Table of Contents

NOTICES

ALIEN SHIELD

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

TRIGGER WARNING

CHAPTER ONE | Serena

CHAPTER TWO | Serena

CHAPTER THREE | Xyan

CHAPTER FOUR | Xyan

CHAPTER FIVE | Serena

CHAPTER SIX | Serena

CHAPTER SEVEN | Xyan

CHAPTER EIGHT | Serena

CHAPTER NINE | Xyan

CHAPTER TEN | Serena

CHAPTER ELEVEN | Xyan

CHAPTER TWELVE | Serena

CHAPTER THIRTEEN | Xyan

CHAPTER FOURTEEN | Serena

CHAPTER FIFTEEN | Serena

CHAPTER SIXTEEN | Xyan

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN | Serena

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN | Xyan

CHAPTER NINETEEN | Serena

CHAPTER TWENTY | Xyan

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE | Serena

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO | Xyan

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE | Serena

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR | Serena

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE | Xyan

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX | Serena

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN | Xyan

NOTICES

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be copied, used, transmitted, or shared via any means without express authorization from the author, except for small passages and quotations used for review and marketing purposes.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and incidents in this novel are fictitious and not to be construed as reality or fact.

Alien Shield Copyright © 2022 Veronica Doran

ALIEN SHIELD

Fated Mates of the Sea Sand Warlords

Book Eight

By Ursa Dax

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks, as always, to every reader, reviewer, and new friend on this journey. And to my husband, RSH, and my parents, who support everything I do.

TRIGGER WARNING

This novel contains mentions of parental loss (off-page), mentions of a fatphobic ex-boyfriend (off-page), graphic violence including gun violence (on-page), surgery (on-page), near-death experiences, and mentions of body image insecurities.

CHAPTER ONE

Serena

Icrouched, squinting beneath my sunglasses at the little black spike of a stem poking up through the rocky sand. The first of Jocelyn’s new fallink plants was sprouting. Fallink was the plant that the mated humans who weren’t ready to get pregnant yet relied on for birth control, and ever since Jocelyn had brought some of the plants back from the Death Plains, she’d devoted herself to farming more of them. I’d been helping. With our resident geologist Melanie’s assistance, we’d tried to find an area that would produce the fallink plants as easily and naturally as their more native habitat in the Death Plains.

I nodded with satisfaction, excited for Jocelyn to come back and see this first new sprout. The Death Plains were where Jocelyn was right now – she’d returned there with her mate, the new Gahn Razek, to move his small tribe here to join with all of us at the Cliffs of Uruzai.

I stood, turning from the little plant, looking out over the settlement. I was currently in a little nook in the rock face of the Cliffs of Uruzai, an area where the sand, according to Melanie, would likely be more conducive to the fallink plants’ growth. Behind my back was the jagged bronze-red curtain of stone that made up the Cliffs of Uruzai. Only it wasn’t totally solid – in fact, there were many entrances into the stone. Valleys and tunnels and inclines and predators that made my hair stand up on end to hear about them. I wouldn’t travel too far into those cliffs if I could help it, that was for sure.

Well, there was one good reason someone would want to travel deep into those cliffs – to visit the caves of the sacred Lavrika, the alien dragon spirit or deity or… I wasn’t exactly sure. All I knew was that the great serpentine creature summoned the men native to this planet to give them some kind of vision of their “fated mate”. It still sounded a little woo-woo to me. On Earth, I’d always been scientific and pragmatic. But being here, I couldn’t deny the faint undercurrent of energy that seemed to emanate from these cliffs. I couldn’t deny the way the Lavrika had somehow seemed to magically impart the Sea Sands language to us humans by merely dunking our bodies into its glowing pools. And I couldn’t deny the mystical, almost vicious bond that awakened in the males once they’d been granted the vision of their mates.

Too bad us humans don’t feel it too, I thought, smiling wryly to myself. Those alien men who’d been granted human mates had had to work freaking hard to get their ladies to fall in love with them. It was something I’d observed with keen interest. I couldn’t tell if that was because I was a biologist, and therefore was already primed to be interested in things like mating habits of other species, or if it was because it was just so damn entertaining to watch those proud warriors stumble over themselves trying to woo their women.

Either way, besides the chaos and danger that seemed to erupt here at every turn, the sacred mate bond had provided endless material for me to observe. And even more than that, we now had two human-alien pregnancies! Theresa and Cece were both expecting, and since they were both happy about it, I was too. Absolutely fascinating and pretty damn cool if you asked me.

I leaned back, pressing myself into the shade, the scrape of the stone on my solar protection jacket creating a stiff, scratchy sound. Even in the shade, the stone wall at my back was warm, heat drifting through my jacket, making sweat roll down my back. While I didn’t have any remaining family back home in Newfoundland, one thing I really missed was the more temperate summers. Sure, it got hot some days – but not like this. Not like the unrelenting hammer of heat driven down by the alien sun.

That sun was shining now, just as it did every day. The tents of the four tribes in the settlement were little brown houses under its harsh light. The copper-gold sand glinted, almost metallic in that light, only slightly paler in colour than the bronzed cliffs at my back. I plastered my palms to the rock, tipping my head back slightly, watching everything from beneath my sunglasses and hood.

