THE ALIEN’S SACRIFICE

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 © March 2022 by Ella Maven

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

Copyedited by Del’s Diabolical Editing

Cover design by Natasha Snow 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

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Epilogue

About the Author

Also by Ella Maven

ONE

TASHA

I dropped the last bite of roasted meat in my mouth and chewed contentedly. The crude wooden chair beneath me squeaked as I leaned back, admiring the twinkling stars above me.

I could barely make out a few colors in the sky from the setting sun, but I couldn’t see the horizon since it was blocked with dense foliage. Sometimes I wished I could stand in the middle of a field without cover—just me, the ground, and the sky. But the purple-leafed trees here were our protection on planet Corin.

Nearby, Lu and Maisie played a game of marbles with some polished stones Amber had made. The laughter rang out above the crackling of the evening fire. On nights like these, I could almost pretend like we didn’t fight every single day for survival. An actual life felt just within my grasp, dangling in front of me like a carrot.

Nearby, Trix sat by the fire sharpening her collection of weapons. She’d collected them from all sorts of places—blades from our former captors, arrows from the grounds of former battles, knives stuck in trees. She kept meticulous care of them, which I thought had become more of a compulsion than anything, but a compulsion which made her feel calm and safe.

After all we’d been through, I didn’t begrudge her. Her auburn hair hung in two thick braids down each side of her head. Hidden inside her braids were sharp spikes to deter any enemies from pulling on her hair. One time I’d suggested she cut her hair, and she’d looked horrified.

Maisie dropped down to the ground at my side and held her hands out to the fire. I picked a fallen leaf out of her dark bangs that hung in a thick curtain down to her eyelashes.

“Who won?” I asked.

“Me,” Maisie grinned.

“You cheated,” Lu grumped as she sat at my other side and leaned her head against my thigh. Her blonde hair shone in the light of the fire as she yawned.

“Did not.”

“Your toe was over the line.”

Maisie pursed her lips. “Well, you took an extra turn when I wasn’t looking.”

Lu gasped in mock outrage. “I wouldn’t dare.”

“Quit it, you two,” I nudged both of the women with my boots. The youngest of us all, Lu and Maisie were thick as thieves and fought like sisters. As they were still in their twenties, we all treated them like little sisters.

“What’s on the agenda for tomorrow?” Lu stretched her arms over her head and bent from side to side. “I’m still sore from days ago.”

I was sore since… forever. I couldn’t really remember a time where I didn’t fall asleep with my aching muscles twitching and cramping. I could kill for a freaking ibuprofen. Trix had been on the hunt for something natural to drink or smoke to numb the pain—both physical and mental—but we hadn’t found anything yet. Unfortunately, stone cold sober was how we all lived life on this alien planet.

We’d spent months constructing a building for sleeping quarters, and we were in the process of putting together an outhouse now. I was so damn tired of digging, but I was also tired of popping a squat in the woods where anything could sneak up on me with my pants down.

Corin was full of things that wanted to hurt us. Winged birds the size of emus wanted to pluck us from the ground, and fanged furred animals like tigers wanted to eat us. A few months ago, Trix had reported seeing a patrolling alien with blue skin, dark hair, and a massive, scarred build. I couldn’t imagine they’d want anyone encroaching on their territory. We’d left as soon as she’d told us about them, and I could only hope we were now outside of their boundary. This was a big planet with a large population. Everywhere we went, we had to be careful.

“Gathering material for the outhouse,” Trix answered, her voice smoky and authoritative as always. Lu always joked that Trix could have made a killing working as a dominatrix phone sex worker.

Maisie sighed heavily and pulled her knees to her chest. “I never thought I’d wish so hard for what’s basically a Port-O-Potty.”

Lu’s shoulders shook with laughter. “Me either.”

Leaves crunched and I turned to see Amber and Neve emerge from the dense brush. Neve carried a bundle of firewood, her knife stuck between her teeth, while Amber held a jar of a sweet sap we used to sweeten our food.

Neve dropped the sticks next to the fire and swiped her hands together. Small but strong, she wore her hair short with a thick sweatband made out of a T-shirt—the last remnants of the Earth clothes she’d once had.

Amber lifted the lid of the crate we’d buried in the ground for storage. The climate here was relatively chilly, and the ground kept our food cool enough that we could even store meat for a few days. After placing the jar inside, Amber sat down near the fire cross-legged. In her lap, she fidgeted with the hem of her shirt, which she always did when something was bothering her. She bent her head, and her thick brown curls hid her face.

I leaned forward. “What’s going on?”

She stared at the fire for a little longer before turning and propping her elbow on my knee. “I found a dead antella.”

Antella were deer-like animals that roamed the planet in small packs. With one antella—which Trix killed—we could eat for many months as long as we preserved the meat. “You didn’t bring it back, so was it an old kill? Sick?”

She shook her head. “Fresh.”

I frowned. “So how did it die?”

Trix was listening now, watching us as the flames flickered in her light green pupils. “Amber, spit it out, hon.”

Neve crouched silently by the fire. Amber released a long breath. “Something killed it, and in a way that makes me really nervous. All the blood was drained from the body, and it was just… left there. All the meat still on its bones. Only the eyes taken.”

I flexed my fingers as I felt the beginning slices of fear slash at my brain. All the women around the fire were listening intently now, even Maisie and Lu. “So, what are you saying?”

“There’s something … someone here. We might need to think about moving.”

Maisie let out a hiccup I knew would soon turn into a sob. Lu’s face scrunched in that angry look she made to cover up when she wanted to cry. Trix’s face darkened and Neve didn’t move.

I rubbed at my forehead. “Amber, but this is… our home.” We’d been on this planet for a few years, but the first few were a blur. Shell-shocked over what was done to us, we’d been nothing but nomads, constantly moving every day, learning what we could eat and what we couldn’t. Avoiding things that wanted to eat us. Some days, when my stomach had cramped with hunger and my feet covered in blisters, I wondered if gaining our freedom had been the right thing to do.

But slowly, we learned. We found this remote area that frankly was close to uninhabitable, which made it even more perfect for us. Nothing bothered us here but small game. Trix traveled farther for food occasionally. We’d built a semblance of a life here for the last year or so. I glanced around at my friends. At first, we’d been trauma-bonded, but now I couldn’t imagine life without them. The thought of moving and putting them all at risk again filled me with a bone-weary dread.

She swallowed. “I know, Tash. But I don’t have a good feeling.” She turned to me with a hopeful expression. “You haven’t smelled anything?”

I shook my head. “Nothing but us.” I could smell anything in about a five-mile radius, an alteration—or my alter, as we all referred to our changes—made to my body by our former captors. It was both a blessing and a curse. A lot of times, the smells were confusing and unfamiliar. But lately, all I’d been able to detect was game, foliage, and a nearby spring along with the distinct scents of the other women—all survivors like me.

“Tonight, I have to sleep.” Amber looked down at the green dirt and swirled a finger in it.

Amber only needed to sleep about once every five days, which was her alter. In theory, it was great, but when she did need to sleep, she crashed hard and couldn’t wake easily. It was when she was most vulnerable. Any other time, she was the brain of our small group. We all had our strengths. I was sort of the de facto leader because no one else wanted to step up, but mostly my role was peacekeeper and final decision-maker.

Maisie gripped Amber’s hand. “If you think we need to leave, then we trust you.” She glanced over at me quickly. “Right, Tash?”

Lu dropped her head in the hands. “This is it, right? We’re always going to be on the move.”

She voiced my thoughts. I wanted to be positive, but despair was threatening to drown me too. “Fuck,” I muttered.

“I’m sorry,” Amber whispered.

“Why are you sorry?” Lu snapped out. “This isn’t your fault. None of this is anyone’s fault but those ugly Uldani mother fuckers. They made us like this and then tossed us out like trash.” She sucked in a breath, and her eyes closed as she began to shudder.

“Shit,” I rasped out just as Neve leaped into action. She gripped Lu and held her tight as her eyes rolled into the back of her head while her body seized. Trix grabbed a nearby water skin and tossed it to Neve, who held it tightly while she waited for Lu’s seizure to pass. When Lu finally sagged in her arms, she dribbled water in her mouth. Every time Lu went through one of her episodes, it took everything in me not to break down. She was often a brat and didn’t know when to stop talking, but we put up with it all, because Lu had every right to be angry about what was done to her.

Finally, she blinked her eyes open, and her pupils were blown as she weakly clung to Neve, who brushed Lu’s hair off her damp forehead.

Lu’s lips moved, and I slid off my chair to get closer. Lu licked her lips and tried again. “Amber’s right… We need to leave… soon.”

My gaze shot to Trix, who stared at Lu with a clenched jaw. Slowly her eyes closed, and her head dropped between her shoulders. Lu’s predictions after her episodes were never wrong. If she said we needed to leave, then we needed to leave.

While Neve held the recovering Lu, I met Trix’s gaze over the fire. She nodded at Amber, whose movements were sluggish. She was about to crash. I swore I could hear a ticking clock in my ear.

When Lu disentangled herself from Neve’s embrace, I grasped her hand. “Honey, what did you see?”

She sniffed and gave me a weak grimace. “Something in the dark. Fire… I couldn’t tell what they were, but it was… bad.” Tears spilled out over her bottom lashes. “I’m sorry, Tash.”

“You just told Amber not to be sorry, so I’ll say the same to you. Never be sorry.”

“At least I can help us, right?” Lu tried for a smile.

I smoothed back her hair. Lu, despite her attitude, really just wanted to be loved, appreciated, and useful. “I would easily go without your predictions if it meant you didn’t have to go through the pain of your episodes.”

She shrugged. “It’s over now… till the next one.” She tried to smile again, but then winced. Her headaches always lasted a few hours afterward. “Shit, it hurts to use my face muscles.”

I patted her shoulder. “Just rest.” Neve helped Lu to her feet and they retreated to our one-room building where we all slept. Maisie followed them, leaving Amber, Trix and I by the fire.

Trix rose to her feet and walked around the fire to crouch next to me. “What do you think?”

Amber blinked at me with unfocused eyes, and I didn’t miss the way she pinched her leg discreetly to keep herself awake. The small movement made me grind my teeth. Back when we were constantly on the move, I hadn’t known how much she harmed herself to stay awake, not until one day when we were bathing in a stream, and I found her thigh littered with bruises and cuts. I had made her promise she wouldn’t do that ever again, and to tell us when she needed to sleep. I couldn’t make her leave now. The sun was setting, we hadn’t packed any of our supplies…

So I made a decision. “We’ll leave first thing tomorrow. Amber needs to sleep.”

Trix hesitated a moment before nodding. She stood, and I reached for her, snatching my hand back at the last minute before I made contact. Trix sucked in a breath. “What?”

“Do you think I’m making the right decision?”

Trix propped her hands on her hips. “It’s a decision.”

I snorted. “That’s reassuring.”

Her lips tilted up at my sarcasm. “You’re right. Amber needs to sleep. We have too many supplies here to abandon and traveling in the dark is going to get one of us hurt or worse.”

I waited. “But…”

She sighed. “But it could end up being the wrong decision.”

“That’s not very helpful.”

“Based on the information we have now, this is the right decision.” She jerked her head toward our hut. “Both of you go sleep. I’ll put out the fire and clean up.”

I helped Amber to her feet. She swayed as we walked toward the hut. Constructed with vine roping, mud, and crude lumber, the structure wasn’t airtight, but it helped with the wind and rain. We slept huddled together like a big wolf pack. Well, all of us except for Trix.

As soon as I lowered Amber next to a sleepy Lu, her eyes closed. Maisie smiled at me in the light of the small flickering lantern and curled into Amber.

I joined them, settling on my back and staring at the ceiling. Spinning my ring on my thumb—my last possession from Earth. I inhaled deeply, searching for any scents out of the ordinary, but nothing filtered through that raised any alarm bells.

I’d speak to Trix about a strategy. Maybe we could just stay away from camp for a few days and then circle back. We didn’t mess with Lu’s predictions. We’d learned that the hard way when Trix had nearly been trampled during an antella stampede.

Sighing, I reached under my blanket and grasped one of the best weapons we had, a long blade favored by the former soldiers of the Uldani, a bear-like armored species called Kulks. I closed my fingers around the familiar handle and sought comfort in the weapon.

In the darkness, came Lu’s hoarse whisper. “Traffic. I had to commute into downtown Cincinnati for classes. The worst.”

I smiled as Maisie piped up. “Vacuuming. I don’t miss vacuuming all the seed my bird tossed from her cage.”

Neve snorted, and Amber let out a little snore.

Remembering what we missed about Earth was too painful, so Lu had long ago come up with a game back when we were in the Uldani underground lab, cold, hungry, and in pain. What did we not miss about home?

“My apartment,” Trix muttered as she stepped into the hut and settled herself in the corner with a threadbare blanket. “That place was a shithole. I’d rather sleep on green dirt under the stars.”

“Taxes,” I chimed in.

Lu groaned. “You’re no fun. That doesn’t count. What’s something specific to you that you don’t miss?”

I stuck out my tongue at her playfully. “You mentioned traffic. Is there one of us here who does miss traffic?”

She had that spark back in her eye as she smirked at me. “But I said specifically why.”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine. I don’t miss visiting my brother’s grave on his death anniversary with my mom. I don’t miss that at all.” Lu flinched, but I held her eyes. “Does that count?”

She swallowed and nodded solemnly.

“Great,” I muttered.

We lay in silence another few minutes when I felt a soft hand brush my arm. Lu rolled into me and was nibbling her lip. “Sorry Tash.”

“Don’t be sorry,” I said. “It kind of felt good to get that off my chest anyway.” And it did. I still wore his ring, the one I’d given to him when he landed his first drumming gig at a local club. I would have given anything for the rest of his jewelry stash, but that had been in a safe in my townhome.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.

I shrugged. “My mom was always a difficult person, and she made my brother’s death all about her. Visiting his grave was not about him, but about her making a big display for attention and control. I hated the whole fussiness of it, and Nathan would have hated it too. So yeah… not something I miss. But yet? I still feel guilty about it.”

Lu squeezed my hand and offered me a kind smile without her customary attitude. “We can do something for him if you’d like here. And it’d be about him.”

I clenched her fingers in mine. “I’d like that. Maybe at our next camp—”

The rest of my sentence died in my throat as a scent so strong flooded my senses, forcing me to double over in a cough.

Lu’s hand rubbed my arm. “What’s wrong?”

The women were murmuring, but I could barely concentrate through the overwhelming smell. I rolled onto my stomach, then up to all fours, the Kulk blade clutched in my hand. I lifted my head to find Trix standing at the entrance to the hut, bow and arrow poised, her gaze roaming the dark camp.

“Trix,” I gasped. “There’s something… it’s…”

Suddenly something flew past the doorway in a blur, and it moved so fast that at first, I thought it was swooping bird.

“Trix!” I called out just as she lifted her bow, aimed, and sent an arrow flying. Then her body jolted, as if she was struck, and she hit the ground hard on her hip, letting out a pained cry.

A scream rent the air, and I whirled to find Maisie being carried away by something… something massive and hairy. Panic fired in my blood and my heart dropped into my feet. “Mais!” I screeched as I lifted my blade. But it was already too late. Another blur and Lu was lifted from my side and carried away. She went feral, screaming, kicking, and punching. I heard my name in the jumble of sounds, a terrified plea for me to save her, and the sound was worse than being flayed alive. “Lu!” I cried and stumbled to my knees as I sought to race after her. Glancing around, I couldn’t see Neve, but I caught sight of Amber being carried away, her arms and head bobbing lifelessly. Trix had regained her footing and was standing right outside the hut battling… something. Whatever these things were, they were massive. Long tusks emerged from their top jaw to curl under wart-y chins.

When one grabbed her, she screamed in pain, and I swore my heart ripped in half. I sprinted toward her, flailing my blade. “Don’t touch her. Don’t you fucking touch her!”

But then an arm banded around my waist and tossed me to the ground. My head slammed into something hard, and a pain streaked through my temple like a lightning bolt as my vision blacked out for a moment.

The world tipped. My stomach cramped. I gagged, woozy and unfocused. When I opened my eyes, I was upside down, carried on the shoulder of one of these giant aliens. They had to be seven-foot tall and walked on hooved feet bigger than a Clydesdale’s. Each of the three fingers on their hands was the size of my wrist. I wriggled to find my hands tied around a rope at my waist, and another lash of rope around my ankles. My muscles ached, and by the light of the moon, I could see dark liquid dripping from my head to the ground. I inhaled the iron tang of blood, which was barely detectable over the suffocating scent of these aliens—a mix of mold and decay.

I gagged again but swallowed down any bile. I couldn’t afford to lose the contents of my stomach. Who knew when they’d feed me again? If they fed me. Maybe that meat had been my last meal.

More liquid dripped to the ground, and I thought it was more blood until I smelled the salty scent of my tears.

I made the wrong decision.

Each word was worse than a punch to the gut. We should have left immediately and not waited.

I made the wrong decision.

I looked around, desperate to see if any of my girls were around, but I could only see about half a dozen of these aliens flanking the one who held me. They didn’t talk, only made occasional grunts at each other in a language I didn’t know. I had a translator implant, thanks to the Uldani, but it wasn’t fitted for whatever language these aliens spoke.

Injured and in pain, I swam in and out of consciousness as I bobbed on the shoulder of my smelly abductor. I couldn’t be sure how much time had passed, when a light filtered through my closed eyelids. I cracked them open to see that morning had dawned.

The terrain had changed. Instead of flat, jungle-like habitat with lush greenery, we’d entered a mountainous region and were currently scaling a large rocky hill. While the sun warmed my face, the air was cooler, and shivers raised goosebumps on my arms. I’d lost feeling in my feet and hands long ago. Lifting my head, I could finally get a good look at my abductors. Snouts like a warthog protruded from their faces, and their face tusks looked even more deadly in the daylight. Gold rings dangled from pierced ears. Barrel-chested and muscly, they carried spears and wore necklaces made of white stones that rattled on their hairy chests. Wait, they weren’t stones. They were… bones.

“Fuck me,” I whispered as my stomach cramped again.

One of the creatures looked at me with black protruding eyes and let out a snort. A few answered and I got the sense they were mocking me.

“Fuck you,” I growled.

I doubted they knew what I was saying, but apparently my tone was clear. The one raised a hand and cuffed me on the head so hard that I swore he’d cracked my skull. I could barely look around as my head swam, and I began to worry about severe brain damage from the recent blows to the head. Through blurry vision, I took in our surroundings as we reached the crest of the incline. Stairs notched into the side of the rock below led to a settlement with huts set in a valley surrounded by large rocky mountains. In the distance, I smelled salty sea air. Smoke rose from campfires below, and more of these tusked aliens stood in a cluster at the base of a mountain to our left.

I blinked, trying to keep my wits about me as we descended the stairs to the settlement. I saw no other humans, only these tusked aliens wearing bones like jewels and armed to the teeth as if waiting for a battle.

A voice boomed, and I twisted my body to the left to see a large figure standing at the edge of a rocky outcrop about eight stories over the valley floor. He wore a massive chest armor of bone, complete with a collarbone and ribs, and on his head was a skull of another tusked creature, similar to the tiger-like animals we’d seen once.

Standing before him was another alien—I couldn’t make out what it was, but it had teal skin and stood on two legs. Standing at shoulder-height to the tusked alien, the teal one struggled, but I could smell his blood. He was injured and close to death.

The tusked leader bellowed a series of loud grunts, while he gripped the teal alien by the back of the neck and hoisted him in the air. Below, the tusked army began to shout and slam their spears on the ground while thumping their thick chests.

With one last guttural yell, the tusked leader tossed the teal alien off the cliff. The crowd hushed, and I turned away, tears burning, and talked to myself in nonsense to cover the sound of the body hitting the ground in a sickening crunch. But still, I heard the thud, a wet smacking sound I’d never forget as long as I lived.

Faint, numb, and absolutely sickened, I begged for this nightmare to end. The pounding of my heart was drowned out as the crowd erupted in a cheer.

We turned a corner on the stairs and entered a cave in the side of the cliff. Torches offered dim light, enough for me to see barred cells with various creatures inside. I caught sight of an elder male Uldani inside one. Hunch-backed and bony, he met my gaze before looking away quickly.

We came to an empty cell next to the old Uldani, and I struggled weakly as they opened the door and tossed me inside. I hit the ground on my hip, and I cried out in pain as my cramped body was wrenched into another position. Deep breathing through the agony, I fought to remain conscious as the cell door slammed shut, and I was left alone.

Sitting up took a gargantuan effort, and I might have passed out once or twice. In order to stay conscious, I recited all the things I didn’t miss about Earth in a hoarse whisper. “My shitty boss. Rent. That sink in my bathroom that always leaked.”

My cell was empty except for a small bucket in the corner and a jar of dirty water. Crawling on my elbows, I sniffed it, and decided I wasn’t thirsty enough yet to drink something that could give me diarrhea, which would kill me faster than these damn tusked assholes.

Working on my bindings, I managed to untie my legs. While loosening the ropes on my wrists, I shuffled on my knees to the opening and called out in a hoarse voice. “Hello?”

No answer came, and I tried again. “Uldani? I know you’re there.”

What felt like an hour passed before a rustling reached my ears and a sniveling voice answered in an exhausted, defeated tone. “Human.”

“Who are these aliens?”

He sighed, long and loud. “Why should I answer you?”

I gritted my teeth, almost glad that the familiar anger was still flaming inside of me. “As an Uldani, I think you know that you owe me at least a few words.”

A long silence passed before he spoke again. “They are Wutarks, a warrior species who recently settled on Corin.”

“And what do they want with us?”

Another long bout of silence. “Did you see what happened out there to the Nugia?”

“The teal alien?” I tore at my wrist bindings with my teeth and managed to loosen a knot. “He was thrown off the cliff. What did he do?”

“Nothing. He did nothing. Just like I did nothing. And just like you did nothing.”

Impatience spurred me on, and I yanked my wrists free of the rope. Rubbing my raw skin, I frowned. “Then why are we here?”

“The Wutarks believe in the Quoy, an old God who demands live sacrifices.” My stomach dropped as the image of the teal alien falling replayed over and over in front of my eyes. The Uldani cleared his throat on a cough. “That’s what we are, human. We’re nothing but sacrifices.”

TWO

Lukent

With my hands clasped behind my back, I rolled my shoulders to ease the soreness in my muscles. I focused my attention on the conversation when all I wanted to do was get the fleck out of here. I was tired of the talking, the listening, the flecking breathing of others around me. I ached for the monotonous solitude of my patrols. Instead, I was at the Wutark camp for this whole diplomacy performance.

“Your boundaries on Corin will be respected,” said Dazeem Bakut, the head drexel of the remaining Drixonian warriors. He spoke to Barz’alk, the chief of the Wutark clan, who stood nearly a foot taller than Dazeem.

Corin had once been our home, over one hundred cycles ago, before a virus wiped out our female population. The male Drixonian warriors still alive—including me—left Corin by choice but had been unable to return until recently. In that time, Corin had changed. The Wutark left their home planet and settled in the colder, mountainous regions of Corin. Seeing as we’d had enough war for a lifetime and were working to rebuild our Drix population, making enemies was the last thing on our minds. This meeting was the last in establishing our territories and therefore a peaceful co-existence on Corin.

Barz’alk slammed his spear into the ground, rattling his large bone necklace. The teeth on the salibri skull on his head seemed to chatter. “Property. Property is mine. Like boundaries.”

Their language, while translatable through our implants, was stilted. One thing that was clear—they didn’t respect Daz, and that angered me the most. I kept my face neutral, when I would have loved to take a swing at the Wutark standing much too close to me. He hadn’t taken his bulging black eyes off me once. Mucus dripped from his snout, beading on his chin whiskers, and I could smell his rotten breath with every inhale. Everything about them annoyed me—from their size to their tusks to their overly patriarchal society. I’d seen the way they treated their females, and that had shredded the last bit of respect I had for them.

But I had to toe the line. For over fifty cycles, the Drixonian warriors had been split into separate clavases. Daz, who played the role when needed as head drexel of all, focused most of his attention on his own clavas—the Night Kings. They were the clavas with a dozen human females as their mates and were the sole chance for the Drixonian race to carry into future generations. Protecting them was seen as the top priority for all the remaining clavases.

Most had settled into villages, hoping for some human mates to drop out of the sky one day. My clavas…well, we were different.

I shifted my gaze to the drexel of my clavas who stood at Daz’s side. A dark fur lay across Kutzal’s shoulders, and his single sword was strapped to his back. A breeze blew through our group, ruffling his dark hair. He must have felt my eyes on him because he turned and met my gaze over his shoulder. As always, his eyes were dark and focused. I knew he didn’t like the Wutarks any more than I did, but despite everything we’d been through, he would never go against our creed: She is All. Even though we knew, as the outcast Drexel clavas, that we’d never have a chance at a mate, we had to protect our brothers who were fortunate enough to have mates.

Kutzal nodded at me and turned back around while Daz and Barz’alk continued to talk. Fur brushed my shoulder and slid my gaze to my right in time to see Vinz yawn widely. I bumped him with my shoulder, and he stumbled before righting himself and sent me a vicious glare.

“Focus,” I hissed at him.

“Fleck off,” he muttered.

If we weren’t in mixed company, I would have smacked him on the back of the head. He cracked his neck and dug around in the pockets of his pants before pulling out a piece of dried antella jerky. He gestured toward me with a raised brow. I gave him a suffering look. He shrugged with a, “your loss” under his breath and shoved one end into his mouth. Chewing loudly, he ignored my elbow and only reacted when Axton, standing behind us, aimed a swift kick at the back of his knees.

Vinz nearly toppled over but I grabbed him and held him upright before whispering in his ear. “This is all because of you anyway. Pay attention.”

He shoved me off him and resettled the fur on his shoulders as the wind picked up again. “It was one little brigger. And frankly, it was tasty as fleck, and I’d do it again. I just won’t get caught this time.” He made a tsk sound and shot me a smirk.

And that was why Vinz got away with all he did. While he was a smarmy little fleck, he was charming and had a way of disarming our anger with a flash of his white fangs and a twist of his lips. Plus, after all he’d been through, we forgave him every time. I worried that approach wasn’t working, though, because Vinz had been on a downward reckless spiral for some time now. I had to have a talk with him soon. I’d never have a mate, so I at least wanted as much time with my best friend as I could get before Fatas whisked us off this mortal coil.

I flicked my tail in irritation, which sent a rock skittering toward the Wutark in front of me. The rock bounced off his shin. Their hide was thick as fleck, so I didn’t expect it when he let out a snort and bent down like he was going to charge me.

I immediately crossed my arms at the wrist in front of my neck, machets out along my forearms in a defensive stance. But before anything happened, Vinz was in front of me, spitting out words so fast I could barely catch them. “That didn’t even hurt. It was a rock, and your hide is thicker than this mountain. I guess your skull is too, to charge for something like that. Grow up, you flecking wart-face and learn how to control your anger. Do that to me and I won’t just defend, I’ll slice open your neck so wide that—”

“Vinz!” Kutzal shouted, his eyes firing.

Vinz’s nostrils flared around his gold septum ring. He rolled his shoulders and shook out his hands before stepping back into his spot beside me with nonchalance.

Kutzal closed his eyes slowly before looking up at the sky as he clearly sought patience from the clouds. Daz remained unaffected, watching Vinz carefully while I could feel Axton vibrating with anger behind me. The Wutarks looked rattled, probably unsure what to make of Vinz, the smallest among us.

Vinz elbowed me and leaned in to whisper. “No one told me they were so sensitive. A rock? Actually, that was a stone. A pebble. I should have used that word. Fleck, I wish I could revise and yell at him again.”

“Vinz,” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Please be quiet.”

“Right,” he murmured before crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back. “Quiet time.”

“I hope,” Daz was saying, “We don’t have to meet again. Territories are established. The land between each of our borders remains communal for hunting purposes. We respect each other’s’ property, and we can live peacefully on the same planet.”

Barz’alk lifted his chin in the air. “Dismissed.”

Vinz muttered something under his breath, and I didn’t blame him. Dismissing Dazeem Bakut like that? But we didn’t have to respect each other. We just had to respect the boundaries. Those were different things that we could keep separate. As the border patrol for the Drixonians, my clavas was most likely to encounter the Wutarks. As the high-ranking council of the Lone Howl clavas, Vinz, Axton, and I had been asked to attend this meeting with Kutzal. Our job would be to tell the remainder of our clavas how to stay out of trouble. Well, more than that—how to stay out of a war. Our numbers were too precious to risk.

Daz didn’t seem to care about the lack of respect he’d been shown. He turned on his heel and motioned for us to follow him as he left the hill overlooking the settlement. I glanced below one last time to see huddled figures of female Wutarks clutching small offspring, the wind in the valley whipping at their hair and thin clothes. The female Wutarks were smaller with short tusks and thinner skin. As I turned back around, I spotted a pile at the bottom of the cliff to the left. I couldn’t quite make out what it was… but I could have sworn I saw a body part and the ground was stained dark. Had someone fallen?

I glanced at Barz’alk, who watched me closely. I met his eyes before looking away. I had to jog to catch up to Axton who walked at the back of his group, twin blades strapped to his back.

“Something about this place feels wrong,” I said as I reached his side.

“Not our problem,” he growled back.

We fell into silence as we continued to descend the mountain. He wasn’t wrong, but I still didn’t like the itch under my skin. A moment ago, I’d been eager to leave, but now I felt like every step I took was one in the wrong direction. I shook my head. Stupid. I was out of my element being around others. I’d be back to myself once I was patrolling alone.

At the bottom of the mountain were our hover bikes. Two Wutark guards stood just off to the side to escort us out of their territory. I wanted to resent the guards, but I couldn’t really blame them. I’d want to see that the Wutarks left our territory as well, so we mounted our bikes and sped away quickly. I looked over my shoulder to see the Wutark guards holding long-sights up to their eyes, watching us until we were over the horizon and past their border.

Once in the communal land, Daz raised his arm, and we came to a halt in a field of tall grass. Kutzal stood next to his bike with his arms crossed while Daz twisted at the waist to address my drexel. Nearby, Vinz closed his eyes to catch a nap in his seat while Axton dismounted and stood guard, always ready for battle.

I listened as Daz began to talk. Vinz said I was nosy, but Kutzal agreed my skills for listening and retaining information would pay off one day. It benefited me on patrol. I could sit quietly for hours listening to the wildlife and distant sounds.

“Something about their absolute insistence on respecting their boundaries seems off.” Daz rubbed his chin. “They were nomadic before this, yes? It makes me wonder if they are hiding something behind their borders.” He shook his head. “I wish we had the warrior power to look into it, but we’re stretched thin as it is. Report back to the rest of the clavas the importance of remaining within communal land and not stepping over the border into Wutark territory.”

My drexel nodded. “Of course.”

Daz tapped a black claw on his thigh. “You have all the supplies you need?”

“Yes,” Kutzal answered quickly.

Daz blew out a breath and gazed off into the distance, probably wishing he was home with his mate and the rest of his family. I told myself I didn’t envy him, that this life was the one I was supposed to lead, but I’d met some human females, and they fascinated me from their skin to their hair, to the way they walked and talked. I wondered what it was like to be adored by one the way Daz’s mate worshipped him.

I glanced down and away, feeling a little sick at my thoughts. The group fell silent with only the soft rustle of Axton’s footsteps as he walked a small perimeter around us.

I respected Daz because he seemed to respect us, a departure from how life had been originally on this planet. I was older than Daz, so I remembered the type of life I’d been subjected to just because of who my father was. Some Drixonians liked to pretend life on Corin had been a utopia for everyone, but I remembered very differently.

Daz hadn’t made those decisions, but the brand of who we were—my clavas and I—was burnt into our skin. The sons of deserters. Our blood was tainted.

Finally, Daz nodded and placed his hands on the handlebars of his bike. “I need to get home. My mate is expecting again.”

Kutzal didn’t outwardly flinch—he’d never reveal that much about himself—but his fingers flexed for just a moment before he nodded woodenly. “Of course, drexel.”

“Daz,” he murmured. “Just Daz.”

Kutzal didn’t answer, only stared back.

Daz swallowed. “Contact me with any problems right away. I know you’ll handle your clavas well.” With a nod, he sent us a solid, “Good luck,” before his bike rose in the air and he sped away.

