one hand. Flesh pebbled, lips trembling slightly, she reached out a hand. “Come into bed, Ax.”

NINE

Lu

This was crazy. I was crazy. I knelt on this monstrosity of a bed hanging from the ceiling wearing nothing but underwear and a fur boob wrap beckoning this giant blue alien into bed with me.

I’d put him through the wringer the last few days. I knew I wasn’t an easy person to deal with. But even as he frustrated me, Axton had continually respected me. I’d never forget the way he covered my chest when I was scared and vulnerable. I loved the way he walked slightly in front of me like a bodyguard and stood between me and what he considered my biggest threat.

He’d gotten on his knees for me, and ever since then, I’d wondered what he’d do to me if he got in that position again. I could still feel the nudge of his nose at my clit. He respected me enough to let me make my own choices. Including now.

His fingers flexed, and his claws sheathed. “You need to be sure, Lu.”

“I’m sure.”

“I don’t know—” His voice cut off abruptly and he swallowed. A strange vulnerability passed over his expression. “I don’t know how I’ll act once I’m in that bed with you. I’ve never touched a female before.”

My arm lowered slightly just as my thighs clenched. This huge mountain of a male was a virgin? “But you want me?”

His voice came out on a choked rasp. “More than I thought possible.”

The gasp left my throat just as he lunged toward me. I saw a long tongue and the flash of something metal before his hands gripped my face and suddenly that tongue was on me, lapping at my lips and sliding into my mouth. I couldn’t do much but hold on as he tasted me with a voracious hunger that left me only wanting more.

As suddenly as he’d grabbed me, he pulled away. I gasped as his knees hit the tile floor beside the bed pallet with a thud. With his thick arms, he yanked me off my knees, pulled me to the edge of the bed, and buried his face between my legs.

I found myself staring at the ceiling while he slid the gusset of my panties aside and attacked a whole different set of lips with his tongue. My inner thighs brushed his head, and I scrambled for something to hold onto before finally settling on the shaft of his horns. He let out a growl when I grabbed them, but it was a heated sound of pleasure instead of a warning.

I was pretty sure my panties had been torn off because I no longer felt them tugging at my waist. Glancing down, I found a shredded piece of fabric on the blanket that looked like it’d been mauled by an animal.

And Axton… he was lost. Eyes firing like purple flames, he swirled the tip of his tongue around my clit while plumbing it with a thick thumb. I bucked into his mouth on a cry, and that only seemed to spur him on. With a loud groan, he plunged his tongue into my entrance and began to make that sound he had before—the vibrating purr—that sent me into orbit. “Ax!” I screamed as I used his horns to tug him closer to me. It was too much and not enough all at the same time. The heat of his breath flushed over my whole body, and the obscene sounds of him lapping at my pussy filled the room. His strong fingers gripped my thighs, and just when I didn’t think I could take anymore, he glanced up my body and met my gaze.

Nostrils flared, eyes lit from within, he was a wild madman on a one-way mission to make me come my brains out. The orgasm hit me like a gunshot, firing through me as I screamed out the pleasure-pain all while thrusting against Axton’s face like a mustang.

He kept at me the whole time, swirling a thumb on my clit all while twisting and turning that tongue inside me like it had its own mind.

When the sensation got to be too much, I pushed him away weakly. He let out a sound of protest, but moved back an inch as I sought to bring feeling back into my noodle limbs. His face was shiny with me, and I’d never expected that to be hot, but on Axton, it was nearly enough to send another shudder down my spine.

He rose slowly above me, and when his groin came into view, my mouth dropped open. The bulge looked painful, pressing against the seam of his pants so hard that I imagined he had an indent in his skin.

He took a step back, and I managed to get an arm under me and reach for him. “Come here.”

This time he didn’t argue. In fact, he looked a little dazed. He took an awkward step forward and then half-fell, half-sat in the bed like he didn’t know how to move with the monster in his pants.

Braced on his elbows on his back, he stared down at his pants before looking up at me with wide eyes. “It’s never been like this before.” He nearly whimpered. “It’s so hard, Lu. Hurts.”

This massive alien warrior admitting something hurt stole the breath out of me. I slid a hand up his thigh, and he shivered. “I know,” I said softly. “I can make it not hurt.”

“I don’t—” He seemed almost terrified. “I don’t know what to do.”

“You said I make a lot of mouth sounds. But my mouth can do other things too.”

His nubbed brow twitched as I unclasped his pants while I knelt at his one hip. As soon as I pulled down the placket of his pants, a pale blue cock emerged from his pants like an X-rated jack-in-the-box. When I wrapped my hand around it, my fingers didn’t touch, and I swore it pulsed in my hand. The tip leaked profusely with a clear, sticky liquid that dripped down his shaft to pool in his hairless groin. An odd lump protruded from the base at the top of his cock and when I prodded it, he moaned.

I’d seen him fight a car-sized crab and he’d barely breathed hard, but now his chest heaved rapidly, and he panted like he completed a triathlon. Hell, I was worried he was about to have a heart attack. His gaze was on my hand around his shaft and then he let out a groan while another gush of liquid slipped down his shaft.

“Lu,” he whispered in a daze. “Please.”

Right, get to the blowie, Lu. Damn, it’d been a while since I wrapped my lips around a cock, but I didn’t have a big mouth for nothing. I knew how to use it for more than just annoying people.

I lowered my head and lapped at the clear liquid. I braced myself for a bad taste, but instead it was relatively flavorless, if not just a little sweet. Emboldened, I slipped my lips over the bulbous blue head of his cock and sucked.

Axton howled. I hadn’t thought it was possible for him to make that noise, but his crooning exclamation of intense pleasure made me smile around the massive shaft in my mouth. Look at me, Lucia Woodrow, turning an alien putty in my hands. And not just any alien, but Axton, this big silent warrior who somehow found me something to cherish.

I couldn’t go down very far on his shaft before the head of his cock hit the back of my throat, but I used one hand to slick him up with his own liquid and my saliva. Soon I had a rhythm going—suck, slurp, pump, suck, slurp, pump—and Axton’s hips were writhing beneath me. I felt a hand smooth down my back as I knelt at his hip, facing his side, and then his palm cupped the bare cheek of my ass. Just as I was about to suck, a thick finger plunged into my pussy, and I screamed around his cock. Gagging, I pulled off, but he didn’t relent, now using two digits to finger-fuck me. His thumb brushed my back entrance, and I saw stars.

Still slick from his tongue and my own orgasm, I thrust back into his fingers, and he let out a rumbling growl. Glancing up his chest, I found his gaze on my undulating body. “You like me touching you?” He gritted out through clenched fangs.

I nodded and hummed around his cock. He barked out a groan and bit the air with a snap. “Your mouth. I’ll never complain about it again.”

I pulled off with a pop. “Is that right?”

The dark veins in his neck stood out stark against his pale blue scales. “Make me come, Lu. I want to see you swallow me down.”

He scissored his fingers inside of me, and my eyes rolled back into my head. I plunged back down on his cock just as he flicked my clit. I tried to hold back, but the orgasm snuck up on me. Clenching around his fingers, I moaned as I sucked on his blue head and bucked back into his hand.

“Oh fleck,” he groaned just as his shaft pulsed in my hands. “By Fatas!”

He erupted in my mouth, and I hadn’t expected that geyser. He came like a hose, and I tried to swallow his release, but only got in a few gulps before I had to pull off and let the rest spurt out onto his stomach, my face, and all over his thighs.

Wiping my face with what was left of my panties, I finally came back into myself, more aware of my waist-down nudity and the fact that I’d just sucked off a blue dick in the most intense sexual experience of my life. But now… what happened? I sat up slowly as Axton stared at the ceiling. I was sure any minute now he’d come to his senses and retreat to the floor with barely a word. He’d just come for the first time, and he’d just made a female come for the first time. The air in the room chilled me, and I shivered as I grew self-conscious. Feeling fragile, I looked around for my skirt.

A blanket settled on my shoulders and I was tugged down onto a hard chest. The scales beneath my cheek felt smooth and covered with soft fur almost like velour. Thick fingers cupped the back of my head and a soft kiss dotted my forehead. We lay crosswise on the bed, and Axton’s legs dangled off the edge while his somewhat softened cock lay on his lower stomach.

But he was cuddling me. Cradling me to his chest. I listened to his heartbeat beneath my ear. He didn’t speak, but the way he held me… I didn’t need words right now. I needed to feel not alone. And in the silence of the small room, I felt companionship.

“Are you in any pain?” he finally asked, his voice low and gravelly.

“Pain?” I huffed a laugh. “No.”

“I was worried I’d been rough.”

He was worried. Oh God. My eyes brimmed with tears at the honesty, and I blinked them away. “You weren’t rough. Sex can get intense.”

“So that’s normal?”

I lifted my head, and he watched me curiously, very much wanting the answer. I propped my elbow on his chest and rested my chin on my palm. “No, I wouldn’t say that was normal for a first time between two lovers.”

“How so? I can improve.”

The earnestness nearly undid me. “No, I mean it’s not usually that good. I came twice, Axton. And I came hard.” I didn’t even get into the emotional mindfuck it had been. Suddenly doubt prodded at me. Was it not good for him? “Are you hurt at all? Did you enjoy it?”

His eyes went half-mast and a lazy smile that was all male pride curled his lips. “How could you think I felt anything other than enjoyment?”

“Okay,” I whispered.

“Ok-ay,” he echoed back in my own language. His hands sifted through my hair. “I can see why your friends miss you so much.”

“Uh, we don’t do those kinds of things together. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I just—”

“I don’t mean that.”

“Well, then what do you mean?”

“I’m not sure what I mean. All I know is that I crave your presence in a way I hadn’t expected.”

Struck a little speechless, I stared at him.

He pressed my head down on his chest and covered both of us with the blanket. “Rest now, Lu.”

I closed my eyes and fell asleep to his heartbeat.

Axton

Lu had curled into my side during the night, and I had to admit I liked waking up to her plastered against me. Her breath left her lips in short puffs, and her fingers twitched where they rested on my stomach.

My cock was hard again, and it was starting to concern me. Would this happen all the time now around her? How did anyone of the mated Drixonians get anything done? I was about to embark on the most dangerous journey of my life, but all I could think about was getting my tongue on her cunt again.

I hadn’t expected any of this to be so complicated. Part of me thought that the way my fellow warriors hadn’t been able to think straight around their females had been a weakness. I had felt guilt over that, especially toward my drexel Kutzal, but it hadn’t made sense to me.

Until now. Until Lu. I hadn’t expected to ever find a human female intriguing, but there was something about her that yanked me out from the ground I’d felt buried under since the last of our Drixonian females died. Around Lu, I found myself wanting to stay awake and savor the time in her presence rather than wishing the sun would set. The colors were brighter, smells more intense. What was this power she had? Even now, I wanted her to wake up and chatter in her high-pitched voice.

With a frustrated huff, I shoved my misbehaving cock in my pants. My jostling woke Lu, as her eyes fluttered. Yawning so wide that her jaw cracked, she blinked at me hazily. Face flushed from sleep and hair in a frizzy mass around her head, I still thought she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I could still smell her on my face and hands and just the sight of her swollen lips and the memory of where they’d been made my cock leak with libo. I didn’t have a spare change of pants, so this could get awkward.

“Is it time to get up?” She rubbed her eyes and smacked those pretty lips.

I must not have answered out loud, because she cocked her head. “Ax?”

Clearing my throat, I sat up. “Yes, it’s time.”

I wasn’t actually sure, but I couldn’t lay there with her any longer. Another moment of this and I’d end up chaining myself to the bed with her.

She glanced over to the curtain. “I’m going to wash up, I think. Marrin said there’s some sort of cleansing system in there.”

“I’ll wash up with that,” I pointed to the pitcher. I could feel the dried flakes of my release tugging at the skin of my inner thighs.

Lu’s eyes dropped to my lap and then her face reddened. “Right, I guess we both are in need of cleaning.” She held up a finger. “Oh, I didn’t tell you about what happened when we first got here when they separated us.”

At her frown, I sat up straighter. “Did they hurt you?”

“No, they took me to this large cavern with a pool in it. They made me stand on this platform in the middle which dumped water on me and in the pool were these…” she grimaced, “snake-like things. They swam under the surface and seemed to eat my dirty bath water.” She shook her head. “That sounds crazy, right?”

“I’m not sure what snakes are, but there is a freshas species called sippili that feed on dead skin and their excretions are a natural soap.”

She stared at me with an open mouth. “Wait a minute.” Shaking her head, she waved a hand in the air. “Hold on. Are you telling me that I bathed in their pee?”

“Their urine and feces, yes.”

She gagged. “Oh gross. Well, I guess it’s not too much different than when I swam in the ocean, expect that pool was literally stuffed with those things. That water had to be seventy-five percent sippili pee.” She gagged again. “I just remembered I got some of it in my mouth.”

“It’s sanitary.”

“Okay, Bear Grylls,” she rolled her eyes. “I bet you’d drink your own urine out of a snakeskin just like him, wouldn’t you?”

“I don’t understand your words.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she exhaled before glancing at the curtain. “If I go in there and scream, it’s because there’s a bucket of sippili things and I’m not pouring them over me again.”

“They only live in large pools with many of their own kind.”

Climbing off the bed, she muttered, “Know-it-all.”

She was still naked on her bottom half, and I watched the way her hips swayed as she crossed the room. Suddenly she turned and narrowed her eyes at me over her shoulder. “Are you staring at my ass?”

“Yes.”

She let out a bark of laughter. “Well at least you’re honest.” With a smile, she disappeared behind the curtain. A few moments later, she called out, “No sippili in here!”

“Told you,” I answered.