In the centre of the settlement was a wide-open area that acted as a sort of central social spot. In the evening, we had our big fire there to cook the day’s kills brought in by the hunters. As it was daytime and no fire was needed, that area was mostly occupied by women – of both the human and alien sort – and children. They were chatting away, some of them cleaning hides, others butchering meat, others weaving peet grass into fine fabric for bandages and Sea Sand-style tunics. Though those tunics seemed just to be for the women and girls – the males only wore dakrival hide loincloths and straps that held their weapons crisscrossed over their chests and backs. A few such scantily clad male warriors stood guard nearby, and through the pockets between the tightly packed tents, I could see yet more guards at the entrance to the settlement, a bodily wall of protection between the tents and the open sands of the desert. Most of the men, though, were out hunting or patrolling or engaging in other duties. There was a lot going on – our arrival had created a massive upheaval, and the resulting alliance of the four Sea Sand tribes had created a gigantic shift in the culture and life here.

Not four. Five.

The fifth tribe was coming back from the Death Plains and would arrive any day now. I kept forgetting, and as I looked at the packed settlement, I wondered how the heck they were going to all fit. But Jocelyn had said they were very few in number. Somehow, we’d make it work. It would be worth a little more crowding for peace among all the tribes.

I pushed off from the cliff wall, once again turning to glance down at the lone little black fallink sprout poking up from the place where its seed had been recently planted. While Jocelyn was gone journeying back to the Death Plains with her mate, I’d promised to keep track of what was going on in her new garden. Not like I had to water the plants or anything, considering that they were native to the desert climes of this planet, but I still wanted to observe what was happening with them. Though my work back home as a professor and biological illustrator had been mainly focused on animal and human biology, I had always been interested in all sorts of biological organisms – including plants.

Beside the plot that had been devoted to growing the fallink plants, a collection of leafy grix plants bloomed. Those, too, had been planted by Jocelyn. Grix were native to this area of the desert, and they grew in plenty, but that required foraging in the cliffs. Having this garden devoted to them made it a lot easier to access them. And considering how handy they’d become for our pregnant friends, having easy access to them was vital.

“Hey, hun.”

I spun around at the greeting, seeing one of those pregnant friends right in front of me. Theresa smiled broadly beneath her hood, her cheeks beautifully plumped up from her pregnancy. She was about fourteen weeks along now, and I could see the slight swell of her stomach beneath her solar protection jacket. I knew this was her first pregnancy, and that women often didn’t show quite as quickly as this back home when it was their first time. But both she and Cece were expanding quickly about the middle, something I’d made mental notes of.

“Hey, how are you?” I asked. I asked it as both a biologist and a friend. As a biologist, I was keenly cataloguing every element of these human-alien pregnancies inside my brain. And as her friend, I just cared.

“Not bad, but I’m looking for some more of that nice grix stuff Jocelyn has for us.”

The grix leaves were something between Earth ginger and mint, and, when mixed with the valok gel we drank daily, they made a soothing concoction that eased nausea. Jocelyn had mixed up a big batch of the stuff for Cece and Theresa before she’d left.

“Shoot, have you run out?” I asked, glancing down at the garden. Luckily, there was lots to be had of the grix plants. But they’d need to be mixed into the valok gel for easy consumption.

“Yep. I’m feeling OK, but Cece’s been drinking it like it’s going out of style. So I came to get some more.”

“You didn’t have to do that. You could have sent Baldor to ask me to do it,” I said kindly. Even though Theresa seemed to be faring much better than Cece thus far in her pregnancy, I knew it couldn’t be easy dealing with the swelling and hormones and everything else in this heat.

“Oh, no, I wouldn’t ask him to do that right now,” Theresa said of her mate. I was about to bristle and tell her that that was exactly the sort of thing a male should be doing for his lovely pregnant mate, when she quickly added, “He’d do it, no question. But he and the other Gahns are preparing for the Death Plains warriors to arrive, and the Bitter Sea warriors are coming back soon, too. And, well, they’re all stressed out and in a tizzy over it.”

“Fair enough,” I said with a slow nod. The politics of this place were bloody and ancient – old enemies and even older wounds that hadn’t quite healed between the tribes. So it made sense that these proud warrior kings weren’t exactly in the best mood now that they were all forced together like this.

Well, they’ll just have to get used to it. In my opinion, it was never too late to teach an old dog new tricks. And that included getting these proud alien warlords to work together. They’d need to if the human ships were going to come back and try to obliterate us all.

Ugh. Let’s not think about that right now.

“Well, if you’ve run out of the drink we’ll just have to make more. Jocelyn and the Death Plains people should be back soon, but I’m sure we can figure it out without her. It’s just like steeping tea or something, right?” I asked, stepping over to the grix plants and crouching down once more.

“Right,” Theresa said. She moved to her knees slowly, then sat beside me. I glanced at her, then tugged the lip of her hood further forward, better shielding her face from the sun.

“Pregnancy makes people more susceptible to UV damage from the sun,” I warned her. She smiled again, leaning forward so that her face was better shaded.

“Thanks. It’s a good thing we have you and Jocelyn and the healers!”

I half-smiled, half-grimaced. I would have liked to have had a medical doctor here for these pregnancies, specifically an OBGYN. Sure, technically I was a doctor, but that was in PhD terms, and my job back home had consisted of teaching undergrads and doing biological illustrations for textbooks. We’d had army medics and at least one doctor as staff on the ship from what I’d heard from Chapman, but none of them had survived the zeelk attack when we’d first arrived on this planet. So now it was down to Jocelyn, the Sea Sand healers, and me, to take care of our pregnant friends.