I watched him go, and so did Kutzal while Vinz mumbled in his sleep next to us. Kutzal remained quiet, contemplative. Out of all of us in the Lone Howl clavas, I suspected he was the one who most wanted a normal life with a mate. But he knew his role, and as drexel of the outcasts, it was to rule over the border patrols until the day he died.

His head bowed and he heaved a deep breath for a moment before he met my gaze over his shoulder. “Are you coming back?” he asked.

While we all had our patrol routes, we did have a settlement base camp. It wasn’t much, but some of the younger members of our clavas had recently been making an effort to create better huts and common buildings for meals.

I shook my head, eager to get out on my own. “I think it’s best I start my patrol.”

The corner of Kutzal’s mouth lifted into an almost smile before he raised his fist and slammed it into Vinz’s stomach. Vinz shot up like an arrow, coughing and sputtering while Kutzal smothered a smile with his hand. “Let’s get back. You can nap there.”

“I was having a great dream and you ruined it,” Vinz grumbled. He turned on his bike and revved it with a sneer. “Flecker.”

Kutzal walked over to me and grabbed me by the back of my neck. I looked into his dark eyes. He’d been by my side since we were born as our mothers were sisters. And we’d both had fathers who’d shirked their duties, plunging us into a life of poverty and shame.

Touching our foreheads briefly in the customary Drixonian display of affection, he squeezed the back of my neck. “Tread carefully. Daz is trusting us, and a lot is riding on our ability to protect the borders.”

“I know,” I answered.

Again, his lips twitched into an almost smile. “Come back soon.”

I noticed he didn’t say home. Because really, us outcasts didn’t have a home. I nodded.

The three of them rode away, leaving me alone in the field astride my bike. After drinking some qua and downing a quick meal of dried meats, stale bread, and hard cheese, I took off on my patrol. Now more than ever, my job mattered.

I almost didn’t hear the sound. That night, sitting in front of a small fire to cook the bilket I’d killed, a faint scream reached my ears. I went still, listening carefully, wondering if it was a brigger screech, but then it came again. The scream was cut off abruptly, but the echo of it lingered in my ears like a chant.

“What the fleck?” I whispered into the darkness.

I knew the direction that scream had come from, and it was where I’d been earlier that day—the Wutark settlement. But that hadn’t been a Wutark scream. It’d been feminine but not… Wutark. I’d heard a scream like that before, long ago during a rescue on another planet. I could still feel the slim, trembling body of the human female as she’d clung to me. I remembered the utter relief and peace on her face when she’d realized her mate was still alive.

The scream came one more time, weaker now, and I didn’t hesitate. I kicked dirt over the fire, left the bilket carcass for scavengers, and took off on foot toward the border I’d vowed not to cross. But I couldn’t make myself stop, not when I swore I could hear the racing cora beat, pounding with fear, in another’s chest. That scream had been too human for me to resist. Despite the way Drixonian society treated me, I was still a Drix at heart. She is All would forever stir my blood and dictate my actions.

I knew exactly where the boundary was. We’d gone over it numerous times. I was supposed to treat it as sacred and yet I didn’t even think as I sprinted across it. I took a back way up the mountains surrounding the Wutark valley, scrabbling up the hill hand over foot as the sounds of a fight grew louder. My cora pounded in my chest and I fought to keep my machets from rising out of my forearms and back. My tail remained poised, ready to lash out in an attack.

A distant voice in the back of my mind told me this was dangerous. A direct action that could lead to dire consequences for all Drixonians, but that scream… that scream. I couldn’t forget it. I’d never be able to live with myself if I didn’t investigate.

I crested the mountain and slid to a halt in a crouch behind a thorny bush. Flames flickered from a fire at the edge of the cliff, and I peered through the dense foliage to see Barz’alk standing tall, his arms raised to the dark sky. “Tonight! Rejoice. Blue invaders end!” A chill ran down my spine at his words. Below, shouts and cheers swelled from members of the Wutark settlement. Remembering the rumors that Wutarks believed in live sacrifices, my thoughts drifted to the bloody pile I’d seen at the base of the mountain.

What had been that scream? Suddenly, scuffling scraped along the rocky ground, and to my left, two guards crested the hill holding something between them. A leg kicked out, and my blood ran cold. A head pitched forward and in the light of the fire, a human female face snarled at her handlers. Time seemed to freeze as I took in her pale spotted skin, her long brown hair plaited into a messy braid, and dark eyes fierce and heated. Defiant. Not scared.

“Quoy must thanks. Ridding us of evil blue!” Barz’alk shouted as he pointed at the human female. The one guard shoved her toward the edge of the cliff, and the tip of her shoes hung over the edge, sending a shower of gravel below. She cried out, and he cuffed her on the side of the head so hard that her knees buckled.

Pain exploded in my temples, and I only just held back a gasp as I whirled around to face an attacker. But there was nothing there. No solid object had swung at me so why… why had I felt a pain in my head when the female was struck?

She turned her head and in profile, I gazed at the hard set of her jaw. The proud slope of her nose. And those eyes… those captivating dark eyes.

One step forward would mean my certain death at the hands of a Wutark army. And worse… it would be a declaration of war. I clenched my fists at my thighs as I stared at the human.

She is All. The words flew around inside my head like a windstorm. She is All. And I knew there was only one decision to make.

THREE

TASHA

I looked down and nausea boiled in my gut. I hated heights. I hated them so badly I wouldn’t even go on roller coasters. My head hurt, and I could feel blood dripping down the back of my neck from the blow I’d just taken from one of the guards. My limbs shook, and my teeth chattered. The fear was nearly overwhelming all my other senses, which pissed me off even more. How dare they scare me this much? Fuck these giant warthog fucks.

The guards holding me yanked me back from the edge, and one snorted out something that sounded a hell of a lot like mocking. I felt the wet splat of his mucus on my neck and gagged. So, they’d just wanted to scare me before actually pushing me off the ledge?

I’d been in the cave cell for a few days, and I’d seen a few other prisoners leave and never come back. Huddling in my cell, I’d covered my ears to drown out the cheering as they were pushed to their deaths.

And now it was my turn. I couldn’t cover my ears because my hands were tied behind my back. I could do nothing but listen to the cheers below for my death and wait for the crunch of my bones at the bottom of this alien planet cliff.

I missed my friends, and if I hadn’t been so scared stiff, I would have cried. Where was Amber? Was Lu okay? Maisie was likely crippled with terror wherever she was. I hoped they were faring better than me. “I’m sorry,” I whispered to myself as angry tears welled in my eyes. “I’m sorry I made the wrong decision. I’m sorry I couldn’t stay alive long enough to rescue you.” The regret would haunt me from this life into the next and the next after that, I was sure. And at this point, I felt like I deserved it. We’d been through so much and survived it all, only for us to be ripped from our beds in the night. I couldn’t have written a better tragedy.

A guard shoved me toward the head Wutark. The elder Uldani had told me his name, but I couldn’t remember. I tried to pick up the smell around me for anything I could use to my advantage, but everything was a jumble of the Wutarks, my own sweat, and the smoke from the nearby fire. My eyes watered as the Wutark leader grabbed me in a painful grip. I bit back a cry as his fingers tightened on my biceps. Tears dripped from my eyes. I could smell them now, and I just wished for this to end quickly.

I caught a whiff of a scent—something I hadn’t scented before. It was close but not too close. I lifted my head to brave a glance at the settlement below and just as I did so, a loud crash sounded. At the back of the settlement near the base of the opposite wall, a small building erupted in flames. The crowd below went into a screaming frenzy as they raced toward the building. Some attempted to suffocate the fire with heavy cloths, while others threw buckets of liquid onto the flames.

The Wutark leader hollered a few grunts and shoved me back to the guards. I stumbled to a knee before one grabbed me by the back of my neck like a cat and hauled me in the air. They took off running toward the stairs leading down to the settlement. I could barely believe what was happening. Sure, I was alive, but the relief was short-lived. I was sure I’d be back up here in another few days when they weren’t in damage mode to put out a fire. There was no joy for me as I tried to run between them with my hands behind my back.

We took one step onto the stairs when the scent—the one I’d smelled earlier, a mix of musk and fresh dirt—hit me again. Suddenly a tree a few feet ahead of us went up in flames, and I lifted my shoulder in an attempt to cover my face from the rush of heat. The Wutark guard who’d hit me let out a bellow of rage and released my arm. He shouted a few grunts that sounded like commands to the other guard holding me before racing toward the tree.

The lone guard in charge of me continued down the stairs, and I coughed as smoke filled my lungs. My eyes watered, blurring my vision. My senses reeled and that was why the scent hit me too late for me to realize the owner of said musky scent was now on us. Right on us.

A dark figure dropped down on the stairs at our front. The guard holding me let out a bellowed huff, like a raging bull, but he was surprised and off balance. A five-fingered hand gripped me around the waist, wrenching me from the Wutark guard and before I realized what was happening, the guard stumbled off the side of the stairs. He grabbed for me, and I nearly toppled with him, but an arm held me firm on the stairs. The Wutark guard fell backward, eyes wide with horror, and I turned away before I had to watch him hit the ground.

I caught a glimpse of two bright violet eyes reflecting the flames below before I was hauled in the air and dropped over a blue shoulder. Through my blurred vision, I could see a muscled back and a tail, thick at the base and narrowing into a tip adorned with some sort of spiked armor. Clad in dark pants and boots, the alien moved swiftly, avoiding the flaming tree and the Wutark guard struggling to put out the fire. We took off down the mountain through dense brush, moving swiftly and surprisingly silently.

My vision began to clear, and I could breathe easier the farther away from the smoke we traveled, and I began to come to my senses. Instead of a whole army of Wutark, I now only had to battle this one blue alien. If I could get away from him, I could search for my girls.

This was going to hurt, but if I could catch him by surprise… I swung my head toward the outside of his shoulder before whipping it back around and head butting him in the temple.

He let out a roared word that sounded like a curse and stumbled. Taking my opportunity. I swung my tied hands as well, thumping him on the back. Another curse. This time he hit the ground and his arm loosened slightly. And that was when I began to fight for my life. I went into a death roll and scrambled out of his grip. Hitting the dirt on my hands and knees, I scrambled forward in the darkness, narrowly avoiding crashing headfirst into a tree. Behind me, the alien was certainly not out and no longer even down. A hand wrapped around my ankle, taking it out from under me. I just barely caught my body weight so my face didn’t kiss the dirt.

“No!” I shouted, kicking out like a mad woman as I screamed. “Fuck off! I won’t be a sacrifice. I won’t be food. I won’t be fucking anything that you have planned for me on this planet. I will live, Goddammit!”

I landed a heel squarely on his nose and grinned in triumph as his head snapped back. I waited for the cry, the clutching of his face, but he brought his head back slowly, controlled, to meet my gaze. No pain lurked in the creases of his face. Although dark blood dripped from his nose, he didn’t react. Didn’t make a sound. Not even a wince. He just stared at me in a way that sent a chill down my spine. “Oh shit,” I murmured just before he pounced.

I let out a scream, but it was cut off as he clapped his hand over my mouth. With his other hand, he held my bound wrists above my head, smashed into the dirt. With his massive body pinning me to the ground, I could do nothing but emit muffled shouts from behind his hand while frustrated tears squeezed out the corner of my eyes.

I waited for the blow. The pain. And I hoped to hell these aliens weren’t looking for… breeders. I shuddered, my body going into shutdown mode as fear of sexual assault—worse than my phobia of heights—rendered me frozen.

“Please,” I spoke the words on a choked whisper into his palm. “Please let me go.”

I could barely make out his features in the muted light of the moon, but his eyes glowed, and something shifted behind the purple irises. There was intelligence there, almost a human element, and my heart skipped a beat.

“Guipo miri arents.” His deep voice was more like a vibration against my chest than sound waves in my ears. So very deep and raspy like he didn’t use it much.

I couldn’t understand his language, but something about his tone eased my fear somewhat. Slowly, his palm loosened on my mouth, and I stretched out my jaw as the backs of his thick fingers brushed my cheek. His warm breath heated my forehead.

He lowered my hands to my chest and raised his other fist. The light of the moon caught on something shiny in the dark running the outside length of his forearm. Fear pierced my chest like an arrow when I realized it was a row of black blades rising out of his scales like shark teeth.

Was this it? Was he going to kill me? I started to struggle again as he lowered his arm. Quick as a flash, the rope around my wrists loosened. He lowered his arm as the blades collapsed until no longer visible.

I rubbed my raw wrists, confused about what I just saw. Was that… Some sort of technology? Or was that his anatomy?

Before I could contemplate further, I inhaled, and the smell that invaded my nostrils brought that waning fear roaring back like a tidal wave. “Wutarks,” I whispered. He flinched, and his brow line, edged with hard nubs, lowered. I didn’t think he could understand me, but I spoke anyway. “I can smell them.”

He grabbed me off the ground so quickly that my head snapped back painfully, but I didn’t make a sound. Holding me in his arms in a bridal carry, he took off with astonishing speed. I was sure we’d crash into something going this fast in the dark of night, but he bobbed and weaved among the trees as if he knew the path by heart.

The scent of the Wutarks was drawing closer, and I remembered how fast they’d been when they’d caught me. I wasn’t sure of the blue alien’s intentions, but right now, he seemed to be hell bent on keeping us alive.

The scent of the Wutarks became nearly overwhelming, and I flailed in panic in the alien’s arms. He let out a muttered curse before we crested a small hill. Falling to his hip, we slid down among the thorns and brush before coming to a stop at the base. The scent of fresh water hit me just as we plunged into a cold stream. Shocked by the freezing temperature, I gasped for breath as he waded toward a muddy alcove in the bank of the stream.

There, he shoved me toward the back of the alcove and blocked the entrance with his bulk. With his back to me, I could only lay huddled against the cold, muddy wall.

I clenched my jaw, so my teeth didn’t chatter. Still, I couldn’t control my shivering, and trembled despite the warmth of his big body. His head turned to glance at me, and all I could really make out was the glowing violet of his eyes before he turned back around. Wrapping my arms around myself, I closed my eyes as the stink of the Wutarks drew closer. Over the babbling of the stream, I could hear them walking around amongst the foliage, grunting in their unfamiliar language, and stomping their spears.

I couldn’t be sure how long we huddled in the cold mud until the scent of the Wutarks faded. After that, the blue alien still didn’t move, and I began to doze off just as he jostled me. I let out a small moan of protest as he crept out from the alcove and once again gathered me in his arms. Scaling the bank in a few giant leaps, we were once again on the move, running to an unknown destination. I tried to keep my eyes open, but with my adrenaline waning, sleep caught up to me.

Sun rays shone bright and warm behind my eyelids. For a moment, I could have sworn I heard Lu’s laughter and Trix’s voice, but when I opened my eyes, all I saw was a small fire. I sat up, groaning as I tried to get my bearings and remember where the hell I was.

A stick poked the fire. A stick held by a blue, five-fingered hand. And the owner of said hand was a crouched blue alien. Oh right, my rescuer. At least, he’d saved me from the Wutarks, but saved me for… what purpose?

I hadn’t been able to see much of him last night in the dark, so I took the time to study him now, sizing him up as an opponent. His skin was mottled with varying shades of blue and long dark hair hung in waves down his back, accentuated with a few braids. Below large black horns curling from his head, his large ears were pierced with a series of gold rings. A large fur pelt lay draped across his shoulders. His tail rested on the ground behind him, the tip adorned with a spiked ring that was likely a weapon rather than jewelry.

He slowly turned to face me, and I gulped. Scars marred his chest and face. One wicked gash ran from the bottom of his eye to the top of his lip on the left side, giving him a permanent sneer. A prominent brow covered in a row of hard nubs cast a shadow over his eyes, but beneath it, a deep dark gaze held my own.

“Good morning,” I croaked.

His eyes crinkled at the corners, and I wasn’t sure if that was the beginning of a smile or a sign of distaste.

He stood to his full height, and on instinct, I moved away from him. He went still, his eyes narrowed at my reaction. He wasn’t as tall as the Wutarks, but he was still well over six feet, probably close to seven feet, and thick as an ox.

Now that I no longer felt my life was in immediate danger—the blue alien hadn’t hurt me, after all, my mind immediately turned to my friends. I was free, sort of, and now I had to work to get them free too. That would be my only purpose until I found each one of them. And even then, I’d still carry the guilt of my wrong decision until the day I died.

The thought of Lu having a vision without us there to support her, the knowledge that someone was likely touching Trix and causing her immense amount of pain was like a knife wound in my chest. Who was watching over Amber while she slept? Who held Neve after a nightmare? I couldn’t handle not knowing if they were hurt. I needed to find them, but I had no idea where to start. Still, I would search every inch of this planet until I found them all.

We were in some sort of clearing. The air was cold, yet the vegetation was dense. Blue leaves dripped with dew. The area didn’t look familiar, and I began to panic a little, unsure how the hell I’d find my friends when I didn’t even know how to get back to where we were taken. If only I knew, I could find some clues. Tracks. Hell, anything. I knew Trix, and she would have fought to leave some sort of trail.

I gathered my feet under me, and the blue alien immediately honed his gaze on my actions. Standing up, I brushed my hands off. “So, uh, thanks for saving me. Those Wutarks are pretty bad guys, huh? Yeah, so anyway,” I jerked my thumb behind me. “I’m just going to get going, I guess. Got stuff to do, and I’m sure you’re, uh, very busy too.” I gazed around. “You don’t happen to know where we are, do you?” He stared at me blankly, because of course he couldn’t understand me. Whatever. I waved awkwardly. “Have a good day.”

I took one step before a hand wrapped around my wrist and I was yanked back into the solid chest of the blue alien. I let out a yelp as I gazed up into those violet eyes that had suddenly turned dark with fury.

FOUR

Lukent

What was this human thinking? She had no idea where she was, and she planned to just… take off? On her own? She’d end up wandering back into the Wutark borders to get captured again.

How did I make her see that she had to stay with me when she couldn’t understand me? I could see the translator implant behind her ears, which made me even more confused—how had she gotten one? How long had she been on this planet? The Wutarks wouldn’t have given her one, so who else? The Uldani? Her clothes appeared to be Uldani made—she wore a pair of pants in a common Uldani pale green, and her large black shirt hung off one shoulder and low on her chest to reveal the top of her breasts. Her shoes were a soft sole commonly worn by Uldani children, and it was clear they’d been patched many times and reinforced by strips of leather.

But it made no sense. How had she gotten to this planet, when the Uldani were on our sister planet Torin?

Most of all, I needed a flecking implant updater so I could download our language to her implant. My implant had been downloaded with the Earth languages long ago, so I could understand everything she said.

I growled, irritated at the situation, and she let out a shuddering breath. The smell of her fear angered me, but I couldn’t use words to comfort her. Even if I could… well, I’d never been comforted in my life. How did I comfort her and let her know I’d never hurt her? None of this was in my skill set.

“Oh fuck, now he’s pissed,” she whispered, and I let out an annoyed huff, which didn’t help the situation. She flinched and struggled against my grip. “Please let me go.”

I only held tighter. Her eyes studied my face in a way that made me uncomfortable. I knew how my scars marred my face and twisted my lips into an ugly grimace. I’d never been self-conscious about them until now. In fact, my scars were a great deterrent to prevent unnecessary socialization. But now I found myself, for the first time, not wanting to be ugly.

I wasn’t sure what she saw in my expression, and just when I was about to shove her away, her muscles went slack in my grip. I hoped that meant her decision to leave was waning. I didn’t want to have to fight her, but I’d tie her to me kicking and screaming before I let her endanger herself alone. The Wutarks would be searching for her, and if they didn’t catch her, there were numerous other beings on this planet that would eat her for a meal.

I released my grip on her, and she let her hands fall limply to her side. I turned to pick up my pack from the ground, and that moment of distraction was all she needed. She took off like laser fire, bolting into the dense undergrowth faster than I thought humans could run.

“Fleck!” I roared and took off after her.

She was quick and weaved back and forth like a bilket to avoid my grasp and slow me down. Her lithe form cut through the brush faster than my bulk, and I was impressed she had managed to put some distance between us.

Changing tactics, I bolted to my right and scaled a tree quickly with my claws. With my tail, I swung on the lowest, strongest branch to the next tree, and then the next, avoiding all the messy vines and plants impeding my progress. I wasn’t quiet, and when the human looked up at the noise, she saw me and let out a frightened squeak. I didn’t enjoy her fear, but I couldn’t give up.

Overtaking her from above, I dropped down just as she skidded to a halt with a scream. Sliding onto her hip, she scrambled among the moss and vines to once again get to her feet. She turned, intending to reverse her direction, but it was too late. I reached for her, avoiding using my tail since it was still outfitted with the spiked armor. My hand closed around her wrist, and she cried out in anger.

With my teeth, I ripped a strip of fabric from my fur cape and while she struggled like a pissed off salibri cub, I tied our hands together.

“What are you doing?” she screeched, and the high pitch of her voice made me wince. “Oh, you don’t like that sound, huh?” Her eyes fired at me, her cheeks were a flushed pink, and the tops of her breasts bobbed with each breath. In short, she was flecking captivating.

Until she opened her mouth and let out another high-pitched scream that I felt down to my bones.

I lunged at her, clapping my hand over her mouth. She tried to bite my palm, but her blunt teeth gnashing at my calloused skin was ineffectual.

“Stop,” I barked at her, and she went still, eyes wide with fright. I knew she couldn’t understand me, but I talked anyway. “You will not win this battle with me. I’m doing this for your own good. I’ll take you to more humans like you. You will be safe. One day, maybe, you’ll thank me.”

Her eyes, swimming with confusion, fear, and anger narrowed at me. “Fuck you,” she spat from behind my palm.

My cora squeezed painfully at the poison in her voice. I should be glad she hated me. It was easier to keep my distance that way. Yet her hatred rankled.

I was not a hero, and yet for her… I wanted to be.

Tasha

This fucker. He’d tied us together. With a dirty strip of fur, my right wrist was lashed to his left, rendering me even weaker because I was right-handed. I could barely even hold a fork properly with my left.

I debated struggling further just to see how far I could push him. He hadn’t hurt me yet, but there was time. He was a warrior, that much was clear. I’d seen the blades in his arms, his fangs, and that spiked, armored tail that waved behind us as we walked menacingly like a scorpion tail waiting to strike.

I sneered at it from over my shoulder and trudged on. I had to take two strides to equal one of his, but I didn’t complain at the pace. He’d already showed me he could manhandle me easily, and I wanted to hang onto what dignity I had left.

Soon, though, my stomach began to growl. My throat dried up, and before I knew it, I was nearly doubled over with hunger cramps. I stumbled, falling to one knee. My shoulder nearly wrenched out of the socket as the alien took two large steps forward, not realizing I was no longer walking. “Ow,” I cried out weakly. “Please stop.”

He turned and stared down at me with an unreadable expression. I hated to have to ask him for anything, but I was going to be a corpse tied to his wrist soon. I mimicked drinking and eating. “Qua,” I murmured, using the word that the Uldani had for water. Well, it was a form of water, a little vinegar-y and kind of thick, but it was this planet’s form of water.

At the sound of the word, his body jerked, and he crouched down, his bulk nearly blotting out the sun. “Qua?” he whispered.

I nodded. “Qua. Please.”

He drew the crudely sewn cloth pack off his back and dug around in it until he pulled out a canteen. I snatched it out of his hand, ripped off the stopper, and downed a few gulps. The liquid did wonders to sooth my parched throat and fill my stomach. “So good.” I swiped the back of my mouth, and reluctantly extended my arm to hand him the canteen back.

He wasn’t paying attention to me. On a large purple leaf, he’d laid out an array of food—some sort of hard bread, nuts, and some dried fruits, as well as some brown strips that looked like jerky. He mimicked eating by pressing his pinched fingers together near his mouth and pushed the leaf in front of me.

“I can eat this?” I asked.

He didn’t answer me, because of course he didn’t. He only watched me patiently before taking one strip of brown jerky and shoving it into the corner of his mouth. He chewed on it and continued to stare at me.

Starving, my stomach still cramping, I forced myself to eat slow. First the dried fruits, which were both sweet and tart. Then some nuts that reminded me of dried soybeans, and the flavorful jerky. While in the Uldani’s possession, I’d only been fed a tasteless gruel. The girls and I tried to eat what we could, but we were limited in what plants we ate, as we didn’t know what was edible and what would kill us.

Soon, the leaf was empty, my belly was full, and I could barely believe that this alien had actually… fed me. From his own food stores.

I rubbed my mouth, worried I had crumbs all over my face. I’d sort of eaten in a trance. “Thank you,” I whispered.

He didn’t answer, only ripped up the leaf and stood. I had no choice but to stand with him, and then we were walking again.

I watched him closer this time, as we walked. His pants were a dark leather and a clasp above his tail worked like a backward belt. His laceless boots appeared held onto his feet by a sort of stretchy material while the sole looked thick and tough. With the fur wrap, long dark hair, and curled horns, he was like some sort of blue alien Viking. And the scars… this alien had seen battle.

He caught me looking at him out of the corner of his eye and sneered at me while jerking our tied hands. I stumbled and glared at him before focusing on where I walked. Okay then, no staring. Noted.

The brush began to grow less dense, the scent of fresh water wafted on the breeze. It was somewhere close by, probably within a half mile. What I would have given for a bath—I’d been stuck in that damn Wutark cell for days. I could smell myself over the freshwater scent, and it was not good. I couldn’t believe this blue alien wanted to be tied to me, that was how bad I stank. Meanwhile, he’d been walking as long as I had been, he’d fought the Wutarks, and me, and there was nary a whiff of body odor to be found. Those were some genetics.

Then another scent hit me—this one was similar to the Wutarks but also… not. It was a scent I recognized, and I wanted no part of, especially the scent was also rank with distress.

I stopped, and the alien, seemingly more in tune with my actions now, stopped as well. I lifted my nose in the air. “Wait—?”

Just on the breeze, I heard it. Snorting. A faint rumbling on the ground like hoof stomps. I looked at the alien, who was now gazing off into the distance, his eyes narrowed and focused.

He took off sharply to the left, and I could do nothing but follow seeing as we were tied together. Except he was walking toward the sound and self-preservation had me desiring to run in the exact opposite way. The source of that smell was not something I wanted to get near. The ground shook as we continued on, and the snorting devolved into deep, mournful bellows. I dug in my heels to stop our progress. “Can we not go in that direction? Please? Come on…”

But he ignored me, and only stopped when we burst out onto the bank of a swift-moving river. His body went tight, and I gazed out at the river to see a small animal squealing in distress as it gazed up the steep muddy incline of the bank.

At the top of the grassy bank, stomping and snorting, were a cluster of four-legged animals I’d only ever seen from a great distance about a year ago. About the size of a small elephant, they looked a bit like rhinos—with thick gray hides covered in a coarse hair, four hoofed feet, and massive, a series of curved horns the size of a wooly mammoth’s tusks extending from the top of their protruding snouts.

“Holy shit,” I whispered, tugging on our tied hands as one rhinophant—as Lu had called them—turned its head and settled its beady eyes on us. Its sides puffed out on a deep inhale, and then it boomed what sounded like a war horn, sending the rest of the animals into a frenzy.

The little one at the bank—probably a baby—renewed its attempts to scale the muddy bank, but it only got a quarter of the way up before its little hooves lost purchase on the mud, and it slid back down to the bottom.

The incline had to be about fifty feet, too tall for the adults to descend. If they did, they’d most likely be stuck there too. Despite my fear, my heart went out to the little one. He would either starve or drown, and his family could do nothing to stop it. I wondered for a moment what I could do, but my choices were a little limited right now. First, I was tied to a big blue alien, and second, I’d probably drown or die with that little rhinophant. No way would I be able to climb the muddy bank either—

Suddenly the blue alien went down in a crouch. “What—?” I began just as he drew our linked hands over the top of his head, so my tied hand now rested on his shoulder, with his arm crossed over his chest. With his other hand, he reached behind and shoved me onto his back.

I had nowhere to go but to climb his scaled back, and when I was secure there, he took off toward the river. His hair billowed in my face, and I spit it out as I tried to gaze around his massive head and horns to see what the fuck we were doing. My thought was that he was getting us as farther down the stream, and quickly. But now, we headed directly toward the steep bank.

“Wait!” I cried just as he took a leap and slid down the muddy bank on his two feet like he was at a skateboard park—without a skateboard. We hit the edge of the river with a splash, and I ducked my head as the cool water dappled my skin.

He muttered a few grunted words and then surprised me for a second time by entering the river. Just… stepping right in. Zero hesitation. The stream moved fast, like white-water speed, and further downstream white foam splashed angrily against jutting rocks.

“Wait, do you know how deep this is?” I panicked, clinging to him now in terror. While our hands were tied, I knew if he wavered or stumbled, I’d end up taking him down with me.

But his steps were slow and steady. He didn’t stumble once, not even as the water swirled up around his thick thighs, then his waist. Soon, I was wet from the waist down, and the swiftness of the water tore at my clothes. I held on with all my strength as we crossed the river, which was about half a football field.

When we reached the opposite bank, the small rhinophant was a few yards away, absolutely losing its shit. It stomped, it snorted, it dropped its head and bucked with its small horns—which were only nubs—to intimidate us. As we approached, the alien flexed his hand and his claws lengthened just as the black blades emerged from the outside of his forearms. I gasped as this was the first time I was able to see them close in the daylight. They weren’t manufactured armor. Whatever they were, these blades were a part of his anatomy like a porcupine and his spines. They glistened in the sun, sharp as a brand-new blade.

And then I realized what the alien must be doing—he was going to use this rhinophant for food. Just… slaughter it in front of its family. I could tell these were intelligent animals, and somewhere up there was likely the little one’s mom and dad and oh my god, I was on the back of a monster. I began to kick and fight, struggling to dislodge myself from his back. “Do not kill it, you bastard. Do not kill it! I’ll go hungry before I eat that thing. I’m serious. I’ll go on a fucking hunger strike. You can’t make me, and if you force it down my throat, I’ll throw up on you. I swear to God. Don’t test me, asshole.”

But my struggles were completely ineffective. The alien held me tighter. And when he snatched the creature off the ground, I let out a long wail and closed my eyes.

Except the sound of blades cutting into flesh never came. There was no death squeal and no smell of blood.

I opened my eyes to find the alien’s head turned to look at me over his shoulder. Clutched in his non-tied hand was the baby rhinophant, who was now much more calm, likely out of fright. On the bank, the rest of the animals continued to stomp and snort in a frenzy, angered at the blue alien’s action.

“What—?” I began just as he tucked the animal—about the size of a corgi—under his arm crossed over his chest. The rhinophant let out a little squeak, but then went still, as if resigned to his fate. “Please,” I whispered. “Let’s just let him go.”

I expected the alien to turn around and cross the stream again. Maybe at least he was decent enough not to kill the baby in front of its family, but then he turned and gazed up the muddy bank to the rhinophants on the shore. The largest one tossed his head, gaze focusing on the blue alien, and let out one snorted horn blast. The rest of the animals around him fell silent.

And the blue alien—to my absolute shock—began to climb the bank.

FIVE

Lukent

The bank was steeper than I thought. My thighs ached with the effort of carrying the female on my back while also holding onto the baby riscus. At the top of the incline, the alpha riscus—the eldest female of the herd—watched me carefully.

The riscus of Corin were a non-meat-eating animal who only harmed other animals in self-defense. Their fight skills were formidable, and I’d been on the receiving end once or twice of their horns. I had the scars to prove it. However, they were a vital part of the ecosystem here on Corin. They were only to be killed if it was the last resort—a decree from Daz, and one I agreed with. They spread plant seeds in their dung and provided a food source for briggers in the insects that nested in their course fur. Even now, I could see various species of winged briggers waiting in the trees for a chance to ride on the back of a riscus and feast.

This was an old herd. I recognized the alpha female. And since they mated for life and only procreated once every few cycles, leaving behind a young one to die was not acceptable.

The human huffed at my back, clearly confused, but she’d at least fallen silent instead of screeching at me. I understood why she was worried that I’d kill the animal. I had extended the machets in my arms to help dig into the muddy bank as I scaled the steep incline.