We each cleaned ourselves—her behind the curtain and me with some of the qua in the pitcher. I dumped the rest over my head to rinse out my hair just as Lu emerged from the curtain. She was dressed again in her fur wrap and a long skirt. Sitting on the floor, she pulled her boots on while her damp hair lay plastered to her shoulders.

She was just standing up when there was a knock at the door a moment before it swung open. Marrin stood in the doorway with Gragic behind her. In front of her was a cart of food which she rolled inside. With a tug on a rope on the wall I hadn’t noticed, a table on hinges folded down.

I was surprised to watch the quozel and rozel of the pried set the platters of food on the table and gesture for us to sit down. Lu sat easily, crossing her legs in front of her while I had a little bit more trouble with my bulk.

Marrin and Gragic sat across from us. “We thought we’d spare you from eating with the rest of the Pried,” Gragic said. “I know that can be overwhelming.”

Lu’s eyes were on the food as she pressed a hand to her stomach. “This is a bigger selection compared to last night.”

Marrin nodded. “We know the Drixonians have a more varied diet than us. We had no idea what humans ate.”

Lu plucked a beir off its stem and popped it into her mouth. “This looks great. We’re omnivores so we eat a little of everything.”

“Omnivores?” Marrin asked.

“You’re a carnivore. You survive on meat. Herbivores eat plants.”

“These are human words?”

She hesitated a moment. “Yeah.”

“Carnivore,” Gragic puffed his chest out. “I like the sound of it.”

Marrin shot him a suffering look. “Just eat.”

We ate silently. I wasn’t in the mood to talk. While waking up to Lu had been a dream, what was to come would be my reality. I’d been able to be ignorant for awhile, but this wasn’t the time to lose my head to the female next to me. I had to at least get Lu out of this mission alive, and that would take all my focus.

When we finished eating, Marrin pulled out two packs from the cart she’d wheeled in. She handed one to Lu and explained there was a change of clothes and a few supplies inside.

As for me—Gragic left the room and returned with my only two possessions I cared about—my swords. He handed my harness to me as well, and I felt more like myself when I had it strapped to my chest, and the swords at my back. Marrin gave me a larger bag than Lu’s, which she said held skins full of qua, food, and a flint rock in order to hopefully light a fire to kill some Cors. Also including in the bag was basic medical supplies in case of injuries.

The unspoken words were that surely her son would not be in good condition after being held by the Cors for as long as he had. If all his limbs were still attached, we’d be fortunate.

Marrin and Gragic led us to the front entrance of the Pims. When the front doors opened, the light from outside highlighted a figure looming in the corner. Lu startled with a small squeak, and I squinted into the darkness as the figure came forward. The greer crept toward me on all fours and then stopped to sit on their haunches. Their flat, wide tongue licked their lips slowly before they spoke. “You will succeed only when you grow wings.”

As I pondered their words, they turned and walked back into the shadows, long tail swishing behind him.

“Why can’t they just explain what they mean?” Lu grumbled. “Because if I take their words literally, I guess we’re failing since neither of us are going to sprout wings.”

“Their visions aren’t always clear,” Gragic said, watching the greer go. “They tell us as much as they can.”

Lu accepted that answer with a whispered. “I understand that.”

Before I could ask her what she meant, Gragic handed me a length of chain. “Please give this to Farron when you see him so he knows you were sent by us.”

I wrapped the chain around my harness so I wouldn’t lose it. “I hope to see you no later than two lornights.”

Marrin’s paw fisted. “I’m sorry we have to ask this of you.”

I only nodded, and Lu gripped my arm tightly. Without another word, we stepped into the light of the sun to begin our journey.

TEN

Lu

Now that I was dressed properly, this weather wasn’t so bad. I wore a long skirt with thigh-high socks and thick boots. Marrin had given me some salve for the soles of my feet, and they’d healed surprisingly fast. I had some more stowed in my pack if I needed it. On top, I wore the fur wrap Axton had first given me—I was kind of attached to it now—and a cloak that covered my arms and clasped in the front with a crude bone button.

I wore my hair in two braids on either side of my head, but already some hair escaped from the plaits and flitted over my face in the breeze.

Of course I didn’t know where we were going, but Axton walked with purpose. It wasn’t until the scent of the air changed that I realized we were heading back toward the coast—not the same one we’d landed on, but a coast nonetheless. I stopped abruptly, and it took Axton a moment to realize I wasn’t walking next to him anymore.

I held out my hand “Can I have a weapon?”

He looked at my hand, and then back up at my face. “A weapon?”

“I can smell the air. We’re heading back to the water, and if one of those crab things emerges from the sand like a Tremors worm, I’d like to be able to do something about it rather than wait for you.”

He scratched his chin as if thinking. “What weapon do you have proficiency in?”

I tried not to laugh as his dead serious tone. I wasn’t proficient in anything, but I was scrappy. “Stabby weapons.”

He blinked at me.

“Not one of those swords because the thing weighs like fifty pounds. Do you have a knife?”

He thought some more before sifting through the pack on his back. He pulled out a dagger about the length of my forearm. “Marrin gave me this, but I don’t prefer short blades.” He slid it into a sheath attached to a belt.

Short was all relative. I went to take it from him, but he pulled it back at the last minute. “Do you know how to use it?”

“It’s a knife.” I mimicked stabbing him in the gut. “Don’t I just thrust?”

“Thrust and twist.”

He finally handed it to me. I wrapped the belt around my waist and already felt safer with my own weapon at my side. “Thank you.”

“We likely won’t see any more crickles, but if we do, scream. That knife won’t do much damage to their outer shell.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I’ll be yelling,” I muttered. “What’s the plan by the way? How long until we get there?”

“When we are closer to the coast, we will follow the treeline until we reach the northern cliffs where the Cors live. Farron will likely be held in one Cors cave but will be guarded by several.”

“What are Cors like? Do they speak a language we understand?”

He shook his head. “They adapt their language often so we have never been able to translate it.”

We continued walking, and the dagger sheath slapped the outside of my thigh. The ground was hard but fairly flat and not littered with too much debris. We seemed to be on some sort of path. Through the trees in the distance, some winged creatures circled overhead. “Is that them?” I gasped.

Axton kept walking. “No, those are just yios. They are a freshwater brigger.”

By brigger, I realized he meant bird. “Oh, like seagulls.”

“I cannot confirm that.”

“What do they eat?”

“Huppas from the freshas.”

Fish. “Okay, so yeah like seagulls.”

As the trees began to thin, we took a turn along the path. On our right was the main land and to the left was the ocean coastline. We remained under the tree cover for protection. Axton walked first, and when the path dissolved into dense brush, he hacked at the branches and foliage with his swords so I could walk behind much easier. With his long legs, he likely wouldn’t have had to clear anything, but I appreciated that he understood I wasn’t built like a mammoth.

Axton was quiet because… well, he was usually quiet. And while I started out the walk humming and asking questions, as the day went on, my energy flagged. Even when we stopped to eat and take a break, I couldn’t find it in myself to annoy him with my ramblings.

And by the time the sun was setting, I could barely lift my legs anymore. Every muscle in my body felt like it hurt—even my eyelids. Axton looked like he could walk another five hundred miles, but he must have noticed my slowing pace. Abruptly he stopped at a small clearing and dropped his pack to the ground. “We will rest here for the night.”

I immediately fell to my knees. “Oh thank God.”

He crouched next to me. “I’m sorry I pushed as far as I did.”

“No, no, it’s okay. I want this over with as much as you do.”

“I will make a fire and we’ll eat before sleeping.”

A fire and food sounded amazing. I had stopped feeling my nose a few miles ago and my feet felt like numb nubs.

While I withdrew our food supplies and gave us each a decent set of rations, Axton built a fire. We heated up a meaty stew and ate it with a hard cracker. I chewed on a vegetable root as well and washed it all down with some water from the skins Marrin provided.

With my belly full and my nose warm, I thought I’d fall asleep easily but once we were bedded down on a pad, I couldn’t seem to stop shaking. My sore muscles protested even laying down, and I’d lost so much weight that my bones ached without my fat padding them.

I lay facing away from Axton, but he rolled me over with a quick flick of his wrist and stared down into my face. The fire flickered over his eyes as he gazed up and down my body. “Why are you shaking? Are you ill?”

My teeth chattered and even my gums hurt. “No, I’m just sore from walking. Before you rescued me I sat in a cage for what felt like weeks. I’m not used to this much physical activity.”

He huffed out an angry breath that I knew wasn’t directed at me. “Those Horazian flecks.”

“What do you think they’ll do with Maisie?” Even if I didn’t speak of her, she was constantly on my mind.

He frowned. “They will not kill her.”

That did not make me feel better. “I mean, great. That’s the lowest bar. I’d like for her to be unharmed.”

He didn’t answer, which turned my stomach. Then he sighed. “You will get home, and you will tell Daz and the rest of the Drixonians what happened to Maisie. We have warriors who can travel to Torin to find her.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “We have skilled pilots and cruisers. Now roll onto your stomach.”

“Roll onto… what?”

He didn’t wait for me to do it on my own. With a gentle shove, he flopped me onto my stomach, and I immediately felt strong fingers dig into the muscles on either side of my spine. A long, loud, embarrassing groan left my lips immediately as Axton worked out every kink and knot into my ill-used muscles.

“Oh my God,” I whispered into the fur beneath my head. “That hurts so good.”

He paused. “It hurts?”

“Don’t stop,” I snapped.

He kept going and I closed my eyes as he worked the muscles from the bottoms of my feet to the base of my skull. The last thing I remembered before passing out was him pressing a soft kiss to the top of my head. “Sleep well, Lu.”

When I opened my eyes, only a sliver of the sun appeared over the horizon, sending cascades of light across the vast rippling ocean waters. While still concealed among the trees, I had a perfect view of the sunrise, and for a moment I could almost pretend I was on vacation, camping somewhere with college friends. Behind me, Axton’s breath ruffled the hair on top of my head. His heavy arm lay around my waist and his big hands with sheathed claws lay at rest on the dirt.

I picked up his hand carefully and placed our palms together. The tips of my fingers didn’t even reach his first knuckle. When his claws were sheathed, his fingers were bare on top, but the entire tips were covered in thick callouses. He bore some scars on his scales and a few spots that looked warped from burns.

Turning slowly in his arms, I managed not to wake him. While the sunrise was pretty, Axton was fascinating. The memory of kissing him felt a bit like a fever dream. It wasn’t like we’d had time to dwell on it, to talk about our feelings or establish any sort of baseline for what we were to each other. Axton had planned to leave me behind and die on his mission so that I could get back home to my friends. My last boyfriend hadn’t even wanted to walk to my kitchen to get me a bagel when I’d been hungover. This was a different world, and Axton was a whole different kind of man.

He hadn’t asked to touch me. He hadn’t asked for anything of me, and he’d been willing to give it his all to save my life. I didn’t even know how to relate to that. There were plenty of times I’d tell myself I’d die for my friends, but when push came to shove, would my first instinct be to save myself or save them? What would my actual actions be? I hadn’t known Axton that long, but I knew him enough to know how he’d react. He’d been fully prepared to save me at his own expense already.

But I didn’t like that. I didn’t want him to be a sacrifice for me. I wanted us both to get out of this alive… with the lion kid. What had the greer said? We’d succeed when we both grew wings. I snorted softly. That was cryptic and altogether not happening. But then they weren’t my greer. I didn’t have to believe in their words. I just had to believe in myself and Axton.

I pushed his hair off his face, and that touch was enough for him to open his eyes. He blinked once and appeared fully awake and focused like some kind of trained soldier. His nubbed brows lowered in concern. “Are you okay?”

Of course I was okay. I got a good night’s sleep. My muscles felt loose thanks to his strong hands. And most of all, I felt safe for the first time since I left Earth.

My hand slipped down to rub across his full lips, and his muscle tightened. Something hard poked me in the stomach, and I didn’t have to look down to know what it was.

His cheeks grew ruddy, like he was embarrassed, and he shifted back in an effort to get away from me. “Sorry,” he murmured. But I didn’t want him to feel sorry. I didn’t know what would happen in the next few days, and I craved the physical touch from Axton.

I snuggled closer to him and draped my thigh around his hip. He went very still at the touch and then leaned closer. His nose bumped mine, almost hesitantly, and I smiled at the gentleness.

“I would like words to describe what you see happening next,” he said in a gravelly tone.

Fuck, consent was sexy. “I’d like you to touch me.”

His nostrils flared. “Like last night?”

“More.” I palmed his cock through his pants.

He swallowed. “Mating you is… I should not do it.”

He remained stiff, and I withdrew my hand. If he respected my consent, then I had to respect his. “Why?”

“I should not encourage your attachment to me.” His eyes flickered. “And I… should not become more attached to you.”

He’d told me that he craved my presence. “But why not? If we have limited time left, then why don’t we enjoy ourselves?”

He shook his head. “I can’t think like that. I cannot allow myself to accept that you will not survive. You must. Or I have failed.”

“Axton…” We had a differing belief system, and we were going to have to come to some sort of compromise. “Then how about this? If you only have a limited time left, why can’t you let yourself have what you want?” I paused. “You said you wanted me. You still do, right?”

His groin jutted forward so I felt the prod of his cock. “I think that answers the question.”

“So?”

“So…” His voice trailed off, and his jaw worked as he searched for his words. “I worry,” he said in a wavering voice. “That I won’t fulfill my duty. If I let myself imagine a future with you, I don’t know that I’ll make the right decisions when it counts. That I’ll act selfishly out of wanting to be with you, and in the end I’ll doom us both. That is why, Lu. That is why I’m denying myself when all I want do is sink between your thighs and hear you scream my name like you did last night. I can’t be that weak.”