“Well if you’ve completely run out, I’d bet Cece will be wanting more of it today. Let’s get a bunch of stuff and take it to her tent,” I said, grabbing fistfuls of grix leaves and tearing them off their stems before stuffing the leaves into my pockets.

“Sounds good,” Theresa said, doing the same thing. Once we’d both filled our pockets with the grix leaves, the tangy ginger mint smell wafting through the air, I stood. I helped Theresa to her feet, and together we strolled away from the cliff wall and into the settlement.

CHAPTER TWO

Serena

Gahn Buroudei’s tribespeople had made their homes at the far end of the settlement. With the sun beating down on us, we weaved between tents and dodged the stone discs and blunt spears thrown by little Sea Sand boys as they played. I said little, but in reality, the young children here were the size of teens back home. Makes sense considering the genetics… Every Sea Sand male I’d seen here was easily over 7 feet tall, the woman all above 6 feet. Not for the first time, I worried about our narrow human pelvises being able to push half-Sea Sand babies out. But there wasn’t much sense in panicking about that right now. At least when considering a human pregnancy timeline, we were still months away from delivering any babies – assuming everything went as expected. Which, considering the fact that we were on a freaking alien planet, was maybe asking a bit much.

The tent Cece shared with her mate, Gahn Buroudei, was the largest in this area of the settlement, besides Gahn Buroudei’s healers’ tent, that was. The Gahns’ tents, and the large one us unmated human women slept in, reminded me of big billowing wedding tents from back home. But instead of white gauzy fabric, these large, flat-topped structures were constructed with heavy brown dakrival hide, the fabric scraped and cleaned until it was like suede. Two guards stationed at the entrance to Gahn Buroudei’s tent gave us a quick once-over before stepping aside to let us enter.

There wasn’t a way to knock on a soft tent wall, so instead, I pulled the tent flap open by a couple of centimetres.

“Hello?” I called softly into the tent’s gloom

“Yoo-hoo!” Theresa said brightly from behind me.

A grim-sounding groan rumbled from within the darkness of the tent.

“Are you alright?” I asked, pulling the tent flap further and peering inside.

“Ugh. No. Yes. But no,” came Cece’s croaky response.

“We’re coming in,” I said firmly, yanking aside the tent flap and marching into the tent. Theresa followed close behind me. Cece hadn’t given us permission to actually come in here yet but I had to make sure she was doing alright. Her pregnancy wasn’t going as smoothly as Theresa’s.

I stopped walking and blinked forcefully, willing my eyes to adjust to the dim interior of the tent after being outside. I pushed my sunglasses up on top of my head and let my hood fall back, planting my hands on my hips. This tent was very similar to the one Theresa shared with Gahn Baldor – large and open, with bone shelves along the sides. At one end of the tent was a large hide seat – round and low to the floor, stuffed with what I assumed was probably a combination of rocks and grass. A Gahn’s throne. Beside it was a smaller version of that seat, looking hilariously tiny, like a child’s chair, even though it was for the adult Gahnala Cece.

Against the tent wall opposite the bone shelves were dakrival hides on the sand and a human lump among them. Cece was lying on her side, facing the blank brown tent wall, the hides thrown off her body. As Theresa knelt down next to her, brushing Cece’s chestnut strands away from her sweaty neck, I hustled over to the bone shelves. Between valok gel candles and weapons and bone needles I found what I was looking for – fresh valok plants, plump and recently picked. The disc-like succulents provided most of our fluids here, and Jocelyn used the gel inside to create her nausea-combating grix concoction.

Another glance at the shelves and I found a small stone bowl and what looked to be a pestle. Grabbing the valok and the stone bowl and pestle, I hurried back over to the others.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, sitting down heavily, thrown slightly off-balance with so much stuff in my hands. I got into a more comfortable cross-legged position and put all my supplies in front of me on the sand.

Cece’s response, at first, sounded more like the noise a strangled lama would make than a human. My jaw tensed, and I started to worry something was really wrong, when she finally shifted, slowly sitting up and swivelling on her bum to face us.

“Just the usual,” she said, sighing and scraping back tendrils of her hair from her forehead.

“Here,” Theresa said, moving up to her knees and scrambling behind Cece. Behind Cece’s back, her fingers worked gently, undoing the remnants of Cece’s destroyed braid and neatly retying it.

“You sure?” I asked Cece, narrowing my eyes as I took her in. Her blood pressure had been a little bit high and she’d been doing a good job resting because of it. But I was constantly worried that things could go south fast if we weren’t careful.

“Yeah. Just nauseous and tired,” Cece confirmed. Theresa finished with her hair, and Cece gave a weak but grateful smile as Theresa shuffled on her knees to join me again.

“Well, that’s what we’re here for,” I said. “We brought some grix. We’re going to make some more of that drink.”

“Awesome. I’m going to lie back down,” Cece said. She eased herself back onto the hides, her woven Sea Sand tunic pulling a little at her gently swollen belly. With her comfortable, I jumped back up, grabbing a small knife from the bone shelves and then coming back to open the valok plants. Well, it was the smallest knife I could find, anyway. In reality, it was more like a decent-sized butcher knife in my hands, but for a Sea Sand man, it was probably more like a dagger.