It took longer than I would have liked, but at least the two beings I carried didn’t fight me on the way. When I reached the top, panting and sore, I swayed and dropped to one knee, so I didn’t topple over and crush the female. She didn’t let go of my back, and I slowly loosened my arm until the riscus calf dropped to the ground. Squealing, it careened into the herd, disappearing to find its mother. I expected the human to drop off my back, but instead she held on tighter, her warm thighs around my waist and her quick breaths in my ear.

I stayed where I was to catch my breath and slowly retracted my machets to show the riscus alpha that I wasn’t a threat. She stepped forward and snorted, and I remained crouched. Riscus were intelligent enough to understand my actions. While we were mostly on friendly terms now with them, that hadn’t been the case when we’d first arrived on the planet. We’d assumed they were like a larger version of the pivers on Torin, a species who wanted nothing more than to eat us.

The riscus female—scarred with a chipped second horn on her snout—stomped once and bowed her head. “You’re welcome,” I murmured.

Her gray eyes blinked at me, and then she let out a short horn blast before turning on her hoofed back feet and directing the herd to carry on.

I dropped one fist into the moist dirt and let out a long breath. That had been a gamble, as some herds were led by young alpha riscus who were not quite experienced enough to understand our actions. They could have easily attacked when I reached the top of the bank. Luckily, I’d managed to come across a herd with a seasoned alpha, who’d accepted my help.

The herd was soon out of sight in the heavy forest. And still the human didn’t make a move to drop from my back. Her hand on my shoulder tightened, her blunt fingers squeezing my scales before she whispered in a soft voice. “He saved the baby. He actually… saved the baby.”

I reached back, intending to pat her thigh, but when my hand came into contact with her leg through the thin layer of her pants, I wasn’t able to pull away. I rested my palm on her thigh, wondering what her smooth skin felt like beneath. Sure, I’d been in contact with her, but all our physical touches had been ones of aggression. For the first time, she allowed me to touch her without cringing or pulling away. Her hair brushed my back along one of my scars where the nerves were dead and unfeeling. I closed my eyes, wishing I could feel her hair across my face… my chest… my stomach…

My eyes shot open, and I growled to myself in frustration. She jerked, probably surprised by the sound, and I patted her thigh, withdrawing my hand quickly.

She got the hint and slid off my back. I brought our tied hands down to my side and then rose to my feet. I took a step but felt resistance. Turning around, I opened my mouth to bark something at her, but the words dried up in my throat.

Her eyes were narrowed slightly, and her head tilted. She studied me in that quiet way she had, like she wanted to crack open my skull and dig around to see what was inside.

I didn’t desire anyone to view the contents of my mind, but the way she looked at me made me wonder, if only for a brief moment, if she could accept what I was.

Then I pushed that thought aside because that wasn’t this life for me. It would never be. I tugged on our bound hands, and she let out a long sigh before her brows knitted together and she lifted her fingers to press on her nose.

I smelled it first, and then I saw it. From her small nostrils dripped a bright red liquid. A sharp scent filled the air. Blood.

Tasha

Shit. Another nosebleed. I hadn’t had one in a while, but they weren’t uncommon—a nice side effect of whatever the Uldani did to me. Sure, I could smell for miles, but I also bled out every once in a while.

With the nosebleed always came a bout of vertigo, nausea, and dizziness. While pinching my nose and attempting to keep my head back, I reached blindly for a tree branch to keep myself steady. But instead of a tree branch, my hand landed on a strong forearm. I squinted at the blue alien, but my double vision made me see two of him.

His nostrils flared, the muscles on his shoulders bulged, and then he snatched me off the ground like I weighed as much as a feather. “Hey!” I tried to call out, but just that one word sent my stomach churning.

He ran like a bat out of hell, and I closed my eyes, barely managing to hold onto the contents of my stomach as he bobbed and weaved between trees. I could feel the panic simmering in the blood beneath his scales, and his heart pounded in my ear as I rested against his chest.

When he skidded to a halt, I blinked open my eyes. Through blurry vision, I managed to see a small three-walled structure about the size of a horse stall. Inside, he laid me down on a fur that smelled a little moldy. I coughed, sending blood splattering onto my arm, and he let out a roar of rage.

“It’s okay,” I tried to say, but the words came out nasally and not very convincing. He wasn’t listening anyway. Digging inside a dilapidated crate, he tugged out a piece of fabric and held it to my nose.

Then he did… well, just about the oddest thing. Cradling my head in the crook of his elbow, he applied pressure to the bridge of my nose. Then, while tremors vibrated his body, he rocked me slightly while making a Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch sound that reminded me of a verbalized purring.

He was trying to calm me.

I hadn’t been touched with kindness since I last saw my girls, and even then, I wasn’t one for physical touch like Lu and Maisie were. Trix was my closest friend, and she couldn’t be touched.

I stared up at him as the vertigo faded and my stomach finally stopped protesting. I gently pushed his hand off my nose and dabbed at the blood on my upper lip. “I’m okay now.”

He shook his head frantically in a human gesture that surprised me. He’d never reacted to my words before. He barked out a word, panic dripping from each syllable.

“I’m okay,” I said again, watching his reaction. I hadn’t missed the translator implant behind his ear, but I just assumed he couldn’t understand my language, just like I couldn’t understand his. “I get nosebleeds every once in a while.”

He exhaled roughly and his muscles went lax. With one clawed finger, he prodded at the tip of my nose. Finally, he removed his arm from behind my neck and laid me gently on the fur. It was the closest to a bed I’d slept on in longer than I could remember. There was some padding beneath the fur, and I pressed down to savor the softness. Sure, the fur was musty, but it was soft, and I didn’t smell like a peach either.

The alien draped a fur over me and then sat back, our tied hands resting on his leg. With his free hand, he rummaged in his pack and brought out more food. Opening my palm, he placed a handful of dried berries and nuts inside. I tossed them into my mouth and allowed him to dribble some water between my lips from a new skin.

I watched him the whole time, my mind unable to settle. I’d been wrong about this alien, hadn’t I? He was rough, scarred, and only spoke in harsh guttural tones with minimal words, but he had saved that baby rhinophant, and my nosebleed had sent him into a frenzy like a concerned mother.

He ate himself now, staring at the ground between his feet where he sat with bent knees beside my bed.

“Can you understand me?” I whispered.

His movements stilled, and that was really all the answer I needed. “What’s your name?”

He still didn’t look at me, but his ears twitched, and the row of gold rings pierced through the lobes clinked. “Oo-kent.”

I assumed the Oo meant I’m or something. “Kent?”

Finally, his head turned to me, and there was a long pause before he nodded once.

My stomach bubbled with excitement. If he understood me than that meant… that meant… he’d seen humans before.

“I’m Tasha,” I said quickly. “So, you’ve met humans before?”

Another slow nod.

Hope flared in my chest. That had to be my friends, right? Maybe more of his kind rescued them, and they were safe like me. “Will you take me to them?”

He answered in his language before growling low to himself and nodding once. He then gazed out of the small structure, and I followed his gaze. The sun was setting, and now that I was laying down, fatigue weakened my muscles. I hadn’t had a remotely peaceful sleep in longer than I could remember, probably since I’d been with my girls. In the Wutark cell, I’d woken up at every little sound and scuffle, convinced they were going to drag me out of my cell in the middle of the night to shove me off a cliff to my death.

Had taking me to humans been this alien’s plan all along? He’d saved me, hadn’t hurt me, and while I had hated him for tying us together… maybe this was his way to keep me safe.

“You’re not so bad, are you?” I whispered.

The muscles of his back flinched, but other than that, he didn’t react. I tried to keep my eyes open as my mind whirled with more questions to ask him, but settled in the soft fur, sleep won out.

At one point, I felt my body being jostled as something warm settled behind me. My head was propped up onto something soft, and I snuggled into what felt like a big pillow. I smacked my lips, thinking that Kent had draped another fur over me. “Thank you,” I murmured before sleep took me under again.

SIX

Lukent

Sleep did not come easily for me. I lay behind the female—Tasha—with her head propped up on my arm, our tied hands in front of her, fingers touching.

When I first noticed her nose bleeding, I’d thought she was hurt, possibly dying. Humans were small, and I assumed they couldn’t lose much blood without also losing their lives. But she hadn’t seemed worried despite my sheer panic.

I stared at the opposite wall of the crude huts we referred to as chuks. They dotted communal territory, and it was one of the jobs of the Lone Howl clavas to keep them stocked with supplies so those on patrol had places to rest and replenish our supplies. I hadn’t planned to bring her to one, but I hadn’t known what to do as she lay woozy and bleeding in my arms. Thank Fatas she was okay. Still, I couldn’t stop peeking at her, concerned her nose or another orifice would start bleeding again. Yet she slept on, and sometimes her lips moved soundlessly. I couldn’t forget the way she’d said the shortened version of my name. I’d never really enjoyed hearing my name—it was given to me by my father. So, when she’d uttered it as Kent, I felt renewed. Yes, I was Kent now. And I’d do anything for this human named Tasha.

You’re not so bad, are you?

Her words repeated on a loop in my brain. Did that mean I’d gained her trust? She seemed less scared of me now, and even tolerated sleeping next to me. In fact, she slept soundly now. She twitched in her sleep occasionally, and each time, her plump backside rubbed against my groin. I’d been through a lot of struggles in my life that involved endurance through pain or fatigue. But nothing compared to resisting the warm female snugged up against my hard cock.

As Drixonians warriors, our libidos died when our females were all killed in a swiftly spreading virus. While most warriors were still given education about mating from the elder males who survived the virus, I was not included in those lessons. My knowledge was mostly gleaned from what I overheard from the privileged Drixonians. But no one had ever told me that my hard cock would be painful, that it would feel like a spike in my pants while the swollen skin of my balls stretched tight.

I didn’t know how to relieve the pressure other than Tasha’s cunt, but that would never happen.

I shifted uncomfortably and let out a small groan. Would this go away? Could I die from this? The desire didn’t fade, and I began to think about things that weren’t Tasha. The Wutarks and their awful smell. Vinz snoring. The recent battle on Planet Torin I’d attended to help our Kaluma allies. While my cock still ached, I was able to ignore it, and I finally drifted off into a fitful sleep.

Movement woke me, and I opened my eyes, already alert, to find Tasha sitting up in bed staring at my groin. Where my cock throbbed painfully.

She trembled, every inch of her, and the stench of her fear made me wrinkle my nose. Unsure what to do, I remained motionless, worried that one twitch would send her into a terrified panic.

She swallowed, and a drop of clear liquid slipped down the side of her throat. I remembered humans did something called sweating when they were physically exerting themselves, and it smelled salty, but this sweat had another scent layer—it was her fear. I couldn’t understand why she was scared of the bulge in my pants. It was harmless to her. In fact, I was the one who suffered.

Annoyed, in pain, and eager to get away from her, I flicked open a claw and slashed at our bindings before slipping off the fur and moving as far away from her as I dared. Separated from her for the first time, able to breathe in fresh air as I stood outside the small chuk, my cock finally took pity on me and began to soften.

Movements came from behind me, and Tasha called out a wary, “Kent?”

I turned and without looking her in the eye, I mimicked eating. Tired of the jerky and dried nuts, I wanted to catch us a proper meal we could cook over a fire. She’d chosen to trust me, and so now it was my turn to trust her.

She nodded, still watching me carefully, and I turned on a heel and took off into the forest. It wasn’t long before I managed to snag a bilket with a spear I fashioned. The whole time, I wondered if Tasha would be there when I returned. If not, I’d be able to track her down. She wouldn’t have been able to cover that much ground that quickly, but it would have only delayed us reaching base camp. When I returned to the chuk with the carcass over my shoulder, I did so with loud steps, wanting to announce my arrival so as not to surprise her. If she had chosen to remain. My cora pounded, and I sent up a quick prayer to Fatas.

When I walked inside, Tasha sat on the bedding with her legs crossed, hands on her knees, much calmer than she’d been this morning. The fur tie on her wrist remained. I noticed she hadn’t tried to remove it.

After starting a quick fire, I cooked the bilket and then picked the choicest meat for Tasha. “Thank you,” she said, offering a small smile. Whatever had spooked her this morning must have abated, because she sat beside me without tremors or nerves. In fact, she ate heartily, the juices of the bilket dripping off her chin, which made her let out a tinkling laugh. My cock took notice of that, and I was ready to curse my entire existence. Maybe when we reached base camp, I’d send her off with another warrior. This temptation of her hurt too much.

But the thought of another warrior not understanding how precious she was and somehow letting her down so she got hurt or worse… Well, that was worse than an aching cock, that was for sure.

No, no, I’d see this to the end. I was a Drixonian warrior, after all. I could endure. All my life, all I’d done, was endure.

I didn’t tie her to me again. I hadn’t liked doing it in the first place, but it’d been for her own safety. She walked beside me quietly, although I could tell the ground we had to cover was taking its toll on her. Soon, we’d reach the place where I’d stored my bike, and then she’d be able to get rest.

Her footsteps were nearly silent, and she constantly scanned her surroundings with her nose in the air, which made me very curious about where she came from and how long she’d been on this planet. She clearly had some survival instincts.

We were in a remote area I rarely traveled, but this route was necessary to avoid the Wutarks and terrain that would be too difficult for us to manage. And because she had been so docile since that morning, I let my guard down.

So when Tasha stopped suddenly, I kept walking, assuming she’d catch up to me. But instead, a strangled cry erupted from her throat before she bolted to her left.

“Fleck!” I took off after her, surprised at how fast and agile she was. I’d catch her eventually, but this was taking too damn long.

Another few paces and I was on her heels. I reached my hand out and was about to close my fingers around her shoulder when she dropped to a skid on her knees. Nearly tripping over her, I jumped to avoid crashing into her and landed on my feet. Bracing my hands on my knees, I bent over to take a moment to suppress my irritation. Slowly rising, I turned, intended to let her have it even if she couldn’t understand me.

But the words died in my throat as I took in our surroundings. All around us were the burnt remnants of a former camp. The crude square of a building remained, the walls now nothing but ash. Surprised, I knelt down to examine a blackened board. Nothing settled around here. The game was too small, the ground infertile.

Sniffles reached my ears, and I glanced down to see Tasha kneeling and holding a piece of polished stone. “Lu,” she whispered brokenly.

SEVEN

TASHA

Our home was now nothing but ash. Not only had they stolen us from our beds, but they’d burnt everything. Our one building that had taken half a year between gathering the supplies and the actual construction. The chair I’d sat on had been crushed and the pieces scattered.

I held a marble in my hand, remembering Lu and Maisie’s voices as they’d played, the laughter, the bickering. All around us was evidence of the life we’d tried to make, a life that had taken us years in this fucking galaxy. But in one night it’d all been taken from us—burnt, stolen, crushed. While I’d hoped to check the area for signs or tracks, the entire area was scorched.

“I’m sorry.” Clutching the marble in my hand, I closed my eyes. Tears squeezed out the corners to roll down my cheeks. The quiet cry turned into sobs as the grief boiled up and over. “I’m so sorry. But I will see you soon.” At least, I hoped. If I understood Kent right, he knew where more humans were. But I didn’t want to get my hopes up too much.

And if not, I’d find them. I wouldn’t rest. We’d rebuilt ourselves after what the Uldani did to us. And we’d do it again. And again.

I blinked my eyes open at the sound of movement nearby. In a crouch, Kent gathered the rest of the marbles and deposited them in a small leather pouch on his belt. When it was full, he handed the pouch to me wordlessly. I had nearly forgotten he was there, but I didn’t have the mental energy to be self-conscious about my breakdown. And then, his chest began to vibrate, and that steady sound he’d made before, back when we first met, rumbled from his chest. “Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch.”

I swallowed around the lump in my throat as I dropped the last marble inside and pressed the pouch to my chest. They weren’t anything fancy—just various colored stones rounded into balls, but they were one of the few things that remained. Among the building ashes, I caught sight of a few charred blanket threads, and our fire pit remained untouched. I could still see the sticks we’d used as a spit to roast our dinner. But the purring that Kent continued seemed to go a long way to calming me like an invisible massage.

I shoved the pouch into the pocket of my pants and forced myself to my feet. Kent stayed crouched, his violet eyes never wavering as I wiped my face. I stared back at him. Seeing our camp in this state, the result of my decision, was making me question everything. Was I right to trust Kent? Should I just blindly go with him? I’d been a leader because the women had made me one. Without them, I was a lonely, scared human on an alien planet.

“You won’t hurt me, right? You’ll help me?”

Kent’s nostrils flared. Then he lifted his arms and crossed them at the wrist in front of his neck. Eyes on me, he nodded once. I didn’t know what the gesture meant, but the careful way he did it with a proud jut of his chin made me think there was some respect to it. I hoped.

“Fuck, I don’t know what to do,” I whispered, more to myself than him. “Just please don’t let me down.”

He rose to his feet and gestured for me to walk. As much as I didn’t want to leave camp, being here was nothing but heartache. I was making the decision to trust Kent. So I followed him out of the camp.

As we walked, I stared at my wrist, still in shock he’d severed our ties that morning. He’d actually left me this morning. Just … walked out. Without barking at me to stay or tying me to that crude hut. He’d returned with food, and I hadn’t missed the way his muscles seemed to relax with relief when he’d found me where he’d left me.

I had thought about running away. In fact, I’d sat there debating the entire time and barely made a decision before I heard his returning footsteps. It was hard for me to believe there were species on this planet who respected the lives of others. The Uldani had treated my body like a lab rat, and to the Wutarks I was nothing but a sacrifice to their gods. But Kent…? He was different. I had to believe it.

This morning, when I’d woken up to a steel rod prodding at my back, I thought my luck had come to an end. The bulge in his pants had been massive and scary—its own weapon worse than the blades in his arms and the barbs on his tail. I hadn’t been viewed as a sexual being by the Uldani or the Wutark, so this was a whole new kind of fear. But he hadn’t used that weapon on me. In fact, he’d run away. Maybe he had a girlfriend. A wife. A mate. Something like that. I couldn’t assume he actually wanted me. Maybe he just woke up with morning wood all the time.

And now he walked with long strides through a field of tall grass. I had to trot to keep up with him, and my face stung from getting whipped by the coarse stalks. But the knowledge that I could see my friends soon spurred me on. I ached to see that Amber was alive and well, that Lu and Maisie were reunited. Trix and Neve would try to be stoic, but they’d be elated at our reunion too.

I could smell fresh water ahead. It seemed we’d taken a shortcut and would now meet up with the river again as it curved to meet us. I smelled some new scents too—plant based. Maybe more food. I could go for something fresh rather than the dried fruits Kent had been giving me. Not that I wasn’t grateful. Without him, I would have been hard pressed to know what was safe to eat.

Eventually, we entered a treeline and came out the other side to a riverbank. The stream was wider here, but the current moved much slower, rippling slowly over a rocky bed that was calm enough for me to swim through. There was also a break in the bank, in what was likely made by animals as they descended the bank to drink, where the water lapped gently onto a shore of small rocks.

I made a motion to enter the water, eager to clean the days of crud from my skin, clothes, and hair, but Kent directed me to sit with one point of a clawed finger. With a pout, I plopped myself on a mossy rock and propped my chin on my fist while I stared wistfully at the water. Snapping a stick from a nearby tree, Kent shaved the tip into a point with a few flicks of his arm blades. Then he waded into a deeper, shady spot under a low-hanging branch and stood there, poised.

He remained as still as a statue, and I was impressed that such a large guy could freeze his body for that long. His chest barely moved as he breathed. Suddenly, he sprang to life, stabbing into the water. When he lifted his spear, a fish about the size of a trout flapped weakly on the end. He tore it off, tossed it to shore, and went back into hunting mode. I watched the fish flop around, its gills moving. It had two tails and a blunt head, spikes ran along its back, and it clicked sharp black teeth as it gasped for breath.

Honestly, it didn’t look appetizing at all, but my stomach had been cramping for the last hour or so. I would eat just about anything right now.

I glanced around as the plant scents I’d smelled earlier grew stronger. Farther up the bank was a cluster of large yellow flowers that I’d never seen before, the blooms the size of a small child. They were closed, and I wondered why since the sun was out and most other flowers around were opened to catch the light. Kent was still motionless above the water as he sought to catch more fish. I rose from my mossy rock and strolled toward the flowers. As I drew closer, I saw that hanging from the stalks, about the size of a cantaloupe, were soft-fleshed fruits.

I reached up to pick one, intending to show Kent and inquire if they were edible. They smelled delicious, like a sweet strawberry. My fingers grazed the fruit as I peered up at the stem, the entire plant shuddered.

Alarmed, I went still. The bloom which had been tightly closed, slowly opened. Mucus strands stretched between the petals as the flower gaped open to reveal a row of white spikes. The black stamen in the center unfurled like a tentacle, glistening with a thick white cream.

“Fuck!” I screamed and turned on my heel to run. But there was no way I could outrun this deadly plant. The tentacle curled down in front of me, and the end opened like a mouth. I screamed as it lunged toward my face—

Suddenly a big blue body blocked my view. Arms wrapped around me. I gazed up into Kent’s face just as a wet smack and crunch rent the air. He jolted, and his jaw clenched as he picked me up and tossed me back toward the shore. I flew through the air and hit the ground next to five dying fish. Before my eyes, Kent transformed. Black spikes emerged not only from his forearms, but along the top of his head, down his back to the base of his tail. But that wasn’t what made me gasp—it was the foot-long bloody gash in his back pulsing black blood.

The mouth of the plant, black with his blood, screeched. Kent let out a roar and slashed with his spikes, severing the plant’s stamen. The end sprayed white cream, and Kent brought up one arm to block the stream from hitting his face—whatever it was sizzled as it hit his scales. Blisters immediately bubbled across his shoulder and biceps. The stamen-less bloom writhed in the air, and the once vibrant yellow petals wilted to an ashy gray. Slumping over, the plant went still, while all the others around it shuddered.

I scrambled to my feet, feeling helpless, and glanced around for something to help. His fishing spear lay nearby. I grabbed it and as I ran toward Kent, afraid every bloom around him—there had to be a dozen—would open to unleash their venom stamens on him. But the blooms remained still. Closed.

Kent turned, and I slid to a halt at the expression on his face. Blank. Dull nearly black eyes. The only sign of his pain was his clenched jaw. He stumbled toward me. “Tash,” he mumbled.

“Kent!” I rushed to his side just as he went down to one knee. His blades slid back under his scales, but the damage was immense. The gaping wound in his back, burnt, warped scales and bubbles filled with pus.

Tears dripped down my cheeks. “I’m so sorry,” I sobbed as I clutched at his shoulders. “This is all my fault.” Again, I made a shitty decision, and look what happened. Kent shook his head, and I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t yelling at me. I wanted him to yell at me. To scold me. Punish me. “Kent, please. Tell me what to do.”

His hand came up and grazed my cheek before he pitched forward into my arms. His eyes closed, his body went lax, and I lost my shit. Shaking, crying, heart racing, white noise roaring in my ears, I screamed. “No!” I shook him, but his eyes remained closed. Panic overtook me, and I froze with terror and guilt, unsure what to do in this situation. Kent would know what to do. But Kent wasn’t answering.

I had only me now, and Kent had only me. I’d relied on him enough, and now it was my turn to do something for him. I tried to think about what Amber and Trix would do in this situation.

Careful of his back, I rolled him onto his non-damaged side and checked his breathing. Puffs of air left his lips, and somewhere in his massive chest, a heartbeat. He was alive, so now I had a mission. Keep him alive.

His bulk was massive, and it wasn’t easy to drag his dead weight toward the water, but I was fueled by anger over our situation—that I’d caused—and sheer determination to pay him back for saving my life twice.

When I reached the shallow edge of the stream, I laid him gently on the rock. After filling one of his empty skins with water, I set about cleaning his wounds. The gash on his back had stopped bleeding as the black blood clotted in the cut. I also poured the cold water on his blisters, which had already begun to deflate. Every few minutes or so, his entire body would shake, and his teeth would clack together in a way that reminded me of a seizure. The muscles in his face were pulled tight into a grimace, and I would have given anything to relieve his pain. I wasn’t worried his wounds would kill him, I was worried about what poison that plant had injected into his body and his bloodstream. Would he ever wake?

I had no medicine, no antibiotics, nothing. All I could do was keep his wounds clean and protect him from anything else that could try to kill us while he was unconscious.

Eventually, the sun began to dip, and my stomach, which had already been empty before this, protested loudly. The fish which Kent had caught lay dead on the bank in a cluster. I was no good to Kent if I was starving, and the heat of a fire would be good for him, as his skin felt cool in a way that alarmed me. Being in close proximity to him for a full day showed me he ran pretty hot, at least hot compared to my body temperature, whereas now he felt slightly cooler than my own forehead.

In his pack was a flint stick which I’d seen him use to light a fire. Trix was the fire expert of the bunch, but we all were capable of starting a fire. While we designated jobs based on our skills, we made sure everyone knew how to do everything in case… well, in case we lost someone. We never actually voiced those thoughts, but it was an unspoken understanding.

I gathered some dried wood and made a small fire a little higher on the bank away from the water. I refused to let the fish that Kent caught go to waste. And when he did wake, I wanted there to be food available immediately.

Wary of touching the fish, since apparently touching anything around here was a risk, I used the fishing spear to cook them over the fire like a row of marshmallows. When the skin curled, crispy and burnt, I poked at the pink flesh. Tasting it, I had to admit the flavor was good, like a sweet salmon. I ate one and wrapped up the rest to save for Kent. I dribbled a few drops of water in his mouth, and he swallowed reflexively a few times before stopping.

His breathing seemed to be more even now, and he’d stopped shaking so much. Letting him rest on the bank, I entered the shallow edge of the water to rinse myself off. Dirt and scum sluiced from my body and swirled around me in the water before slowly drifting downstream. My hair was next, and I did my best to finger comb through the tangles.

As for my clothes, I rinsed off my shirt and pants and set them on a rock nearby to dry in the sun for the rest of the day. Wearing only a band across my breasts and a pair of panties, I tugged on my boots and returned to Kent’s side. I took his large fur and draped it across my shoulders before placing his head in my lap. When I did so, his body shuddered, and I worried I’d caused him pain when I’d moved him, but then he let out a long breath and the pain lines in his forehead smoothed out. His breathing deepened, his fist unclenched, and he seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep rather than passed out.

The fur was large enough to cover both of us, and I curled around him to offer him my body heat. While I’d been tied to him for over a day, I had spent most of that time absolutely terrified of him. And when I’d tried to study him, he’d shown me that he was uncomfortable with my staring.

But now, I could look all I want. His black hair was a bit of a wild mess, and I picked some leaves out of it. The strands were coated in an oil, and I had noticed when he’d been in the stream that his hair didn’t really get wet as the water beaded off like on a duck’s feathers. When I finger-combed his hair, my fingers brushed a rough patch on the back of his neck, right near his hairline. Pushing his hair to the side, I found a burned brand—a circle with an X through it about the size of a quarter. I wondered what it meant.

His hard scales were covered in a very fine fur, kind of like velvet, which were soft to the touch. But his face was less scaled and more human-like. Laying my palm on his cheek, I ran my thumb over the scar that curled his lips. When I’d first seen him, he’d been a scarred alien that I likened to a monster. A monster I assumed wished me ill like everything on this planet. But now that I’d seen his kindness, my vision of him had changed. I found him almost handsome, with his high cheekbones, full lips, and deep violet eyes. How I wished to see those eyes now. I wanted to apologize again. To tell him I wouldn’t wander away, and to let him see I hadn’t left him. I’d stayed, and I intended on it.

He shifted in his sleep, letting out another sigh, and curled into me, as if seeking physical touch. He was most vulnerable now, asleep, and hurt, and a protective instinct rose in me, similar to how I felt about my friends. Was Kent … a friend? His breath warmed my thigh, and my stomach clenched. Not in a hungry way, but in a way that raised goosebumps on my skin.

No, this was crazy. I couldn’t even understand him. He wasn’t human. But I couldn’t deny his actions up until now had more human empathy than many actual humans I’d met. Hell, more than my own mother. He protected me, was capable as hell, and sometime during the brief time we’d been together… made my stomach fill with butterflies.

As the sun dropped below the horizon, the fire withered to warm embers that did just enough to heat us. I knew I should stay alert, but I was only human, and even though I tried to keep my eyes open, I found myself nodding off until sleep took me under.

Light behind my eyes jolted me awake. I sat up from where I’d been flat on my back on the rock to find Kent still in my lap asleep. The fire had died long ago, leaving only blackened twigs. I rubbed my eyes and reached for the water. After splashing some on my face, I drank a little.

The rest I dribbled in Kent’s mouth, and he swallowed a mouthful before turning into me. I went still, as our positions had somewhat shifted in the night. His shoulders had slipped between my parted legs. His head rested on one thigh while his other arm was curled around my lower back, cradling my torso.

His face was… right there. Right where no one had been since I left Earth, and while nothing was necessarily sexy about this situation, his long exhales warmed my sensitive skin through my very thin layer of panties. The butterflies returned and my stomach clenched again as my mouth went dry.

His arm around my back held me immobile, and the way he smelled… the scent of blood was gone. It was just him now, that musky dirt scent I was now associating with strength and safety.

I gently rested a hand on his head and combed my fingers through the hair at his scalp. This large alien, who didn’t know me, had done nothing but save my life. Even when he’d been slashed by that evil plant, his first reaction was to turn to me and check if I was okay. I could still hear the relieved way he’d said my name, as if he’d done his job in protecting me.

“Please be okay, Kent,” I whispered. “I really want to hear your voice again, even if I don’t know the words.”

I traced the scar on his face, and then peered at his wounds. The one on his back was still angry and it wept slightly. In a moment, I’d have to dislodge myself from his grip and clean it. The good news was the blisters had burst, and new skin seemed to be growing beneath. He’d be scarred, but the healing relieved me.

When my gaze returned to his face after the study of his wounds, my hand hovered above him, as his expression had changed. His face wasn’t creased with the pain of the previous day, but something was happening. His eyeballs worked from behind his eyes, and his nostrils flared as he inhaled deeply.

“Tash,” he murmured. “Nazaru e picato.”

I didn’t know what the last words meant, but his arm around my back tightened, and his nose brushed my inner thigh before coming to rest on the front of my panties. His breath heated the already hot skin, and I sucked in a breath as his lips parted. “Tash,” he said again.

My heart pounded as heat raced over my skin. “Kent,” I whispered.

But he didn’t wake. Instead, his tongue emerged from his parted lips and prodded at my panty-covered pussy. While I’d seen him eat, I hadn’t looked at his tongue, and my breath stilled in my chest when three ball piercings lined down the center of his tongue rubbed along my clit. Clapping my hand over my mouth, I held back a sound. But I didn’t move. Could I have gotten away? Could I have shoved him off my lap and run? Yes, yes, I could have. But when he closed his lips over my wet flesh and sucked, he let out a small moan, like he was tasting chocolate for the first time. I whimpered behind my palm, the sensation too much.

Slowly, his arm holding me to him loosened, and I knew this was my chance to get off this damn rock, or wake him up, but I didn’t move. I didn’t do a damn thing, not as one clawed finger pulled the gusset of my panties aside, and that long tongue lapped one long lick up my wet pussy.

Instead, I braced my hands behind me and spread my legs farther, because I’d been through hell and back and this felt good, so damn good. All thoughts of him having a mate, of our fight for survival, of finding my friends, of really anything fled my mind as I focused on the way this alien, with his eyes now opened to half slits, rolled onto his front and feasted on my pussy like a starving man.

EIGHT

Lukent

She tasted so good, sweet and tart at the same time, and I wondered what I did in this life to deserve a dream like this. I lapped at her cunt, rolling my tongue on a hard nub above her entrance that made her squeal and shake. I listened to her every groan, every mumbled curse, and paid attention to every little muscle movement to know what she enjoyed. Sheathing my claws, I slid two fingers alongside my tongue before plunging them inside her drenched cunt.

She cried out and her legs clamped around my head, narrowly missing my horns. I held on, licking and nipping as she called my name. I worked her, needing for her to find her release. When I curled the balls of my piercings around that sensitive nub, I was finally rewarded with her long shout. Opening my eyes fully, I gazed up to see her with her head thrown back, the long column of her throat exposed, and one gorgeous, pink-tipped nipple visible over the top of her chest band.