I hadn’t realized I was crying until his face blurred. A tear slipped out of the corner of my eye and I sniffed. Here I was thinking about getting off and Axton was having an outright war within himself. “I’m sorry,” I murmured as I clasped his face and pressed kisses to his light blue skin. “I’m sorry I pushed you. I’m sorry I made you make that confession. I’m so sorry, Ax.”

His chest rumbled and soon he was making that soothing vibration that settled into my muscles like an invisible massage. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled back until our mouths found each other. Our lips tasted like my salty tears as Axton swept his tongue inside my mouth and let out a pained groan. His cock pulsed against my stomach, still hard and straining in his pants despite his fear.

Remembering his words, I shoved him away, and a sob bubbled out of my throat. Scrambling up onto my knees, I lurched forward as the tears came faster. I needed to get away from Axton, from the rumbling in his chest to the feel of his hands and the taste of his mouth.

But he didn’t let me get far. Before I could take a few steps, his body hit me from behind, sending us careering into a nearby tree trunk. He saved me from smacking face-first into the bark by a strong hand around my waist and a palm on the trunk.

We stayed frozen like that, me still crying, him braced behind me. I could hear him inhaling deeply, and I wondered if he was scenting my arousal, because despite the tears, I still wanted him just as badly as when I woke up.

I reached back hesitantly and brushed my fingers on his thick thigh. “Ax?”

The arm banded around my waist lowered until his big hand palmed me through my skirt. I sucked in a breath and couldn’t help the moan that escaped my lips at the pressure on my sensitive flesh.

“Fatas help me,” he whispered, his lips teasing the rim of my ear. “But the feel of you, the smell of you… I just can’t help myself. All I can think about is feeding my cock to that greedy cunt of yours until all you know is me. How’s that for selfish?”

ELEVEN

Axton

She trembled against me like a scared antella, and that only ignited my predatory instincts. Fleck, but I wanted to conquer her. I wanted to own every patch of skin and swallow every one of her cries. I wanted to drink from her cunt and suck at her pink nipples.

But really, I was the one who was lost to her. She’d conquered me, and despite my defenses, she now owned me.

I nuzzled into her neck as I ground my hand against her cunt. She gasped and spread her legs like I knew she would. My Lu was loud and passionate and loved to be touched. She craved contact with me, and I’d let her chain herself to me if she wanted to.

Slipping my hand under the slit of her skirt, I found her bare to the touch and so wet that my fingers slipped through her cunt with ease. With a toss of her hair, she slapped her hands against the tree in front of her and tipped her butt back into me. With our height differences, I couldn’t rub my cock against her like I wanted to, but this was about her. I wanted to hear her scream before I took her the way I wanted to.

Plunging my hand into her entrance, I slipped my other hand under her fur wrap and plucked at a beaded nipple. She moaned my name as I thumbed her clit and her hips rocked against me as she sought her release on my hand.

From this angle, with her head tilted back, I was able to see the flush of her cheeks, the haziness of her eyes, and the slender arch to her neck. Fleck, I wanted to bite her, mark her, and for the first time, I let myself imagine the way she’d look with loks around her wrists.

She barked out a shriek and shuddered. Her inner walls clamped around my fingers as she came and just as she began to pant, her knees buckled. I hauled her into the air by her waist and carried her back to the bed pallet I’d made. She hung limply in my arms and when I laid her out on the pad, she stared up at me with wet eyes. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve never been so sure.” I answered just as I shoved my pants down to my knees.

My cock sprang out, and I groaned as the cold air touched my heated shaft. Libo leaked copiously from the tip and dripped onto Lu’s bare stomach. Her skirt was shoved up around her waist, bearing her cunt covered in yellow curls. The hair glistened with her juices, and I sucked on my fingers to get a taste of what I’d been craving since I’d first licked her the night before.

“Jeez,” she whispered in a harsh breath. “You’re so hot.”

“I am not cold,” I answered.

She laughed, and her breasts jiggled from where I’d tugged them out of her fur wrap. I leaned down to lap at a nipple, and she moaned as she carded her fingers through my hair. When I lifted my head, her eyes glittered. “Go on,” she said. “Feed my cunt that cock.”

As soon as I sank into her wet heat, I knew I’d never be the same. Her back arched as my cock found home and her mouth opened on a wordless cry. “So big,” she whispered as I pulled out and thrust again.

Her body bucked and she ground against me as I began to pump into her on a rhythm. My subcock extended and latched onto her clit. She screamed, eyes wide, and then her mouth stretched into a wide smile as she laughed hoarsely. “Oh, that’s a special trick you have there.”

“It’s no trick,” I growled as I plunged into her again and again, sending her body sliding up the fur blanket. I’d worried that the lack of cock piercings that most Drixonians have would make my skills lacking, but with Lu shuddering and moaning under me, I felt on top of the world.

A shiver slid down my spine and pulled in my guts, then dropped into my balls. They felt near bursting, and my cock was a hard spike plundering the female beneath me. “Lu,” I choked out because the pleasure coursing through my body was bordering on pain.

“Yes, Ax,” she whispered, heated eyes on me. “Come inside me.”

Stars burst behind my eyes. Time rearranged itself. My limbs disconnected. The very ground beneath me shook as I roared into the sky just as my cock released inside her soft body.

I shuddered as I sank into her as deep as I could go while the last of my seed filled her. My head dropped and my arms nearly gave out. Shaking, out of breath, I sank to my hip and cradled Lu against me.

Still connected, we embraced as I sought to collect myself. Her hand stroked my chest in a soothing pattern and I didn’t realize I was prushing until the vibration shook her voice against my chest. “Thank you.”

I didn’t know what she was thanking me for. She’d just given me the best gift of my life. She is All had always been my duty, but I’d never fully understood it. Now I realized how very valuable the female was in my arms. It wasn’t just the mating—she gave me purpose. The promise of a future of happiness. As I cradled Lu to my chest, I thanked the generations of past Drixonians who created and supported our beliefs.

“She is All, indeed,” I murmured into Lu’s hair. I glanced down to see her eyes were closed and her breaths were even. Smiling to myself, I let her sleep.

I had worried that I’d be distracted as we continued our trek toward the Cors caves, but as Lu walked along beside me, I felt even more focused. Kutzal always said that while I fought like a beast, I went through life strictly following orders. When times were peaceful, I was also peaceful. I hadn’t really understood what was so wrong with that. But now I got it. Deep in my sola, I hadn’t known what She is All meant, and I hadn’t really believed it. Not until Lu.

Now every single bit of my attention was on our surroundings. It was like my vision was clearer, my hearing more pronounced, and I felt strong as I strode through the bush. I cut wide swaths out of the path with my swords so Lu had an easier walk with her short legs.

When she’d woken up, she’d seemed almost embarrassed. Her cheeks had been flushed, and she’d stuttered a bit with her words. I’d helped her clean herself, which seemed to surprise her, but then after that, she’d touched me often. Even now, as we walked, she held onto the belt loop of my pants.

“By nightfall, we’ll be close enough to observe the area,” I explained to her. “Then another half a rotation to a full rotation to get to the caves.”

She nodded and then tripped with a little cry. When I glanced down, I saw one of her boots had become untied. I quickly turned and bent at one knee to take her laces in my hands.

Her hand settled on my shoulder. “I can tie my own shoes, Ax.”

I knew that, but I wanted to do this for her. I wanted her to be as safe as possible. Plus, the ties on the Rogastix boots could be difficult.

Lu’s fingers plucked at my hair. Too late, I felt the cool air on the back of my neck and it was like being plunged into the cold freshas. “What—?” she murmured.

I reared my head back, and she jerked in alarm at my sudden movement. Rising to my feet, I refused to look her in the eye. Maybe she hadn’t seen anything. Maybe my hair had covered it—

“What’s that mark on your neck?” she asked, and a band tightened around my chest.

I swallowed and turned to keep walking. “Nothing.”

With nimble feet, she leapt in front of me so I had to stop in my tracks. Her eyes narrowed. “Look, you’re a terrible liar. It’s definitely something.”

Fatas, help me. “Fine, it is something, but I don’t want to talk about it.”

She cocked her head. “It looked like a brand.”

The band tightened further, and an exhale wheezed out of me.

Her lips parted. “Did someone brand you?”

See? This was why I kept to myself. Why I didn’t let emotions affect my actions. Why I often preferred to be asleep rather than be awake. How I went from the elation of the morning to this—this horrifying episode of self-defeat and shame. Maybe Lukent, Vinz, and Kutzal had been able to get through this, but I didn’t think I could. When I tried to sidestep around Lu, she again blocked my path. “Ax,” she said in a concerned whisper. “Talk to me.”

The words jammed in my throat. I didn’t want to talk. I had never expected to feel this way about her—and for her to feel this way about me. My concern had been that I’d be dead in a few rotations, so the truth of what I was and my place in Drixonian society hadn’t even been an issue for me. Until now.

“I’m a son of naught,” I choked out. My voice didn’t feel like mine, but I just needed this over with so I could finish the mission. Fleck, I could still smell her on me, and I didn’t think after I confessed who I was that she’d ever touch me again.

“A what?” she asked.

“When a Drixonian male deserts his defense post, the punishment is that his future generations are branded as sons of naught, and we are forbidden from mating or maintaining any position of power in society. We are sons of naught, and we are branded to deter others from affecting their own offspring.”

She blinked at me. “How North Korea of you.”

“What?”

She shook her head. “Jeez, it’s not like your father killed someone.” She paused. “Did he?”

“No.”

“So you’re telling me that you’re like some outcast?”

“Our drexel now has changed this belief but it will take some time for the society to restructure. Many of us still bear the brand and it is a long-held tradition.”

“But I’m not Drixonian. You didn’t want to tell me because you thought I’d feel the same way?”

“I’m marked,” I said through gritted teeth. “I carry the shame of my father. I’m not a desirable choice for a mate.”

Something changed in her face. A hardening that I didn’t quite understand. “So you think because you’re marked by another that you’re not a desirable mate?”

“Yes. I’m not like the others. I don’t have the piercings they do to symbolize our virility and fertility. I am not as well-versed in female pleasure. And most of all, I hold no special position. There are many Drixonians who will never respect me because I’m a son of naught. And that would reflect on you.”

Her blue eyes swirled with a coming storm, and her chin trembled as she balled her fists at her sides. “And you believe that? That your mate being less-than-perfect reflects on you?”

“Yes, I—”

She turned abruptly and stomped down the path. She tripped a few times over a branch, but carried on anyway. Was that it? I’d disappointed her with the truth just like I thought I would. “Lu, wait.”

She only walked faster.

“Lu,” I growled as I reached her side. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”

She whirled around and the tears staining her cheeks took me aback. “Is that so? And will my stupidity reflect on you?”

Face red, veins in her neck protruding, Lu was furious. And I couldn’t figure out why. “What?”

“I’m not perfect either,” she spat. With jerky movements, she parted her hair and pointed to a long scar running along the hairline at her temple. A chill ran down my spine. How had I never noticed that? “I’m marked too by someone who saw me as less than. But your secret is safe. You don’t have to tell anyone what I am. I wouldn’t want to reflect badly on you to the rest of your people.”

In the back of my mind, her words registered, but one emotion roared to the forefront. Heat flooded my veins as I sought to keep myself from screaming. Who had touched my Lu?

Lu

I had always felt shame at what the Uldani had done to me, but never like this.

Tears blurring my vision, I blindly stepped into brush that was nearly taller than me. I let out a grunt as I furiously swiped at a branch next to me. Suddenly I was yanked backward into a tree, and then Axton’s big, warm body loomed over me, his eyes like thunder as he gritted out, “Who hurt you?”

He had used this tone when we’d first met, and I’d been scared shitless, but now I knew he wouldn’t hurt me physically. Unfortunately I’d given him the power to hurt my heart with a well-placed arrow, and he’d notched a perfect ten. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me,” he growled.

“I don’t know why I lost my head and thought males in another galaxy were going to be any different.” I glared up at him. “But sounds like you still have egos, and I want no part of it.”

His big hand cradled my neck, and he inhaled deeply as he forced some of the anger out of his expression. “Lu, please tell me who hurt you.”

“The Uldani,” I snapped. “You want to know just how tainted I am? They didn’t just leave me a visible scar, they messed with my brain, Ax. I don’t know what they were trying to do… turn me into some super human, but they fucked up. You thought the Priedan greer was a hack, but I’m not much different than them.”

“What?” he whispered hoarsely. The hand around my neck went slack as his arm fell to his side limply. The loss of his touch shouldn’t have hurt me as much as it did.

“I can see visions. I saw you in mine before we ever met. All I knew was that you’d separate me from Maisie, and that was why I fought you so hard. I saw the Priedans in a vision too. They aren’t always clear, just like the greer, and I don’t always know when they will happen, but they’ve all come true.” I met his gaze. “Every single one.”

He took a stumbling step back. “You saw me?”

I nodded. “You grabbed me and took me away from Maisie in my visions.”

“What made you start to trust me?”

“When you saved me from the crab thing. When you didn’t hurt me. And when I saw in my vision that the Priedans would chain you but that I’d seek you out for protection.”

He took a few more steps away from me until his back hit a tree. Cradling his head, he slid down. I remained where I was, unsure where we’d go from here. Maybe I wasn’t worth the dangerous mission anymore.

When his voice came again, he sounded broken. “I have harmed you, haven’t I?” He gazed up at me with wounded eyes.

I nodded, because yes he did hurt me. We were both branded in different ways, but if he saw himself the way he did… how could he see me as anything different?

“Will you tell me about your time with the Uldani?”