Holding the lethal black blade carefully, I got to work opening the valok plants. I dumped the contents – a translucent green tea-tasting gel – into the stone bowl. Then I emptied my pockets, tearing up grix leaves and sprinkling them on top of the glistening valok gel. Theresa watched me with interest, leaning forward.

Cece closed her eyes. “Let me know when it’s done,” she said.

“Will do,” I replied, beginning to grind away at the mixture, breaking up the leaves and mixing them into the gel.

I realized I had no idea how much grix I should have been using, and I hoped the taste would still be acceptable to my pregnant friends’ sensitive palates. I also realized part-way through that my mixture was really gritty and lumpy from the fibres of the grix leaves that were impossible to break down. Sweating, I stripped out of my jacket, then angled the bowl towards Theresa.

“Is it supposed to look like that?”

She tried to smile, but the wrinkling of her nose let me know otherwise.

“Hmm. I wonder if they strain it somehow…” I said, more to myself than the others. “I’m going to run to a healers’ tent real quick.” Theresa nodded at me, looking relieved that I wasn’t going to ask her to drink the stuff in its current form. Maybe the healers have some sort of fibre mesh strainer they used for stuff like this…

I put my solar protection jacket back on, slammed my shades onto my nose, and stepped back out into the sun.

The closest healers’ tent was the one belonging to Gahn Buroudei’s tribe. I walked towards it, moving into the shelter of its shadows.

Inside the tent stood an old Sea Sand woman, a healer whose name I’d come to learn was Rika. I was most familiar with the healers and women of Gahn Fallo’s tribe, as we’d been with them the longest, but now that we were all here at the Cliffs of Uruzai I was glad to get to know the other women too.

This tent was lined on three sides by large bone shelves, filled with jars and plants and stacks of clean peet grass bandages. On the ground were neat rows of beds for the sick or injured. Mercifully, no one occupied any of them at the moment. We hadn’t had any major bloodshed since Gahn Baldor’s attack a few months ago, and for that I was grateful.

Rika did have one patient, though, I realized with a smile. A young boy was standing in front of Rika with his head tilted up. Even on his foreign features, I recognized the universally child-like expression of impatience on his face as Rika smeared Lavrika’s blood on a gash on the boy’s forehead. Even though I’d seen the Lavrika’s blood do its thing dozens of times by now, I still felt my mouth open into a soft O of amazement when the boy’s shallow gash healed almost instantaneously.

I really need to get that stuff under a microscope. Maybe with a tissue sample, too. See what it’s doing to the cells… I knew Kat had been spending a lot of time studying the Lavrika’s blood in the lab on our ship out in the desert, and I’d been meaning to join her. But between minding Jocelyn’s garden and tending to Cece and Theresa, I hadn’t had the chance.

Forehead in good shape, the boy bounded past me, the energy that had built up from standing there exploding into his young limbs. Alien or human, kids were pretty much the same all over the universe, it turned out.

“Hi Rika,” I said with a smile. The Sea Sand woman turned to face me, a soft smile playing about her own full lips. She was dressed in typical Sea Sand fashion, with a long greyish-green peet grass tunic belted at the waist with a strip of dakrival hide. Her sight stars glinted silver and grey with age, but her eyes still held a bright intelligence. She wiped the last remnants of the Lavrika’s blood from her fingers onto her tunic, then tilted her head at me, her long grey braid shifting against her shoulder.

“Hello, Zerena. How can I help you?”

“Do you have anything to strain that grix drink you guys taught Jocelyn how to make? I tried to make more, but it’s turning out pretty stringy and gross.”

Rika’s smile widened, revealing fangs.

“I expect that this… stringiness… is not pleasing to our pregnant Gahnalas,” she said knowingly, her sight stars twinkling.

“You got that right,” I chuckled.

“Come,” Rika said, spinning on her heel with surprising agility for someone of her advanced age. Even as an old woman, she had a good head of height on me. I wondered, by Earth standards, how old she would be.

Rika bent her head, her dark, high ears brushing forward as she reached for something on a lower shelf. She straightened and handed me a few sheets of what looked to be something comparable to cheesecloth. But like the bandages and Rika’s tunic, it wasn’t white, but rather the signature grey-green of peet grass. The fibres of these cloths had been woven into a loose grid, unlike the tighter weaves of clothing and bandages.

“This is exactly what I needed. Thank you!” I said, tossing her a smile as I folded the cloths into a tight square.

“It is no trouble. We all wish to do anything we can to care for the pregnant Gahnalas during this time.” An expression that was sort of wistful, almost pained, passed over Rika’s aged face. These pregnancies meant a lot to the Sea Sand people. For so long, their population had been dwindling, with not enough women to support their numbers and keep their tribes thriving. So these pregnancies were more than a blessing. To the Sea Sand folks, the pregnancies were a miracle.

A surge of affection for the old healer, and all the Sea Sand people, went through me. I’d had no family left back home in Newfoundland, and having these people, the tribes, doing everything they could to help us, welcoming us so easily… It was beautiful.

I replaced the sudden ache in my throat with determination – determination to see Cece and Theresa and anybody else through their pregnancies safely.

“Thank you for this again,” I said, lifting the cloth between us and dipping my head. Rika swished her tail before turning to tidy up some of the items on the shelves.