Her breasts shook as she came, and her cunt juices coated my tongue. I drank deeply, wanting more, aching to stay between her thighs, in this dream, rather than wake to her wary stare, knowing I’d soon have to hand her off to some other worthy Drixonian male.

Slowly pulling my fingers from inside her heated channel, I licked at her one last time before closing my eyes. Soon, I’d wake. And this dream would be nothing but a fantasy.

The sounds of her panting breaths continued, and I waited to wake. But then more sounds filtered to my ears—the babbling of the qua stream, the rustling of leaves in the breeze, and a dull ache in my back.

I opened my eyes to see a pale human thigh. The smell of her cunt was everywhere—in my mouth, soaked through the cloth underthings she wore. I sucked in a breath and went still. Had I—? Had that not been a dream? Was I… awake?

“Kent?” Came a soft, breathless voice above me. I slowly lifted my head to find her staring down at me with dark liquid eyes and a red flush to her cheeks. Her brown hair was a wavy mass of tangles around her head, and I watched as a bead of sweat dripped down her neck to flow over the tops of her breasts.

I swallowed. It hadn’t been a dream.

I lurched to my feet as a burning pain seared through my back. I let out a gasp as I fell onto my hip in an effort to get away from Tasha.

“Kent!” she cried out, reaching for me. “Your back!”

I scrambled on the stones to place some distance between us, falling two more times as I sought to get to my feet.

“Kent!” She cried again. “Stop!”

Her hands grabbed for me, and I put a palm up to ward her off, as well as bringing my tail in front of me as a barrier. She stopped quickly, her forehead wrinkling in confusion. Wearing nothing but small scraps of fabric to cover her breasts and cunt, she stared at me. “You’re hurt,” she said quietly. “Please don’t be spooked.”

I didn’t know what spooked meant. It took every ounce of my strength not to take off running. I’d touched her without asking. She was likely terrified and let me enjoy her body so I wouldn’t be angered. “Fleck!” I cursed.

She flinched at my shout, and I covered my face, unable to see her, because even now, I wanted her more than anything. My cock ached painfully, and my balls felt full to bursting.

The crunch of rocks made me open my eyes. Tasha stood with her back to me, pulling on clothes that had been drying on a rock. My gaze fell to my arm, where my scales were healing beneath broken blisters. I drew my tail back behind my body and winced as the scales on my back pulled painfully. I remembered now—we’d been attacked by the haru’kan plant. The fruit was delicious, but the plant was so deadly, we rarely tried to harvest it. The stamen had whipped me in the back, and I was lucky I wasn’t dead.

Tasha turned around. The glow of her eyes was gone, her face had returned to its usual pale color, and her jaw was set. She looked more like the Tasha I’d first met—wounded, angry, and mistrustful. “Yes, I took care of you. I’m sorry, because it’s my fault that you were injured. I’ll be more careful in the future.” She crossed her arms over her chest and avoided my eyes. “I cooked some fish for you. You should probably eat.”

I’d betrayed her trust. That much was now evident. I’d vowed never to hurt her, and I’d done just that.

She picked up a wrapped leaf and tossed it at me. I fumbled it before I caught it, and again, without making eye contact, she said, “That’s the fish. You need to eat.”

I wanted to explain to her that I was sorry, that it would never happen again, but even if I spoke her language, I wasn’t sure what good the words would do. I’d show her in my actions she was safe with me. That would never happen again.

I ate dutifully, and noticed she kept glancing at me out of the corner of her eye and rubbing her legs together. Occasionally she’d make this annoyed huff through her nostrils and shake her head. “Men,” she muttered one time almost too softly for me to hear.

When I finished the fish, I wrapped up the last two I didn’t eat and shoved them in my pack. The good news was my bike was parked nearby, which meant the last distance we had to travel to camp would be short. The bad news was that we’d be in close proximity to each other on the seat.

Well, it couldn’t be helped, and if she refused to get on it with me, then we’d walk. Whatever it took to get her to look at me without anger.

Tasha

I wasn’t proud of the way I’d reacted that morning with Kent. He was clearly very conflicted about what he did, and I didn’t know his customs. I had no idea if he had a mate, or what. Was I hurt by how he seemed to regret what had happened and also now avoided me like I had a very contagious disease? Yes, I was hurt. I was human after all.

A few times as we walked, I tried to brush my arm with his, just to see how he’d react, and every time, he jerked away from me like I was going to stab him.

Maybe he’d been imagining I was someone else, and that made me sick to my stomach. I hadn’t pulled away when I had the chance. I had been just as complicit in what we had done as he was. In fact, maybe I was more guilty. He’d seemed to be asleep, and I’d let him do what he did without waking him up.

“Shit,” I whispered to myself. My mind continued to beat me up until we reached the base of a large tree, the trunk as wide as a small bus. The bottom was covered in a layer of vines, which Kent pushed aside to reveal a large hole in the base. He disappeared inside the hole, and I was about to follow him when he emerged pushing a large black object. I stared at it, stunned to realize it was a motorcycle. Well, sort of a motorcycle. There were no wheels, but there was a seat and handlebars, and looked wide enough to seat one Kent-sized alien. He flipped a switch, and the vehicle roared to life before lifting in the air a foot, powered by large round disks on the bottom that expelled air.

“A hover bike?” I asked.

For the first time that day, Kent looked something other than miserable. Not quite happy, but hey, I’d take what I could get. He nodded, his chest puffing out with pride, before he hopped astride the vehicle. Then he leaned down and reached out one giant clawed hand for me.

“We’re both getting on that thing?”

He nodded again.

“I bet it goes fast, huh?”

His lips quirked, and I swore he was trying to smile. So, I grinned back at him. “Okay, let’s do this.” I grasped his hand and he hauled me onto the seat in front of him. Gently clasping my wrists, he showed me where to hold on to the handlebars. With his hands out wider on the grips, he lifted the bike higher into the air. I let out a little whoop as my hair swirled around us, and then we were off, speeding out of the tree line and into an open field.

In the grass below, I spotted a herd of antella running, and I could almost pretend I was on some sort of safari as I ogled the flora and fauna below. The bike was surprisingly smooth, and Kent was a gifted driver, cutting over fields and then weaving in and out of dense forestry. We seemed to be rising in elevation along with the land. The air began to grow a bit cooler, and I couldn’t help but snuggle back into Kent.

He must have noticed, because a moment later, his fur was draped across my shoulders. I snuggled it around me tighter, content that the fur was warmed already from Kent’s body heat, which was back to normal. I worried about the wound on his back, and I hoped when we stopped again, he’d let me look at it. I’d plead with him. It was only for his health after all. I’d keep my pervy hands to myself.

I hoped, wherever we were going, I didn’t have to meet his mate. Or worse, his mom or something. An alien mother-in-law? I shuddered. That would be terrible.

I smelled salt water and campfire musky scents similar to Kent’s. I also smelled what seemed like food, and my salivary glands activated on instinct at the scent. What I didn’t smell was any humans. Maybe this was a type of alien rest stop. It would have places to pee, wash up, and vending machines full of jerky and stale snacks.

The trees became less dense, and then we roared out onto an open rock before careening down a ravine. There, standing tall and holding deadly weapons, were a line of aliens who looked a whole lot like Kent.

One stood slightly in front with a long, broad sword slung to his back. On his shoulders settled a similar fur, and his torso was corded with muscle. He watched us approach, and I realized the moment the gathered aliens spotted me. They broke formation, shifting closer, their mouths moving. I couldn’t make out the sounds over the roar of the bike, but as soon as we touched down and Kent shifted the engine off, they surged forward.

After a bark from Big Sword, they reluctantly moved back into position, but a few didn’t look happy about it, particularly a shorter, stocky alien with wild eyes and a large ring in his septum.

Like Kent, they all had some sort of piercings, mostly in their ears but a few on their nipples, noses, and lips. They all were scarred, wore fur, and stared at me like I was… an alien. Because to them, I was.

So, I stared back, trying my best to remain calm and in control, but when the leader stepped forward, his nubbed brow lowered so far over his eyes in a scowl I could barely see his violet eyes, my instinct had me backing up into Kent’s chest. There, I stopped, heart pounding, as the leader continued to advance. His gaze shifted from me to Kent, and then he barked a few words that didn’t seem to be “welcome,” or “Happy to see you.”

Kent spoke in low, measured tones. I didn’t like the look of the gathered aliens. Their expressions shifted quickly from curiosity to a hostility that sent a bolt of fear skittering down my spine. Was this… not a safe place? Why would Kent bring me here? Goosebumps broke out all over my skin. Kent had been a safe place for me all this time, so if he wasn’t safe…what would I do? Would I run? These guys were twice the size of me and could cut me down with their claws in seconds. They wouldn’t even need these fancy massive weapons.

“Kent, who are these guys?” I whispered. “Are they friends?” I held up my fists. “Do we have to fight?”

Kent shot me a look like I was losing my mind—which was a fair reaction—and spoke a few more words to the leader before gently pulling my hair to the side over my left ear. He turned me slightly to show the leader my translator implant that rested there. One of the aliens turned on his heel and jogged away. I watched him go, and noticed for the first time, that this was some sort of settlement on a cliff, similar to the Wutarks. This cliff didn’t lead into a valley, but rather a large sea. Stairs carved into the side of the cliff face connected ledges of living spaces. A common area with a fire sat on the largest ledge near the top of the cliff, and the alien returned from a small hut there, carrying a gun-like object.

I flinched, until I recognized it for what it was—a translation implant updater. If they were updating my implant, then maybe … maybe they wouldn’t kill me.

He approached me, the one with the nose piercing and crazy eyes, and his lips twisted into a fanged smile. I tried to back up, but there was nowhere to go with Kent’s bulk behind me. Still, I didn’t like the look in this guy’s eye. Was that actually an implant updater? I’d seen a laser gun before, and this wasn’t that—

Kent reached around me and snatched the updater out of Nose Ring’s hand. He barked a few words at him, and I could have sworn Nose Ring pouted. Pouted. But then he held up his palms and backed away a few steps before shooting me another wicked grin. I shuddered.

With a sigh, Kent squeezed my shoulder. He met my eyes, his violet ones shimmering in the sunlight. He said a few words, and I got the feeling he was reassuring me. I nodded, still a little scared, and closed my eyes as he raised the implant updater to my ear.

The pain came a second later, like a nail in my skull, sharp and piercing as the updater worked its evil magic. I hated this thing screwed into my head, but it was connected to my bone. Ripping it out would be nothing short of death.

I went down in a crouch, clutching my head as the pain slowly faded. Dizzy, I didn’t dare stand right away. Opening my eyes a crack made my stomach protest, so I squeezed my eyes shut to focus on breathing and not throwing up.

“Little dramatic, don’t you think?” said a deep voice with a smirk. “It was just an update.”

“Vinz, I swear to Fatas, if you don’t shut up, I’m going to break your jaw,” another deep voice. Not Kent’s.

A hand settled on my shoulder, warm and strong. His scent hit my nostrils next, and then his voice rasped in my ear. “Tasha? Are you okay?”

I blinked my eyes open, and while my stomach churned, I didn’t feel like I was going to lose my breakfast. I stared into Kent’s violet eyes and swallowed. “I-I am okay.”

His hand on my back flexed, and then slowly he drew it away. “Can you understand me?”

“I can,” I whispered.

He let out a slow breath full of relief. “Thank Fatas.”

“Axton, get her some warmer clothes and something to eat.”

I glanced up to see the leader directing orders. A massive alien stepped forward, even bigger than Kent, with two swords strapped to his back. I toppled over as he took a step toward me. “Wait—”

“Lukent, come with me. Our conversation isn’t over.”

Kent hung his head and then rose to his feet. I scrambled to standing and grasped onto his arm as he dared to take a step away from me. “Wait!”

The leader had already begun walking away. He turned and eyed me. “What did you say?”

“What—?” I was hyperventilating. Fear seized my lungs and terror froze the words in my throat. “I wanted…” I swallowed as I looked helplessly at Kent who wouldn’t meet my eyes. The massive warrior took another step, and I threw out my hand. “Stop!”

He stopped so suddenly that his boots connected with a chunk of rock, sending it skipping across the flat, rock ground. The sound echoed around us in the silence before the rock went sailing off the cliff. I didn’t hear the splash below.

“Wait,” I tried again. “Why are you separating me and Kent?”

That must have been the wrong thing to say, because the leader’s eyes swung to Kent with a ferociousness that nearly made me piss myself. “What did you do?” he said in a low tone that promised violence.

I didn’t understand. I was missing something here. Maybe this leader was his brother-in-law or something. In fact, where were all the female aliens?

“I feel safe with him,” I said quickly. “I prefer to stay by his side.”

The leader kept his gaze on Kent for a long time before finally returning to me. “My other warriors—”

“Respectfully, your other warriors are not Kent, who has saved my life twice now,” I said, and by the tenseness in Kent’s body, I got the impression that interrupting the leader was not a wise choice. “I trust him, and I’m sorry to say, but I trust only him. I don’t care if you look like him or not. He’s proven himself to me. No one else has.” The leader looked like he was barely containing his rage. I shifted my weight from foot to foot and added belatedly, “sir.”

The leader’s spine snapped straight. “Did she just curse me?”

Nose Ring—I was pretty sure the leader had called him Vinz, snorted. “Nah that wasn’t a curse. Maybe an insult?”

“It’s a term for someone in a superior position,” I answered quickly.

The leader continued to hold my gaze, clearly not impressed.

“Hey, sir,” Vinz joked, and I had to assume he was certifiably nuts. The tension was so thick, I could barely breathe, and he was acting like this was a day at the park. “I kind of like it. Don’t you?”

“Shut up, Vinz,” the leader growled.

Vinz threw up his hands. “Fine, drexel it is.”

I didn’t move from Kent’s side, and he remained motionless as well, his chin lifted and jutted out. Finally, the leader let out a long sigh and rubbed his head. “Fine. Fleck me. Bring her with you and she can listen when I tear into you.”

He turned around, and I didn’t like the sound of any of that. “Wait,” I pulled on Kent’s arm when he took a step. Whispering feverishly, I asked, “Is he really going to hurt you? We can leave. Your bike is right there. I’m sure we can outrun them—”

Kent patted my hand before dislodging them from his arm. I grimaced when I noticed that my nails had made crescent shape marks in the newly healing scales on his arm. “It’ll be fine,” he said, and I found I liked the way he spoke. I’d always liked his voice, but without understanding the words, I could only focus on the tone. Now, my implant translated his words, and I found they matched his demeanor. “Kutzal has a reason for being angry.”

“I’m the reason?” I squeaked. “I can leave then. Please, Kent, you’re already injured.”

He dipped his head. “Your care is appreciated. And you’re not the reason.” He stopped and squinted. “Well, you kind of are, but not for the reason you think. It’s complicated.”

“But are we safe here?”

He nodded solemnly, “This is one of the safest places for you on this planet. This is the Lone Howl camp, and we are Drixonian warriors.”

NINE

KENT

In hindsight, I shouldn’t have told my drexel, mere rotations after an important meeting about respecting borders, that I’d rescued the human female from the clutches of the main Wutark settlement. I could have left that part out. For at least a little bit.

When Kutzal had directed Axton to take Tasha, I’d felt a momentary flash of pure violence. But I knew it was the right thing to hand her off to someone else. Except my Tasha had chosen me. I had tried not to show how much that meant to me. If Kutzal had any indication that I was attached to her as anything more than a protector and guide, he’d have my head. For good reason.

As we walked toward Kutzal’s hut, Tasha jogged at my side to keep up with our strides. Her head was on a swivel, taking in our camp. I wondered what she thought of it. It was nothing like the village where Daz had settled with his clavas for a while. They lived in the restored city of Granit now, and the mated Drixonians resided in the Hall, the former home of our all-female council members.

None of the huts at our camp were large—they were mainly large enough for one Drixonian warrior—and they were made of stacked mud bricks to withstand the breeze from the churning freshas below. Kutzal’s was a little larger, and when we walked inside, he lit a small lamp and then pointed to a bench. I gestured for Tasha to sit on one end, and she did. When I sat on the other, she frowned at me and then slid closer until our thighs touched. I sucked in a breath and slowly lifted my gaze to Kutzal’s, doing my best to show no reaction.

He watched me closely, and it only got worse when Tasha began to fuss with the healing blisters on my shoulder. “Do you have any medicine for this?” she asked Kutzal. “He was hurt by a plant thing—” she glanced at me. “What was it called?”

“A haru’kan.”

“Yeah, that. And he has a big gash on his back—”

“He’s fine,” Kutzal grunted.

Tasha’s eyes went very big and round. “He’s… what? He’s fine? He passed out for a whole day!” Her outrage was like a steam, filling the tent with a fiery heat.

Kutzal didn’t know how to handle her. None of us had interacted with humans much, but Kutzal the least. He never seemed interested in the human females, instead placing his role as the drexel of the Lone Howl as his top priority. I’d been around a few humans to know many of them were as fiery as her. But none of them had ever been like this on my behalf.

“Human,” he said in a tone that I knew meant he was about ready to toss her out of the tent.

“Tasha,” I said quickly.

His eyes closed briefly, and his jaw ticked before he corrected himself. “Tasha. Are you hurt anywhere?”

She shook her head.

“Then let me be the authority figure on the health of a Drixonian warrior. I can assure you, he is fine, and he will heal. If you hadn’t noticed, he’s been through worse.”

Her hands fisted on her thighs, and I saw she wanted to protest, but instead she let out a huff and her shoulders dropped. At her silence, Kutzal sank down in a chair opposite us. Leaning forward to brace his elbows on his knees, his gaze swung to me. “Did they see you?”

“No,” I answered quickly.

“How do you know?”

“The only one who saw me is now dead at the bottom of the cliff,” I answered.

“That’s true,” Tasha quipped. “I saw it.”

She was trying to be helpful, and I appreciated her confirmation of the events, but Kutzal was reaching his level of tolerance. “Look, human—”

“Tasha,” she said with an exaggerated smile.

His eyes narrowed. “Tasha—”

Axton stepped through the doorway with a fur clutched in one hand and two bowls of stew in the other. He stepped toward Tasha and deposited the fur on her lap before handing her one bowl and me the other. After a nod, he walked out without saying a word.

“So that’s what the smell was,” Tasha said to herself as she stirred the meat chunks in the thick broth.

“Eat,” I said. “Before it gets cold.”

“Is that your way of telling me to stop talking?”

“Yes,” Kutzal grunted.

She glared at him and then spooned some stew into her mouth. As she moaned happily, Kutzal resumed his questioning. “They would see wounds consistent with our machets on the Wutark you killed.”

“I was careful not to inflict those wounds,” I said. “I pushed him off the cliff.”

Kutzel rubbed his forehead with his thick, ringed fingers. The stew smelled incredible, but eating was not on my mind right now. “Are you telling me I made the wrong decision?” I asked carefully, not able to hide the tremors of anger in my voice.

Tasha, sensing my mood, went very still.

Kutzal lifted his head and shook his head wearily. “You know I’m not. But the timing could not be worse, you realize that, right? Our relationship with Dazeem has improved greatly, and I worry about how he’ll take this.”

I gritted my teeth. “We are Lone Howls and don’t have much honor, but we still have She is All.”

“I know,” he waved a hand and leaned back in his chair. His gaze shifted to Tasha, who had continued eating, but watched us both warily. “You seem to have done a good job. She’s unharmed and trusts you.”

The bowl of stew in my hand tipped, and some of the hot liquid splashed on the floor before I righted it. In order to avoid Kutzal’s eyes, I began to eat quickly.

Tasha scraped her bowl and sipped the last of her stew. “Thank you for the food. That was delicious. Am I allowed to ask a question now?”

Kutzal gestured with a tired hand for her to go on.

She placed her empty bowl on the bench beside her and leaned forward. “Are there other humans here?” Kutzal went still, and she glanced at me nervously before continuing. “It’s just that Kent understood my language, so I assumed he’d met humans before…”

“There are no humans here,” Kutzal said.

“But I thought…” Her lower lip trembled, and she sucked it between her teeth, biting hard, before releasing it. Her eyes shifted to me, and I could see the beginnings of anger swirling there. “I thought you were taking me to them.”

“We will be taking you there,” Kutzal answered for me. “They are at Granit, the main Drixonian city here on Corin.”

“They’re there now?” Her voice pitched higher in excitement, and she leaned forward. “Are they hurt? How did you rescue them?”

It was Kutzal’s turn to frown. “They’re uninjured, of course. Their mates would never allow them to come to harm.”

She went still and blinked. “I’m sorry, mates?” Her breath shuddered out. “Did you force them to mate?”

Kutzal’s back straightened and his chest puffed out in indignation. “Forced? Never. They chose their mates, and are happy with their families—”

“Wait.” She waved a hand in the air and shook her head as her forehead wrinkled. “Wait a minute. Mates? Families? That’s not possible. I just saw my friends less than seven days ago, I think.”

“Your friends?” I spoke up. “What do you mean? The humans on Granit were rescued several cycles ago.”

“Cycles?”

“This planet’s rotation around the sun.”

“Several years ago?” she squeaked, her eyes round. “So, wait, these are different humans than—” her breathing sped up and she spun in her seat to clutch my arm. “Kent, listen to me. The Wutarks took me while I was with other women.” I held up the marble pouch and rattled it. “That was our camp they burned. There were six of us, including me. They weren’t taken to the Wutark settlement where I was, but they are out there. Five more humans. And we have to find them. I thought…” she shook her head as her eyes grew glassy. “I thought, or at least I hoped, those were the woman you meant. I—shit,” she whispered, looking at the ceiling of the hut and blinking her eyes rapidly. “We have to find them.”

I met Kutzal’s eyes, and he nodded as he stood. “I’ll contact Daz right away.”

“You’ll what?” Her voice shook as she rose to her feet and took a step toward my drexel. “Who is Daz? What’s going on?”

Kutzal turned to open his mouth, but this was a question I wanted to answer. I stood next to her and wrapped my fingers around her small wrist. She glanced down at where I held her before looking up at me helplessly. I could see it in her eyes—she was waiting for me to disappoint her.

“We are Drixonian warriors,” I explained. “And we live by the creed She is All. Females are to be protected at all costs, and that includes humans. This camp is only a small portion of the remaining living warriors. Daz is the leader of us all, and as soon as he finds out that other human females—females like his mate—are here on this planet unprotected, he will find a way to rescue them.”

As I spoke, her mouth went slack, and when I finished, she stared at me for a long while before whispering in a voice full of restrained hope. “Really?”

“Yes,” I answered.

“Really?” she looked to Kutzal for confirmation.

He nodded solemnly.

“But what about now? The longer we wait—”

“We have to be smart about this,” Kutzal said. “One wrong move and we put the entire Drixonian race at risk by starting a war with the Wutarks.” He leaned forward. “You have to understand that we just reached an agreement with the Wutarks to respect each other’s boundaries. If they find out we entered their territory uninvited and stole one of their captures, they would not hesitate to seek revenge. The last thing we want is another war.”

Her gaze dropped to her feet where she studied the ground while chewing her lip. “I see.”

“Daz will organize a team of trackers,” Kutzal continued. “If they are alive, we will find them. We will take you to Granit, where you can meet the other humans and tell Daz everything you know.”

“That is how you help your friends,” I added.

Swaying on her feet, she took a wobbly step back and sank down onto the bench. She stared out of the tent’s doorway blankly and murmured, “Okay. I guess this will have to do.”

A young warrior named Trapt appeared in the doorway, and his eyes locked on Tasha. “Um…”

“What?” Kutzal barked.

Trapt gaze swung to him. “H-her hut is ready, drexel.”

“Lead the way,” Kutzal gestured.

I pulled Tasha to her feet, but she was still a little shell-shocked and stumbled a few times. As we left the hut, she leaned into me, giving me her weight, trusting me to hold her up when I could tell she wanted to do nothing but fall. I hadn’t realized that this whole time, she thought I was taking her to her friends. She must have been worried about them, and to arrive here and still not know if they were okay…

I glanced down at her, and she seemed to be trying to collect herself. By the time we began to descend the stairs to the living platforms, she had gained control of her balance, and soon she walked unaided beside me. I still stayed close. The sun had almost set, and the dark shadows made it difficult to see.

Trapt kept glancing back, and I realized he’d likely only seen a female from a distance. He hadn’t seen much battle action as one of the youngest living warriors, but he was an excellent tracker and was very gifted at cooking. He’d probably made the stew we just enjoyed.

We got her settled into a hut of her own. Her expression still remained slightly shell-shocked, and I ached to sit with her alone now that we could finally communicate, but Kutzal beckoned me, and the only thing I could do was meet her eyes and give her a brief nod.

“Vinz will treat your back by the fire.” Kutzal ordered as we walked back toward the cliff top. “I’ll join you soon.”

So, I found myself sitting at the fire while Vinz tended to my back. He chewed loudly on the herbs concoction to moisten it, and when he placed the poultice on the gash in my back, he wasn’t gentle about it. I punched him on the arm with a glare. “Being gentle won’t kill you.”

“It won’t, but Kutzal might.”

I dropped my head in my hands, grunting when Vinz pressed on the wound again to pack it. “I can handle it.”

“Handle what? The human? The way you look at her like you want to devour her? The way you almost started a war? What can you handle, Lukent? How I see it, you’re acting a lot like me.” He grinned. “I’m proud of you.”

I glowered at him. “That’s not a compliment.”

“Not meant to be.” He slapped me on the back and then scooted away on the log. “You’re all done. Should be healed by sunup.”

“Thank you.”

He took a sip of spirits given to us by one of Daz’s warriors, Xavy. Leaning closer, his voice dropped. “So, tell me about her.”

“No.”

“Come on. You got to be around humans more than me. Kutzal barely lets me be around the other Drixonians, let alone their human mates.”

“That’s because one of the females called you creepy.”

He wrinkled his nose in a snarl. “They said don’t touch, not don’t look.”

I’d known Vinz as long as I’d known Kutzal. Outsiders like us stuck together, and he’d always been like this. Sometimes I swore he was looking to get killed. Whenever we got in trouble when we were younger, Vinz took the fall. Each and every flecking time. No matter how we tried to protect him, he refused to let any of us receive punishment. The Uldani hadn’t been kind to him either, because he’d been way too mouthy and insubordinate. Sometimes they shocked him with their metal rods until he passed out. When they dragged him away, we often didn’t see him for many, many rotations. As the Outsiders, we thought we had to take it, and it wasn’t until we realized how badly they were treating all Drixonians that we helped join the Uprising. And to this day, I believed I only knew half of what they did to Vinz every time they locked him up.

“Don’t scare Tash while she’s here, Vinz. I mean it.”

“Tash, huh?” Kutzal sank down on a log next to us with narrowed eyes. “I thought her name was Tasha. And I thought your name was Lukent, but she has a nice nickname for you.” His tone was withering, and I told myself to remain calm.

“It was all she could manage given the language barrier,” I grunted. “Did you speak to Daz?”

The communications on Corin were still spotty. On Torin, the Uldani had shut down most of our tech to communicate, and we were in the process of getting the signals up and running here on Corin. “I was able to briefly,” Kutzal said. “He told us to get her to Granit as soon as possible.”

I nodded. “We can leave in the morning.”

“No,” Kutzal shook his head.

“No? But Vinz said I’ll heal—”

“She leaves in the morning, but not with you.” Kutzal stared into the fire.

My cora pounded. “What did you say?”

Kutzal finally swung his gaze to me, and his violet eyes glittered dangerously. “Axton will take her.”

Vinz let out a low whistle, and I ignored him. “But she trusts me. She’s comfortable with me—”

“Did something happen?” Kutzal’s voice was low. Tense.

I stared back at him. “Like what?”

A muscle in his jaw ticked. “The humans are not for you. They are not for me. They are not for any of us here. You understand that right, Lukent?’

Using my name in that threatening tone was like plunging a shard of ice in my ear. Next to me, Vinz shifted uncomfortable and kept his mouth shut for once.

I forced myself to remain calm. “I understand that.”

“She needs to become less attached to you. By the time she arrives in Granit, you will be just another Drixonian face who she knows will protect her.”

The rage in my belly grew teeth, gnawing at my insides. “Is this some sort of punishment?”

“Is it a punishment to get some time to rest and heal? Is it punishment to not have to risk your life to take a human to Granit?”

I hated the way Kutzal was feeling me out, but he had every reason to. I just didn’t want to admit it. Deep in my sola, I knew he was my ally, that he was looking out for me, but in that moment all I wanted to do was make him out to be the enemy. I didn’t have anyone else to be angry with, other than myself.

“No, drexel.” I spoke through clenched teeth.

“Axton will collect her in the morning. You will be hunting for game then.”

That was the final dagger in the gut. He wasn’t going to let me say goodbye, and he wasn’t going to give her the opportunity to make a scene and cling to me like she’d done earlier today.

“This is cruel,” I whispered, for the first time admitting what Kutzal had sniffed out.

His eyes closed, and he bowed his head. “This is a good life. Better than we could have ever hoped. And I’m determined to be content with that.” He lifted his head and met my gaze steadily. In a rare moment, I saw compassion in his eyes. Maybe a little wistfulness too. “Please be content too, Lukent.”

Kutzal had saved my life countless times, just as I’d saved his. The peace we had now was the only we’d had in our lifetime. I couldn’t fleck it up for him. For Vinz and Axton. For the young warriors like Trapt who carried the same brand I did on the back of our necks. I had done my duty and gotten Tasha this far. Axton would handle the rest. She would be safe, and that had to be my priority. Not personal glory or desires.

Swallowing around my dry throat, I nodded and spoke one of the only lies of my life. “I’m content.”

TEN

TASHA

I awoke to pitch black. For a moment, I panicked, not remembering where I was. It had been a whirlwind the last few days. And then I remembered. Kent and two of his fellow warriors—Drixonians they called themselves—had put me to bed like a child. I’d resented it, and then I’d stewed for probably one minute before fatigue took me under.

Now, despite the warm fur draped over me, I was cold. There was no warm body next to mine. I’d grown so used to gravitating toward Kent’s body heat. Except, as I shivered in the dark, I realized it wasn’t just his heat I missed. He was safety to me. A capable force that could hunt, survive deadly plants, and save baby rhinophants all in the same day.

An empty hole in my gut reminded me that my friends were not here. They weren’t somewhere called Granit. I had no idea where they were. I suspected part of me thought it was too good to be true to be rescued and taken to all my friends where we’d have a lovely little reunion. Still, hope was a hard fire to put out, and it had raged in my heart this whole time. It was still there, just merely an ember. The task of finding my friends would be challenging as hell, but I had to believe the Drixonians would help me. I was eager to meet these other humans they spoke of.

I smelled a campfire, and among the many musky scents, I could pick out Kent’s. Since we’d arrived here, the atmosphere between us had changed. He acted stiffly around the leader of this clan. And now that I knew exactly what he’d risked saving me, it was clear to me that this entire situation was so much bigger than just the two of us.

Near the bed pallet was a wooden cup of water. I downed it and then wrapped the fur cape around my shoulders. After clasping it to my chin, I ventured out of the hut. The ends dragged on the ground, so I picked up the cape ends like a skirt and ascended the stairs to the top of the cliff. The moon offered a little bit of light, but I still went very carefully as not to fall.

There, I found a campfire with one lone figure sitting in front of it, his back to me. From the smell of him, I knew who he was. As I drew closer, I let the cape ends fall to the ground, where they dragged on the rocks.

He whirled around and his violet eyes glowed in the near darkness. I lifted a hand in a wave. “Hello.” I felt almost nervous. This was the first time we were alone since we could communicate properly.

“What are you doing?” He seemed slightly anxious too, and his eyes darted to take in our surroundings. When he found we were alone, he relaxed slightly, and his gaze returned to mine. With his head cocked, he scanned my body. “Are you all right?”

He always worried about me. “I’m all right. I just woke up and was cold.”

“Cold?”

I stepped over the log he sat on and sank down next to him, scooting closer until I was plastered against his side. Leaning against his arm, I sighed. “I missed your big warm body.”

He held himself stiff, and I tilted my head back to see his face. He sat staring into the fire, his jaw clenched. I patted his hand. “What’s wrong?”

He blinked and cast a quick glance at me. “Are you warmer now?”

“You answered my question with a question.”

He didn’t respond and I rolled my eyes before resting my head back on his arm. “Between you and this fire, I’m warm now.”