I spoke haltingly—how we were taken from Earth, delivered to the Uldani on Torin, and were then taken to their underground labs. I didn’t speak of what happened to the other girls—that was their story to tell—but I explained the torture I’d gone through and how I pretended like my brains were scrambled. Next I told him about how we escaped, traveled to Corin, and had been living off the land on our own.

“I admire you even more now,” he said quietly.

I looked away, wishing I didn’t crave his admiration. But I didn’t care about that mark on the back of his neck or that his father deserted the army. His place in his society wasn’t of importance to me. I cared that he protected me, made me feel safe, and cherished me.

He rose slowly and came toward me again. I braced, because despite my hurt, I still craved his presence.

“I don’t think less of you,” he spoke gently. “If anything, I respect you more knowing what you’ve gone through. I remember seeing you when you boarded the ship with the Horazians. You fought them with all your strength. Fleck, you even fought me. You still have the spirit in you, Lu.”

Tears brimmed over my lower lashes, and I sniffed. “But I have visions. When we were eating with Gragic and Marrin, and I passed out for a moment—I had a vision then. They come suddenly and usually leave me feeling weak and sick.”

He braced his hand on the trunk near my head. “Then I will care for you every time you have a vision. And I will believe them.”

I stared up at him, wanting to believe him, but… “And how do you feel about yourself now?”

He blinked. “What?”

“You can’t accept me but not yourself, Ax. Until you can prove to me that you see value in yourself as a worthy person, then I’m not sure I can believe you.”

His mouth flapped open, and his throat worked. The purple of his eyes swirled. “Lu…”

“Don’t you get it? If you’re marked and tainted and less than, then so am I. And if I’m not… then you’re not either.”

His chest heaved, the muscles in his face twitched like something beneath his skin was fighting to get out. I got it; I was placing a big old wrench in his belief system. “Look, I will respect your culture. But I will not respect you believing you’re less than because of some centuries-old belief that you yourself said isn’t even practiced anymore. Start seeing yourself as valuable, and then maybe I’ll believe the same.” I ducked under his arm and marched toward the tall grasses. “Now let’s go, we have someone to save.”

“Lu—”

I shook my head. “I can’t talk about this anymore right now. I said what I have to say.” I glanced at him over my shoulder. “Can you tell me right now that you think you are just as worthy of happiness as every other Drixonian?”

His hands flexed at his sides, but he remained silent.

I nodded. “That’s what I thought. And that’s okay. You can think on it while we walk.”

He jerked forward. “Lu?”

“Yes?”

“You don’t care that I’m a son of naught? That I’m branded?”

I braced my hands on my hips. “I literally couldn’t care less. I do like you, Ax. I probably more than like you, but I’m not ready to say the words yet. What’s between us has nothing to do with anyone else. It’s how we make each other feel. If we’re better together than we are apart—” My voice cracked on the last word, and I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “I miss my friends. They are the reason I’m still alive. But being with you? You make me want to live again. You make me think I can do more than survive. I can actually be happy.”

When he reached for me, I dodged his hand and swiped angrily at the tears running down my cheeks. “Can we please keep going?”

He didn’t move for a long time, but finally he lurched forward, jaw set like stone, and hacked at the grasses like they had personally offended him. I followed in his wake, unsure if I’d done the right thing or if I’d just royally fucked this whole thing up.

TWELVE

Axton

I tried to speak a few times, but every time I opened my mouth, Lu would send me a vicious glare that promptly shut me up. So I was forced to do exactly what she wanted me to do. Think.

And I hated it.

When I was alone or not busy, I slept in order to avoid having thoughts. Emotions. Reminders of my past. Dreams of the future. I didn’t do any of that. I put one foot in front of the other and fulfilled my duty to my fellow warriors. Any minute I’d been prepared to lay down my life for Kutzal.

I listened to Lu’s breathing and her cursed mutters as she tramped through the overgrown brush. Would I still give up my life for the cause? Wasn’t that was I was supposed to do? What I’d been born for?

But Lu had crossed the wires in my head, and now I wasn’t quite sure which way was up. I wished I could cast aside her words, but the brand on the back of my neck itched like it was freshly healed, reminding me of our conversation with every breath.

I’d been raised to believe all my life that I was less than other Drixonians. I couldn’t imagine placing myself on the same level as, say, Daz’s brother, Sax. But in Lu’s eyes, in her world, I was somehow just as worthy.

Kutzal had said that it would take time for the other Drixonians to forget the stigma of the sons of naught. But what he hadn’t talked about was that we had to get over the ingrained shame. How could I think the other Drixonians would treat me any better when I couldn’t treat myself as worthy?

The snap of wings flapping made me duck on instinct. Lu covered her head with her hands as she let out a small squeak of fright.

I gazed through the trees to see a low-flying Cors. His head was bent as he peered through the trees. He was likely their scout and border patrol. I curled myself around Lu to help disguise us among the trees—my scales were a mottled blue and black for a reason—to hide my bulk among the blue foliage. I pulled the hood of her fur cape up over her head to hide her blond hair.

The Cors flew out of sight. When he didn’t send up an alarm or circle back, I was assured he hadn’t seen us.

“Was that one of them?” Lu whispered.

“Yes.”

“He’s like a scary giant hawk with a dragon head.”

I wanted to kick myself for getting lost in my thoughts and not paying closer attention. This mission could have just ended before it had even began. I tugged her along with me, this time jogging on a low crouch, until we reached a break in the trees. There, we had a great vantage point of the cliffs.

Cors circled the area, sometimes dipping into the water to catch large huppas with their sharp teeth and claws. Some rested on the ledges of their caves to preen their feathers or talk. They had a language full of clicks and chirps and were highly intelligent.

“We have a few yoras before the sun sets.” I sat on my haunches and pulled out some food while Lu settled beside me. “I want to observe their actions to see if I can determine where Farron is being kept. Once it’s dark, I’ll start searching for him.”

“You mean…” she pointed at the caves as her eyes tracked a few Cors play-fighting in the air. “We’ll go looking for him in the caves?”

“I think you should stay here.”

Her back stiffened. “No.”

Fleck, she was stubborn. “There’s no need for you to come to the caves with me.”

Her hand slapped the dirt. “I have to go. I told you about my visions. Well…” her jaw clenched. “I have to go.”

I opened my mouth to protest again, but then remembered that I’d promised to believe her when she spoke of her visions. And I did. That didn’t change the fact that I wanted her as safe as possible. But a promise was a promise, so I acquiesced with my silence.

She seemed satisfied but chewed her fingernails compulsively. I had a feeling it was because now that she got a look at the Cors, she was terrified. Fleck, I had to admit I was nervous. They were five times the size of me, smart, and organized. They had a sophisticated hunting style, flock hierarchy, and would like nothing more than to capture me and pick the meat off my bones before hibernation.

“They hunt at night,” I explained as we chewed on some jerky. “The older Cors will be in the caves getting ready for hibernation, as they are now too heavy to fly. The younger ones continue to hunt all cycle long. Once it’s dark, they’ll fly farther for large game for themselves and the elders. The huppas of the freshas are just snacks to them.”

“And Farron?”

“They’ll have been feeding him to fatten him up. He’ll be the last thing the elders eat before hibernation.”

She gagged and brought her fist up to her mouth.

“Are you okay?”

Eyes watering, she nodded. “Mm-hm.” She lowered her fist. “Would they… eat you?”

“Absolutely. I’d be delicious.”

She gasped. “Don’t say that.”

“I have a lot of meat.”

“Yeah, but…” she grimaced. “Please don’t joke about that.”

I bit off a hunk of jerky. “I’m not joking.”

“And me?”

There was no point in lying to her. “You’d be less tempting, but still a meal.”

Pressing her lips together, she once again watched the circling Cors flock. After a while, she said, “So, uh, what are we looking for to determine where Farron is?”

“There would likely be food remnants at the mouth of the cave. They will be feeding him and the Cors who will eat him who will likely be one of the oldest. A prey like Farron is highly prized. The brains are a delicacy, so the bigger the better.”

“I’m really going to be sick,” she muttered.

I shrugged. “It’s life.”

She shivered. “Okay, so food scraps and… what else?”

“The elders would likely have some sort of designation at the mouth of their cave.” I shielded my eyes from the sun as I studied the cave entrances.

Lu made a face. “Like what? A welcome mat?”

I pointed to the mouth of a cave where a younger Cors held a mallet in the claws at the end of her wing and with a spike, pounded a design into the cliff face. I pointed to her. “There.”

Lu squinted. “I don’t think my eyesight is as good as yours, but I can see some sort of border around the mouth of the cave.”

“That’s an elder.”

“Farron is there?”

I waved a hand. “How many caves can you see that are decorated like that?”

She tapped her finger in the air, and her lips moved as she counted. As the number reached twelve, her shoulders began to slump. Finally, she stopped counting altogether. “That’s too many to search.”

I nodded. “This Cors flock is likely in the hundreds.” The flash of something in the sun caught my attention. A Cors flew past with a familiar chain dangling from its neck. Likely the spoils of killing one of the Priedans who was sent to rescue Farron. I imagined one of them using Lu’s cloak as bedding and saw red.

I ducked my head and shoved my fingers through my hair as I tried to rein in this unfamiliar flare of feelings. This was what being around Lu did to me. She gave me the highest of highs, but any thought of her coming to harm brought me to the lowest of lows.

We sat in silence for a while, and I narrowed down the caves I suspected held Farron to about two dozen. Not ideal, but better than close to a hundred.

A soft hand settled on my shoulder. “Do you want to rest? You can use me as a pillow?”

I turned to see her offering me a gentle smile. “You should get rest too.”

She shook her head. “I’m not tired. And we both know you’re the brawn here, so you should be at your best.”

Leaning back against a tree, she patted her lap. “Lay down.”

Normally I would sleep and wake up as the sun was setting. But now, I wasn’t tired. Not even close. If anything, the rush of adrenaline coursed under my scales, making it hard not to rush out there and take out the flock of Cors in a fever dream of rage. But on the other hand, I wanted to be near Lu. I wanted to feel her, listen to the beat of her cora and the rasp of her breath. I wanted to feel her skin beneath my cheek.

Careful of my horns, I rested my head on her lap. I didn’t close my eyes, and instead enjoyed the feel of her fingers combing through my hair. She leaned over and when she caught my eyes open, she frowned. “Don’t you want to sleep?”

“I won’t sleep.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know what will happen tonight, and right now all I want to do is be with you.”

Her fingers paused, her breath hitched, and then she resumed combing through my hair.

Lu

I plucked at Axton’s hair with a twig I’d fashioned into a crude comb. His hair was an interesting texture—covered in a thin oil like duck feathers. His big body lay at rest with his head on my thighs. He was heavy, but I found I liked the feel of his weight on me.

I knew he was nervous about tonight. I was too. These Cors were terrifying—about the size of a ten-person van with wings, clawed hands like bats, and a wide mouth full of teeth. They walked upright on two taloned feet and wore clothing made out of what looked like dried and stitched seaweed. They talked and chattered in a strange language. While they looked a bit like giant emus, I had to be aware they were an intelligent species.

While the success of this mission seemed distant as hell, I wanted to believe we’d get home. “Tell me about my friends’ mates.”

Axton’s fingers had been making slow circles on my knee. “Are you worried?”

“Are they like you?”

“Yes and no.”

“Tell me.”

He rolled onto his back and gazed up at me. Plucking one of my hands from his head, he laced our fingers together. “Lukent met Tasha first. He saved her from the Wutarks.”

“Are those the aliens who took us from our camp?” They were smelly and looked like bipedal warthogs.

“Yes. As sons of naught we aren’t supposed to mate or procreate, so Lukent resisted her. Tried to send her to our main city with me, but she ran away from me and found him anyway.” He scratched his ear. “Still not sure how she did that.”

I had a guess. While my brains had been scrambled by the Uldani, they’d given Tasha an enhanced sense of smell. “She went to him?”

Axton nodded. “He’s one of the best of us. I couldn’t say I blamed her.”

“And he treats her well?”

Axton frowned. “Why would he not? She’s his cora-eternal.”

That translated loosely to forever love, which made my heart skip a beat. “I see. And Amber’s mate? Trix’s?”

“Vinz is Amber’s mate. He’s a little crazy, but crazy for her. He’s too clingy if you ask me. That female can barely be five feet away from him.”

“Is he controlling?”

Axton’s frown deepened. “Why do you assume bad things?”

“Because you’re men,” I muttered.

“He doesn’t want her far from him because he worries for her safety. And she’s also the only one who can calm him. They fit, Lu. They are a match.”

My cheeks heated. He was right. Why did I keep assuming the worst? “I’m sorry, I just…” I blew out a breath. “No one has treated us well in this galaxy. You understand that, right? It feels a little too good to be true to meet males like you.”

“Well it feels too good to be true to meet you too.”

I bit my lip. “And Trix’s mate?” I couldn’t imagine Trix being mated. Her alter meant she couldn’t be touched without pain.

“Kutzal.” Axton’s lips tilted into a fond smile. “He’s our drexel. He’s a total fleck. Bossy and rude and controlling. But with Trix…” Axton sighed. “I never thought I’d see him happy. Ever. And he treats her like she’s the center of his world.”

“And they… are, uh, intimate?” I didn’t want to pry about Trix’s privacy, but I was so confused.

He stared at me a little confused. “Of course.”

Something must have happened. Something good for Trix. I blinked away the happy tears and suppressed a sniffle. “I’m happy for them.” I wanted to ask if that could be us too. If he thought about what I’d said when we fought. My anger hadn’t lasted long, but I still felt the same way.

“And your brothers… did they have to see themselves as valuable?”