As I left the tent, I wondered if the grix had steeped long enough in the valok gel, and if I should strain it as soon as I got back to Cece’s tent or if I should wait. A sharp, rhythmic thudding, like the collision of metal and stone, distracted me from thoughts of steeping drinks. I whipped my head around, feeling my brows contract behind my shades as I tried to locate the sound. It was a vaguely alarming noise, but nobody else at the settlement seemed concerned by it at all. Well, that’s a good sign. Enough of a good sign that my alarm got beaten down by my curiosity. I’d always been curious and a keen observer. It had been what had led me into the field of biology in the first place – wanting to study the things in my environment. Wanting to understand it all.

Deciding that I’d let the grix leaves steep a little longer, I started walking briskly towards the sound. The invisible trail of the ever-louder clanging in the air led me away from the tents, back towards the cliff face. I moved a little quicker, wondering what the hell would be making a sound that was somehow both violent and poetic – so brutal yet controlled in its beating rhythm. As I got closer to the cliff, following the stone wall of it, I started to feel the pulse of that sound in my body. The throb of a drum, but harsher.

A crag split outwards from the cliff wall, and I rounded it, finally finding the source of the hard and rhythmic calling. Weirdly, that was exactly what it had felt like. A calling. Something that had drawn me here.

Behind the crag was a sort of clearing area – a small open part of the cliff wall that dipped into an enclosed spot. Despite the high cliff walls rising up around me, this area wasn’t shadowy. In fact, there was a fire burning here, its orange light licking up the rock. Heat rolled outwards towards me, overwhelming me. I couldn’t totally see the fire, though. I could only see its light on the stone and feel its heat.

I couldn’t see the fire because an absolute tank of an alien man was blocking my view.

A massive Sea Sand warrior had his back to me. Look, all the alien guys were massive. But some of them were longer and leaner than others. This guy, though? He looked like someone had carved him from the biggest, most rugged piece of stone they could find, using a gigantic barrel for the torso’s reference. Like the other men, he was clad only in a loincloth, the muscles in his meaty thighs and powerful glutes tense as he worked. His tail was a thick long muscled line behind him, its black tip dragging through the sand. My eyes trailed upwards, snagging on the bunch and stretch of each hardened muscle in his broad back. His shoulder clenched and rotated like a small boulder as his heavy arm came down over and over again.

Oh, right.

I’d been so distracted by the frankly fucking amazing anatomical specimen in front of me that I’d completely missed what he was actually doing.

The warrior was slightly bent over a large flat-topped stone that came up to his waist. One of his hands was steady upon the stone. The other was in motion, ramming downwards again and again, an absurdly large stone sledgehammer pounding against whatever he was working on. God, that hammer looked like it should belong to Thor or something. I doubted I’d be able to lift the thing even with both hands. This was what had created that fantastic, almost corporeal rhythm. This was the brutal drumbeat rolling through the air. It was him.

I didn’t want to distract the warrior from whatever he was doing, but I was dying to see what he was working on. I edged around to the side, thinking I was sneaky. But at my movement, the warrior’s own movement instantly stopped. He froze, the hammer high in the air, and once again I was struck by the Thor-ness of the image. Hammer raised high, thick muscles primed. Power I could barely comprehend.

“Sorry,” I said quickly, suddenly flustered. I felt like I’d been spying, even though I hadn’t really meant to. The hammer lowered slowly with almost exquisite precision. He laid the tool carefully upon the table and then turned to face me.

A lick of heat went through me, and I wasn’t entirely convinced it was just from the fire in front of me and the sun above me. I tried my best, I tried, not to be a creeper. But he was even more impressive from the front than the back. Wide-set shoulders, a brick wall of a chest tapering down to his waist, hips, and muscled legs. Thick, long black hair hanging loose past his shoulders. A powerful, thick, yet somehow elegant neck led up to a strong-jawed and serious face. His expression was composed, the pulse of his sight stars slow and observant as they moved over my face, drawing yet more heat to my cheeks and neck. There was something… solid about him. Steady and controlled and quiet in an almost deceptive way. That, coupled with the very slight crinkling at the corners of his eyes made me wonder if he was a little older than some of the other warriors. Some of the warriors had a vicious, snapping energy to them that made them appear somewhat young to me. Gahn Fallo came to mind, as did Jocelyn’s mate Razek. Men who fought and raged, quick and explosive, like tempests. This man? He was like a dark, still lake. A quiet and calm surface over bottomless depths. I wondered what kind of trigger would bring those depths upward as battering waves…

I myself was 33 years old, older than most of the other human women here, and I had to admit the maturity of the man I was seeing before me was immensely appealing.

And he became about 20 times more appealing when he spoke, his voice smokier than the fire behind him.

“It is I who should apologize,” he said, his glinting copper sight stars trained on my face. “I should have sensed that you were here immediately. This is dangerous work. Sparks and shards could injure you.”

Good God, was I ever getting sweaty. I shoved my hood back, running a hand through my damp, shoulder-length hair. I pushed my sunglasses up like a headband, keeping the sticky strands off my heated face.

“What are you working on? If you don’t mind me asking that is,” I said, leaning slightly to the side and trying to peer around him. As distracting as this very large, very attractive warrior before me was, I still wanted to know what he was doing. If he’d tell me.

He stepped aside, a liquid movement that seemed way too graceful for someone of his size. With a large and calloused hand, he gestured towards the natural stone table he’d been standing at. The fire behind the table crackled as I glanced at his work surface.