“How did you know I was here?”

“I could smell you.”

He snorted, and I knew he didn’t believe me. He had no reason to. One day, I’d explain, but I wasn’t in the mood to relive the trauma right now.

“Thank you,” I said softly. “I hadn’t realized all you risked saving me from the Wutarks.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” he said. “I would have made that decision every time. In every life.”

Those words weren’t a funny quip. He meant them. I peered up at him, but his gaze remained on the fire. “And in every life, I’m glad it was you who rescued me.”

He swallowed, and his ears twitched, but he didn’t respond or look at me. I decided to change the subject. I had so many questions, and I wasn’t sure where to start. “So, what do Drixonian women look like? Are they at Granit too?” He inhaled sharply, and his muscles tensed. This time felt different, so I straightened to face him with my one knee bent on the log. “Kent?”

He swallowed. “There are no more Drixonian women.”

That was not the response I expected. “I’m sorry?”

“Shortly after I was born, a few hundred cycles ago, a virus killed all our women and most of our elderly men.”

“A virus?” I whispered. “Oh Kent, I’m so sorry.”

“We struggled for many cycles, fought a war, and only now are focusing on rebuilding our society. We didn’t think we had a chance, but then we rescued some human women who were abducted and brought to this galaxy from Earth. We rescued them before they could be sold to the Uldani.”

I sucked in a breath at hearing the name of my old enemy. Jealousy and injustice made me curl my hands into fists. Why hadn’t my friends and I been rescued by these aliens before falling into the Uldani clutches? But then I was glad that at least some human women hadn’t had to go through what we had. “And these women… are they healthy? Happy?”

He nodded. “They have mates and many have chits. Gar and Naomi had twins.”

I had to be sure. “And this was their choice? If they hadn’t wanted to mate, they weren’t forced… right?”

He shook his head vehemently. “Never. You’ll meet them soon. They can tell you.”

“Right,” I murmured. “And so, I won’t be forced to have a mate, right?”

A vein in his neck bulged. “No.” He swallowed and spoke again in a gravelly voice. “But it is likely you’ll find a Drixonian you wish to take as your mate.”

For some reason, his last sentence bothered me. Was that his way of letting me down? Or was this his hint that I would have to make the first move? There would be time for that. For now, I just wanted to enjoy his presence by the fire. “I’m sorry about what happened to your women.”

“It was a long time ago.”

“Did you have a sister?”

He shook his head. “No, but my mother was one of the first to die from the virus. She died before we realized how severe it was.”

“I’m so sorry.” I knew what it was like to lose someone so close.

Instead of answering, he patted my hand where it rested on my thigh. I stared at his long fingers, tipped with the black claws. “When you said you fought a war… who was it with?”

“The Uldani. We learned later they started the virus to crumble our society, and then they forced us into subservience under the guise of helping us rebuild. We hadn’t realized how badly we were treated until it was almost too late. We rose up, fought for our independence, and lived on Torin for about fifty cycles. It wasn’t until the women arrived that we realized the Uldani would not stop taking advantage of others. We fought them, installed new leaders, and formed a truce. After that, we finally returned home to Corin.”

The final war must have been after my friends and I escaped. I would have longed to see the Uldani city walls fall. I was surprised I hadn’t learned of the Drixonians, but then it wasn’t like I had much of a social life as a lab rat. I was now gladder than ever that I hadn’t blurted out earlier why I could, in fact, smell him. Would these Drixonians accept me knowing that the Uldani had tainted me? I could easily hide what they’d done to me. But not Trix or Lu. I was now grateful I hadn’t said a word about my alter in case the Drixonians decided they wouldn’t rescue tainted human women. Still, at least I knew now the Uldani weren’t poking at any other humans.

“I’m glad you won.” I spun my brother’s ring on my finger.

Kent plucked at it with a claw. “This is the only ring you wear. Why is that?”

“My brother died while I was still on Earth. And this is his ring.”

“I’m sorry about your brother. Did he die a warrior?”

My throat closed up, and I gazed up at him. He asked the question so innocently, not knowing anything about Earth society, and certainly not knowing how my brother died. Tears pricked my eyes, and I felt my chin wobble as I answered honestly. “Yes. He saved others.”

He nodded very matter-of-factly. “Then that is honorable.”

“Very,” I whispered around the lump in my throat.

“He would be proud, because you are a warrior too.” Kent poked the fire as I sat still beside him.

“What?” I rasped.

“When I first saw you, you were facing certain death, and you were fighting. You fought me. One of your first thoughts once you realized that I could understand you was your friends.”

I shook my head. “You don’t understand. They were taken because of me.”

“How so?”

My lips flattened. “We should have left camp that night. We suspected someone was around.”

He snorted. “You couldn’t have known. If the Wutarks wanted you, they would have gotten you no matter what.”

He didn’t understand. It was my fault. I was the leader. The decision maker. And I’d made the wrong choice.

His claw pushed a lock of hair behind my ear. “You are a warrior, too, Tasha.”

The touch surprised me. He might had tied us together for over a day, but he didn’t reach for me. Ever. “Kent,” I whispered. “I—”

“Keep fighting.” He didn’t look at me. His sat hunched over with his hands clasped between his knees. “Always fight. Always look out for your fellow humans. You will be welcomed in Granit like the warrior you are.”

I clutched the fur cape at my shoulders, feeling like there was an undercurrent to this situation I wasn’t getting. “You really think that about me? I’m a burden. I nearly killed you—”

“You were never a burden,” he said sharply. His eyes swung to me. “And don’t let anyone make you feel like you are.”

I let out a sob that I couldn’t hold back. “My brother would have liked you.”

His lips curled, and for the first time, Kent graced me with a smile. It wasn’t straight because of his scar, and a fang poked out wickedly, but it was a smile, and it changed the entire shape of his eyes.

With one hand, he reached out and hooked a stray lock of hair behind my ear. “It would have been an honor to meet your warrior brother.”

A few tears fell, but the sight of his smile was enough to keep most of them at bay. I slid closer and once again laid my head on his arm. “Can I sleep here?”

“You can. When the fire dies, I’ll carry you back to your hut.”

I yawned and closed my eyes as the warmth took me back under. For the first time, I began to feel hopeful about my life on this planet. Maybe, just maybe, once I found my friends, we could focus on living and not just surviving.

I stood fidgeting next to Trapt, a young warrior who was kind but also stared a lot. Even now he stood beside me, trying to remain stoic with his hands locked behind his back, but his violet eyes kept shifting to me before darting away.

When I woke, I’d been alone in my hut. So as Kent had said, he must have carried me to my hut after I fell asleep by the fire. When I’d ventured out of my hut to find him, I’d been intercepted by Trapt, who provided me with a hearty breakfast of some hard bread, cheese, and a thick cut of salted, cured meat that resembled bacon enough for me to pretend it was.

Then he’d led me to a room with a cleanser which I hadn’t seen since I left the Uldani. Standing beneath it, I’d reveled in the purified air stripping me of dirt and oil. It never ceased to amaze me that I could get so clean without soap and water.

I’d also been given a fresh pair of clothes that had been quickly sewn to my size, based on the crooked seams, but I wasn’t complaining.

The pants were a thick canvas-like material, and the shirt a soft cotton that seemed to form to my body. And the best part was, I still had the fur cape in a thick striped pattern. I ran my fingers through the soft, thick pelt. I had asked Trapt what animal had supplied it, and he’d answered by baring his fangs and saying, salibri.

Well, whatever a salibri was, I thanked the animal for its sacrifice.

“Where’s Kent?” I asked Trapt. All he’d told me so far was that I was to leave for Granit that morning. He’d given me a small pack with supplies, which I’d slung over my shoulder.

Kent was probably in some sort of strategy meeting, I assumed, but I was starting to get restless now. Trapt didn’t answer my question, and I twisted at the waist to look up at his face. “Hello?”

His gaze shifted frantically, and he cleared his throat. Suddenly, his hand went up and he pointed with one claw in the distance. I straightened to see Kutzal walking toward me with the big warrior they’d called Axton who wore two large swords strapped to his back. He also had a pack slung over his shoulder, and the sight of it made me sweat.

“Trapt,” I said again. He flinched when I spoke his name. “Where. Is. Kent?”

But he still didn’t answer, and when Kutzal approached, he made a gesture to Trapt that had him racing away, leaving me alone with the two large warriors.

“Where’s Kent?” I demanded again, like that was the only sentence my tongue could form.

“Axton will be taking you to Granit,” Kutzal announced.

My heart pounded, and for a moment I battled a bout of lightheadedness. I had to have heard him wrong. “I’m sorry?”

“Axton is more than capable—”

“So is Kent,” I said through gritted teeth. I tried to remain calm and respectful, but panic had seized my limbs. I didn’t know this Axton. Or Kutzal. What had they done with Kent? “Where is he?”

“First of all, his name is Lukent.” Kutzal’s voice held a hint of contempt that had me reeling back a step. I didn’t like this entire situation. It reeked of dismissiveness.

“Okay,” I held my ground. “Where is Lukent? I want to talk to him.”

“He’s busy on a hunt.”

“Wait,” I waved a hand in the air. “Are you telling me he isn’t here? I can’t talk to him at all?”

“He’s gone on a hunt and won’t be back for several rotations.”

The breath rushed from my lungs as I fought to keep myself under control. But the rug felt pulled out from under my feet. In only a few days, I’d grown to trust Kent, and only Kent. I didn’t know these aliens. They hadn’t proven themselves to me. And if I knew anything on this planet, it was to treat all species as individuals. There were good and bad apples everywhere.

“Does Kent know about this?”

“He was involved in the decision, and he agreed it’s best for Axton to take you to Granit.”

Well, that was like a punch in the gut. I looked around helplessly as I fought to keep breathing. “But—”

“Kent was injured rescuing you, but still did his duty to bring you to safety. Don’t you think he deserves to be relieved of the burden of transporting you?”

I clenched my clammy palms and swallowed around the lump in my throat. Kent had told me I wasn’t a burden. Had he lied to me? I had no response to Kutzal’s words, and instead could only stand there staring sightlessly at the two warriors in front of me. I remembered what Kutzal and Kent had both said, that they’d risked a lot to rescue me. I didn’t have the authority here.

You’re a warrior, Kent had said to me. And despite my absolute devastation, I had to buck up and act like one. Rescuing my friends was my top priority, and that meant getting to this Granit place come hell or high water.

So, I had to follow Kutzal’s plan. That didn’t stop my heart from bleeding out in my chest. I hadn’t even been able to say goodbye. Not to my brother, not Kent.

Spirit broken, I whispered, “Yes, he deserves to be relieved.”

Axton gazed at me emotionlessly, and I wished for the expressive eyes of Kent, his crooked grin, and deep raspy voice. The shards of my heart poked at my ribs. That time I’d spent with Kent last night… he’d known then, hadn’t he? Why hadn’t he said goodbye?

“It’s important you leave now in order to report to Daz the details about your friends’ abduction.” Kutzal spoke in a slightly softer voice. I met his gaze. Behind the purple shards, there was some warmth there, but as soon as the heat flickered, it was gone, replaced with the stoic leader mask.

“Right,” I murmured as I bit the inside of my cheek to ground myself. That was my purpose now—rescuing my friends. Being a warrior didn’t involve mooning over an alien I’d developed feelings for. Because that was the truth. I had to acknowledge that I’d begun to view him not as an alien but as a complete whole soul. A teammate. A partner. Maybe even, in my most delusional dreams, a lover.

Losing him felt a bit like losing an arm, but I’d metaphorically lost a limb before when my brother died. I’d grow a new one. I’d done it plenty in this lifetime.

I swallowed and nodded. “Okay, let’s go.”

An expression passed over Kutzal’s face in a blink, and while I wished I could have studied it longer, I could have sworn it was a little bit of surprise and respect. He straightened. “Axton is our most skilled fighter and will protect you with his life. Daz, his mate, and the rest of the Night Kings clavas know you are on your way. The human females there are eagerly waiting for your arrival.”

See? There were bigger things than my broken heart over Kent. Still, I had one request. “Can you tell Kent—Lukent—one thing for me?”

Kutzal’s jaw tightened, but he granted me one nod of his chin.

I forced a small smile despite my sorrow. “Tell him thank you for all he did for me, and that whenever I feel like giving up, that he’s my motivation to remain a warrior.”

Kutzal let out a ragged breath, and shifted his feet, glancing down briefly before lifting his head. His gaze met mine. “I’ll tell him.”

I felt my throat closing, and the beginning of tears prick my eyes. I had to get out of here. It still smelled like Kent, and I couldn’t stop looking at the spot on the log near the campfire where Kent and I had spent time last night. Also? Fuck Kutzal’s correction. He would also be Kent to me.

Axton’s bike was larger than Kent’s, mainly because the warrior himself was huge. I sat in front of him, holding onto the thick handlebar, as he sped above the ground. He stayed relatively low, while Kent had flown higher, and I wondered if that was due to his bulk. I wasn’t fat-shaming him. The dude was clearly healthy as an ox, just big boned. Giant-boned. One of the bones in his finger might have been the size of my femur.

The farther we rode from the cliff camp, the worse I felt. I had made a decision back there, but every bit of ground we covered felt wrong. I now lacked confidence in my decision-making skills. Something was pulling me back. Kent was constantly on my mind, and I swore I could smell him numerous times, which fucked with my head.

We stopped mid-day for a meal, and my ass was happy to get a break from riding astride the bike. While the hover bike was relatively smooth, my legs ached from holding onto the seat, which was way too wide for me.

The temperature here was warmer and the ground flatter. A stream flowed nearby, and Axton splashed his face and bare chest with the water before laying out some food for us. He hadn’t talked once since we’d left, and the silence was starting to get to me.

“So, are you friends with Kent?” I cringed as soon as the words were out of my mouth. That was the first question I asked? Of course, it was about Kent. For fuck’s sake, Tasha.

Crouched on the balls of his feet, he paused mid-bite, and his purple eyes, which seemed to be forever narrowed, lifted to me. Slowly, he began chewing again and then gave me one nod. That was it. Just a nod.

Okay, so maybe I had to go with a question that didn’t have a yes or no answer. “How do you have cheese, by the way? And meat? I didn’t see any farm animals.”

He heaved a sigh, like it was a chore to speak words. “We get supplies from Granit for the cheese. The meat we hunt ourselves.”

“Oh right, Kent is on a hunt.” I blurted out.

Once again, his narrowed eyes came to me. Rocking back on his heels, he dropped the rest of the meat onto his leaf plate and wiped his hands. “Do you desire Lukent as your mate?”

That was not the question I expected. My mouth dropped open, and I stared at him. “M-mate?”

“You cannot mate him.” He shook his head and resumed eating.

It wasn’t even like I was eager to have a mate, but I was also a stubborn woman who didn’t like when someone told me I couldn’t do something. “Why not?”

“You cannot mate any of us in Lone Howl,” was his abrupt answer with zero eye contact.

“Why not?” I nearly screeched.

He gestured around us with his long, thick fingers. “We are outcasts. Nothing about us can be carried into future generations. You will meet more Drixonians at Granit.”

I didn’t understand this outcast thing, and I also didn’t fucking care. Hell, I was a human outcast now, forever changed and fucked up thanks to the Uldani. I firmed my jaw. “But they aren’t Kent.” It wasn’t just about his protection of me, it was about how he did it. With his calm demeanor and his constant steady presence. He’d climbed a muddy hill with me on his back to rescue a stranded animal.

Once again, my words stilled Axton’s movements, and his gaze returned to me. There, he studied my face unashamedly. Finally, he said in a soft voice, “No, no they are not.”

And then, drifting on the breeze, came a familiar scent. I lifted my nose in the air and inhaled deeply. It wasn’t my imagination. Kent was nearby, and with his scent also came a whiff of blood.

Not thinking of the consequences, fueled only by the thought of a Kent alone and bleeding, I took off at a run. Axton let out a roar and gave chase. But he made one fatal error—he got on his bike.

I’d been on the run from the Uldani for years. I wasn’t as fast as Axton—on foot or on his bike—but I was agile and knew how to hide. I had a slight head start and I used it to my advantage, disappearing in the denser tree line on my way toward Kent’s scent. I heard Axton’s bike behind me, and I knew he’d find me eventually—the Drixonians had boasted what good trackers they were, but I didn’t care about that. I just had to reach Kent.

The scent drew stronger, making me dizzy, and I burst out into a small clearing before skidding to a halt. There, bent over a bleeding carcass, nary an injury on him, was Kent. He was motionless, knife poised over the furry body, eyes wide. I must have mixed up my blood scents in my surprise, because here it was clear to see—the blood was the game he’d just killed; Kent was clean.

He blinked, still frozen in place. “Tasha, what—where is Axton?”

All the sorrow, heartbreak, and concern I felt that morning dissipated, and what replaced it was pure anger. Here he was, not held back with chains from getting to me, but was doing exactly what Kutzal had said—on a hunting expedition, happy as a clam, and the first thing he says after I race to him is to ask where Axton is?

I heaved a deep breath, picked up a rock near me, and heaved it at Kent with all my might. “You asshole!”

Kent easily dodged the rock, which probably would have pinged off his scales like a pebble anyway and rose swiftly to his feet. “Tash—”

“Don’t Tash me.” Spitting mad, heart cracking in my chest, I turned on a heel, intent to run back to Axton before I embarrassed myself and broke down in front of him. But blinded by tears and anger, I took off in the wrong direction. When I emerged from the dense trees, I suddenly found myself in a field of yellow flowers. In front of me rose a large rocky cliff, and from the cracks grew sprouted grasses, moss, and wildflowers. The beauty took my breath away, and I swiped at my eyes to get a better look.

A hand settled on my arm and spun me around. I looked up into the face of Kent. The fucker wasn’t even breathing hard. “Explain the reason for your anger.”

Anger roared to life in my gut. “Explain the reason—You don’t know why I’m angry?” Disbelief pitched my voice to a shriek. I stabbed a finger at his chest, ready to unleash. “I trusted you. You are the only non-human I have trusted since I got to this damn galaxy. And I thought…” I shook my head. “I thought I meant to you what you meant to me. This morning, I felt abandoned.” Heat flooded my face, and I looked away. I couldn’t believe I was admitting this to him. Why hadn’t I just stayed put with Axton? This was mortifying.

“You don’t know what you mean to me?”

His voice was deadly quiet, and I risked a glance up at him to find that my normally placid and controlled Kent had morphed into an intense threat.

Stunned at the purple storm in his eyes, I took a step back. He took a step forward to close the gap. We did that dance until my back hit the cliff wall behind me and I had nowhere else to go. My bravado faded as Kent slapped a palm over my head with a smack. Again, he spoke in that deceptive calm tone. “You think you don’t mean anything to me?”

I tried to recall the courage I’d felt when I’d confronted him. Swallowing, I forced out a few words. “Was I just a duty to you?”

His body trembled, and I winced when his nails scraped the rock wall as he curled his fingers in a fist. Nostrils flaring, he bared his teeth. “Everyone sees it but you.”

I bit my lip. “Kutzal said—”

“Fleck Kutzal. He saw it the moment we arrived. So did Vinz, so did Axton. Everyone saw it but you, and that’s the reason Kutzal forbade me to take you to Granit. Why he banned me from camp this morning so I didn’t take you and flee.”

I was missing something. Head spinning, dizzy with his scent and words, I shook my head. “I don’t—”

“You want to know what you mean to me?” I sucked in a breath and met his heated gaze. “I can’t control myself around you. Your scent makes me crazy. All I think about is if you’re safe. All I want is to watch you smile and be the reason you’re happy.” He stepped closer, and that was when I felt the bulge in his pants, pressing like a brand against my stomach. “I already lost myself once in you, and not a moment goes by where I don’t still taste you lingering on my tongue. I crave you, Tasha. I crave your moans, your cries, and the way your cunt squeezed my fingers.” His cock pulsed against me, and my knees went weak as his voice deepened to a rumbling growl. “Is that what you want to hear? About how badly I want to ruin you for anyone but me?”

ELEVEN

KENT

I’d gone insane. That was the only explanation for talking to Tasha the way I did. Her scent invaded my nostrils, shooting straight to my brain like an arrow.

All morning I’d tortured myself. Instead of staying within the confines of my normal hunting grounds, I’d followed the path Axton and Tasha would take, remaining a fair distance behind, but unable to help myself. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Axton. It was that I couldn’t seem to keep myself from following Tasha. My life had been reduced to wanting nothing but to serve her.

Now she stood in front of me, chest heaving, a bead of sweat dripping down her slender neck. In a moment she’d slap me. Run. Scream. All things she should be doing instead of standing there staring at me, smelling like a flecking temptation.

She swallowed, and I watched her throat bob. “Why did you act like nothing happened beside the stream that day?”

My gaze darted to hers. That wasn’t a question I had expected. “Because I touched you without permission.”

“I could have said no.” Her tone was soft. “I could have pushed you away. I felt safe enough with you to turn you away, but I didn’t say no for a reason.”

My cora pounded, because the words she spoke ignited an ember of hope that could be very dangerous. I was a moment away from doing something Kutzal would nearly kill me for. “Tell me no now, Tasha.” My voice shook as my body fought with itself. “You can feel how badly I want to touch you. Push me away.”

She reached up with a shaking hand and unclasped the fur cape at the base of her neck. “Yes,” she whispered.

My cock strained in my pants, and my balls felt full to bursting. I pounded the rock wall with my fist. “Say no.”

She inhaled sharply, and then with a quick sweep of her hands, tore off her shirt to reveal her bare flesh with only a thin band wrapped around her breasts. From beneath the fabric, her nipples pebbled. My mouth watered as I remembered the sight of the pink buds that nearly begged to be sucked.

“Tasha—”

“Why can’t we do this?” With a flick of her thumb, she released the clasp on her pants to reveal a tantalizing strip of skin. Her scent of arousal reached my nose, and I swallowed. “You have no mate, right?”

I shook my head, words now failing me as she reached for my free hand that hung motionless at my side.

“I’ve been denied anything resembling pleasure for a long time.” Her eyes were wide and glassy as she drew my hand toward her. “Has it been that way for you?”

I didn’t even know what pleasure meant. I’d never had a release in my life, and I resigned myself to never smelling, feeling, or touching a female. My hand brushed smooth skin, and my gaze dropped to where she placed my palm between her legs. My fingers cupped the heat there.

“You promised to ruin me.” Her eyes held mine. “So, ruin me.”

Fleck it. Dizzy with her scent and heat, I dropped to one knee and slid her pants and underclothes down her legs as I did so. She let out a gasp of surprise as I tossed the clothing to the side, leaving her standing bare in front of me. Her smell was everywhere, sending my head spinning. All I could think about was tasting her again. It’d been nearly all I thought about since. Hooking one leg over my shoulder, I dove between her legs to lick up her essence.

In this position, she gushed on me, and her juices dripped down my chin, flooding my nose, and I would have happily drowned in her.

“Kent,” she gasped, and I looked up her body to see both her breasts spilling over the thin fabric as she strained and heaved. With one hand, she braced herself above her head on the cliff wall, and the other sank into my hair where it pulled tight at the roots. I snarled triumphantly, feeling victorious that she was losing control just as much as I was. Curling my tongue around the sensitive nub above her entrance that she seemed to love so much, I teased it with my tongue piercings.

Her legs started to tremble, and her blunt nails raked my scalp. “Shit, I’m close. Oh fuck,” she murmured, and when I slammed two fingers inside of her, she screamed. Rewarded with another gush of her juices, I lapped at her as she convulsed, crying out some babble as her cunt clenched around my fingers.

When I pulled free of her clutching core and let her foot fall to the ground, she stumbled. Her glassy eyes came to me, and for a moment, I froze with indecision.

I hadn’t received the intimacy training most Drixonians had. All I knew was things I’d overheard, stuff I’d learned secondhand. Vinz had stolen a pleasure textbook when we were chits, and while we’d read it cover to cover, we hadn’t fully understood what it meant. On top of that, it was about Drixonian women.

Everything I did was by instinct, responding to how Tasha felt, and a little bit of doing what I thought would make me feel good.

Her lips were parted, and her pink tongue crept out of the side of her mouth to wet her bottom lip. She drew the plump flesh between her teeth for a moment before releasing it. And the only thing I could think of was that I wanted to taste her there, too.

I rose to my feet, gripped her chin, and pressed our lips together. She responded with a fresh wave of energy. Her hands clawed at my shoulders, and with my other hand, I lifted up her bottom. Her legs wrapped around my waist, and her tongue delved into mine. The tip flicked at my piercings, and I groaned as her wet cunt pressed against where my cock throbbed in my pants.

I stopped thinking of consequences then. I stopped thinking of anything but getting inside this human warrior who chose me. I unclasped my belt at the base of my tail and shoved my pants down my legs. As soon as my heated cock hit the cooler air, I sucked in a breath, but the sensation was quickly replaced with more warmth as the head of my cock slid over the wet skin of her inner thighs, heading toward the place I craved most.

“Are you going to take me?” I murmured against her kiss-swollen lips.

Her skin was flushed a deep red. She glanced down at my cock, and as if it knew it was being studied, it jerked, smearing a pre-come lubricant called libo on her stomach. She wrapped her fingers around it, and her finger flicked the ring pierced through the tip. Her breath hitched. “Damn.”

“Is it to your liking?” I asked, teeth gritted with the need to be inside of her.

Panting, her eyes met mine. “Yes. Hell yes.”

With both hands, I positioned her above my cock, and she let out a little squeak when the tip pushed at her entrance. “I could barely think of anything else but seating you on my cock since we met,” I whispered.

Her fingers curled at the nape of my neck, pulling on my hair. “Kent.”

“You’ll take me inside like the warrior you are,” I murmured as I breached her with the wide head of my cock.

“Oh fuck,” her breath hitched, and her mouth dropped open as her head tilted back.

Her tight heat fogged my brain. My cora throbbed in my cock. My balls were so swollen, they felt like weighted sacks between my legs.

Her walls seemed to inch me in, and I groaned at the softness of her cunt. Fully seated inside, I panted as I fought not to spend my release right then and there. I let my head fall forward until my forehead hit the wall near hers. Her breath tickled my neck. Seeming to sense my strain, her fingers moved in soothing circles on my upper back.

“Never had this soft,” I whispered into her hair. “Not once.” I drew my hips back and snapped them forward. She cried out, and I nearly went cross-eyed. Her cunt squeezed me to perfection, and I couldn’t hold back anymore. I pounded into her relentlessly, rolling my hips with every thrust to reach every place inside of her.

My subcock that rested above my cock extended and latched onto that bud of hers that made her moan the loudest. She shrieked when she felt it and combined with the way her walls shuddered and pulsed around my cock, I knew I couldn’t hold off much longer.

“I want to hear you scream again, warrior,” I grunted as I clutched her face and forced her eyes to meet mine. She gazed at me with unfocused pupils and a slack mouth. Suddenly her eyes rolled, her body shuddered, and that was all it took for me. My cock pulsed, releasing inside of her while my balls drained themselves dry. My hips bucked, my vision shorted out, and that coil of pleasure that had been held back all my life unleashed like a spring. I threw back my head and roared.

Tasha

With my fur cape thrown over my shoulders and Kent’s head resting on my lap, I sat against the rock cliff trying to catch my breath.

I hadn’t thought of what Kent would be like post-coital. But I hadn’t expected this. If anything, he looked shell shocked. Every once in a while, a shiver shook his big body, and I found myself holding his massive head, careful of his pointy horns, and soothing him as he pressed his face into my stomach.

He hadn’t said a word since he came. He’d let out a roar of what sounded like anguished release, and then hit the ground on his knees like he could no longer support his own weight.

I was trying to sort through my own feelings about what we’d just done. This time, he didn’t run away, or act like it didn’t happen. He clung to me, his arms wrapped around my waist, while I combed my fingers through his long hair. We were twisted together like two halves of a pretzel.

He seemed to like the silence. Eventually his shivers faded, and he let out a long, contented sigh before soft violet eyes lifted to meet mine. He didn’t smile, but the tense lines in his face caused by his usual shrewd concentration were now smooth.

“I haven’t ever mated a female before,” he said quietly. And the puzzle pieces of his behavior began to fit together. My hands stilled in his hair as he continued in a low voice. “I hope I didn’t fail in giving you pleasure. I am not … well-versed in it.”

He did that all by instinct? I wasn’t sure how he could have been any better. “I enjoyed everything we did.” I smiled at him.

His gaze dropped to my lips where his eyes crinkled in the corners. “I’m glad.”

“You knew last night, didn’t you?” I kept my tone light. I wasn’t angry, anymore, far from it, but we had some things to discuss.

He didn’t need me to be specific. He knew what I meant. He nodded.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I knew what your reaction would be, and I didn’t trust myself to do what Kutzal instructed me to do, which was stay away from you.”

“Why did you have to stay away from me? If this was how you felt… why didn’t you tell me?”

He exhaled roughly and rolled onto his back. His gaze drifted to the clear sky over our heads. “I am not like the Drixonians who live in and near Granit. The Lone Howl are made up of the sons of the naught.”

“Sons of naught?”

His long tongue prodded at his fangs as his eyes swung to mine. “Every male Drixonian up to a certain age is a trained warrior. Our females held positions of importance in society, and the men were land and space defenders. It’s a duty taken very seriously, and if any warrior deserts his position… They are the naughts.”

My stomach dropped. “So, your father…”

“He was a deserter. My mother was pregnant with me when he deserted, and he knew the consequences I would face, which was a rule of our society. It wasn’t enough for him to stay.”

I cupped his cheek. “What consequences did you face?”

“I did not receive the same training others did. Same with Vinz, Kutzal, Axton, and all the others in the Lone Howl clavas. We were given cleaning jobs or were used as training practice for the other young Drix.”

My throat closed up. I couldn’t imagine a young Kent being punished for something he didn’t do. “That’s horrible.”

He placed his palm over mine where it rested on his cheek and then slid our combined hands to the back of his neck, where my fingers brushed the burned mark I’d discovered before. “This is the brand of the sons of naught.”

They’d fucking branded him? I inhaled through my nose and out through my mouth as my stomach knotted and a heated anger flared in my chest.

“Most importantly,” he brought our hands back to his cheek. “I cannot mate.”

The breath rushed from my lungs. “You can’t… what?”

“You are to be taken to Granit where you will choose from the warriors there—”

“No fucking way!” I shouted. My voice echoed off the rock face, and somewhere, a rodent squeaked and took off running in the grass. “No way. That’s fucking ludicrous. Look, I’ll be respectful of your culture up until a point, but no way will I be paraded in front of a bunch of you guys like some woman in the ton. This isn’t Regency-era Britain. Fuck that. I choose you. And if that Daz guy won’t help me look for my friends, then I’ll do it my fucking self.” I swallowed, suddenly losing steam. “I can, right? I can find them?”

Kent sat up and reached for me, wrapping his big hand around my neck. “We have to go to Granit.”

“No,” I barked in a pout. “And watch them treat you like shit? No way—”

“What’s shit?”

“Poop. Excrement. Bad stuff.”

His lips twitched, and I wasn’t sure what he found funny about this. “They don’t treat me like this shit.”

“But you said—”

“Daz treats us well, like any other of his warriors, but we will always be sons of naught. Females are precious now more than ever. And despite his rejection of the old ways, he will disapprove of your choosing me. This is exactly what Kutzal wanted to avoid.”

“Fuck him.”

Again, his lips twitched. “He’s my friend.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You need better friends.”

Kent sighed and looked to be praying for patience. “Kutzal has a lot to worry about. He’s managing the Lone Howl clavas, worrying about the Wutark borders, strengthening his relationship with Daz, and on top of that dealing with me and my very real attachment to a human female I have no business being around.”

I drew the cape further around my body and sniffed but didn’t answer. If he wanted me to suddenly have sympathy for Kutzal, he had another thing coming.

“Tasha,” Kent’s voice deepened with conviction. “Look at me.” I met his gaze sullenly. His thumb rubbed a steady circle at the base of my throat. “You are a warrior. A warrior who wants to rescue her friends. We will go to Granit, and we will tell them everything they need to know to arrange for a search party to find them. And then we will fight for us. I don’t know how Daz will react, and I can’t say that I’m not concerned. But I’m done fighting what’s between us. And now is the time to fight for us.”