His gaze drifted away and his eyes went unfocused. He was silent for a long time before he answered. “I think they did.”

“So it’s possible for you?”

He nodded but still didn’t look at me. “It is.”

I squeezed his hand. “Okay, that’s enough for now.”

He swallowed but didn’t speak anymore. I let the silence stretch out. I’d clouded his mind enough already, and we had the mission of our lives to carry out at sunset.

I could barely see my hand in front of my face. The darkness was like a thick blanket, and since the Cors hated fire, there was nothing lighting our way as we picked our way down the cliffs. Most of the Cors had flown off. A few guards remained behind, posted at intervals on the cliff ledges. None circled overhead that I could see. The only thing guiding us was the moonlight reflecting off the water and a few stars in the clear sky.

Axton wasn’t as affected by the darkness as I was. His eyes reflected the light like a cat’s, and he walked with careful, measured steps. I focused on not falling and not making sounds. Those were my two jobs that I took very seriously.

We entered two caves which were empty of living things—although we picked our way over bones and decaying matter in our search. The stench was nearly unbearable, and my eyes watered as I tried not to gag.

Occasionally, we heard the clicking of Cors outside, so we’d hide in the shadows until the hunting Cors once again took flight.

When it felt like we searched a dozen caves with no sign of an adolescent Priedan, I began to feel discouraged. I was tired, and my eyes ached from straining into the darkness. Some caves were lit dimly with some sort of bioluminescent plant, which helped, but I still could only barely make out shapes.

I knew the second we stepped into the cave that this was the right one. I certainly didn’t have Tasha’s nose, but even I could smell the tangy scent of blood and the rank stench of fear. If I listened closely enough, I swore I could hear the past screams of pain bouncing off the walls.

I didn’t want to know what had happened in this cave. And I also knew that I needed to know. I fully believed Axton had the abilities to save Farron, but most certainly his bedside manner would be shit. If Farron was alive.

Please be alive, I mouthed the words to myself.

The glowing orbs of the luminescent plants highlighted a hulking form of a Cors. I stopped dead in my tracks before I realized it was sleeping. It was curled around itself so all I could see was its feathered back and great wings at rest.

A muffled sound came from the far end of the cave, and fear froze my limbs. I expected the Cors to raise its head any second now, pin me with its orange eyes, and slice me into ribbons with its sharp teeth. But it never moved.

The sounds immediately stopped, and I slipped past the sleeping Cors only to see Axton in a crouch with his head turned, watching me. And directly past him, chained to the wall in a mass of dirt and blood was a furred lump.

I clasped my hand over my mouth before I let out a gasp of despair. He was dead. Oh God, we were too late, and this poor boy was dead—

Suddenly one eye opened. The luminescent light reflected off a yellow iris. The eye blinked. I didn’t stop to think. I slid to my knees at the side of the Priedan prince and grasped the chain connected to Axton’s harness. The chain clinked once before I clamped it still with my fingers. I didn’t speak as that yellow eye slowly tracked down my arm before it came to rest on the chain. Then the eye bobbed in what I could only assume was a nod. His features were hard to see through the matted fur and blood.

With a vicious tug, Axton yanked apart the manacle around Farron’s ankle. I would have praised him on his strength, but there was no time. He swept the pile of fur and flesh into his arms and strode toward the mouth of the cave. I followed behind, holding onto his belt. As we walked past the Cors, he remained sleeping. Not even a muscle twitch.

We reached the mouth of the cave and ducked out. I still didn’t take a breath. This seems too easy. Any minute now a whole flock was going to stream out of the sky and rip us apart. I was going to be Cors stew. They would make wigs out of my hair.

But I didn’t even hear the flap of their wings or the clicking chirps of their language. When we reached the cover of treeline, I finally exhaled. My lungs burned. Had I been holding my breath this whole time?

We didn’t stop walking there. We kept going through the night. I wasn’t sure I would have been able to sleep if we stopped. Taking shallow, pained breaths, Farron remained limp in Axton’s arms. It wasn’t until the beginning rays of the sun streaked the horizon that we stopped to check on the Priedan.

Axton slowed and stopped at the edge of a stream which trickled off a steep cliff in a mini waterfall. I glanced down to see a few more tributaries feeding into it below and assumed it eventually led out into the ocean.

I finally took in Farron’s state for the first time. I’d never been good at keeping the emotions off my face, but I gave it a valiant effort not to weep at the condition of the Priedan.

As he rested on the stream bank, he looked at me with one good eye because the other was swollen shut. One ear hung in shredded strips crusted with dirt and dried blood. And his entire left shoulder was mangled as if something had… gnawed on him. I swallowed the bile that rose in my throat as I studied his swollen paws, broken claws, and the myriad wounds on his body. He was still a juvenile. He had that teenage look about him—his paws were too big for his body, and he was wiry. But he no longer had any innocence in his eyes. They were hard, flat, and eerie. He held his body stiff, defensive, as if ready to fight at a moment’s notice despite his wounds. “Who are you?” he asked.

I looked to Axton, who answered my silent question. “I updated his implant during the night.”

I returned my attention to Farron. “My name is Lu. This is Axton. Your parents sent us for you.”

His eye strayed to the chain on Axton’s harness. I immediately unwrapped it and handed it to Farron. He held it with his uninjured paw, and for the first time, a flicker of pain entered his eyes. “They should have left me there.”

He’d been through hell, but he was still a child. My heart cracked. “Farron, no. They’ve been trying, but—” I stopped myself. He didn’t need to know how the Pried had suffered in their efforts to rescue him.

Axton had other ideas. “When too many Priedans died trying to retrieve you, they decided to send someone else. Us.”

“Ax,” I whispered.

He frowned at me. “What?”

“He doesn’t need to know about that yet.”

Farron stared at the chain. “I didn’t know they were there to rescue me. I saw the chains, the Priedan bodies. I thought the Cors were just collecting more food.” He swallowed. “I had hoped they weren’t sending any members of the Pried for me, but instead focusing on obtaining the cynax.” He glanced up. “Is my sister all right?”

A sick feeling churned in my gut. I didn’t know what cynax was, and I certainly hadn’t seen a sister. Axton opened his mouth, but I cut him off. “We didn’t meet your sister.”

Farron nodded, seeming to accept that. “Why do you care about rescuing me?”

“We don’t,” Axton muttered. “They’re holding our lives hostage.”

“Ax!” I hissed.

His expression was deceptively innocent. “What?”

“Stop it.”

“What do you mean they’re holding your lives hostage?” Farron asked.

I sighed and gave him a brief rundown, but tried to make it seem a whole lot less evil.

So you’re taking me…” he swallowed. “Home?”

I wanted to wrap him in my arms and hold him close where nothing could hurt him again. I couldn’t imagine the horror he’d gone through in the last few weeks, and even now he clung to his pride with his ragged claws. This was a formative time in his life, on the cusp of manhood, and he had been torn from his home, maimed, and thought abandoned. But he hadn’t given up. He’d been ready to fight us if we intended him harm, and that only made me admire the young Priedan more.

“We’re taking you home,” I said gently.

He looked away as his body trembled. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“Farron, we need to tend to your wounds.”

“I’m fine.” He tried to get up, but his good arm gave out, and he slammed into the ground on his injured shoulder. He let out a wounded cry that pierced me in the heart.

I gestured for Axton to bring me some water, and I set about cleaning Farron’s wounds. He was impatient the whole time, telling me that we needed to get home quickly. I understood his urgency—he missed home—but getting him clean and bandaged was important too.

I couldn’t do much about his shredded ear and mangled arm, but I washed away the crusted dirt and blood from most of his cuts. Axton helped carry him to the stream to wash away the filth coating his body. The young Priedan held himself stiffly, uncomfortable with being treated like an injured thing, but he was so weak that he could barely hold his own weight.

The Cors had fed him, he said, but didn’t let him exercise, and I was reminded of baby lambs left in their pens to be killed and then served as veal parmigiana. They wanted him tender, and the thought made me shudder. I wasn’t sure I’d be hungry for meat for a long time.

After he was clean, I wrapped a bandage around his head to keep his ear clean and placed his arm in a sling. Marrin would surely crumple at the sight of her maimed son. Did Priedans have a stigma against handicapped warriors? Because I didn’t think Farron would ever have full use of his left arm.

Once he realized we wouldn’t continue on without seeing to his wounds, Farron remained fairly stoic except for a few grimaces and hissed breaths. I kept expecting him to fall apart, but he only watched us with his one good eye. When I asked him about his injuries, he said that he was beaten when he refused to eat.

Yeah, meat wasn’t sounding so good for a long while.

When we were finally ready to leave, Axton announced he would carry Farron on his back. I expected the boy to protest and to insist he wanted to walk on his own. Instead, he just glowered from his spot on the ground. I saw a little bit of his father in the stubborn set of his jaw, but he also seemed to have his mother’s common sense. I admired that the boy was realistic. No way could he keep up our pace.

I crouched beside Farron and handed him some of the food his mom sent—strips of salted meat that smelled of spice. Farron’s throat worked as he looked at it before he took it from my fingers and shoved it in his mouth. As he chewed, he glanced up at me with a glassy eye. “Thank you.”

I didn’t expect a thanks, but I appreciated it. With a tentative hand, I reached out and stroked the fur near his good ear. I could see his mane started to grow in. At first he went still, eyeing me, but then, ever so slightly, he leaned into the touch. A slight purr rumbled from his chest.

“Let’s go,” Axton snapped.

Was he jealous? Of a lion boy? I rolled my eyes but rose to my feet. I helped Farron climb onto Axton’s back and was pleased that Ax handled the injured Priedan delicately despite his irritation.

I turned and reached for the water skin near the stream just as a familiar snapping sound sent ice through my veins. I skittered back just as a shadow rose up the cliff. The massive wings of a Cors flapped again, spraying water on my face, just as its beady eyes narrowed on me.

“Holy shit,” I rasped just as the Cors reached for me with its clawed hand.

THIRTEEN

Axton

Farron slid off my back just as I reached behind me to withdraw my swords from their sheaths. Lu let out a ferocious scream that was like a knife in my spine. Kicking out, she landed a decent blow on the Cors snout. He shook his head and clicked at her, almost like he was smirking at the strength of her blow.

She scrambled back but the Cors closed a claw around her ankle and tugged. Blood bloomed on her skin, dripped onto the green dirt, and I leapt into the air. Bringing my sword down on the edge of the Cors’ wing, I severed the clawed hand from the feathered tips. The Cors screeched in pain—the sound like metal on bone—and landed on its taloned feet. The chain of a fallen Priedan dangled from its neck, tipped with a green pendant. Farron let out a roar from behind me, a sound I hadn’t thought he was capable of. The Cors’ eyes narrowed on him, and he chirped as if to say, “There you are.”

But that moment of distraction was all I needed. Despite the Cors size, I jumped onto its back and gripped the chain. As the Cors reared and bucked, I clenched its feathered back with my thighs and tugged harder. Spraying blood from its severed limb, the Cors tried to take flight, but I plunged a sword into its shoulder, ripping through necessary flight muscles.

As I wrapped the chain tighter around my fist, it dug into the Cors neck, cutting off its air supply. It gasped and writhed. In a last ditch effort to dislodge me, it flung itself on its back. I slid off in time to avoid the massive body smothering me. As I rolled to the right, the chain broke off in my hand. While the Cors struggled, I slammed the bottom of my boot into its chest. With another scream—this one a clear alarm to his flock—he went sailing off of the edge of the cliff.

I didn’t wait to hear the splash below. I turned to find Lu clutching Farron with her injured ankle dripping blood. The Cors would smell it. There’d be more here soon. I could take one, but not a dozen. Fleck, I could probably barely hold off two. I swore I could hear an answering chirp in the distance, and the flap of a hundred wings in the air as they came to finish us off.

“Go,” I heard myself say.

“Ax, don’t do this,” Lu pleaded with tears falling down her cheeks.

“I have to. You need to get home safe with the boy.”

Farron’s one good eye was wild, and his nostrils were flared as his broken whiskers twitched. “We can help.” He reached for a sword. “Give me a weapon.”

He had one good arm. Lu was injured. I met her gaze and felt a rock lodge in my throat. My limbs wouldn’t budge. For once in my life, I wasn’t ready to die for a cause. I wanted more time with Lu, I wanted to give her a place to call home, to see her cheeks flush when she had too many spirits, to wake up to the sun shining on her face. And I wanted to be there with her, smelling her skin, bathing in the warmth of her smile. I wanted to see her belly grow round with my chit.

I’d never wanted anything for myself. Until her.

“Axton,” she pleaded again, taking a stumbling step toward me. Her small hand reached out. “Don’t.”

I heard it then. The screeching battle cry of the Cors. Soon the sun would be blotted out with their bodies as they searched for us.

“Take Farron,” I growled at her, knowing exactly what I had to do. “Now.”

“Ax!” she cried.

But I had already turned my back. Even as her voice sobbed my name, I ran with my swords at my sides, crashing through the underbrush to make as much noise as possible. While I’d been carrying Farron away from the cliffs, I’d been paying attention to my surroundings, so I’d seen the telltale entrances of the quarg burrows dotting the ground. If I could reach the quarg tunnels, I might have a chance. The Cors wouldn’t send their entire flock, but they’d send enough to ensure success. Except they weren’t banking on me.

I no longer heard my name, and if I made it out of this alive, I’d have a lot of apologizing to do. But I was made for this. For once I didn’t approach a battle with a detached duty. I’d never been more invested in succeeding. And it wasn’t because of Lu, it was because of myself.

Because for once I wanted something.