A blade.

A long weapon gleamed on the stone’s surface, hammered into the vague shape of a sword. It didn’t have the bone handle most of the other weapons had yet – clearly it was a work in progress. Like pretty much all the weapons I’d seen here so far, it was jet black, shining like onyx. Though it wasn’t finished yet, I could already see how deadly its point was, the strength in its shape.

So this was the alien version of a smithy. And its master, I could tell even without looking, was watching me closely as I observed his work.

“Very nice,” I said, meaning it. I mean, with all the weapons these guys used, it made sense there had to be people actually making them. I just hadn’t seen it yet. And now that I had, I was suitably impressed.

“It is unfinished,” the man beside me said. There was no trace of blustering in his words, no reason to think he was saying that out of embarrassment that I’d seen his project half-done. It seemed to just be a statement of truth. No embellishment, no excuses.

“I’m sorry I interrupted you,” I said, feeling a little embarrassed and squirmy even if he wasn’t. It was hard to get a read on this guy. I couldn’t tell if my interruption had bothered him or not. I snuck a quick glance at his face but that didn’t help much either. Aside from a contained burst of his sight stars as my gaze met his, there was no real indication if I was annoying him or not.

“You need never apologize for that,” he said as I turned to face him fully.

Whether he was just being polite or not, I still felt relieved.

“Alright, thanks. I’m Serena, by the way,” I said.

An almost imperceptible muscle jumped in the warrior’s jaw.

“I know.”

My stomach muscles tightened as I sucked in a small, quick breath. Why did the fact that he already knew my name feel… so nice?

There are only twenty humans here. It’s not that many names to learn, I told myself.

But it made me feel bad that I didn’t know his.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“I am Xyan,” the warrior said. I gulped as the stony scrape of his name moved down my spine. The name seemed to suit him. Nothing fanciful about it. Short and strong and to the point, with that surprisingly smooth Z sound at the beginning.

OK, what the hell? I am thinking about this way too much.

It was then that I remembered I actually had things to do today, including tending to my very dear friends who were waiting on me.

“I should go,” I said, blushing and flapping my hand vaguely towards the settlement’s tents.

Xyan watched me for a long, silent moment, and I wondered, sweating harder now, if he was going to say anything at all in response to my proclamation. I was about to turn and hurry away from his unrelenting gaze when he finally spoke.

“Please return here any time you wish. But next time, speak up over the sound of my hammer and anvil.” His sight stars rolled slowly down my face to my exposed neck. “It would not do to injure such soft skin.”

“Right,” I said, barely even hearing my own reply. Xyan’s gaze on my neck was an intensity I was not prepared for this early in the morning. OK, it was probably closer to afternoon now. But still. Not ready.

I nodded quickly. Just before I turned to go I saw him raise his tail over his eyes. Odd. I’d only seen men do that for figures of authority or people they respected immensely, like the Gahns or the Lavrikala. Maybe this guy is just really formal. Yeah, that seemed right. There was something almost… classical about him. Like he’d fit right into a historical romance novel as the quiet, dark-eyed duke.

As I hurried away, I ignored the fact that I’d compared him to a duke in a romance novel instead of just… a historical dude. Now was not the time to get caught up in whatever the hell that meant. I had shit to do today.

And I was going to do it.

CHAPTER THREE

Xyan

Iwatched my mate walk away from me, back towards the tents. I forced myself to remain still, rooted to the spot, despite the way my muscles thrummed and my claws itched to reach for her. The generous curves of her hips and legs as she walked had me stifling a deep groan, and I mourned the loss of her pale face and lovely brown hair as she pulled up her hood.

This was the first time I’d actually spoken to my mate. The Lavrika had called me six nights ago and shown me Zerena’s lovely blue eyes, flushed cheeks, and pink mouth in its pools. But even before it called me, I knew she was mine. From the moment I’d seen her after our arrival at this settlement, I had not been able to keep my eyes from following her every move.

I will have to tell my Gahn soon. Six nights and days was already the longest I’d kept a secret from Gahn Baldor. Not only was Gahn Baldor warlord and king of my tribe, but he was also my closest friend. We’d hunted together since our youth and had a strong bond forged between us. And yet, a part of me (not so small a part, it turned out) had wanted to keep this one thing from him and from everyone else. A quiet secret, deep inside. I hadn’t even told Zerena herself, yet. And clearly, she had no idea of this development. She had no idea that my entire body, my entire being, was at her service now. Every claw, every muscle primed to love her. I’d already learned from other mated men that the new women, the humans, did not feel the pull of the mate bond as we did. They had to develop feelings naturally in their own time, hopefully aided by a competent mate who could stir such feelings in them. Though I would not consider all the Sea Sand men I’d seen win their mates so far entirely competent. Or entirely sane. The Gahns Fallo and Razek came to mind at that. But that only strengthened my resolve. If the mad Gahn of the hills and the feral Gahn of the Death Plains could win a soft new woman, then so could I.

I had not yet determined how I wished to go about doing so, however. I was not accustomed to making brash decisions or action without careful judgment. I would take my time with this, though my body and my heart urged me to go quickly, to chase Zerena down and crush her curves beneath me.

To distract from the unfulfilled need of my body, I returned to my work, channelling my pent-up lust and the hard drag of affection through my body into the blade I hammered. Though Zerena did not feel the mate bond for me yet, I could not help but feel happy that of all the new women at this settlement, it was her that I’d called forth with the striking of my hammer.