TWELVE

KENT

I stepped into the clearing, Tasha at my side, to finish dressing the bilket I’d killed. But instead of the untouched carcass, Axton was there, leaning casually on his bike, thick arms crossed over his chest.

“Oh shit,” Tasha mumbled. “Kinda forgot about him.”

I straightened, prepared to fight. “Ax—”

“I’m sorry about running away,” Tasha spoke up to the big warrior. “I mean, I’m not sorry I did it, but I’m sorry you had to chase me.”

His gaze shifted to her briefly before he nodded. To me, he jerked his head. “Can I leave now?”

I gripped Tasha’s hand and pulled her to me. “Not with her.”

Axton’s expression of mild annoyance didn’t change. “I hadn’t planned on taking her. I’m returning to camp.”

The tension in my muscles loosened. “What?”

Axton sat on his bike and turned it on. “She ran to you, brother. She chose you. Who am I to argue with that?”

Releasing Tasha, I stepped to the side of Axton’s bike. “Ax.”

He sighed and leaned back while the bike rumbled between his legs. Suddenly he reached out and clasped my neck before bringing our foreheads together. I went still, surprised, as Axton rarely initiated physical contact, even if this was our traditional greeting. “You’re the best of us,” he said in a deep voice barely heard over the engine of his bike. He opened his mouth as if to say more, but then shook his head before releasing my neck.

I took a step back as his bike rose into the air, and he tossed a pack of supplies on the ground. “I’ll take care of Kutzal,” he yelled. “Get her to Granit.” With one hand crossed over his chest in a farewell, he took off back toward camp.

I stared after him, stunned he hadn’t fought me to take Tasha himself. He and Kutzal were close, and Axton was a warrior who always followed orders. Something about his defiance made it feel like the ground was shifting beneath my feet. I sensed a change on the horizon. I glanced back at Tasha, who had taken the pack Kutzal had tossed and slung it over her shoulder. Hair tied behind her back, clothes wrinkled, and the fur cape settled on her shoulders, she was a perfect human warrior. I knew, no matter the change that would be coming, that she was worth it.

She grinned. “That was easier than I thought. Think he’ll hold a grudge against me?”

“Axton? No.”

She grimaced. “Kutzal?”

I didn’t answer right away, and her laugh rang out. “Yeah, thought so.”

“Vinz likes you.”

“Vinz has crazy eyes.”

I barked out a hoarse laugh that surprised Tasha as much as me. “He has his reasons. I have a feeling once you get to spend a little more time with him, you’ll see why I tolerate that annoying fleck.”

I found Axton had dressed the bilket for me. He’d taken the skin, likely to tan it back at camp to make leather, and had cut the meat up into chunks, which he wrapped in leaves and tied with vines. He’d taken most of it, likely for his journey home, and left some with us to cook on our way to Granit. I had nowhere to store all the meat, so I was fine he’d claimed most of my kill. Maybe it would go a little ways to appeasing Kutzal.

“How long will it take to get to Granit?” Tasha asked as I strapped our packs to my bike.

“A few rotations. Maybe three.” I threw a leg over the seat and patted the space in front of me. “Come.”

A slight flush rose on her cheeks as she settled in front of me. She wiggled more than I remember her moving before, and the softness of her ass teased my hardening cock. I grasped her around the waist and tugged her back tight against me. She let out a small gasp as I turned on the bike which rumbled beneath us.

“Do you know how hard this was for me before? Riding with your soft heat against my cock thinking that was the closest I’d ever get to your cunt?”

Her chest rose as she inhaled sharply. “Do you think I couldn’t feel you? It was hard for me too.”

I groaned, wishing I could take her here and now, but we had to get going, and the blood on the ground from the bilket I’d killed would soon attract predators. “Well, then we both get to be tortured now, because I don’t have time to take you.”

“Jesus,” she whispered, gripping the handlebars in a white-knuckled grip. “I created a monster, didn’t I?”

When I nipped her ear with my fangs, she squeaked, and a shiver ran down her spine. I could smell her and knew this entire ride until our first break was going to be flecking miserable. “Try not to move too much,” I growled as I lifted the hover bike in the air.

She let out a happy shout as we sped out of the clearing and went on our way to Granit.

Tasha

The rest of the day was a battle of wills, and I couldn’t really be sure who was winning or if we were just being masochistic. Kent drove with one hand, sticking close to a stream of water that flowed downstream. Here the land was flat and the vegetation less dense, allowing for an almost leisurely drive rather than breakneck speed while dodging thick tree trunks.

His other hand… Well, his other hand was a torture device. He roamed my front, sometimes slipping under my cape to playfully roll a nipple between his fingers. Other times he dipped lower, sliding into my pants to toy with my drenched pussy. Even I could smell how aroused I was, and it got worse when he’d pull his fingers away and noisily slurp them into his mouth.

His cock was like a steel rod between my ass cheeks, and I did my best to torture him right back, rolling my hips as we basically dry humped on the bike.

The sun had just touched the horizon when he let out a growl that vibrated my bones and steered the bike to touch down onto the riverbank.

Before I could even get my bearings, he had manhandled my pants off and bent me over the front of his bike, legs spread, while he sat behind me. Cool air hit my wet flesh, and I moaned as a thick finger prodded at my entrance. Folding my arms under my head, I lay stomach down, ass up, exposed to an alien male who had very quickly become my entire world.

“Your cunt soaked through your pants, and through mine.” He squeezed my ass, hard, and I gasped. “Do you know how much your scent drove me crazy?”

I’d been primed all day, and if he didn’t fuck me soon, I was going to scream. “You think I wasn’t suffering— oh fuck.”

He lifted up my pelvis and with my legs spread on his thighs, speared me with his thick cock. The delicious thick ring pierced through the tip slid over my inner walls with pleasure-inducing precision. The air rushed from my lungs, and I swore for a moment I could feel him in my stomach, his long shaft seemingly endless as he filled me.

I scrambled for purchase on the bike seat as my toes curled and my sensitive nipples pressed against my chest band.

“That’s it,” he rasped. “Take all of me.”

“Fuck,” I moaned as he grasped my hips and fucked me on his bike. My entire body was wound tight, and I felt the beginnings of an orgasm flare in the base of my spine just as he went still. “What—?”

Suddenly my world was flipped. Placed on my back on the bike seat, Kent rose over me, plunging inside me again just as that node above his cock I’d assumed was innocuous latched onto my clit and started its mind-melting suction. Whatever biological reason it had, praise this planet’s gods, because it was amazing.

Above me was the orange sky, Kent’s violet eyes, and his dark hair in a cloud around us. It seemed to be floating, reaching for me, and then as the orgasm hit me, I threw back my head and closed my eyes on a wordless shout.

Kent kept thrusting, fucking, growling and straining until he pitched forward with a hoarse cry. His cock pulsed inside of me, filling me for the second time that day, and I could feel the overflow leaking out, spilling onto the bike’s seat.

Chest heaving, I blindly reached for him, feeling like a million scattered pieces of human flesh. Panting, he drew me up and into his lap, where we stayed connected as we sought to catch our breaths.

When he held me like this, surrounding me with his strength and tenderness, I almost felt like a whole, untouched person. In Kent’s eyes, I wasn’t a victim, an experiment, or refugee on the run. To him, I was Tasha, his warrior.

“I should have fed you first,” he said softly.

I huffed a tired laugh. “No, this was perfect. Now we can take our time eating rather than rushing through it to get to dessert.”

“Dessert?”

I pulled back slightly and shifted, feeling uncomfortable full. “What we just did.”

“Dessert,” he murmured. “I like that word.”

I sat back slightly in his lap until his cock slipped free of my body. Looking down, I grimaced. “We made a mess.”

“I like it,” he whispered, swiping a finger through our combined juices until they were smeared all over the seat and my inner thighs. He cupped my pussy, his hand gentle, and pressed a soft, hesitant kiss to my lips. “Thank you for running to me. I won’t let you down again.”

I cupped his face. “Hey, you didn’t let me down. Now that you explained, I understand.” I patted his face. “But don’t do it again.”

His lips twitched, and his large facial scar tugged at the skin. “I won’t.” I ran a finger over the scar carved into his cheek, and while he flinched, he didn’t pull away. “How did you get this?”

“A Kulk in the Uprising.” I remembered the Kulks—they were like armored bears who the Uldani used as their protection. “We usually took the front lines of all battles. The Drixonians who were properly trained and knew formations as well as other skills like piloting were protected.”

I hated that for him. I couldn’t imagine what it was like for him to time and time again be sent to the front lines, forced to sacrifice himself for a society who had always treated him like an outcast.

“Everything I know about how to fight was gained from experience.” He flexed his forearms and the blades rose slightly before settling back down. “Now I’m as deadly with my machets as any other Drixonian.”

“And those machets are… a part of you?”

He nodded. “Our best defense.”

“So, despite everything, you still fought for the Drixonians. Why didn’t you and Kutzal just leave?”

“Some sons of naught did, but that was never an option for us. We wanted to contribute to remaking the Drixonian society, and we decided to trust Dazeem. His father often fought against the way generations of naught were treated.”

“So, there’s hope he will accept us?”

“There is hope,” he said tentatively. “But the future of the Drixonian race is at risk now.”

“Right,” I murmured.

He drew me to him, and I snuggled into the warmth of his chest. “We can eat now. Get some rest.”

I was reluctant to move. I was cozy where I was. “I need to clean up.”

He huffed. “Don’t. I like your smell.”

“I’ll wait until morning. Is that a compromise?”

His chest rumbled, vibrating like a purring cat. “I accept that.”

“What is this sound you do?” I pressed my hand at the base of his neck.

“It’s called prushing. I haven’t ever done it before, but it’s instinct when we are with our mates. We use it to soothe and also when we are happy.”

I remembered he’s used it on me before to calm me down. And it had worked like a shot of good whiskey. “So, you can prush me to sleep?”

“If you wish.”

“I do wish. I wish very much.”

I opened my eyes with a twitch of my nose. The extinguished fire smoked gently near us, and the sun had just begun to rise over the horizon. Behind me, Kent slept quietly with his big arms clutching my back to his chest.

My nose twitched again, and that was when I smelled them. Wutarks. The stench was unmistakable. I sat up, and my action woke Kent immediately. “What?” He barked, eyes wide and alert already.

“Wutarks,” I breathed. “Maybe… a mile away. Moving fast.”

He looked at me carefully, and I knew there would be questions later like how I knew what I did, but now wasn’t the time. Without questioning or patronizing me, he sprung to his feet, tossed the burned logs from our fire into the stream and rubbed out any evidence we’d made camp there. We didn’t have much in supplies, and we were packed and riding off astride his bike before we saw any Wutarks. But I knew they were coming.

“What do they use for transportation?” I yelled over the sound of the hover bike.

“They don’t need anything,” he shouted back. “They are capable of short bursts of speed that covers a lot of ground. They don’t have the stamina to sustain it, but they are very powerful in battle.”

“Shit,” I whispered. I remembered the blurry figures I’d seen when I’d been captured. They’d moved so fast, I could barely see them. “You don’t want them to see us, right? If they see us—”

“We can’t allow them to see us,” he said.

“What if they do?”

“They cannot,” he insisted through gritted teeth.

Panic bubbled and hissed in my stomach, and my legs trembled so badly, I had to grip them, digging my nails into the fabric. There had to be something we could do. They were gaining ground.

“Fleck!” Kent spat and banked a hard left as a rock formation rose up in front of us. The bottom of his bike hit the rock face, and I covered my ears at the high-pitched ear-splitting creak, like nails on a chalkboard. I looked behind us to see a part of his bike break off and careen into the rocks with a loud thwack.

Then another smell hit me, and I whipped my head in the direction from where it emanated. I recognized the scent right away. Rhinophants. And if my nose was right—which it usually was—an entire herd raced toward us.

I pointed in the direction from where I could smell them, which was the opposite direction of where the Wutarks tracked us. “Rhinophants!” I shouted over my shoulder.

“What?” Came Kent’s confused reply.

Shit, I’d never asked him what the hell those things were called. “The baby you saved by the river. The big horned animals. A herd is coming. That way!”

We had only one direction to go. The rhinophants were bearing down on us from the front, the Wutarks at the back, while a cliff blocked our right.

A loud rattle emanated from the back of his bike, and the entire machine shuddered violently. Whatever damage had occurred affected the elevation of the bike, as we rode close to the ground, closer than seemed safe.

Up ahead, the beginning of the herd could be seen breaking through the thin trees, trembling the branches with the thunderous vibrations of their giant feet. Dust kicked up, stones flew, and I dodged a pebble that nearly took out my eye.

“Hold on!” Kent cried, and I gripped the handlebars tightly as he wrenched it left. But this bike wasn’t taking commands well anymore. The entire thing tipped, something sputtered beneath us and backfired, and what happened next felt like an out-of-control roller coaster. The bottom of the bike hit the ground, the front clipped a tree, and the bike kicked up. I screamed as an arm came around me and we were launched off the bike. A big body curled itself around mine, which softened the blow when we hit the ground with a bone-crunching thud and a skid.

I gasped, flailing, as Kent let out a pained groan that sent a chill down my spine. “Kent?” I cried out just as the horn blare of a rhinophant blasted my eardrums. I shrieked and covered my head as a giant foot blotted out the sunlight. Was this it? Were we going to die underneath the massive feet of some alien animal?

Kent curled himself around me again, tail tucked over my head. I waited for the first stomp. The pain. The deafening stampede kicked up dust so thick I could barely breathe, but not a foot came near us. Slowly, Kent’s tail slipped down, and I looked up to find the rhinophant herd parting around us like a rock in the middle of a river. In the distance, the grunts and war cries of the Wutarks could be heard, but soon they were replaced by pained groans. Their shouts reversed direction, driven back by the advancing rhinophant herd.

When the Wutark cries faded, the herd began to slow and crowded around us while snorting and stomping. Kent and I remained on the ground, his ruined bike some distance away.

“Don’t make any sudden moves.” Kent’s arms squeezed me. “I don’t know what they want from us.”

“They won’t eat us, will they?” I whispered.

“No, but if they think we are a threat…”

Suddenly a small path parted among the noisy rhinophants, and then they fell silent as one set of four feet made its way toward us. Emerging was an older rhinophant, and maybe I was seeing things, but I could have sworn that was the same one who’d been among the herd we’d seen before with a chip on her second horn. And then trotting right on her heels was a small rhinophant. A baby. The baby.

“Oh my God,” I whispered. “What are the odds? Do they recognize us?”

Kent didn’t answer, but his breathing was harsh in my ear, and I worried about how badly he was injured in the crash.

The lead rhinophant tossed her head and let out a few short blasts before coming closer. Pawing the ground, it waited. For what? I wasn’t sure.

Then one of Kent’s arms unfurled from around me and he extended his hand, palm out. The rhinophant lowered her head until she nudged him gently with her horns. Seemingly content, she then sounded a horn again and walked back the way she came. The herd followed leisurely, until the last rhinophant passed us, leaving us laying on the ground amid trampled vegetation.

“Holy shit,” I murmured. “Sure glad you saved that baby.”

Kent released a long groan and then his arms fell away from me as he collapsed flat on his back. “If that had been any other herd…”

I sat up and twisted at the waist. “What would have happened?”

He snorted. “We’d be scavenger food. Riscus take their territory literally. I don’t travel this way much, so I wasn’t quite sure where the boundaries were…” he blew out a breath. “Thank Fatas.”

“Are you hurt?” I didn’t see blood, which was a good thing.

“I’m not hurt.” He sat up with a groan and rubbed his neck.

“You don’t look fine.”

“I didn’t say I was fine. I said I’m not hurt.” He gazed at his bike, which had twisted itself around a tree. “Guess we’re on foot the rest of the way.”

“Since the two alternative situations we could be in are,” I ticked them off on my fingers. “Killed by the Wutarks or trampled by a herd of rhinophants, I would say we are doing okay.”

“Riscus.”

“Huh?”

His lips twitched. “They are riscus.”

“Oh right. Well, I like rhinophants better.”

“What does that word mean?”

“Oh Earth, we have this animal called a rhinoceros. Rhino for short. And they have thick gray hides and big horns on their heads. Your riscus remind me of them, but they are as big as another animal we have, which is an elephant.”

“Ah, well then we can call them rhinophants.” He rose to his feet and dusted off his clothes. “Come on. The Wutarks won’t be deterred for long. They will just take a different route in their search.”

“But this is Drixonian territory now, right? Why can’t we just… attack them for trespassing?”

He unstrapped our packs from his ruined bike. “No, this is common ground. The Lone Howl clavas maintains a presence here as an outpost for the Drixonian center. Wutark territory lies further north. And the Drixonian border is a little ways south.”

“So, this is sort of every man for himself then.”

He cocked his head and then nodded. “You can say that.”

“So, we’re allowed to be here. It doesn’t matter if they see me—”

“They’ll know I took you, and they can take you back by force. I’m a Drixonian, but I’m no match for a squad of Wutarks. Reaching the Drixonian border is paramount to our safety. At all costs, we want to avoid a conflict with them. They are not an enemy we want to fight.” He sighed as he looked at his bike, and for a moment, I wondered if he might cry. Could Drixonians cry? Finally, he turned away, both our packs slung to his back. “This is important. If they get close again, I will hide you and face them on my own to lead them in another direction.” I pointed toward Granit. “Do you see that spike on the horizon? That’s a building in Granit. Head there and ask for Daz.”

“I’m sorry, what?” I was still stuck on his first instructions. “You want me to get away… without you?”

His chest swelled as he inhaled deeply. “Yes.”

“Kent—”

“This is important.” He grabbed me and pulled me to my feet while holding my gaze. “The way to rescue your friends is through Daz. To get to Daz, you have to get to Granit.”

I swallowed as my stomach rippled with queasiness. “But what will happen to you?”

He swallowed. “I will do what I need to do.”

“You’re not answering my question. What will the Wutarks do to you?”

He still didn’t answer, and I began to shake my head. His hands gripped me tighter, and he jostled me until my teeth clacked together. “This can’t all be for nothing,” he insisted. “Please, Tasha.”

Tears filled my eyes, and I batted my lashes to hold them back as I sniffed. “Why do you have to be so good and honest and practical?”

He cupped my neck, and his thumb brushed the underside of my jaw. “Because you make me want to be.”

THIRTEEN

KENT

I wished we had time to stop and eat, but it was imperative we cover as much ground as we could since we didn’t have my bike anymore. I tried not to think about my crushed bike laying broken and alone. I’d had it for fifty cycles.

Tasha munched on the antella jerky I’d handed her. The temperature closer to Granit was warmer, and she’d opened her cape, so it hung off one shoulder. The ends dragged on the ground, and I took it from her to stuff inside one of our packs.

She smiled at me and whispered a small thanks. I knew she was tired, and while I’d offered to carry her on my back several times through the rotation, she’d turned me down. While her strides weren’t as long as mine, she kept pace well.

“Shit,” she barked out. She cupped her hand under her nose, and red blood dripped from between her fingers.

I stopped immediately, shoving her down onto a moss-covered patch of ground with tree cover before digging in our pack for a cloth strip.

“I’m fine,” she complained nasally. “It’ll stop soon.”

I shoved an absorbent cloth at her, and she held it below her nose, head tipped back to gaze at the sky. Sitting beside her, I silently fumed, worried about her and knowing I needed to finally ask her about something that had been bothering me. I knew enough about humans to know there was something about her that was wholly different. “How did you know the Wutarks and rhinophants were coming?”

She blinked at the sky, and I saw a flush rise up her neck.

I lifted a bit from my crouch so her vision was full of me and not the sky. “Tasha?” I inquired.

Her gaze shifted away and then she slowly tipped her head down. “I knew you would ask sometime,” she sighed as I once again went into a crouch in front of her. “And after all you told me about yourself… I owe you the truth. I’m just a little terrified it will change how you see me.”

“Nothing will change that,” I gripped the back of her neck and squeezed until she looked at me. “Do you understand?”

She swallowed and whispered with a trembling lip. “But it might.”

“Tell me,” I urged softly.

She wrinkled her nose. “I wasn’t always on this planet. I used to be on Torin in the Uldani fortress.”

I sucked in a breath as my suspicions were confirmed. “The Uldani had you?”

She nodded. “For a few years. As far as I know, it was just the six of us, but there were many, many rooms underground.”

“They kept you—” My stomach lurched. “Underground was…”

“The prisons and the laboratories. Yes.” Her sad eyes met mine. “You think you’re tainted, but I actually am, Kent. All my friends and I are. The Uldani experimented on us for different reasons. I have a sense of smell beyond normal human ability. But it causes—” she pointed at her nose. “This. I don’t know what other long-term affects it caused. Maybe one day my eye will fall out. I don’t know.”

There’d been many, many times where rage directed at the Uldani threatened to overwhelm me, but never as badly as now. I’d seen the rooms. I’d heard stories from Drixonians who’d been underground. Sax’s mate had been captured and kept there in order to breed her against her will with Drixonians. Barbaric didn’t begin to describe how they were treated.

I curled my hands into fists, doing my best to quell my anger.

“I didn’t want to tell you,” she whispered. “And most importantly, I don’t want Daz to know. What if he decides my friends are too damaged to rescue?”

I began to shake my head. “He won’t.”

“But what if he does?”

“The Uldani experimented on his own brother. You’ll see when you meet him. He didn’t return home for a long time, because he feared not being accepted. Daz welcomed him with open arms.”

“But that’s his brother,” I whispered.

I squeezed her neck again. “Then we don’t have to tell Daz. What happened to your friends is their experience to share if they choose. Just like it was your choice to share now.”

She dropped the blood-stained cloth into her lap. “It doesn’t change anything?”

“You’re not tainted.”

“I am a little bit,” she smiled. “So, I guess we fit. I’m not a perfect human mate for their ideal of a perfect Drixonian warrior. But we’re perfect for each other.”

Their ideal. Those words repaired something inside of me. My cora skipped a beat, and I itched at my chest as an invisible wound knitted shut. I’d so badly wished to be the ideal Drixonian warrior, but what did that even mean. It was someone else’s idea of perfection. For Tasha, I was perfect. And she was perfect for me. Unsure what to say, overwhelmed at finding someone like Tasha, I picked up the bloody cloth and cleaned the remnants of blood from her nose.

“That’s why I feel so guilty about what happened to my friends. Lu has visions of the future, and we know they are accurate. She had one that warned us something was nearby, and I made the decision for all of us to stay another night.” Her throat tightened. “And it was the wrong one. I tried to tell you that by the camp that night. It really was my fault.”

“You had a good reason for staying, right?”

“Yeah, but—”

“I’m sure you made the right decision for the information you had at the time.”

She snorted. “That’s what Trix said. You two would get along.”

“I hope to meet Trix some day.”

She sniffed. “I hope you get to meet her too.”

I pulled her to her feet. “Come on, I have something to show you.”

She jogged to keep up with my pace as I set off into the lines of trees. “Oh? But aren’t we in a hurry?”

“It’s on the way. And I think it’s important.”

“Okay,” she agreed quickly.

I hadn’t been to the Tower since we’d arrived back on Corin, and I had been conflicted about returning. But with Tasha at my side, I knew it was time to take a necessary detour.

When we reached the base of the cracked stone stairs leading up the mountain, I stopped and took a deep breath.

“We’re going up there?” Tasha asked.

I still gripped her hand and squeezed it gently. “We are.”

She didn’t ask any more questions, and when I took the first step, I felt like I was three again, following my mother. Her torn, dirty skirt swayed in front of me, and her bare feet barely made any sound. Back then, the stairs had seemed so wide I could barely step up with one stride, and I swore it took half a day just to climb to the top.

When we reached the last step, Tasha gasped. I lifted my head slowly, and the current state of the Tower meshed with my memories. A large stone ring, cracked and covered with vines, surrounded a swath of silver dirt called myrth that most Drixonians believed to be Fatas-blessed. The grains sparkled in the sunlight, only marred by the large shadow of the stone spike in the center that reached up to the sky—the Tower. Vines twisted in and out of the carvings etched into the stone, created many, many generations ago by the first Drixonians to ever settle on this planet.

Every day, this was where my disgraced mother, formerly the wife of a prestigious general in the Drixonian army, knelt in the myrth and made her prayers to Fatas.

Tasha’s hand slipped from mine as she crept forward, taking in the space with wide eyes and a slack mouth. “What is this place?”

“The Fatas Tower.” I explained to her how it worked, that Drixonians—mostly the females—would kneel in the ring, rub the myrth between their hands and make a request to Fatas. When Tasha asked what Fatas was, I described her as a guide in our lives. She decided what we could handle and how much. Good deeds earned good rewards. Bad deeds would be reaped in kind.

She turned around, one hand on the stone ring which rose to about her waist. “Did you ever do it?”

I shook my head. “Only once, but I came with my mother every day.”

“Every day?”

“Our lives weren’t easy. She had held a high position in society when my father was in the army, but when he deserted…” I lifted my gaze to the Tower. “She fell far. I never knew what it was like to have prestige. I was born after he deserted.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Do you want to know what she wished for?” She studied me a moment before shaking her head. I stepped closer. “No? Why not?”

“Because you never tell anyone your wishes. Not when you toss a penny in a fountain or blow out your candles. As soon as you tell someone your wish, it doesn’t come true.”

She answered so honestly, and for a moment, sounded so much like my mother, that I barked out a laugh. She immediately scowled. “Hey, I’m serious, don’t laugh.”

“I’m not laughing at you. It’s that my mother said the same thing—all the females did. You never told anyone the request you made to Fatas at the Tower. If you did, it didn’t come true.”

“So, you don’t know what your mother wished either?”

“No, even on her death bed when she took her last breaths, she refused to tell me.”

Eyes bright, Tasha smiled. “Then that means her wish is still working.”

“How so?”

“It probably had to do with you.” She shrugged. “You never know. It might be why you’re still alive. Why that scar on your face is only a scar and didn’t kill you.”

I fingered the uneven skin at my lip. I’d assumed my mother wished for my father to return, to have a plausible reason for his desertion. Had she made her request…for me? “I hadn’t considered that.”

“Can I make a request to Fatas?” Tasha asked. “I’ll respect if it’s only for Drixonians.”

There was no rule, and she likely would be the first human to make a request at the Tower, but if anyone was worthy, it was her. “You can.”

With a smile, she reached forward and grabbed my arm, tugging as she took a step over the stone ring. “Great. You do it too.” I balked at first, digging in my heels. She noticed my resistant right away. “You don’t want to?”

I gazed up at the Tower. I’d stared at it so many times when I was young, so much that I swore I could draw the etchings myself. Many were nearly undetectable now, smoothed over from weather and time.

“That one time I came here was when my mother was dying. I never believed, and sometimes was disrespectful about her visits. But when she was dying… I had no idea what to do. That was before we realized the extent of the virus—that it was incurable. That it would kill all our females. So, I requested Fatas to save my mother.” I swallowed as I stared up at the Tower, remembered the way I’d spent all day kneeling in the myrth until my legs went numb and my back ached. “And she didn’t grant my request.”

Tasha’s arms wrapped around my waist. “You said Fatas isn’t like a God, that she’s more of a guide. It sounds like she doesn’t make the road. She just helps a little with directions.”

My gaze dropped to hers. Throat tight, memories battering me one after another, I gripped the hand of my perfect match and nodded.

She returned my gestured with a smile. “Come on,” she said softly. “Kneel with me.”

Tasha

The sand shifted beneath my knees like quicksand, and for a moment I thought I’d sink in, but then the grains seemed to congeal and hold. Next to me, Kent remained silent, his gaze downcast at the silvery grains. I dug my fingers into the sand, and sifted it through my fingers, the grains so fine it reminded me of well-ground Himalayan pink sea salt.

The silver shimmered in the sunlight, and I rubbed the sand between my palms until they were coated in a fine layer of silver dust. Closing my eyes, I thought back to my friends. We’d met at the worst times of our lives, but we’d overcome. Escaping in the night, we’d snuck onto a cargo ship destined for anywhere but a life with the Uldani.

It had crashed on Torin’s sister planet, Corin, and while a few of the women didn’t make it, the six of us emerged—dirty, injured, but free. And we’d made a life as much as we could, nomadic as it was. Trix and her bravery. Lu and her attitude covering up her anger and fear. Maisie and her desire to be loved. Neve, the quiet observer who always seemed to know what to do to make us feel better. And Amber—the one who sacrificed so much for us despite her vulnerable side effect.

I missed them. I feared for them. And I felt hopeless that I couldn’t save them all on my own.

Please, Fatas, let us all be reunited safely.

The sands sifted beneath my palms. My knees ached, and the sun warmed the top of my head.

Please Fatas, let us all be reunited safely.

Nothing grand happened. No lightning strike split the sky or animal sounds. Just the breeze blowing my hair.

I opened my eyes. Kent was silent beside me, head tilted back, eyes closed. His lips moved, but he didn’t make a single sound. When he opened his eyes, he inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly.

Finally, he turned to me, and the beginning of a smile curved his lips. “Thank you.”

“I was worried I’d asked too much.”

“No,” he shook his head. “I’m glad you encouraged me.” He reached out and ran a hand over the back of my hair, gaze following the path of his palm. “I never thought I’d have a positive memory here.” His hand settled on the back of my neck, and just from that touch, heated goosebumps rose on my arms.

His nostrils flared, and he tugged me closer, so I had no choice but to lift up my knees and straddle him as he brought our faces inches apart. His hard length nudged my core. “Kent,” I whispered as his hands dropped to my ass. “I think this isn’t the place—”

“This is the place,” he grunted as he tugged me against him. “I don’t believe in much, but I believe Fatas brought us together. Let’s show her how perfect we are together.”

“There is probably some sort of rule against this—” He cut me off with a punishing kiss, and that was the end of my protest. Fuck it. If he wanted to bone in the sands of his Tower, then who was I to argue?

I still hadn’t bathed from our last fuck on his bike, but I had to admit that our scents mingled together, stronger when Kent shoved off my pants, was heady and sexy as hell.

Leaning back against the stone wall, he spun me until my back rested against his chest. Naked, all my clothes in a heap in the silver sands, I sank down on his cock in the shadow of the Fatas Tower.

He groaned in my ear as I took him inside my slick channel. One of his hands plucked my bare breasts and the other slid down to swirl my clit. I cried out, aching knees forgotten as he bounced me on his shaft. The once silent hilltop now filled with the obscene sounds of our love-making—his grunts, my cries and the wet slap of my ass hitting his stomach. With a hand on the back of my neck, he pitched me forward. Bracing myself on his bent knees, I rode him hard. As my body began to shudder with the beginning of an orgasm—what felt like the hundredth in only a few days, he crushed me back to his chest. The breeze picked up, whipping my hair and his around us like a storm. With his hand at my throat, the air pebbling my sensitive nipples, I came on his cock.

He roared his release to the Fatas Tower, and his cock pulsed inside of me. I couldn’t believe he still had the stamina left to fill me, but once again I could feel his seed dripping out to spill onto the sand below.

Panting, chest heaving, I collapsed back onto him. His hand at my throat relaxed, and his fingers rubbed there in a soothing pat that made me want to fall asleep.

“You sure Fatas isn’t going to be mad at us?” I brushed my wild hair out of my face.

His chest rumbled with what felt like a laugh. “I’m sure.”

He pressed a kiss to my temple and then lifted me in the air, carrying me bridal style as he stepped out of the ring. “As much as I don’t want you to clean up, I think you want to, yes?”

I was willing to concede before, but this was a lot. I didn’t want to put my pants back on like this. “Please.”

He grunted in acquiescence and then placed me down on a concrete seat near what looked like a large copper faucet. Raising the lever attached, he pumped it a few times, and a stream of water rushed out into a basin below. I cupped it, taking a moment to drink a few sips. Before I could proceed to bathe, Kent stood in front of me. “Let me,” was all he said.

And so I let him. He cupped the water and poured it over my shoulders, my breasts, and then rubbed it all over the rest of my body. He paid special attention to my ass and my pussy, rubbing the water in, and watching as the juices of our lovemaking washed away down a small drain.

He knelt as he carefully lifted each of my bare feet to clean them off as well. I clutched his shoulder to keep my balance, overwhelmed at the gentle care with which this large, scarred warrior handled me.