Shadows darkened the sky, and I thrashed at the trees around me with my swords. The trunks shuddered and branches shook. There was no way they’d miss me crashing my way through the underbrush. A chirp went up from the leader, and he circled overhead, beady eyes surveying the land. The moment he spotted me, his lips peeled back in a mockery of a grin. He clicked twice, and I swore he was saying, “Got you,” just as he descended in a death swoop.

My destination was in sight, but with the Cors closing in fast, I poured on some extra speed before hitting the ground on my hip in a slide. The Cors crashed through the underbrush, his flock behind him, and clipped my shoulder. Pain shot down my forearm along with the warm trickle of blood as the impact spun my body. Flinging out my uninjured arm, I grasped a tree root just at the mouth of the burrow that stopped the momentum of my body. The Cors, unable to stop quickly enough, went sliding past me in the dirt as I fell headfirst down the tunnel.

Darkness surrounded me, and I tried to right myself moments before I slammed into the ground at the bottom of the burrow. My fingers sank into damp soil, and I coughed at the rancid scent of the old quarg homes. Eight-legged creatures about my size, they had abandoned these tunnels long ago as they headed south for warmer weather. But their tunnels remained. While the Cors would be able to follow me, they’d have to claw their way through, one at a time.

Peering up at the hole in the surface, I waited until the familiar clicks and stomps of a Cors greeted me. A mouth full of teeth leered down at me, and his eyes glowed. He thought he had me trapped, but I had other ideas.

I took off down the tunnel. My shoulder throbbed, and my hip ached where a rock had snagged my scales. Blood soaked the waistband of my pants, but I couldn’t let a little pain stop me. I had too much riding on this. My plan would either succeed or I’d fail spectacularly. But either way, I was going down fighting for me. The quarg tunnels were lined with thin webbing from their nests and one thing I knew—that maybe the Cors didn’t—were that they were highly flammable.

I heard the sound of the first Cors crash down through the tunnel entrance. More chirps and clicks followed me as they could smell my blood and hear my cora beating in my chest like a hunted animal.

I kept going, until the thunder of Cors feet at my back was nearly deafening. But I couldn’t stop yet. I needed an exit or this plan was going to fleck. But the Cors were gaining ground. The tunnel was wider than I expected and hadn’t slowed them down enough. I ran on and risked a glance over my shoulder. The hulking form of a Cors wasn’t far behind.

“Fleck,” I hissed. But there wasn’t time. Gripping my flint stick in my hand, I turned and clacked it against my sword. A spark flew, and the Cors leader shrieked back with a hiss.

Understanding dawned in his eyes a moment too late. “Fleck you, assholes,” I growled just as I held my sword near a mass of webbing along the wall. I cracked off a spark, and the web burst into flames.

Lu

I was supposed to be running in the direction of Farron’s home, but my muscles had turned to stone. Immobile, I stared in the direction where Axton had sprinted off and gasped for breath as an invisible band tightened around my lungs.

Farron stood on wobbly legs at my side with his one good arm around my shoulders while I supported him with one arm around his waist. Standing, he was about as tall as me, and it was odd to turn and look him directly in his one good eye. The yellow glowed fiercely as he set his jaw in his battered face. His body vibrated, and I knew how impatient he was to get home.

I closed my eyes as I fought for the guidance to make the right decision. Then Farron’s rumbling voice cut through my mind fog. “We’re not letting him do this alone, are we?”

The band around my lungs snapped. I sucked in a deep breath and nearly wept with relief. I wasn’t alone. “No way. But I don’t know what to do.”

He took a stumbling step forward. “I have an idea on where he went. I know this area pretty well. I ran away from the Cors once.” He cocked his head. “My ear was my punishment when they caught me. No good meat in that so they weren’t worried about ruining it.”

I couldn’t imagine the horror and pain he experienced at his young age. “Farron, I’m sorry.” Together, we started forward, although our progress was slow.

“They’ll take him alive,” Farron said. “And I can’t let him go through what I went through. Even if you two were forced to come here, you still saved me.” His paw around my neck tensed. “You were kind to me.”

“It’s not your fault what happened to you.”

He shrugged. “Maybe.” His steps picked up speed. “Come on. I don’t hear the Cors in the air anymore, so they took to ground.”

“Shit,” I whispered. “So where are we going?”

“Quarg burrows.” His eye met mine. “I think Axton tried to trap them in the underground tunnels.”

Hobbling together, we made terrible time, but we could see Axton’s large bootprints every so often, which let us know we were on the right track. I kept listening for the sound of his voice, the crash of battle, or the flapping of Cors wings, but instead there was only an eerie silence.

“Are we close?”

Nodding solemnly, Farron kept his gaze straight ahead.

The smell came to me first, smoky like a campfire and burned meat on a spit. Fire. “Farron,” I gasped.

“I know.” His voice cracked like a preteen, reminding me he was really just a boy in a large body. He trembled against me when the first lick of smoke came into view curling above the trees.

We burst out between two large trunks to what felt like chaos. I could barely see around the thick billows of smoke rising out of the ground like New York City sidewalk.

“The tunnels are smoked out,” Farron said as he led us over to a hole in the ground. Below the choking gray smoke, the flicker of flames leapt up.

“What—?” I whispered.

“The quarg webs lining the tunnels. They lit up like dry kindling,” Farron said.

I could barely process his words as something on the ground caught my eye. Shoving out of Farron’s grasp, I slid to the ground to pick up the chained pendant. It had been worn by the Cors who attacked me. The pendant Axton had held. And beside it, dark spots blotted the dirt. And near the spilled black blood were large claw marks widening the mouth of the hole.

“Axton!” Clutching the pendant to my chest, I stumbled to my feet.

Farron looked as wild as I felt as he cupped his paws around his mouth and yelled for Axton. I did the same, my voice cracking helplessly.

Oh God, what had happened? I didn’t want to think about him in the tunnels with the Cors surrounding by the flames and smoke. I wanted to believe he was invincible but… he wasn’t.

“Lu,” Farron jogged over to me with an uneven gait and a wild eye. “We have to go.”

“What?” I asked.

“We have to—” he swallowed and looked behind him. “I think some Cors are still alive in the tunnels.”

“How do you know?”

He swallowed. “I hear digging.”

“Digging? Where?”

He pointed, and all sense of self-preservation fled. It was either a Cors or Axton. And I had to find out. I shoved my pack at him. “Go home.”

His jaw dropped open. “What?”

I ran to where he’d pointed and began to feel around for loose dirt and listen for digging. “The mission was to get you home. So go.”

“But you—”

“Go!” I screeched at him. Tears fled down my face, and I couldn’t tell if it was from emotion or the burning of the smoke. “Please, Farron. Because I can’t leave without him.”

Swiping at my face, I turned my back on the lion kid and dropped to the ground on all fours. Pressing my face against the dirt, I at first heard nothing but the flames crackling underground. Until I detected the very slight rasp of scratching. Crawling over to it, I grabbed a nearby rock and slammed it into the ground before dragging away the top layer of dirt. With every smash and drag, I grunted. My arms ached and my nails broke in ragged husks on the rock, but I refused to stop. A shadow darkened over me, and I looked back to see Farron kneeling next to me. He dug his one good paw into the ground, claws extended, and proceeded to help.

“I told you to leave,” I grumbled.

“You aren’t my mother,” he sassed back.

I went to continue my digging when the ground pulsed from beneath. I skittered back just as some dirt caved in and smoke leaked out. One more pulse and a hole appeared along with a massive burst of smoke. Covering my face with my arm, I coughed into the crook of my elbow. Farron huddled against me as we sought to breathe. And then through the hiss and crackle of the flames, floating through the smoke like a ghost, I heard a word. “Lu.”

“Axton!” I shouted just as a hand thrust out of the smoke and smacked the ground. A dirty blue hand tipped with ragged black claws. “Ax!”

I grabbed the hand and pulled while Farron tugged me from my waist, and somehow all three of us managed to yank a big body out of the ground. We fell onto our backs, and I waved away the smoke in front of my face as my eyes watered and my throat burned.

As the smoke dissipated, a face appeared covered in dirt and grime but with shining purple eyes. His mouth opened, and I swore he smiled. “I was on my way. But thanks for the help.”

Disbelief seized my vocal chords, so I could do nothing but stare at Axton like he was an apparition.

He shifted toward me, and he was no longer smiling. “Lu.” His voice was gentle like he was talking to a spooked deer. “I wouldn’t have tried so hard to stay alive if it wasn’t for you. I would have let myself burn down there with the trapped Cors.” His purple eyes flickered. “But I wanted to be happy. I wanted that future with you. I thought it would make me selfish. Instead it just made me stronger.”

He wasn’t an apparition. He was here in front of me, and he wasn’t just saying the words I wanted to hear. The proof was in his survival. I threw my arms around him and sobbed into his chest. When my fingers slipped through something slick on his scales, I jerked back. “You’re bleeding!” His torn pants at his hip revealed a large gash, and the wound on his shoulder pulsed blood around the soot-stained skin. “We have to get you cleaned up.”

He shook his head. “I’m fine.”

Metal grated on the ground, and we glanced up to see Farron holding one of Axton’s swords. His whiskers twitched. “You dropped this.”

A horrible screech rent the air just as a massive form lunged from the smoke. Axton tossed me to the side as a Cors snapped its jaws right where I’d been crouched. With one wing tucked at its side and blood coating its neck, the Cors tumbled onto the ground before rolling onto its feet to round for another attack. The laceration at its throat proved it was the first Cors who had attacked us—the one who’d grasped my ankle.

In one fluid motion, Axton grabbed the sword from Farron’s hand, slid to the ground on his injured hip, and slammed the sword into the breast of the Cors.

So much blood. The fluttering of wings. Axton’s grunts and the Cors screams. I could barely see anything as Farron covered me with his furry body. I tried to protect him, but he held me firm, and it wasn’t until the only sound left was the harsh pants of one set of lungs that I managed to shove his arm aside.

Feet braced apart, Axton stood alone over the dead body of the Cors. His shoulders heaved, and his back held a new set of talon marks that dripped a waterfall of blood down his pants. Both swords were pointed down, points in the dirt, and he looked over his shoulder. “They won’t send more. We are done.”

Body aching, ankle throbbing, I scrabbled toward him on my hands and knees. But my wrists flared with pain and I cried out as my arms trembled. Farron caught me by the shoulders before I ate dirt. Sitting back on my haunches, I rubbed my sore wrists. My thumb swiped at the layer of soot, which was the only reason I saw the marks there.

Black lines, inked as if by an invisible tattoo gun, ran the circumference of my wrist. “What the—?” I glanced up at Ax to see him staring at his wrists, eyes wide in awe. “Axton, what is happening?”

FOURTEEN

Axton

The pattern of the loks appearing on my wrists wasn’t clear at first, but then the unmistakable lines glowed a bright white before dulling to a shiny gold. Complete, the pattern between the two solid, parallel lines were undoubtedly—

“Wings,” Lu whispered in a hoarse voice. “The greer said… we’d succeed when we grew wings.” She peered up at me with her big blue eyes, and I swiped at the soot marks on her face. “What are these?”

“Loks.” I was barely able to believe my own voice. Never in my life did I think I’d have this—a mate of my own, a cora-eternal. But the loks were a gift from Fatas granting us a perfect mate. Not that I needed Fatas to tell me. I would have chosen Lu over and over again in this lifetime. These loks felt more like Fatas was giving us our blessing. “Fatas is approving our bond as mates.”

Lu cocked her head as she studied them. “I didn’t really need anyone’s approval, but that was, uh, nice of her.”

I smiled. “Your friends have them too, these matching loks with their mates.”

“Really?”

I nodded. “The cora-eternal bond has always been rare, but lately with humans… Fatas has been blessing us a lot.”

She glanced at the still smoking tunnel exits. “Well, I feel kind of blessed too.”

Nearby, Farron watched us quietly. I gave him a nod. “Thank you for your help.”

He snorted softly. “I didn’t do much. Lu was ready to storm the burrows all on her own.” He toed the dirt. “I couldn’t leave her.”

Smiling up into the boy’s face, Lu grasped his paw and squeezed. My cora gave a lurch of something resembling warmth toward the Priedan. Despite everything, he’d been willing to help save my life.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “But you want to go home now, right?”

His gaze shot up, and his muzzle twitched. “Yeah, yeah I really do.”

Despite my desire to take Lu to a secluded part of the forest and ravage her, we still weren’t safe. And we still hadn’t completed the mission. Farron wasn’t home yet. Although I didn’t view him as merely a thing to be delivered. Like Lu, he’d managed to make me feel some affection toward him. He wasn’t a spoiled son—he was a brave boy and would one day make a fine quozel.

Lu’s ankle needed to be wrapped, but she assured me she could walk on it. With Farron on my back, we left the smoking burrows and headed toward the direction of the Priedan Pims. Farron’s body remained stiff, and I knew he was in pain, but I’d done all I could for him until we could get him to a proper healer. He needed food, rest, and to be kept clean. He’d always bear the scars of his time as a Cors captive, but I was confident he’d recover.

As we walked, Lu told the story of all she’d been through—from being abducted on Earth to held captive by the Uldani. Farron listened with rapt attention, occasionally asking a few questions. They seemed to bond over their experiences of feeling helpless as victims of captivity.

When the cloud-ringed tops of the Pims could be seen over the trees, he let out a strangled gasp in my ear. Lu, who’d been walking with her hand on Farron’s knee for comfort, did a little skip. “We’re almost there, Farron.”

Voice tight with pain, he could only mutter a short, “Yes.”

The drums started shortly thereafter, letting me know that we’d been spotted by the scouts. In the distance, the doors opened, and a swell of Priedans surged out. Sunlight glinted off the top of Gragic’s crown, and at his side, Marrin ran with a rhythmic clinking of her decorative chains. Dust swirled around the Priedans as they galloped toward us on all fours. In the midst were a few Priedans carrying a sling for Farron.