I focused on my body’s movements, letting my muscles work and burn harder and faster. The blade I was creating was coming into shape, now. I kept hammering away, my arm swinging with the force I wished to use to drive into my pelvis against Zerena’s hips.

By the time I was finished hammering the blade, the sun was sinking. I took some time to perfect the brutal, blood-thirsty edge with an ablik sharpening stone. By the time I was finished getting the weapon just right, the small fire I’d built was the main source of light, the sun long since having disappeared.

This weapon finished, I had no reason to stay here now. I would likely be back here tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, unless Gahn Baldor assigned other duties to me. I was the most skilled weapons master of our tribe, and with war looming, we would need many blades.

I kicked sand over the fire I’d built, letting its light drown in the dust. Lit only by the glowing broken band of our many moons and the cool pinpricks of stars above, I drove the bottom edge of the blade down into a bone handle I’d already carved. I hefted the weapon, happy with my work, then turned from the small area I’d claimed for my work, prowling back into the settlement.

In the large open area in the centre of all the tents, the evening fire was being built. Some of the new women were already there, helping load babkit branches into the fire pit or preparing meat to be cooked. My eyes raked over the people present, but Zerena was not among them. Like I so often did these days, I wondered with an almost painful curiosity where she was and what she was doing.

There was another person I needed to find now, though, and I turned my thoughts to Gahn Baldor. It was time to tell him of my news, of the fact that I had been granted a mate by the sacred Lavrika. My heart swelled at that, still unable to believe that I had been lucky enough for such a fate. That of the many unmated men, I had been selected for one of the new women. And not just any new woman. Zerena, the one whose plush form, sweet smile, and blue eyes had captivated me for so long already.

I was not wearing any straps for weapons, so I contented myself by holding the new blade down at my side as I walked in search of my Gahn. Though Zerena was not my destination at that moment, I could not stop my eyes from tracking over every tent, through every shadow, in search of her as I moved through the settlement. Or perhaps I was fooling myself. Whichever direction I chose, whichever path I took, Zerena would always, always be the destination. The driving force of my warrior’s life. The destiny that turned the unknowable future into something I could understand, something I could grasp. The beautiful end to all things.

And the beginning, I thought as my Gahn’s pregnant mate, the Gahnala Thereeza, walked towards the evening fire, catching my eye. The beginning of so many new things – cubs and a family. A fighting chance for our people. The fact that these new women could gestate cubs had been a great cause for celebration. The births, when that time came, would be an even larger joy. And it would be one I could partake in myself. I, too, might finally get to experience fatherhood, a dream that had always seemed even further away than the chance at a mate.

The thought of Zerena, her soft stomach swelling with my strong cub, sent my head spinning, and it was only with my ablik warrior’s will that I was able to keep myself on task and not tear this camp apart to find her. I growled and plunged forward, away from the tents towards the open sands.

Beyond the line of guards who stood at the entrance to the settlement, I spied my Gahn. He and the three others – Gahns Buroudei, Taliok, and Fallo – were together. I moved towards them, stopping a respectful distance away on the sand, not wanting to intrude on their conversation. I was not an impatient man. I could wait.

Baldor was a keenly aware Gahn with strong senses. It did not take him long to notice my presence. He turned from the group to me, gesturing me towards them with his tail.

“My man, Xyan, is here. I would have his thoughts on this matter.”

The Mad Gahn Fallo’s nose twitched, his sight stars pulsing, but the other two Gahns grunted in their agreement. I stepped into the group of men, raising my tail as I took my place among them. As I let my tail fall Gahn Baldor filled me in on their conversation.

“The Death Plains people will be here soon. They are few in number but the settlement is crowded. We are looking at solutions.”

“Hmm,” I rumbled, looking behind me towards the settlement. My Gahn was correct. In order to fit our own tents among the other three tribes, we’d basically taken up every free space on the sand, besides the places that served other purposes – like the fire pit, or the garden I’d seen Zerena tending. No matter how crowded it got, I’d make sure nobody set up a tent on top of the little garden she’d been taking care of while the Gahnala Jozelyn was gone.

“My people used to camp in another place,” Gahn Taliok said, gesturing with his tail down the cliffs. “There would be enough room there for the Death Plains people.”

“I do not believe Gahn Razek would agree to that,” I said, rubbing my chin thoughtfully. I’d spent a fair bit of time with Gahn Razek in the Death Plains and on the journey back here. He struck me as extremely strong-willed, even obstinate, and fiercely possessive. “He will not want any less than what we all have access to – the shared resources of the main settlement.” And the new women. I did not say that part, because it did not need to be said. The new women were the only thing keeping all the tribes bound together. Certainly, Gahn Razek would, like any of the other Gahns, want to be close to them for his men. “Besides,” I added, “one of the largest parts of this alliance is the strength of our numbers. It will help to have everyone camped at a central spot.”

“These are wise words,” said Gahn Buroudei.

“It is not wise. It is nonsense. And I will not move my tent for any foul man of the Death Plains,” Gahn Fallo snapped, his heavy tail thrashing behind him. I ignored his words, turning to my own Gahn, a man whom I knew to be reasonable.