Before he rose, he pressed one kiss to the pubic hair above my clit, and I sucked in a breath as he once again rose to stand next to me. After a quick cursory splash to clean himself—I noticed he was very haphazard on himself—he led me back to my clothes to get dressed.

Once clothed again, I tied my hair back while Kent stood silently outside the sand ring studying the Tower. Stepping next to him, I gripped his hand. “We can stay longer if you’d like.”

He shook his head. “No, we’ll leave now. We don’t have that much further to go.”

I nodded and reached down to sift a handful of sand through my fingers. I glanced up at the Fatas Tower and made one last wish, in case she was feeling generous. This time, I wished for the same thing Kent’s mother did.

I yawned and gave myself a slap. We’d been walking for a solid day, broken only by a short sleep on some rocky ground. Blisters covered my feet, and my face felt hot to the touch from the scorching sun. My human body was flagging, while Kent looked… well, he looked the same, that stupid Drixonian bastard. His pace never slowed, he never appeared tired. He stalked along with the same long strides, his alert eyes scanning the forest.

I had another nosebleed this morning and held a cloth firmly under my nose to stem the bleeding. Kent had offered to stop, but I told him no. I was used to the nosebleeds, and my only worry was anemia, so I currently chewed on a strip of medium rare meat from a bilket Kent had caught and cooked this morning. The taste was terrible, but I knew the iron was good for me.

“I’m sure the females will have plenty of food prepared,” he said. “I’ve been to a few of their feasts, and they’ve been able to do a lot with the resources on this planet.”

My mouth watered thinking about it. If we’d had access to the game the Drixonians could hunt, as well as proper cooking instruments, I was sure my friends and I could have cooked up some tasty food as well. I was certainly proud of the sweet bread we’d managed to bake.

“Do you like the females?” I asked. As excited as I was to learn there were safe and happy humans on this planet, I worried they wouldn’t be excited to see me. Were they catty court ladies of Drixonian royalty? I’d lived in the wilderness for years, surviving on scraps and willpower. I wouldn’t be able to handle social norms and weird politics among women.

“They are good females,” Kent said. “Frankie is Daz’s mate, and she is kind.”

That assured me somewhat. If he told me they treated him terrible as a member of Lone Howl then I wasn’t going to be very tolerant.

I dropped the cloth from my nose. “If you say so.” I inhaled, my nose finally free of blood and caught a whiff of a scent so strong that I stumbled. Grabbing my arm to keep me on my feet, Kent’s concerned face swung down to face me. “What’s wrong?”

Dread weighed down my limbs, and terror paralyzed my tongue as I tried to form words. “Wu-Wutarks. Close.”

Kent let out a strangled sound and immediately scanned the horizon. “How close?”

“I can’t… my nose is still a little stuff from the blood—”

“How close?” He shook me, and the movement rattled my tongue loose.

I pointed in the direction I could smell them. “Coming from there. Not far.”

Kent’s eyes were wild as he frantically looked around. We were in a meadow near a spring and had zero cover. “We’re so close to the Drixonian border,” he growled as he swung me into the air and took off running with me.

“Kent,” I gasped, gazing at the tree line. “They’re here.”

Just as we ducked behind a dense bush, a rallying cry rang out in the meadow. Half a dozen Wutarks holding sabers and wearing armor emerged from the tree line at a steady jog.

“Fleck,” Kent spat. He gripped my head with his hands. “Listen to me, Tasha. This is important. Do you see that large tree in the distance, the one topped with a black flag?” I nodded. It was maybe a mile away. “That is our boundary. I’d run there now but we’d never beat the Wutarks at their top speed. We cannot allow them to see you. You follow this stream and reach the black flag. They will know you’re there and send someone to rescue you. Understand?”

I didn’t understand. Not at all. “What do you mean? Where will you be?”

His jaw clenched. “I’ll be distracting the Wutarks in the meadow. Once I engage them, you get the fleck gone.”

“What?” I gasped. I reached for him, but he was already rising to his feet. I clutched his arm, feeling like I was losing a limb. “No, you can’t. We do this together—”

“We do this together and we die,” he growled.

“I’ll tell them I ran away, and you saved me in mutual territory. Please Kent.”

He shook his head. “We can’t take that chance.” He bent down again and gripped my neck. “Remember your friends, Tasha. Be a warrior for them.” His jaw worked and he glanced down. “Thank you. Just being by your side has given me more honor than I could ever have imagined. Be safe. Be happy. And always fight.” He pressed a fast kiss on my lips, and before I could shout out a protest, he stepped into the meadow.

The Wutarks saw him immediately and fanned out in a triangle formation—one in the front, two in the second row, and three bringing up the back. Frozen with fear, sorrow, and heartbreak, I watched as Kent walked closer to them, chin lifted.

I couldn’t understand the Wutark’s language, but Kent’s voice rang out loud and clear. “You seem to be tracking me. Can I ask why?”

The lead Wutark, the guard who’d struck me and who Kent had distracted the night he rescued me, stepped forward to bellow out a series of grunted words. Kent held his ground, but I saw the ripple of his machets lifting for just a moment before settling back under his scales. His tail remained poised above the ground, the armored, spiked tip shining in the sunlight. “I haven’t seen a human,” Kent answered.

The Wutark took a step forward and stamped his spear on the ground. I jerked, startled by the aggression. Kent remained firm. “There are no humans here. And any within our boundaries belong to us. You know it’s close by.”

That was meant for me, I was sure of it, but I couldn’t seem to move my limbs.

My brother’s ring on my finger seemed to weigh fifty pounds, and I rubbed it with my thumb. This felt all too familiar. My life on Earth felt like one a thousand years ago, but my brother’s death would always be like yesterday. I could still smell the smoke, and the blistering heat on my skin. Trapped in the basement with fire raging all around me, I could barely see through the thick gray smoke. My throat burned, and my eyes watered.

And then my brother had emerged seemingly out of nowhere. He’d tossed a water-drenched blanket over my head and pulled me up the stairs. We’d been upstairs in the front room, so close, when the floorboards beneath our feet cracked. Nathan shoved me out the front door, but he never made it. He fell through the floor back to the basement below, and by the time the fire crews went in to save him, it was too late.

As the Wutarks surrounded Kent and one of them swung their spears at the back of his legs, forcing him to kneel, my heart lurched. Red hot blood spread through my veins.

My brother had sacrificed himself for me. And I’d be fucked if I let someone else I cared about do it again.

FOURTEEN

KENT

She’d left by now. I was sure of it. I just had to draw this out and waste more time. All that mattered was that she crossed the Drixonian border. Nero had sensors there, so he’d know she’d entered, and they’d send a squad on bikes to rescue her.

These Wutarks were strong as fleck. That blow to the back of my knees with their spear hurt more than I expected, but I kept my jaw firm. If I made any sort of pained noise, I worried Tasha would hear. I didn’t want that to be the last thing she heard from me.

“Human where?” The Wutark demanded. I recognized him as the one who’d struck Tasha that night, and I vowed to do some damage to him before they killed me.

“Who?” I growled back.

He snorted, his snout dripping with mucus, before crouching in front of me, threats dancing in his black eyes. “Smell her. Mixed with you. We will find. And it will be proof. Of war, Drix,” he hissed.

He lifted his spear, and I closed my eyes just as the sharp point slammed into my shoulder. Hot pain shot through my arm, and I forced myself to remain still and silent despite the spear sticking out of my flecking shoulder.

When I opened my eyes, my vision swam with pain. My stomach churned. “You won’t find her.”

Suddenly, a voice pierced the air, and the sound of it hurt worse than the spear in my shoulder. “Kent!”

The Wutarks immediately homed in on the location of Tasha’s voice.

“Run!” I hollered and groaned as the spear jostled painfully in my shoulder.

“Kent!” she cried again, and I cursed everything—that she saw me like this, that she hadn’t run when I told her to, and that I’d completely lost control of the situation.

“Get!” The guard crouched in front of me ordered to his five warriors, and they took off in their dizzying Wutark speed. They’d reach her in mere moments.

I lashed out with my tail, hitting the Wutark in the side of the head with the spiked tip just as I pulled the spear from my shoulder. He roared, clutching his bleeding head, while I staggered to my feet. With blood dripping down my chest, I turned on a heel and ran to Tasha.

I expected to hear her screams as the Wutarks grabbed her, but instead the first sound to reach me from the tree cover where she hid was a pained, garbled shout from a Wutark. The Wutark I’d struck had recovered and was on my heels. I burst past the tree line, skidding to a halt before I careened into the stream, and swung to race down the bank.

A body collided with mine, taking me off my feet, and I flailed as I went sailing through the air. The Wutark I’d struck sneered at me as he raced past.

I hit the stream with a splash, and gulped a lungful of qua before I surfaced, sputtering. Limbs aching, shoulder screaming, and hope flagging that we’d get out of this alive, I nearly drowned with the weight of despair. “No,” I rasped hoarsely to myself as I struck out toward the bank with strong strokes. I had to get out. I had to fight until the very flecking end for Tasha.

I climbed up the bank, digging my claws into mud and roots and stumbled to my feet, terrified at what I would see.

Bodies littered the ground. Wutark bodies, all bleeding from whip-like wounds. “What?” I whispered as I lurched forward.

“Stop!” Tasha’s voice cried out, and I went still. Swinging my head toward the source of her voice, I saw what had killed the Wutarks. Haru’kan plants. Hidden behind a dense nest of vines, a whole cluster had taken out the Wutarks when they chased her voice at full speed. I had nearly run into them too, but Tasha’s voice had saved me.

But not all of them. The guard who’d I’d struck remained. He snorted and stomped, black eyes on Tasha, as she carefully kept the cluster of haru’kan plants between them.

Six Wutarks against one Drixonian wasn’t a fair fight, but Tasha had now eliminated their advantage. All I had to do was seize it. I crossed my arms at my neck and unleashed my machets. The familiar ripple of the spikes on my arms, head, and back lifted my courage. I wasn’t the most skilled fighter among the Drixonians, but I had the most to fight for right now.

The Wutark hefted another spear and aimed it at her. She dodged it, but the action took her off balance, and she hit the ground hard on her hip. The Wutark shouted victoriously and rounded the cluster of plants in two strides.

But I was on the other side, and I made it in two strides too. Tasha rolled out of the way as the Wutark and I collided in mid-air. We hit the ground on a grunt, and I immediately slashed out with my machets, aiming for his face. He swung his head, and the blades merely scraped his nose. Still, blood beaded, and he roared in anger.

He rolled backward and came to his hooved feet in one fluid movement while drawing a large blade from his belt.

I, too, came to my feet and didn’t wait for him to initiate the next attack. Surging forward, I lashed out with my tail, catching him behind the knee with the spiked tip while also shoving my head spikes into the unprotected area under his chin.

His bellow echoed off the trees, and the smell of his blood filled the air. He lashed out with his blade, carving a chunk out of my chest. We traded blows after that, until my entire body was one bloody source of agony.

I didn’t let up, despite the pain coursing through my body. I had to kill all of them. The only way to prevent a war, to save Tasha and myself, was to silence any witnesses about what happened here.

Roaring my last battle cry, I came at him in a volley of punches and slashes. He reeled from my attack and fumbled his blade. It was the only in I needed. Planting a foot in his chest, I kicked out. Before he even hit the ground. I raked my forearm machets across his neck. Blood spurted, and when he landed flat on his back, he let out a few gurgles before falling silent.

Clutching my shoulder, I fell to my knees. Woozy with pain and fatigue, I kept my eye on the Wutark, worried he’d somehow get up again to continue the battle. But he remained still. Not even a finger twitch.

Tasha’s smell surrounded me as arms wrapping around my neck. “Kent,” she whispered. Her hair tickled my nose and my lips, and her fingers trembled as they slipped through the bloody mess of my chest. A sob wrenched from her throat. “Shit. Shit.” She grabbed my face and looked into my eyes. Her lips moved, but the sound took a long time to catch up. “What can I do?”

“Border.” I gasped. “Have to get… border.”

“Right,” she nodded, and suddenly I saw two of her. My whole body was on fire. My arms ached from the fight. My wrists too—had I snapped some bones on the Wutark’s armor?

I lifted my hands and rotated my wrists, and when my eyes finally focused, my breath caught in my lungs.

Tasha

I’d taken a risk, and now I wasn’t so sure it had paid off. Kent’s cheeks had paled, he swayed on his knees, and his glassy eyes couldn’t focus on me.

The blood was… everywhere. All over Kent, his clothes, the ground, and now on me. My stomach clenched at the gagging scent, and I couldn’t even touch Kent properly without my hands slipping off his scales from the slick blood.

Now he stared at his wrists, and I grabbed them. “Look at me.”

He trembled, and when he lifted his head, his breath stuttered out from between his swollen lips. “L-loks.”

A pain pricked at my wrists, but I ignored it. I might have sprained one when I fell dodging the spear. “What?”

He jerked his hands from mine and then grabbed my hand to hold my arm in between our faces. “Loks!”

The word made no sense, but I hissed as the burning in my wrists grew stronger. I tried to tug my hand from his grip, but he held on. Movement caught my eye, and my gaze swung to our wrists. There, etching into the skin of our wrists like an invisible tattoo, were two black parallel lines a few inches apart. I held up my other hand, the pain nearly forgotten now as I stared at the same marks on both of my wrists.

“K-Kent?” I gasped as the two parallel lines met, and then between them, like a thick wrist cuff, a pattern began to emerge in thin black lines, harsh slashes that reminded me of the marks on the Fatas Tower.

When the pattern completed all the way around our wrists, the lines flashed a bright, blinding white before dulling to a slick gold. The pain evaporated just as a headache began to form. I clutched my head, feeling like my skull was swelling. In my mind, silver sands swirled, coating everything in a fine dust, softening the edges of all my harsh lines until it all settled. The pain ended. I let my hands fall into my lap as I lifted my head.

Kent stared at his wrists, rotating them back and forth, his jaw slack. The massive blade wound in his chest no longer bled. In fact, it was mostly healed, and the spear hole in his shoulder looked like an old, puckered bullet wound.

I reached out, brushing my fingers over the blood remaining on his chest, but sure enough, the cut was closed. Healing. How was that possible?

He placed his hand over mine, and my gaze fell to our matching wrist marks. My heart pounded in my chest as our eyes met. “What happened?”

He inhaled deeply, violet eyes now soft and focused. Pain-free. “Loks,” he whispered again.

But that word still meant nothing to me. “I don’t understand.”

His head went up and he scanned the horizon. I immediately scented the air, but I couldn’t smell much over the bodies of the dead Wutarks. He pulled me to my feet. “I’ll explain once we are in our borders. I don’t know if there are more Wutarks.”

He took off running as if he hadn’t been stabbed and slashed. I kept pace with him pretty well, surprised by my stamina. I felt like I had renewed strength, like I’d just eaten protein and had a shot of adrenaline. I rotated my wrist in front of me. Did these marks have something to do with him healing and my energy?

By the time we reached the tree with the flag, Kent was nearly sprinting. I barely kept up, but the promise of safety made me pump my arms and legs faster than I ever had.

We hit the tree line of the border and Kent sped another hundred yards before stopping with a slide onto his knees. I collapsed onto my back beside him as I fought to catch my breath.

“You did it,” he panted. “That was your plan, right? To use the haru’kan plants to kill the Wutarks?”

I nodded. “Wasn’t sure if it would work, but I couldn’t leave you out there all alone.” I reached for him. “I swore to myself after my brother’s death that no one else I cared about gets to sacrifice themselves for me.”

“You sacrificed for me,” he said.

I shook my head. “No, we were a team.”

“Tasha—” he began, just as a buzzing sound filled the air.

I jerked to a sitting position, alert and on guard, until I recognized the sound. “Drixonian bikes?”

He nodded with a small smile. “Yes. Look, about our loks—”

“Is that what these are called?” I ran my fingers over the marks. The skin was smooth, just like a tattoo.”

“Yes, and—”

His words were drowned out by the loud roar of half a dozen Drixonian bikes cutting through the trees, racing toward us with laser guns drawn.

“Holy shit,” I murmured as Kent pulled me to my feet next to him. We stood still as they swarmed us. Two raced off toward the border edge, and the rest came to a halt, the bikes settling on the ground.

The sands in my mind rose to form a wall, and calm determination swept over me. I glanced at Kent, confused what this entity was in my head that made me feel things.

The Drixonian leading the group wore his hair in one long braid, and nipple rings hung from his huge pectorals. He hopped off the bike and sauntered toward us, while a mohawked Drixonian wearing lots of rings on his hands followed him.

“Lukent,” said the braided Drixonian.

“Sax,” Kent greeted, crossing his wrists in front of his neck.

Sax went still, his gaze narrowing on Kent’s wrists, and then he sucked in a breath. “What the fleck—?”

Kent went pale, and immediately dropped his wrists at his side. His chest heaved, and a weird tension filled the air.

“Um, hi,” I waved to Sax, who immediately swung his gaze not to my face, but to my wrists.

“For fleck’s sake,” he muttered.

The mohawked Drixonian let out a cackle, the sudden sound making Kent flinch at my side. “Another one bites the dust.”

Sax turned with a frown. “What does that mean?”

The other one rolled his eyes, the action so human I was taken aback. “Val doesn’t teach you anything fun.”

Kent had remained motionless during this conversation, but suddenly took a step forward. Sax’s nubbed brow lifted as if surprised by the action. Kent lifted his chin in the air. “This is Tasha. Tasha, this is Sax and Xavy of the Night Kings clavas.”

Sax nodded at me. “Nice to meet you.”

Xavy waved. “Hey there.”

“This is the female you rescued from the Wutarks?” Sax asked.

Kent nodded.

“Did Kutzal leave out the cora-eternal part on purpose or…?” Sax hooked his thumbs in the waistband of his pants.

The way he said the words weren’t exactly unfriendly, but they weren’t friendly either. I stepped closer to Kent and gripped his arm for support. But this Kent was different than the one who’d backed down to Kutzal. He gazed at Sax with steady confidence. “That happened on the way.”

“You mean these?” I held up my wrists and looked up to Kent. “What are they called?”

His expression remained neutral. “Loks.”

“Yeah, so these just happened. I don’t know what they mean though.” I rubbed at my wrists and looked to Sax. He was carefully watching Kent, and I didn’t like the slight amount of mistrust there. “What’s going on?” I asked. “Why are you looking at him like that?”

Sax’s lip curled into a smirk. “How do you want me to look at him?”

“Like he’s a hero who rescued me, kept me alive, and is now helping me find the rest of my friends who are out there somewhere.” I flung my hand behind me.

“What else is he to you?” Sax asked.

I wasn’t sure what word to use that would make sense to a Drixonian. They didn’t have husbands here, did they? And mate didn’t accurately describe to me what he was. I slipped my hand into his and laced his fingers together. “He’s mine,” I said. “And I’m his.”

The sand door in my mind shook and then collapsed into a small hill.

Sax held my gaze for a moment before huffing out a small laugh. “Just checking.” He looked at Kent with a nod. “Let’s get you to Granit, hero. The welcome committee is waiting.”

FIFTEEN

TASHA

We rode into Granit like a parade. One of the warriors gave up their bike to Kent, so I could ride with him. I leaned back against his chest and gripped his thighs as we made our way down a wide paved street. Buildings rose on either side of us, many with scaffolding supporting ongoing repairs.

The road curved and then widened, and I gasped as a large building rose in front of us. “Wow,” I whispered to myself. Large blocks the size of a small sedan and colored a light jade made up the walls. Some were cracked and stained with time but made an impressive structure. Newer wooden planks and a mud caulking was mixed in, leading me to believe that the building had seen some repairs in order to be habitable.

Standing at the top of a set of wide stone stairs were a fleet of Drixonians.

My palms began to sweat, and Kent, seeming to sense my nerves before I did, patted my stomach. “I’ll be with you, warrior.”

He knew just what to say—he didn’t placate me by telling me everything would be okay, or that the women would just love me. He offered his support, which is all I really wanted. I laid my palm over his hand and gave it a squeeze in acknowledgement as the bikes came to rest at the bottom of the stairs.

I gazed up, and recognized who must be Daz—he stood slightly in front, and wore an armband that was red and tinged with gold, while the rest wore plain red. His violet eyes watched me carefully.

The elevated position with which he looked down at us made me uncomfortable. Kent helped me dismount, and the sands in my mind swirled restlessly.

Suddenly a small figure with pale skin and long dark hair darted out from behind Daz and ran down the stairs on flat sandals. Behind her, two more women skipped down, one also pale with messy purple hair and the other a Black woman with long braids.

They ran so fast the one with long dark hair tripped and would have went flying if the braided woman hadn’t grabbed her in time. “Slow down before you break something,” she admonished.

“Fra-kee!” Bellowed who I believed to be Daz as he made his way down the stairs.

“I’m fine,” she called over her shoulder before sliding to a stop in front of me. Shorter than me by a few inches, she beamed, her flushed cheeks highlighting the freckles dotting her nose. Suddenly, she launched herself at me, throwing her arms around my neck. “I’m so glad you made it here safely.”

Stunned at her enthusiastic greeting, I stood stiffly as she pulled back and smiled. “I’m Frankie, Daz’s mate.”

“I’m Miranda,” said the woman with braids, and that’s Tabitha.” She jerked a thumb toward the woman with purple hair and an intricately carved white necklace. She gave me a little wave. “Hi.”

Daz and the rest of the warriors made their way down the stairs, so no longer were they standing above us like some weird power move. His mate, Frankie, was here now, welcoming me with a kind smile.

“I-I’m Tasha,” Kent’s warm body at my back comforted me. “Nice to meet you.”

“There are more of us,” Frankie explained. “More women. Some kiddos. A few pets. But we have pared down the welcoming committee to reduce anxiety. A survey conducted recently expressed that we can be, and I quote, ‘overwhelming and loud,’ which was a hard pill to swallow, but I take my position as president of the committee seriously.” Frankie smiled brightly.

I blinked, a bit taken aback by the whole organization of it all. I’d been living off the land for years, and here these women were with clothes, mates, kids, and a fucking city. I didn’t begrudge them, but I couldn’t deny that I wasn’t envious as hell.

I swallowed. “I think… that’s a wise choice.”

“She looks overwhelmed with just three of us,” Tabitha elbowed Miranda. “I told you we should just send Frankie.”

“Frankie can’t be trusted alone.”

“What does that mean?” Frankie turned around with a whip of her hair.

“You told her about the survey. That’s weird, Frank.”

“It’s not weird. I just don’t want her to think they only let a few of us about in the daylight or something like that.”

I lifted a hand. “Um, I-I wouldn’t think—”

“I think she knows about Drixonians by now, Frankie. She has freaking loks.”

“What?” Frankie screeched and whirled around to face me.

Dax, who’d greeted Sax and was on his way to us, stopped suddenly, his gaze swinging quickly to his mate. “What?” he barked as he made it to her side in one step.

“Fleck,” Kent muttered under his breath.

I tried to hide my wrists, but it was too late. What was the big deal with these lok things anyway? So, I held them up instead and rotated them. “Um, hi.”

Frankie grabbed my wrists and inspected the design. “Look at hers! So pretty.” She shoved her loks in my face, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed them until now. “We all have them, see?”

But theirs were different patterns. In fact… Frankie’s matched Daz’s. Mine matched Kent’s. “Wait…” I pointed to Miranda. “Does your pattern match your mate’s?”

She nodded. “Yep, it’s like a fingerprint. A mate fingerprint.”

I slowly turned to Kent. “These are… mate marks?”

The sands in my mind shuddered as Kent took my hand. “I didn’t have time to explain yet.” He glanced at Frankie and licked his lower lip nervously. “I don’t fully understand them myself. I never thought I’d be blessed by Fatas with loks.”

So, I looked to Frankie. “What does it mean?”

She smiled at me, reaching for my arm. “It’s kind of like you’re soul mates. Do you feel something in your mind that hadn’t been before?”

“Yes,” I felt my eyes bug out. “Like shifting silver sands that are sentient—”

“That’s him,” she pointed at Kent. “You can feel his emotions. We call it an aura.”

“Does that mean he can…”

“I can,” he said softly. “In my mind, you are a river.”

“Huh, well that’s kinda badass.”

Frankie patted my arm. “Are you… okay with this?”

“With what?”

“Being his mate. It’s triggered when he kills someone who drew your blood, so sometimes it might be unwanted, although Fatas hasn’t chosen wrong for us yet.”

I quickly stepped to Kent’s side. I had to make this loud and clear. “I do choose him. We already—” Kent made a strangled noise in his throat, and I tried again. “We had already committed to each other. They tried to send another warrior with me on the way here, and I uh, ran away to find Kent.”

Tabitha let out a bark of laughter. “Perfect. She’ll fit right in with us.”

“Let’s get them food and let them rest.” Daz announced. He held Kent’s eyes. “You did good, warrior. Do you need any injuries attended to?”

“Yeah,” I began, “he—”

“I’m fine,” Kent said, patting my arm. “Food would be good.”

“But the spear—”

“I’m fine, Tash,” he smoothed my hair and gripped the back of my neck. “And you need to eat too.”

Frankie clapped. “Yes, food! That is the next part of our welcoming committee planning. Sorry we got derailed there.” She turned to Miranda and lowered her voice to a whisper which was not soft at all. “Run quick and tell the girls we have some loks to celebrate now, too. We weren’t prepared for this.”

Miranda stared at her like she was nuts. “Frankie, it’s fine—”

Frankie’s loud clap cut her off. “At least have them make cookies or some shit.”

Miranda rolled her eyes and grabbed Tabitha. They jogged up the stairs, whispering together, while Frankie turned to me as if I hadn’t heard everything. “I can lead you to the feast.”

She looped her arm in mine and tugged me up the stairs. I didn’t resist, finding myself charmed with Frankie. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected—maybe to be marched before some sort of court with scary alien men and their adorned and pampered human women. But despite the grandness of the city, these women were kind. Daz didn’t bark orders or lord over anyone. I looked over my shoulder to see him walking amongst the warriors like anyone else. Next to Kent, Xavy talked animatedly, and I caught a few words about “making spirits.”

In the back of my mind, I wondered how everyone would feel if they knew what I’d been through, what the Uldani had done to me, and that my friends and I were far from the perfect mates they had now. But with Frankie talking happily in my ear about all the repairs they’d done to the building, I found myself willing to leave the ugly truth for another day.

Kent

“They’re noodles,” Tasha said quietly as we sat in the loud, crowded dining hall.

“They taste like wet, chewy bread,” I answered, poking at them with my knife as they swam in a thick broth.

She snorted. “I take it you don’t like them then.”

I shoved a few in my mouth, slurping up the ones that tried to escape. “I didn’t say I didn’t like them.”

She smiled at me and went back to eating her own plate. We sat at a table with some elder members of the Night Kings—Shep and his mate, Hap, as well as Tark and his mate, Anna. They were less chaotic than some of the other tables, which crawled with children and pets.

Gar walked by with a twin daughter on each shoulder tugging at his horns, and overhead a hilphen flapped her wings before settling on the shoulder of a woman with long dark hair and a baby on her hip.

Anna and Tark’s daughter, Bazel, the oldest of the human and Drixonian children sat down with a tired exhale next to her mother. “These kids are exhausting.”

“I won’t tell if you sneak out to take a nap,” Anna said, patting her daughter on the shoulder.

I tried not to stare but seeing a female with Drixonian blood would never cease to amaze me. From the top of Bazel’s head sprouted short horns, and her long dark hair lay loose and wavy on her shoulders. She grabbed a roll with her light blue hand and made eye contact with me. “Hi, Lukent.”

I swallowed. “Hello, Bazel.”

“I’m Tasha,” my mate spoke up. She appeared less nervous, probably because Anna and Lea exuded a welcoming calm.

Bazel smiled, her small fangs peeking out from beneath her top lip. “I’m happy you made it here safe.”

“All thanks to Kent.” She patted my arm.

Bazel’s eyes dropped to her loks. She blinked, long dark eyelashes brushing her cheeks as a flush appeared on her pale blue skin. “I see you’re mated.” She glanced down with a slight pout. “All the warriors here treat me like I’m a baby.”

Tark’s back snapped straight. “You are a—”

“I’m not a baby. Mom said I’m past puberty.”

“Oh man,” Hap whispered, while Shep coughed.

“Bazel, we can have a conversation about this, but now is not the time,” Anna said with a gentle kindness.

“It’ll never be the time,” Tark whispered under his breath, which earned him a smack on the stomach from Anna. He grunted and shoved food in his mouth.

Bazel seemed happy with the promise of a future conversation and let out a sigh as she glanced around. “I’m going to take you up on that promise of a nap. Cover for me if someone comes looking for a babysitter.”

Anna nodded. “You can count on me. Go now!”

Bazel smiled, gave us a wave, and jogged out of the dining hall.

“That girl…” Tark began around a mouthful of food.

“It’s normal for her to start to have interest, Tark. This city is full of single warriors who look at her like she’s a steak,” Anna snapped.

“Who?” Tark barked. “Point them out to me.”

Anna rolled her eyes. “You going to take on everyone?”

“Try me.”

She let out a laugh and shook her head. “Enough out of you. So Tasha, how did you come to be in this galaxy.”

Tasha seemed taken aback by the direct question. The river in my mind bubbled and splashed up the banks. “Um… well, it’s kind of a long story…”

Anna seemed to pick up on Tasha’s hesitation. “Want to hear mine?”

Tasha nodded quickly. “Yes, please.”

Anna regaled us with a story I’d heard before but never tired of—how she crash landed on Torin and was captured by Tark and Shep’s clavas. But the drexel at the time had decided to abandon the Drixonian honor and wanted to sell her to the Uldani. Tark risked his life and saved her. They lived alone for many rotations, birthing Bazel, until Daz searched for him when he needed a translator implant for Frankie.

“We had been scared for so long of being found,” Anna said. “Our trust in Drixonians had been broken, but Daz renewed it. We joined him shortly after, and it’s been wonderful for Tark, for Bazel, and for me to be around humans again. Bazel gets to learn about both of her cultures.”

“I’m so glad Tark rescued you,” Tasha said quietly. I gripped her hand under the table. She knew all too well what would have happened if Anna would have been sold to the Uldani.

Anna fell silent, watching Tasha carefully, who sat with her eyes downcast. Suddenly she jerked her hands to her nose and swung her alarmed gaze to me. I smelled her blood just as a small drop slipped down her lips.

I grabbed a cloth and shoved it to her nose just as Anna stood up quickly and called to a table next to us. “Val! Val, come here.”

Sax’s mate and healer rushed over. “A nosebleed?” She immediately directed Tasha to lean her head back. “Did something happen?”

I spoke up for Tasha. “She gets them sometimes and knows how to handle them. She’ll be fine.”

“She gets frequent nosebleeds?” Val said with a frown. “That shouldn’t be happening.” She knelt next to Tasha. “Did this happen after you arrived in this galaxy?”

Tasha stared at her, and the river in my mind crashed against a rock, spraying white foam. Tugging Tasha to my side, I directed Val’s attention to me. “Thanks, Val. She’ll be okay.”

Val studied me for a moment while Tasha remained silent, a slight tremble to her limbs as she kept the cloth pressed to her nose. Nodding, Val stood and placed a hand on Tasha’s shoulder. “I’m here if you want to talk or have me run any tests.” She smiled as her voice dropped to a soft tone. “Nothing is off limits here, okay? None of us are the same.”

Tasha swallowed, gazing up at the female, before nodding. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Val nodded, patted her shoulder, and then returned to her table to sit back down beside Sax. He threw an arm around her, talking loudly, but Val’s eyes kept drifting toward Tasha.

I slowly drew a silent and shivering Tasha to her feet. “I think it’s best we get some rest.”

Hap leaped up. “Let me show you to your room.”

“Much appreciated,” I said.

“I should find Frankie and thank her,” Tasha mumbled from behind the cloth held to her nose. “This has been such a nice welcome.”

Anna waved her off. “No need. Go rest. I’ll tell her that you appreciated it.”

“Are you sure—?”

“Go,” Anna insisted. “We’ve all been where you are at one point. We get it. Rest.”

The tension in Tasha’s shoulders faded. “Thank you.”

“Take care of her, Kent,” Shep said solemnly. “This is a lot for anyone.”

I nodded, and we followed Hap out of the raucous dining hall.