They reached us quickly, and Lu was nearly separated from me as we were surrounded by paws and tails and welcome yowls full of concern.

But it was Marrin who lifted Farron off my back, and it was Marrin who sat on her haunches in the green dirt and began to groom her injured son with her wide, flat tongue. Her paws kneaded his arms, legs, and belly. Gragic joined her while the Pried circled them in a protective huddle. Eyes misty at the reunion, Lu slipped her hand in mine.

As her chest rumbled with a concerned purr, Marrin unwrapped the bandages to take in her son’s injuries. Her expression remained stoic, but her ears trembled, and her paws shook. He’d be permanently disfigured, and I didn’t know how the Priedans would feel about that. There were many species who didn’t take well to injured members of their own kind.

But Farron didn’t cower. Each time she revealed the extent of his wounds to the surrounding Pried, he met her gaze squarely, only grimacing when she tugged at dirty scabs.

“Mother.” He dug into a worn pocket of his pants and withdrew a dirty root I recognized as part of the cynax plant—a rare plant used by some healers. “Where is she?”

Lu made a strangled sound in her throat as Marrin went very still mid-lick of his shredded ear. Gragic’s head tilted back, and his crown nearly toppled as his eyes slid shut.

Marrin ran her hands over her son’s scraggly mane. “She is gone.”

Farron shook his head. “No, I’ve returned in time—”

“It’s been too long,” she said softly. “Your sister passed.”

Kicking out, he slammed a foot in her chest in his scramble out of her arms. She didn’t even flinch. Wobbly with weakness, Farron rose onto his back legs. “That’s not possible. I did it. I got the cynax. I risked everything to save her, and I’ve returned.”

His eyes rolled in his head wildly as he spun in a circle. “Where is she? Nyla!”

Marrin rose slowly. “Farron—“

“Nyla!” Farron’s voice was a broken crackle. “Where are you?” He held up the cynax root and shook it. “I can save you!”

“Farron!” Gragic’s voice boomed over the Pried. Silence reigned after except for Lu’s sniffles at my side. Tears streamed down her face as she held a hand over her mouth. She didn’t look away from Farron.

“We are sorry, son.” Gragic’s harsh tone made me wince. “But your sister didn’t make it. She died shortly after you left.”

“But you’re alive.” Marrin walked toward him. “I haven’t lost you—“

Farron howled, and I’d never heard such a mournful sound in my life. I understood now—that Farron had traveled into Cors territory, knowingly entering dangerous territory, in order to obtain the cynax root to cure his ill sister.

But he hadn’t returned in time. Not even close. And now Farron was lost—the boy who’d only wanted to save his sister, the boy who stayed alive through unimaginable pain, the boy who’d taken his precious time to help save my life. He’d held it together since I saw him in that cave, but now he was a crumpled, howling ball of fur in the dirt.

His pain reverberated around the Pried, and soon everyone was sending up pained yowls to the sky while the drums continued to beat a somber rhythm.

Gathering a sobbing Lu in my arms, I bowed my head.

Lu

I woke to the sound of a creak of a door opening and then Axton’s heavy footfalls. I opened my eyes to see him standing at the side of the bed, hands on his hips. “I was concerned you’d never wake.”

I rubbed my eyes and sat up in bed. My hair hung in tangled clumps in front of my face, and I blew it away with a puff of air. After we’d entered the Pims, the Priedans had fed us, let us bathe, and then I’d promptly fallen asleep. I hadn’t meant to, but the bed had just been so soft, and I had been so tired. Even now, my arms ached from digging. My ankle, fortunately, seemed mostly back to normal. “How long have I been asleep?”

“A long time.” He frowned. “Are you well rested? Do you want me to leave you alone to get more sleep?”

He was serious. The man would let me get more beauty sleep if I needed it. “No, I’m okay.”

I crawled out of bed and adjusted my clothes as I hobbled toward the water basin. “How’s your shoulder? How is Farron?”

“You ask about us when you’re limping?”

I gulped down some water. “I’m fine, it’s just a little stiff.”

He narrowed his eyes like he didn’t believe me. Ignoring his look, I palpitated the bandage on his shoulder to check for any soreness. “How is it?”

Sounding very put-out, he batted my hands away. “Nearly healed. I’m only wearing this because the healer made me.”

I smiled. “Okay, well I’m glad someone has sense.” My smile faded as I remembered Farron. The last I saw, he’d been nearly catatonic as he lay on the sling on the way into the Pims.

Axton’s expression sobered. “He is resting.”

“Has he spoken?”

His jaw worked. “Not yet.”

“Can I see him?”

“If Marrin allows it.”

“Did you know about this?” I could feel the anger rising in my chest. Not at Axton, but at the situation. This whole time, I figured Farron was a young Priedan who had just done something stupid to get caught. But no, he’d been caught attempting to save his sister’s life. Apparently the cynax plant could cure all manner of ills.

Axton held up his hands, palms out. “I had no idea, Lu. I swear it.”

I believed him, but that didn’t stop the way my stomach turned at Farron’s situation. A happy, relieved reunion had turned into a tragedy in minutes. I would forever be haunted by Farron’s howls.

After splashing some water on my face and getting a snack, Axton led me through the Pims tunnels until we came to a room. Outside, decorative chains littered the floor, and Axton explained they were offerings of support from the Pried. When we knocked on the door, a tired and muffled, “Who is it?” responded from inside.

Axton scratched at his chest. “Lu would like to see Farron.”

Silence followed his request, and I thought our request had been denied until the door creaked open. Marrin peered at us. She wore none of her jewelry and only a few chains around her neck. Her mane looked unkempt, and she appeared a decade older than I’d seen her yesterday.

I wanted to burst into tears, but I held myself in check. “Hi Marrin. Can I see Farron?”

Her big eyes blinked and then she opened the door wider without a word. I walked inside first, one step at a time, Axton at my heels.

In the center of the room was a large chained bed and laying in the middle, appearing so small, was Farron. He stared straight up at the ceiling, his paws resting on his stomach. Deathly still, I first thought he wasn’t breathing until I saw the steady rise and fall of his chest.

The door clicked shut behind us. Marrin sat in a nearby chair at a small table and resumed linking together a length of chains. The rattle of them sent a chill up my spine. A shadow moved in the corner as Gragic stood silently.

Unease bubbled in my stomach. Maybe this had been a bad idea. I wasn’t welcome here as an outsider. Sure, we’d returned Farron home, but what this family had to go through now was not of my concern. Yet, I couldn’t abandon Farron.

Axton’s steady hand on my back encouraged me to continue forward until I stood next to Farron’s bed. He stared unseeing at the ceiling and didn’t acknowledge my presence. The bed was so high that I could fold my arms on the blanket. The outside of my forearm brushed his bandaged shoulder.

“Hey buddy,” I said softly. “I’m sorry about your sister. Nyla. I’m sure she loved you very much, and she knew that you loved her too. You were a good brother to her.” I thought of Tasha and Trix, and how worried they would have been about me and Maisie this whole time. I wondered if they felt guilt over things beyond their control. Even in my darkest moments away from them, I never once wished they had tried harder. I only wished that wherever they were, they were safe. Knowing they’d found love and were happy had been a relief to me. “I hope you know that you didn’t fail her. Take all the time you need to heal and mourn, but then try to find a way to be happy, Farron. Look around at the support you have. Your loving mother and father.” I took a chance and reached out to lay my hand over his large paw. “You’re not just a survivor. You’re a fighter.”

Farron didn’t answer. He didn’t even blink. He stared at the ceiling as if I wasn’t there. The tears fell unbidden from my eyes as I watched this broken boy. I just wanted him to be okay.

I sniffled softly and went to take my hand away when his paw twitched. I went still, and nearly gasped when his head slowly turned to face me. A sudden rattle of chains behind me startled me.

Farron’s hazy yellow eyes held mine, and then he gave me one distinct nod. My chin wobbled as I patted his palm. “You’re going to be okay.”

His mouth opened, and he whispered one soft sound. “Yes.”

A knock at the door surprised me. It swung open to reveal a member of the Pried. Her eyes sought out Gragic in the room. “The Drixonians are here, quozel.”

“What?” I squeaked.

Axton stepped to my side. “While you were sleeping, Gragic managed to get in touch with Daz. He sent a cruiser for us. We’re going home, Lu. We’re going to see your friends.”

FIFTEEN

Axton

Maddic leaned against the side of his cruiser with two laser guns strapped to his chest. Sticking out of his mouth was a bud of yuza with a thin stream of smoke floating from the end. As soon as I walked out of the Pims behind Gragic, Marrin, and a few members of their Pried, Maddic shook his head. He flicked the ring in his one nostril as he strode toward me.

Ignoring Gragic, which was rude, he grasped the back of my neck and thunked our foreheads together in the traditional Drixonian greeting. Since I never thought I’d see one of my fellow warriors again, I closed my eyes and relished in the touch. Which was why I missed when he shoved me back and then hauled off and punched me in the jaw.

“You’re so flecking stupid,” Maddic growled.

“Hey!” Lu stomped to stand in front of me. “Don’t call him that.”

Maddic’s gaze lowered to her before letting out a long sigh. “Sorry, sweetheart, but that’s not the last time I plan to hit this fleck.”

She balled her fists at her sides, but I grabbed one of her braids to haul her back next to me. She squawked in protest. “It’s okay, Lu. I probably deserve it.”

Placing her hands on her hips, she huffed. “Violence is not the answer.”

“You boarded a Horazian plane?” Maddic ignored her to once again yell at me. “What the fleck is wrong with you?”

I rubbed my forehead. “I don’t know, but I would do it all over again knowing it ends this way.” I slipped my fingers inside Lu’s and squeezed. Maddic’s gaze drifted down to our wrists. He didn’t seem impressed, but then that was Maddic’s way.

Gragic slammed a spear into the ground in warning, and I didn’t miss the way Maddic stifled a suffering sigh before turning to address the quozel. He was always a bit of a pompous fleck. He was one of the smartest among us, and never viewed the sons of naught brand he bore as an obstacle. He snuck into training and classes that the privileged warriors attended and taught himself how to read and write. It was why he’d been chosen by Daz to learn how to pilot one of our few cruisers.

I hadn’t seen him in a while as he’d been away at training. We’d been close when we were chits, as he’d found that I didn’t mind listening to him chatter. Maybe that was why I didn’t mind how much Lu talked.

Maddic crossed his arms at the wrist and touched them to his chest in greeting toward quozel. “Thank you for caring for Axton and his mate until we could retrieve them.”

Lu made a sound, and I met Gragic’s gaze. Care for us? He’d sent us on a deadly mission. Gragic looked away quickly, and I didn’t bother arguing. It didn’t matter now. I’d tell Maddic everything later.

“Of course,” was all Gragic said.

“Let’s go.” Maddic waved a hand toward the cruiser with a shiver despite his fur cape. “It’s cold here.”

He walked up the cruiser ramp out of sight, and then I spotted him again through the front windows as he sat at the cockpit. Before I could follow, Gragic and Marrin stepped in front of us. They’d left Farron to see us off, which surprised me.

“It’s hard to put into words how much we appreciate what you did for us.”

“We didn’t do it for you,” I said. “We did it for ourselves.”

“And for Farron,” Lu piped up. “No matter what we went through, it was worth it to bring Farron home. Please keep us updated as he heals.”

Marrin stepped forward, her movements unsteady, before she leaned down and rubbed her face and mane across the top of Lu’s head. My mate held very still, not even breathing, as Marrin afforded her the highest sign of affection from a female Priedan.

Lu wouldn’t have known this, but there was no need to say words. She understood the gesture, as her eyes filled with tears. “You’re welcome,” she said in a soft voice. Marrin placed a chain in her hand—a shimmering metal with a stone carved into a wing on the end. She closed Lu’s fingers around it, and then with one more bump of her head, walked back silently into the Pims.

Lu sniffled a few times before loping the chain around her neck. Patting the stone, she smiled through tears at Gragic. “This is very kind of you.”

Gragic beckoned for me to come closer, and when I did, he strung a matching chain around my neck. The blue wing glimmered against my chest.

Gragic stepped back. “You tell Daz that if he ever needs the Pried, we will come.”

I couldn’t imagine how much it took Gragic to say that. “Thank you, quozel.”

He nodded and then turned on his heel and strode into the Pims. The few members of the Pried remaining outside followed him. We watched him go until the doors shut and the plants returned to their guard position at the doors.

Lu swiped at her eyes. “Well, that was emotional. Do you think we’ll see them again?”

I fingered the pendant on my chest. “I don’t know. I kind of hope we don’t.” I didn’t want to have to need their help or risk any of their Pried.

“I get what you mean,” she said. “And I agree.” With linked hands, we strode into the cruiser where Maddic waited.

“They what?”

We hadn’t been on the cruiser long before Maddic got me to spill the details of what we’d had to do for the Priedans.

The veins on his neck stood out as he gnashed his fangs and began punching buttons on the dashboard. “Fleck that, we’re going back and I’m going to tell them—”

“No.” I lounged in a chair in the cockpit while Lu slept in a pull-out pallet. “We want to go home.”

“They made you fight Cors?”

“Go home, Mad,” I sighed.

With an actual pout on his face, he slowly pressed more buttons and slumped his shoulders. “Fine, but I want it noted that I’m not happy about this.”

“Noted.” I yawned.

He glanced back at the sleeping Lu. “Is she all right?”

“She’s tired.”

“Does she need anything?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Human things.”

I eyed him. “You have not been around enough.”