SIXTEEN

TASHA

Away from the din of the dining hall, the tension slowly eased from my body. Guilt followed on its heels. Everyone had been so kind to us, and they’d made a damn feast. But after being alone for so long with only a few of my friends, the large crowd was all too much for me to handle.

Hap glanced over his shoulder at me and smiled, and I returned a genuine one. Hap and his mate, Shep, were like the sweet uncles of the clavas. I had been surprised to see a same-sex couple, but also absolutely elated to see how they were accepted and treated just like every other mate pair.

The inside walls of the Hall were lined with newly constructed wooden planks, and I ran my hands over the smooth boards as we walked down a hallway lined with lanterns. Hap opened a door near a set of stairs and gestured for us to walk in ahead of him. “There’s a bed with freshly cleaned furs, some extra clothes for both of you, and Frankie insisted that there were snacks and drinks for you as well. Tabitha said Frankie’s love language is food.”

I smiled. “I’ll never turn down snacks.” Another five pounds of guilt weighed down my shoulders. They’d done so much for us, more than I ever thought they would, but I couldn’t seem to find comfort in it. It was like I forgot how to relax and enjoy anything. “The meal today was so good, so please pass along how appreciative I am. I don’t want them to think—”

“It’s okay. You arriving here safe and cared for by Kent is all any of them ever wanted. I promise.” He chewed the inside of his cheek. “I’m going to guess this is a bit of an adjustment.”

I swallowed with a nod.

“I thought so. Take your time. We’ll see you again when you’re ready.”

Kent stepped up to my side. “Thank you, Hap.”

Hap bade us goodbye and then left. When the door clicked shut behind him, my knees buckled. Kent caught me brow knitted in concern. The day had caught up to me. The horror of watching that Wutark slam a spear into Kent’s shoulder, the trepidation as I led the Wutarks into the haru’kan plant trap, and then the loks…No wonder I hadn’t been the best guest. On top of that, I was nervous for the meeting with Daz tomorrow.

Kent basically shoved me inside the cleanser, where I stripped myself of all my filthy clothes, some of them mostly rags, and stood underneath the air until I felt like a new person again.

When I emerged, Kent helped me into a large, soft shirt that hung down to my knees. I hugged it to my chest as he dropped a kiss on my nose and retreated to the cleanser himself. While he’d wiped off most of the blood on his skin before the meal, he still bore evidence of his deadly battle.

While I sat on the bed, munching on a soft cheese, he emerged from the cleanser naked. My mouth open, full of cheese, as he strode toward me, half-hard cock swinging between thick thighs. His tail swung lazily, and his loose hair flowed down his back. Even without his clothes or his weapons, he looked every inch a warrior.

He caught me looking and slowed to look down at his chest. His clawed hands brushed the large scar from the Wutark’s blade. “Does it look that bad?”

I shook my head, finally chewing and swallowing. “I wasn’t looking at that. I barely notice your scars. Any of them. They’re just … a part of you.”

His eyes crinkled at the corners as he collapsed onto the bed next to me and reached out his arms. “Come lay with me,” he murmured. Like I was going to turn that down. I snuggled into his side while his strong fingers massaged the back of my neck. “Are you feeling more relaxed now?”

“You could tell?”

“Tash, you were strung so tight, I thought you’d snap.”

“There were just… so many people.”

“I’m not used to it either. I’m rarely even at the Lone Howl camp. I prefer to patrol alone.”

I shifted my head on his biceps so I could see his face. “Where do I fit into that?”

“I still prefer to be alone. With you.”

“Will I patrol with you?”

He dipped his chin. “Whatever we do, we’ll decide together.”

Lifting myself slightly, I dropped a kiss on his lips before pressing our foreheads together. “You always say the right thing.”

“I say what I mean.”

“I know,” I cupped his cheek and ran my thumb along his lip scar. “That’s what makes it even better.”

“You’re still a little tense though,” he remarked.

I sighed. “Of course, I am. Of all times for my nose to bleed, it was tonight where everyone could see. I know Val suspected something else was going on. And I’m nervous for the meeting with Daz tomorrow. What if he deems searching for my friends too dangerous? What if—”

I let out a grunt as Kent rolled me to my back. “Tasha.”

“What?” I huffed.

“There’s no sense in worrying about it now. What will be will be.”

“But, Kent—” His eyes gleamed as his fingers brushed my inner thigh. I sucked in a breath and tried to glare. “You’re distracting me.”

“Is it working?” With a sensual slide, he settled himself further down the bed between my legs.

I tried to push him away to continue our conversation, but there was no moving the Drixonian with a pussy-licking plan. With his eyes fixed firmly on me, he extended that long, pierced tongue of his and lapped at me. He lifted one of my legs to settle over his shoulders as he took his time spreading my folds with two long fingers while alternating between dipping into my entrance and toying with my clit. He worked me achingly slow, like he was savoring an expensive meal.

He built me up slow, but as soon as my legs began to tremble, he backed off. I reached down and gripped his hair, hard, but he only grinned at me wickedly with a grunt. “Where’d you learn this?” I growled at him.

He didn’t answer, only ate at me harder, backing off again until I was tugging his hair harder and kicking his back with my heels. Only then did he spear me with that talented tongue while I came against his mouth on a scream of release.

He rose over me, eyes glowing and plunging his thick cock inside of me, rocking his hips with a tantalizing rhythm until I came again. He covered my mouth with his, groaning out his orgasm down my throat as he spent himself inside of me.

Limbs like jelly, I lay nearly motionless as Kent cleaned me up. Then he laid down next to me and pulled me against his chest.

“Better now?” He murmured as his hands stroked my hair.

“Mmm,” I mumbled.

He let out a husky laugh. “I take that as a yes.”

“That was a dirty strategy,” I said on a yawn. “And I won’t complain if you do it again.”

“Sleep, cora-eternal. We’ll worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.”

“What does that mean? Cora-eternal?”

He held up his wrist. “When our females were still alive, these loks were not common. We chose our mates, and only some were blessed as cora-eternals by Fatas and given loks.”

“Really? Every mated pair here had them.”

“We don’t know why Fatas has chosen to bless us with fated mates. Maybe after all we’ve been through, this is our reward.” He laced my fingers with his and settled them on his chest. “I never thought I’d have a mate, let alone a cora-eternal and a warrior like you,” he said softly, chest rumbling with his low tone. “We always kept our place in society, but our one rebellion is our piercings.”

I propped my head onto my elbow. “How so?”

“The piercings are for adornment, but cock piercings are specifically made for female pleasure, and seeing as we would never have mates…” he shrugged. “We were never pierced in the official ceremony most warriors receive.”

I couldn’t even fathom. “There’s a dick-piercing ceremony?”

“So we all did it ourselves.”

“Yourselves?” I squeaked.

“An older son of naught pierced us.” He shrugged. “I always wondered if it mattered.”

I patted his chest. “It matters, Kent. I promise you. It matters.” A shiver ran down my back as I recalled the sensation of his piercing inside of me.

He smiled. “I’m glad to know.”

“Just like you never thought you’d have a mate, I never thought I’d live this long on this planet. My friends and I had merely been surviving for so long. Sometimes I feel so guilty for every time you make me happy, for every smile, every bit of pleasure knowing my friends are out there likely not safe.”

“That’s one way to look at it. Another way is that by staying alive, you’re their hope for rescue.”

I blinked at him as his words shifted a weight in my mind. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

“If they knew what you were doing now, and all you went through to ensure that we would be on board to find them, they’d be cheering for you. I’m sure of it.” Kent stroked my back. “So, we will rescue them, every last one, and we will show them how to smile again.”

I closed my eyes, sending up one last wish to Fatas. She’d kept Kent alive, and now we just had to bring my friends home.

Kent

Rain poured in Tasha’s aura. The river flooded the riverbanks, crashing into trees. Her emotions were such a mess I had trouble concentrating on Daz’s words. I knew she could sense my emotions too, so I forced myself to stay calm and steady. If only she knew… if only she knew that whatever request she’d made of Fatas, I’d bolstered it. Because my request? I’d asked Fatas to please make Tasha’s wish come true. That was all I wanted.

We sat at a large table surrounded by Drixonian artifacts I’d long thought lost—history books, a sculpture of the Fatas Tower, and art depicting legendary warriors of past generations. When I was a chit, I’d never expected to step foot into a great room like this, and now here I was sitting before the head drexel. On either side of him were Sax and Gar.

I’d always tried to remain quiet around Daz—I thought it was best not to draw attention to myself. But here, the focus was on me.

Daz’s intense eyes bored into mine. “Do we have any idea where the females are?”

“No, but we know the location they were taken. We can start there and begin tracking.”

Daz sighed and rubbed his forehead. “You sure they were taken by Wutarks?” he asked Tasha.

Her leg shook. “Yes, but they weren’t taken where I was.”

“And you can give warriors directions on where to start tracking?”

Her mouth opened and closed soundlessly for a moment before she said, “I plan to help track.”

Daz blinked. “I’m sorry?”

“I want to help look. I can smell—” she coughed and glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. “I know them the best. I should be involved.”

“It’s dangerous. You can stay here with the rest of the females—”

“Respectfully, I don’t want to.”

Daz bit down on his lower lip. “I see.”

“It’s not that I don’t like them,” Tasha said quickly. “Your mate is lovely and very kind. But my friends…” she lost steam and chewed the inside of her cheek.

“She is every bit the warrior that I am,” I cut in. Tasha’s head bowed, and her lower lip quivered. “It’s important to her to be involved in finding the females, and she deserves it. I will be by her side protecting her every step of the way.”

Leaning back in his chair, he folded his arms across his stomach. “You realize what’s at stake here.”

“The lives of five females, yes.” I answered, and his eyes darkened, but I wasn’t finished. “As well as the population of Granit and the surrounding Drixonian villages. The risk is not lost on me.”

“We cannot afford a full-out war with the Wutarks. These are not the Uldani or the Kulks. I cannot ask the Kaluma to provide any warriors either knowing the casualties we will suffer.”

Next to me, Tasha’s breathing quickened, and I squeezed her hand.

“This is my request,” I began. “Please spare a few warriors to return to the Lone Howl camp to help us patrol. I, along with a few from our clavas will search for the females. If we get caught, we will claim lonas status and take the entire fall.”

Daz’s eyes narrowed. “You want me to allow you to sacrifice yourselves?”

I lifted my chin and held his gaze. “We’re Lone Howls. It’s what we’ve always done and what’s always been expected of us.”

His fist slammed onto the table, and he looked about ready to explode, but Sax laid a hand on his arm and dug his claws into his brother’s scales. “Settle.”

I kept still while inside my heart pounded out of my chest and my stomach had twisted itself into a thousand knots.

Daz dropped his head between his shoulders and unclenched his fist slowly until his palm lay flat on the table. “I have been neglectful.”

I frowned. “Excuse me?”

He lifted his head and leaned back with a rough exhale. “Old beliefs are hard to overcome sometimes. Nothing I say can make up for how you were treated as a chit and all you’ve gone through because of an outdated rule.”

Tasha sucked in a breath as Daz continued. “I let Kutzal isolate you all because I thought it was what he wanted. I’ve been so busy with my family and rebuilding Granit that I didn’t take the time to speak with him as I should. So, here’s my promise. I’ll do better. I’ll make sure all the warriors do better. The time of naughts and punishing their offspring can no longer be a part of Drixonian rule. I thought this long ago, but now Fatas has confirmed it with the loks you bear, and the respect with which you speak of your warrior mate.”

At a loss for words, I could only stare at him. We’d spent our whole lives on the fringes of Drixonian society, tainted and ignored.

“I…” I chewed the inside of my cheek. “It is hard to change a belief in one generation.”

“It is,” he agreed. “But it can be done.” He spread his arms out. “Look what we’ve accomplished so far. We’ve retuned to Granit and have rebuilt. We can also get rid of the idea of the sons of naught.”

“But,” I said softly as the brand in my neck burned. “We cannot undo what’s been undone. For many of us.”

Daz hands curled into fists on top of the table. “I understand that. All I can say is that it ends now. This will not carry on for your offspring.”

I nearly choked as Tasha gripped my hand and offered me a smile. I had never imagined I’d have my own chits. It’d been forbidden for me, and no Drixonian female would have even gotten close to me. But now… I had a cora eternal, a warrior human who could potentially grow round with my chit.

I nodded, unable to speak. Some of my clavas would remain skeptical, I was sure, and others, like Vinz, would never fit into the main hub of Drixonian society. But lifting the sanctions put in place by a long-ago council would do a lot to healing some wounds.

“I will send warriors with you to help patrol. Once you have more information on where the females are, we can reassess support. For now, the lonas defense is our strategy. I cannot risk the entirety of the Drixonian society.” He tapped his finger on the table. “And I’m also curious why they sent so many warriors for one female who they planned to sacrifice anyway. There’s more to this, and until we have all the information, I don’t want to risk the delicate agreement we have with the Wutarks.”

I nodded. “I understand, and this is all we asked. The Lone Howl clavas will find them, and we will bring them home safe and sound.”

“Home is subjective,” Daz said. He looked to Tasha. “You want to stay with Kent at his camp?”

She nodded quickly. “Granit is beautiful, and I appreciate the welcome we received, but my home is with Kent.”

Daz smiled. “That’s the answer I expected. I’ll break it to Frankie, who’ll probably shed a few of her tears over it, but she only ever wants happiness for the females. She has said that many choices have been taken from them, and so she wishes that they be given the chance to make their own choices moving forward.”

If only Frankie knew just how many choices had been taken from Tasha. I glanced at her as a few tears spilled over her bottom lashes to slip down her cheek. She swayed in her seat and then said on a cracked whisper, “Thank you.”

SEVENTEEN

TASHA

“Did we do it?” I tugged on Kent’s hands as we walked back to our room after the meeting with Daz. “Did we get permission?”

Kent smiled. “We did, and I think it’s a good compromise. We can protect the Drixonian population as its beginning to grow, while still prioritizing finding your friends.”

“Are you sure Kutzal and the rest of your clavas will be on board?” I chewed my lip. Kutzal had been like a brick wall.

He smoothed my hair off my head. “I promise. Most will look forward to the task. It’s an honor to be of service to females.”

A shiver ran down my back from excitement. “I can’t wait to get started.”

“Daz said we can leave in two rotations with the reinforcements.”

“Can’t come soon enough.” A little skip entered my step. Kent had been right. Instead of feeling guilty about the happiness I felt with him, and the safe life I was living now, I felt encouraged that this was the way to save my friends.

When we reached the door to our room, a pretty woman was standing outside. She wore simpler clothes than some of the other women I’d seen—just a shirt and a loose pair of pants—and had dark hair down to her shoulders. I’d remembered meeting her briefly, but it’d been so chaotic…

“Hi,” she waved.

“Hello,” I said back.

She smiled. “You probably don’t remember my name. Yesterday was a lot. I’m Rian. I was wondering if you wanted to take a walk with me?”

“Me?” I placed my hand on my chest.

Kent snorted at my back. “She’s not talking to me.”

Heat rose in my cheeks. “Right, um, sure.”

While Kent retreated to our room, I stepped in line with Rian as we made our way downstairs and out the front of the Hall. The sun shone brightly, and from this view, I could see down the main street of the city. Drixonian warriors stood in scaffolding repairing buildings, and some women walked holding baskets of grains and other produce.

“Wow,” I murmured. “It’s like a real city.”

“It’s taken a long time to get here,” Rian said. “Has anyone really given you a tour? I thought I’d show you where we grow crops and keep livestock.”

“Oh, I’d love that. Tour guide isn’t one of Kent’s skills.”

She laughed. “I don’t think any of them are. I met Mikko in a prison pit on a desert planet, so a tour was truly the last thing I wanted.”

I stopped and turned. “I’m sorry, what? I thought Kent said you were all rescued right when you stepped off a Rahgul ship.”

“Some were, like Frankie. But several of us were from other Rahgul ships. I was sold to some alien creep, and I killed him, so they sent me to the Pit, which was basically full of bloodthirsty aliens intent on ripping me into pieces. If it wasn’t for Mikko, I would have died there.”

“Fuck.” I rubbed the back of my neck with a wince. “I have to admit, I have been making little tallies in my head on who had it worse. But that’s not really fair, is it? We’re all here in this galaxy, and we were all terrified out of our minds that we would die at some point, right?”

Rian wrapped slender fingers around my wrist and tugged at me to keep walking. We took a path between two buildings and in the distance, I could make out large swaths of land with tall crops. To my left was a pasture with roving figures.

“Some have had it worse,” Rian said. “Jennie, Fenix’s mate, caught a virus that had her mute for months. Her captors kept her in cage until she could barely walk.”

My stomach bottomed out. “Jesus Christ.”

“Val was held in the Uldani underground labs. They intended to force her to breed with Sax so they could keep the offspring to train into a perfect soldier.”

I blinked back tears as I remembered the way Val had looked at me yesterday, like she knew… “Rian,” I whispered.

She patted my hand as we reached a fence and hitched a foot on the bottom rung. “This is harriker. We grind the seeds into flour, and it works really well with a leavening agent.”

I was having a hard time focusing on the crops as my mind spun with how very wrong I’d judged the women—and warriors—here. So, I just nodded. “Th-the rolls we had last night were very good.”

She pointed out the livestock: The pig-like animals they killed for their meat, and the hooved animals that were a cross between a cow and a goat that were milked to make cheese and butter.

In the distance, a warrior waved, and Rian waved back.

“Who’s that?” I asked, a little alarmed because his machets were out, and Kent had always said that was a sign of aggression. I hadn’t remembered seeing him the other day

“My mate, Mikko.”

“Why’s he—” I swallowed. “Is he angry?”

“Probably,” she laughed. “He’s angry a lot. But no, his machets are like that because he’s one of the stolen warriors.”

“What?”

“Did Kent tell you about Rex, Daz’s brother?”

“I heard he’d been,” I swallowed, “Experimented on by the Uldani.” My voice cracked, and I cleared my throat as I looked away. Mikko jogged toward us along with another warrior with a bright orange mohawk and black gloves. “I don’t remember meeting them at the meal.”

“They weren’t there because they were leading up some border patrols when you and Kent arrived to be sure no more Wutarks tried to break through.”

“Oh,” I said. “That’s good.”

“Mikko can eject his spikes from his arms, head, and back. They regrow, but it’s very painful. Rex can sprout wings, but again, it’s not fun. His back gets ripped open every time. Fenix? He’s a fire starter.”

My stomach rolled. “Fire starter?”

“He wears gloves because with a flick of his fingers, he can create fire in his palm. His hands and forearms are burned badly.”

I placed my hand over my mouth as bile rose in my throat. The memories assaulted me one after another. The lab, the pain, the needle pricks, and the straps tying me down, rendering me helpless. “I’m sorry,” I whispered as my legs buckled. “I need to sit down.”

Rian’s eyes widened in alarm, and she grabbed me to help lower me gently to the ground. “Shit, I’m sorry, Tasha. I thought—”

I waved a hand. “It’s okay. I just need a moment.”

“Rian?” A concerned voice bellowed. “What’s going on?”

“I’m fine,” I called out hoarsely. “Just something I ate.”

I blinked as two shadows fell over us. Two pairs of violet eyes looked down in concern. “Do we need to get Kent?” Fenix asked.

This was so fucking embarrassing. “No, I just need a moment.”

Rian bit her lip. “I think it’s my fault.”

“It’s not your fault.” Reaching for the fence, I hauled myself to my feet to look at the two warriors, one of the few beings on this planet other than my friends who really knew what I’d been through. They deserved my respect, not to watch me huddle on the ground pathetically. “Sorry, it’s nice to meet you.”

“No apologies necessary.” Mikko braced his hands on the fence. “Want us to walk you back.”

“No, shoo.” Rian wiggled her fingers. “We’re having a talk.”

“Oh, an A and B situation, so I’ll C myself out?” Mikko snarked.

She glared at him. “Who taught you that?”

“Bazel,” he sniffed as if offended she didn’t laugh at his joke. He looked to me. “I’m funny, right?”

Affection for the two warriors welled in my chest. They were so very much like me, but they had no idea. “Yes, you’re hilarious.”

“Don’t encourage him.” Rian wrapped her arm around my shoulders and turned me away from the Drix. “See you back at home.”

“Yeah, mate,” Mikko called after her.

She rolled her eyes at me as we walked on the path back to the city. “He’s more than a handful.”

“So, the other Drix… they treat him and the other stolen warriors the same?” I bit my lip. “I’m sorry if that’s a rude question.”

She nodded. “It’s not a rude question. Rex didn’t want to return home because he feared how the others would see his changes. I think…” she sighed. “I think there was some embarrassment and shame, too. Which is natural, but they didn’t ask for what was done to them. They returned and they are treated the same as every other warrior, and that’s not just because Rex is Daz’s brother.”

I nodded, still mulling over blurting out my truth. What held me back was that if I told everyone now about what was done to us, that took away my friends’ choice. Neve still hadn’t told us what was done to her. What right did I have to disclose their vulnerabilities? HIPPA wasn’t a thing here, but still…

“I can hear you thinking,” Rian said. “And this is all I’ll say—you’ll be accepted however you are. And however much you want to tell us. There are things Zecri went through that most of us will never know, and that’s his right. You’re allowed to keep some privacy here.” She smiled and knocked her hip into mine. “And these warriors are a bunch of gossips, so it’s best to keep it to yourself. We’re okay with what you decide.”

“Do you know?” I whispered.

“I don’t know,” she answered. “But we can tell there’s a lot of you that you’re holding back. And that’s okay. Don’t feel guilt over keeping it close to your chest. We respect that. We’re here whenever you decide you’re ready. And if you’re never ready, that’s okay too.”

I sniffed as tears pricked my eyes. “I can’t explain how much your words mean to me.”

She clapped my shoulder before skipping ahead of me and walking backward while swinging her arms. “We try to be understanding here. We’ve all been through shit and process it differently, you know?”

I nodded. “Yes, I do know. My friends… we’re all in different stages of grief and anger.”

“I get it,” she sighed. “I know you leave soon, and since you’ll have some Drixonian warrior pack mules, let’s get some supplies together like extra clothes for you and the other women. They’ll want something new to wear when you rescue them, right?”

I swiped at my eyes and smiled. “Yes, they absolutely will.”

Kent

I paced the room alone four times before I left. I hadn’t been separated from Tasha since the morning she left with Axton. Her aura in my mind rocked and swayed, sometimes babbling happily and other times lurching and foaming. I reached the top of the stairs of the Hall and looked out over the city of Granit. I didn’t catch sight of her and was about to set off to find her when a warrior stepped to my side.

I turned to find Nero with his hands clasped behind his back, rocking back and forth on his heels.

I tried to recall if I’d ever had a conversation with Nero and couldn’t recall. But I owed him a lot. He was the tech genius of the Night Kings, and he was the reason we’d been rescued so quickly. He had what he called his eyes which detected all movement and heat sources at our borders in order to keep us safe.

“I’m not sure we’ve ever really met. I’m Nero,” he said.

This was a little surreal, to be meeting with the warriors who’d led our Uprising from the Uldani, and our subsequent war with them. I nodded in acknowledgement.

“Worried about your mate?” he asked.

“She is taking some time to adjust to being around so many others,” I explained.

“Fair,” he commented. “My mate still doesn’t like being around everyone.” He grinned. I recalled his mate, Justine, as smart as he was, blunt, and a little stand-offish.

“I talked to Daz, and I’d like to send some more supplies with you. A few translator implants in case you meet females that don’t have any. Also more updaters. We should also get you stocked with weapons. Oh, you’ll need your bike, too, right?”

I blinked at him. I expected to leave here with the pack I’d brought in. “It is inoperable.”

He smiled. “Nah, we got it back. Been working on it nonstop, and while we had to replace some parts, I think you’ll be glad most of it is still original.”

My jaw dropped and I quickly snapped it shut before responding. “Are you serious?”

“Absolutely.”

“I didn’t expect that. Thank you.”

“We wish we could do more. We don’t like this situation with the Wutarks, and we all know a war with them might be coming, but we’d like to prolong it as much as possible until Granit is fully functional, and we can begin regular training with the clavases in villages outside the walls.”

“I understand.”

“I hope Tasha isn’t upset.”

“She’s not. I think she feared Daz would forbid us. She didn’t know what to expect before she came here, and I think she was expecting the worst.”

Nero looked down at his feet. “She’s been through a lot, right?”

I swallowed. “An understatement. But she isn’t ready to share—”

“Psh,” he scoffed. “No one wants to hear what she’s not ready to tell.” He clapped me on the back. “Looking forward to getting to know you and your clavas better, Kent. For now, I think your mate is excited to see you.”

An excited shout boomed from the bottom of the stairs, and I looked down, at first seeing nothing but a pile of fabric, but then Tasha’s flushed and beaming face peeked out from behind the stack in her arms. “Look! Clothes for my friends! They will be so excited.”

Her laugh flowed through my blood like a shot of Xavy’s spirits, and I rushed down the steps to help her carry the load.

EPILOGUE

TASHA

Over the flickering flames of the fire, I held Kutzal’s purple gaze. I wasn’t angry with him that he’d tried to separate me and Kent. I understood his motivations and saw that he was only doing what he thought was best. Still, our relationship wasn’t what I’d call… good.

We’d arrived back at the camp with the extra warriors early that day. It’d been a whirlwind of getting them settled, storing the supplies, and preparing a large meal to feed everyone.

Kutzal had barely spoken to Kent and hadn’t said a word to me, but I found him watching us often, his gaze drifting to our loks before he looked away with a clenched jaw. I wondered if he was waiting for a chance to take Kent aside and ream him for disobeying, but so far, he hadn’t done so.

Some warriors milled around, drinking spirits or smoking a sweet-smelling herb that mellowed them out like good sativa. Axton sat near us, leaning back with his eyes half-closed. He’d welcomed me back with a nod and had nearly sent me flying with a swift pat on my back. He’d muttered an apology for his strength and then avoided me the rest of the day.

Sitting beside me on the log, Kent chewed on a sweet taffy dessert that the women had sent along from Granit. He’d just finished relaying to Kutzal what Daz had said about finding my friends.

“So,” Kutzal said in a low quiet tone that made my heart throb in my toes. “You volunteered members of this clavas?”

Kent straightened. “Are you saying you don’t want to look for the females?”

Kutzal’s jaw clenched, and he looked away for a moment. “My warriors have risked a lot for the good of our race all their lives. I will only take volunteers and won’t require anyone to search if they don’t want to.”

Kent nodded, seemingly unbothered. “That’s fine. I’m sure many will be eager to accept the honor.” He turned to the large warrior dozing near the fire. “Axton?”

“Hm?”

“You will help find the females, right?”

“Yes,” he answered.

That was it. He didn’t elaborate, but his quick acceptance caused my heart to soar.

“You need to explain they cannot all expect mates,” Kutzal said. “You might have been blessed by Fatas, but many of these warriors are not you, Kent.”

“I’m not that much different than any of them.” He leaned forward to eye his drexel. “And that includes you.”

Kutzal’s eyes glowed fiercely, and his nostrils flared. He took a long gulp of the clear liquid in his canteen, which I knew contained spirits, not water. He swiped the back of his mouth on a grimace. “I haven’t said this yet, but I need to congratulate you both. I’m not sorry for what I did, because at the time I thought it was the right decision, but I’m glad Fatas made you find each other.”

My skin flushed at his words. I hadn’t expected… kindness from Kutzal. While a total dick at times, there were layers to Kutzal, and I imagined a very difficult past that made him like he was. If there was anything I learned since I’d arrived in this galaxy, it was to judge each other less. I’d definitely had a reality check in Granit.

“Thank you, Kutzal. I don’t fault you for what you did.”

His gaze swung to me, and his lips twitched as if to smile. “Really? You’ve been sending me silent death threats with your eyes all day.”

“I was worried you’d try to punish Kent.”

“I wouldn’t punish him for something Fatas decided.” He pursed his lips and then fingered the canteen in his hands. “And I can’t punish him for doing everything he could to stay by your side.”

He inhaled sharply and rose to his feet. “It’s time for me to sleep.”

“Kutz—” Kent stood.

The drexel waved him away. “I’m fine. Tomorrow, we’ll talk to the warriors about beginning the search. Too bad Vinz is gone on a mission. He’d be the first to volunteer.”

“Where is he?” I had noticed his absence but hadn’t had a chance to ask Kent.

“We had a report from a scout in our northern boundary of a breech. Vinz was all too happy to head where it’s ball-busting cold.”

“Death wish,” Axton muttered, his eyes still closed.

Kutzal stepped around the fire, eyes glassy from the drink and reached out quickly to grab Kent by the back of the neck. I let out a surprised gasp as he knocked their foreheads together and then held him there. In a low voice with slightly slurred speech, Kutzal whispered so softly I could barely hear him, “The best of us.”

Kent grasped his friend tightly until his claws dug into the skin of Kutzal’s neck. “Your time will come.”

“Bah,” Kutzal shoved him away, and staggered back one step.

I lurched forward, as if I would have been able to stop the four-hundred-pound Drixonian warrior from falling.

He caught his balance and let out a humorless chuckle. “I’m fine. Goin’ to sleep it off.” His gaze swung to me. “Glad you’re here, Tash.”

His soft smile while saying the shortened version of my name pinched my heart. “I’m glad I’m here too.”

With a wave, he walked away, stumbling a few steps but always catching his step. Kent stared after him, nubbed brow furrowed.

I placed a hand on his arm. “Will he be okay?”

Kent didn’t answer for a long time, until finally he seemed to break out of his thoughts and glanced at me. “Kutz? Yeah, he’ll be fine.”

“He’s always fine,” Axton echoed. “Which means he’s never fine.”

Kent snorted and nudged him with his foot. “You need to sleep it off too.”

“Unlike our great drexel, I am fine. Warm and fed. Eager to go on a female hunt and get to use my swords.”

“Not on the females though.” I made an X with my hands.

Axton cracked open one eye and lifted a corner of his mouth. “No swords on the females. Got it.”

Kent tugged me away from the fire toward the hut—a hut that was now ours. Kutzal no longer made us sleep apart like we were naughty teenagers. “So, Vinz will be upset?”

“Very,” Kent said. “He loves to track and would be more than happy to claim lonas status and take the fall if he got to rescue a female while doing it.”

“Well, I’m sure he’ll have his chance depending on when he returns.”

“Most likely.”

“Do you think Kutzal will help?”

Kent kicked a stone and it skittered ahead of us as he made our way down the stairs of the cliff to our ledge. “It’s hard to say. He has dedicated his life to protecting us outcasts, and I know the thought of one of us claiming lonas status without support from the rest of the warriors is hard for him to fathom.”

“I understand that.” I bit my lip.

“I know he’s gruff, but he’ll do what he can to bring the females home. I know it.”

“I believe you,” I wrapped my arms around his waist and burrowed into his side. “I don’t know what I’ll do when I see my friends again. And I have to believe I will. We’ll bring them home and make them smile again, right Kent?”

“Of course, warrior.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Every last one of them.”

Thank you so much for reading The Alien’s Sacrifice! 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.

What’s next? Vinz and Amber’s story in

THE ALIEN’S SURRENDER

I uncaged a monster…

Amber: The blue alien warrior pacing in his cage terrifies me. His long dark hair is wild and messy, and his scarred body looks made for murder. I deliver food to him every day, and I’m sure by the way he stares at me that he’d rather eat me. Yet there’s something about him that captivates me, and I can’t stop watching him. When he lets the snarling, fearsome mask slip for a moment, I start to see there’s a cool calculation to his actions. I would be risking everything—his life and mine—to help him escape, but do I dare let this monster free from his cage?

Vinz: Getting captured on purpose is not my favorite activity. The food sucks, the guards beat me as their favorite pastime, and more than anything, I miss a good flask of spirits. But I’ll endure all of that for her—the human. She walks like she’s floating, has a voice as soft as Fatas herself, and always gives me the fullest food bowl.

As long as I’m here, I can ensure she’s safe. Until my hands are forced. Until suddenly she’s a vulnerable female in my hands. Until her entire fate rests on me, the outcast of the outcasts. They think I’m a monster? I haven’t even come close to my final form, and for her, I’ll be the worst beast of all.

ORDER NOW

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

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

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Epilogue

About the Author

Also by Ella Maven