“Of course I haven’t. I’ve been in the flecking sky learning about how to do stuff like this to save flecks like you who do stupid shet.”

“You still talk in mostly curse words, I hear.”

“I have a few I made up too, so keep making me mad and you’ll hear more.”

“Can’t wait.”

“I’ve spoken to maybe two of these human females in my lifetime. Excuse the fleck out of me for not knowing what they do or need.”

“They need to eat, sleep, and be protected.”

“I know that, flecker.”

I shrugged. “They’re all different. What else they need varies.”

“Do they tell you?”

“Sometimes.”

He wrinkled his nose.

“You’ll meet more soon.”

“Eventually. As soon as I get you home, I have to take off again on another mission for Daz.”

I peered out the front window to see us traversing a wide swath of freshas. In the distance, our sister planet Torin rose above the horizon. It reminded me of Maisie. As soon as we returned home, we’d have to talk to Daz about her. Lu wouldn’t abandon hope.

I was about to mention her to Maddic when Lu made a distressed sound. I turned to find her writhing on the bed, her eyelids fluttering. “Is she dying?” Maddic yelled.

Ignoring the annoying pilot, I rushed to Lu’s side. As soon as I reached her, she opened her eyes and stared at me unfocused. I recognized that look—she’d just had one of her visions. I knew her head would ache soon, and she’d likely feel sick.

But instead her mouth stretched into a wide grin. In a raspy voice, she said, “He’ll be okay, Ax.”

I combed my fingers through her hair soothingly. “Who?”

“Farron,” she murmured. “I saw him. He’ll become an adult. And he’ll be happy again.”

I smiled at her. “That’s good, Lu.”

“Who’s Farron?” Maddic called from the cockpit.

Lu began to giggle.

Lu

I learned that the cruiser we flew in could handle both inter and intra-planet travel. Maddic drove like he was Maverick in Top Gun. I’d always liked that movie and would have loved a sequel. Maybe they made one since I’d been gone from Earth. I hoped it was as good as the original and had another sweaty beach volleyball scene.

Through the window at the front of the cruiser, I spotted a cluster of tall buildings rising in the distance. Axton explained that was Granit, the once great city of the Drixonian society, which had been undergoing reconstruction since their return to Corin.

“We’ll visit there soon, but first we’re going to Sari.”

“Sari?” I queried.

“I’m part of the Lone Howl clavas of Drixonians. We’re all sons of naught, and we have settled in a village close to Granit.”

“Most of the Drixonians are in Granit now, but there are still some scattered clavases around Corin that prefer to keep to themselves.”

“But my friends are at Sari?”

“They are,” Axton assured me.

“Do they know I’m coming?”

I glanced at Maddic, who shook his head. “I don’t think so. Gragic didn’t tell us her name, only that she was a human female.”

“We’re there,” Axton pointed in the distance. “See the top of the large moke tree?”

I nodded at the sight of the tall dark blue leaves.

“That’s the center of Sari. Maddic will land outside of it.”

“You don’t want me to make a grand entrance and drop down in the middle?” Maddic asked.

I swore I heard a bit of disappointment in his voice. Axton only glared at him, and he shrugged before tugging back a lever. A vibration came from below, and I assumed it was landing gear as we approached the ground. “Aren’t we going a little fast?” I murmured as the green dirt seemed to be rushing at us all too fast.

“Nah,” Maddic scoffed.

We hit the ground on a jarring bounce that clacked my teeth together and nearly snapped my spine in half.

“Maddic!” Axton hollered.

“What?”

“Gentle!”

Maddic let out a whooping cackle that reminded me of a bronco rider. “Come on, it’s more fun this way.”

My stomach churned. “Get me off of this thing.”

“As soon as possible,” Axton growled.

As the cruiser finally slid to a halt, dust and grass swirled around us while the engines slowed. Maddic turned in his seat, a big grin on his face. “How’d I do?”

He was like a sixteen-year-old who’d just learned to drive. But I wasn’t going to burst his bubble. He had come to bring us home after all. “It was nice to meet you, Maddic. Thanks for the ride.”

“Ooh, she’s polite. You got similar words for me, Ax?”

“Thanks, Mad,” he grunted. “Coming for a meal?”

He shook his head. “I got places to be. You two say hello to everyone for me.”

Axton crossed his arms at the wrist and pressed them to his chest. Maddic returned the gesture, and then we exited the cruiser. We weren’t far away when the engines started up again, and Maddic was once again in the air. He waved at us from the front windshield before speeding off. I covered my face with my hands to avoid getting dirt in my eyes until the air quit whipping around my face and only a slight breeze rustled the grasses around us.

The temperature was warmer here, and while I could see a mountain range in the distance—I was pretty sure that was closer to where we’d had our camp—this area was flatter with lots of overgrown foliage. A battered trail carved a path in front of us, and I could make out the moke tree and the tops of some huts. “Is that the village?”

Axton nodded, and his chest was slightly puffed out with pride. “That’s Sari.”

“Who is it?” Came a loud feminine shout. The voice rocketed through me and sent my heart into overdrive.

In front of me, a figure raced toward us, and her dark red braids flapped behind her. “Trix!” I screamed, and took off down the path.

Behind her, two more figures ran—one with long dark hair and another with a head of blonde curls.

A sob bubbled up my throat before I could stop it, and by the time the three women reached me, I could barely breath as I clung to my friends. My sisters. Hair stuck in my mouth. A finger poked me in the eye, and someone’s toe slammed into my shin. But I didn’t care. I was surrounded by love. My friends. It was a reunion I’d never thought I’d have.

“We didn’t know who it was.” Even Tasha shed a few tears. “We only heard it was a human female, and we hoped it was one of you.”

“Oh, how we hoped,” Amber wept openly as she clung to my back.

I realized belatedly that only three of us were in the embrace. Trix stood off to the side with her pressed her lips together. While her eyes were dry, her chin quivered. Her gaze shifted to beyond me, where Axton stood quietly. “Thanks for bringing her home.”

“He’s my hero,” I sniffled.

“I don’t know what a hero is.”

“Someone who is brave. Who saves someone else.” I explained.

“Ah,” he murmured with a shake of his head. “No, you are your hero. And mine.”

The girls all turned to look at him as he took another step forward. “I wouldn’t have survived without you.”

“But you were almost out of that burrow—”

“That’s not what I mean,” he said. “I wouldn’t have tried to live if it wasn’t for you. And Farron… Farron will be okay because of you.”

“Ax,” I whispered.

“Come,” Tasha said with a soft smile. She rubbed the inside of my wrist over my loks before letting my hand drop. “Bring your mate, and let’s go home.”

The village was the cutest damn thing I’d ever seen. Tasha explained it’d been inhabited recently by another clavas of Drixonians with their human mates, and I could see the human touches in the remnants of decor and how the kitchen was arranged in the dining hut.

As we walked around the village in a crash course tour, I shuffled next to Trix. Based on how she’d hung back at our reunion, I didn’t touch her. Her loks shone gold on her skin, and I couldn’t take my eyes off them.

A knowing smile curled her lips. “Yes, I have a mate.”

I didn’t want to pry, but I was curious. “And you…?”

Her smile dimmed. “I still can’t be touched for long. It’s better, but surprise touches still pain me. It’s different with Kutzal…” her gaze went a little dreamy. “I don’t quite know why yet, but he managed to break through whatever was done to me.”

My eyes watered. I’d cried a lot today. “I’m so happy for you.”

Her head dipped, and her grin widened. “Yeah, I’m happy for me too.”

The girls fluttered over my loks, and I admired theirs as well. I told them the entire story of how Axton and I met, and while they had some choice words for the Priedans, they also seemed to understand Marrin and Gragic’s choices.

“And Maisie?” Amber asked as we sat on some benches under the shade of the moke tree while eating some fresh fruits.

“She was on the ship. Axton didn’t know until it was too late.” I dropped the half-eaten fruit in my lap as the taste had suddenly turned sour. “I feel so guilty about everything. About being happy with Axton, about being here with you three.”

“I get it,” Tasha said. “When I first met Lukent, I could barely smile without feeling guilty.”

“While Maisie and I were caged,” I swallowed. “I thought about how I wished you all were happy and healthy. I wouldn’t have wanted you to feel guilty.”

“Then Maisie wouldn’t either.” Trix said emphatically. “We’ll get her back. I’ll talk to Kutzal.”

“She’s on another freaking planet!”

“The Drix are stubborn and loyal,” Amber said. “They will do everything they can to get Maisie back.”

“Speaking of stubborn and loyal,” Trix eyed Amber. “Your mate is lurking again.”

Amber rolled her eyes. “Vinz!” she called out.

Bushes nearby shook, and I let out a squeak of surprise as black horns emerged before a blue head. I blinked at a Drixonian with a septum and loks that matched Amber’s. For such a large specimen, he managed to look sheepish. “I was only checking on you.”

“By hiding in a bush?”

“I didn’t have anything else to do.”

Amber flailed her hands in frustration. “Go talk to Axton!”

Vinz made a face. “Who wants to do that?” His gaze slid to me. “No offense.”

“Go away, Vinz!” Amber shouted.

“I’m glad you’re here, Lu.” Vinz gave me a little wave as he sidled away.

I waved back, but he had already fled.

Amber dropped her face in her hands. “That guy is going to be the death of me.”

“He loves you an unhealthy amount for anyone else, but for Vinz it’s like… the healthiest thing for him,” Tasha said. “It makes sense in a complicated way.”

“No, you’re right.” Amber flipped her head up and smiled in the direction where Vinz had gone. “And I love him back.”

“Lu.” Axton’s deep voice had me turning in my seat. He approached with two other warriors—one had a scarred face and the other walked with an air of authority. His face was set in a scowl that made me feel like it was permanent. “This is Lukent, Tasha’s mate,” he pointed to the large one with scars. “And this is Kutzal, our drexel and Trix’s mate.”

“Uh, I think it should be Trix’s mate first, drexel second.” Tasha slurped her fruit. “We all know what’s more important.”

By the looks of Kutzal, I wouldn’t have back talked him, but his scowl softened slightly as he looked at his mate. His gaze turned to me, and he nodded. “I’m glad to have you home safe, Lu.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, um, so about that—”

“I already told him about Maisie,” Axton said. “He has a meeting soon with Daz and we’ll organize a rescue mission.”

“See?” Amber told you. “I told you they’d come through.”

I stood up and threw my arms around Axton. Of course, I couldn’t reach all the way around him, but I squeezed as hard as I could. “Thank you.”

He patted my hair. “I know you want to catch up with your friends, but I’d like to show you our hut.”

“Our hut?” I jerked back. “Ours?”

“Mated couples need privacy,” Kutzal said emphatically. I wouldn’t have argued even if I wanted to.

Axton led us over to a one-room hut next to Amber and Vinz’s. On the door hung a wooden A and L. “We have the whole alphabet carved by a Drixonian in Granit named Hap,” Amber said as she petted the L. “We’re all ready with an M for Maisie and an N for Neve.”

I swallowed around the lump in my throat. I couldn’t wait to see those letters hanging on a door in this village. “Thank you.”

“We’ll leave you to explore your new digs,” Tasha said. “Relax. Take a nap. We’ll get you when it’s the next meal time.”

Axton opened up the door and the two of us walked inside. A bed sat in the corner—not suspended from chains—along with a curtained-off area that Axton said held the expeller and cleanser.

On a table beside the bed was a vase with fresh flowers. I sniffed at the fragrant petals. The girls had done this—they’d prepared this room for whichever female arrived in order to make her feel welcome. I was glad it was me, but I hoped we could do this same service for any other women out there who’d been taken a far, far way from home.

I spun to see Ax gazing around the room. “Do you like it?”

“I like any room you’re in.”

I liked his statement but pretended I didn’t. “Ax!”

“I mean it,” he said. “I don’t care about what’s in here. I just want to see you when I fall asleep and you when I wake up. That was what I thought about in that tunnel when I decided to fight for myself. I thought having something to fight for that I wanted made me selfish, but I guess it only made me stronger.”

I reached for his large hand. “I fought for myself too when I was digging down to you.”

“We keep fighting for each other, and we’ll always meet halfway.”

“Come here.” I hopped into his arms, and he caught me. As soon as I was within striking distance, I pressed our lips together. He rumbled a pleasured sound and kissed me back. I was about to tell him to take me to bed when he whispered against my lips, “You never did tell me what an Adele is.”

I was sure the entire village heard my peal of laughter.

Thank you so much for reading The Alien’s Bounty! I’d appreciate it if you drop me a rating and review on Amazon and Goodreads!

If you’re new to my books, please check out my website for my bibliography and reading order, www.ellamaven.com

What’s next? Maddic and Maisie’s story in

THE ALIEN’S CHARGE

Coming soon!

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.

ALSO BY ELLA MAVEN

Drixonian Warrior Series

Anna and Tark: The Alien’s Future (prequel)

Daz and Frankie: The Alien’s Ransom

Sax and Valerie: The Alien’s Escape.

Ward and Reba: The Alien’s Undoing

Miranda and Drak: The Alien’s Revenge

Gar and Naomi: The Alien’s Savior

Xavy and Tabitha: The Alien’s Challenge

Nero and Justine: The Alien’s Equal

Stolen Warrior Series

Rexor

Mikko

Fenix

Zecri

Mates of the Kaluma

Hunted by the Alien Assassin

Protected by the Alien Bodyguard

Claimed by the Alien Chieftain

Rescued by the Alien Outlaw

Outcasts of Corin

The Alien’s Sacrifice

The Alien’s Surrender

The Alien’s Battle

Standalones:

Claimed by the Demon Alien

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

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

About the Author

Also by Ella Maven