“We must expand the settlement out onto the sands,” I said. There was no other way to make everyone fit. Instead of all our tents being pressed into the large dip in the cliff face we currently occupied, we’d have to shift the tents out, like a bubble, from the rock.

“That would grant us space, but we’d lose some of the shelter of the cliffs,” Gahn Baldor countered.

“It is true,” I said. “But the new women and men with mates and children will stay within the embrace of the cliffs. Unmated warriors can move their tents out onto the sand.”

The Gahns were silent as they mulled over my proposition.

“It could work. Before now, my people had their tents out on the open sand in my territory,” Gahn Buroudei said. “We are used to such things.”

“Some unmated men from every tribe should camp on the sands, numbers in proportion with each tribe’s population. So that one tribe does not shoulder more risk than any other,” I remarked. Even I would be willing to do this – to make my camp out on the sands for the good of the tribes. Of course, once Zerena accepted me as her mate, I would not dream of putting her in harm’s way out there. But as of now, she did not even know that I was meant to be her mate at all.

“I like this idea,” Gahn Taliok said. His head shifted to look at me, the moon and starlight catching on the dark gouges of the scars on his face, neck, and shoulder. “Not only will this create the space needed, but it also puts a band of warriors as extra protection around the settlement.”

The other Gahns seemed to be in agreement with that, and thus it was decided.

“We will start moving the tents outward tomorrow,” Gahn Buroudei said. “I bid you all good evening. I must now return to my Gahnala’s side.”

“As must I,” said Taliok.

“And I,” growled Fallo.

Baldor looked like he was about to do the same, but I caught his gaze.

“A word with you before the evening fire,” I requested. Baldor remained where he was as the other Gahns departed.

“What is it, Xyan?” Gahn Baldor asked, his silver sight stars like shards of stone in the night.

“I have news for you. News I have kept to myself perhaps for too long,” I began.

“What news is this?” Baldor’s gaze narrowed. He did not look truly suspicious, though. We’d known each other too long. Trusted each other too much. He knew I’d never betray him.

“Six nights ago the Lavrika called me to its caves. I have been granted a mate from among the new women.”

Gahn Baldor’s sight stars flashed before his mouth pulled into a wide smile. He clapped a strong hand onto my shoulder, squeezing.

“I could not think of a more worthy warrior of such a fate. I am so happy for you, Xyan. Truly. You deserve this. Which new woman is it? Has she accepted you?”

“She is the one called Zerena.” That was the first time I’d spoken her name aloud. Something about saying her name felt meaningful. Like I was casting some kind of incantation.

Baldor’s sight stars misted as he looked off towards the settlement. Then his gaze snapped back to me.

“Ah! Yes. I think I know the one of whom you speak. She helps care for Thereeza and Zeezee, correct? The one soft of body and blue of eye?”

“Yes,” I said. With that description, he was certainly speaking of Zerena. All of the new women were soft compared to us, but Zerena even more beautifully so. Luscious curving hips, round dimpled cheeks beneath her exquisite blue sight stars, generous breasts and a backside I would gladly dig my claws into if they weren’t so terribly sharp.

“She seems a fine female, Xyan. Clever and helpful. She has proven herself loyal and useful to my Thereeza. And,” Baldor grinned at his next words, “she will be well-versed in the ways of pregnancy when it comes to your time.”

That had not escaped my own notice. That by helping the pregnant new women, Zerena would hopefully be gaining any knowledge she needed for our own cubs. Of which I hoped there would be many. Before I could lose myself too much to the thoughts of small Sea Sand cubs with blue sight stars in their smiling faces, my Gahn’s words brought me back.

“I return to my second question, as it has gone unanswered as of yet. Has she accepted you?”

“No.”

Baldor’s face fell a little, and I felt a rush of respect and affection for this man who had been my friend for so many ages.

“Do not worry, Xyan. Between the other mated men and me, we have enough knowledge of the mysterious new women’s hearts to help you. Any woman would be a fool to refuse you.”

I smiled, raising my tail in thanks before saying, “She has not yet rejected me, either. She has not accepted me because she does not know the Lavrika has summoned me.”

Baldor’s sight stars pulsed in shock. “Six nights and days you have felt the mate bond, have been raked by its hot claws, and you have not even told her of your suffering?”

He did not exaggerate. The mate bond was powerful and beautiful but it was also agony when unsated. Gahn Baldor had attacked this very settlement and had been prepared to go to war to claim his mate. So to him, it must have been absurd that I had not even tried to win my mate to me yet.

“I will tell her, and soon, I’m sure,” I said, gazing back towards the tents, wondering where exactly Zerena was among them. “But not yet.”

“Do you fear rejection? I have not known you to fear anything in all your days,” Baldor said slowly, staring at me. “Just tell her and get it over with. Even if she rejects you, she will come around. This is destiny. And though the new women are stronger than their tiny forms would suggest, even they cannot fight fate.”

“It is not fear of rejection,” I confirmed. No, it was not that. Rather, it was more the fact that I did not wish to pressure Zerena. I did not want to cage her in with notions of a fate she could not fight. I did not want to step before her, block out the sun so that I was all she could see, and tell her I was her future. I wanted her love more than anything I’d ever wanted in my life – it was harder than hunger, than thirst, than the pulse of blood from a deep wound. But I only wanted it on her terms. I wanted her to come to me, to start to accept me, before all the trappings of the mate bond squeezed her lush body like chains.

“I wish to give her time. To win her to me on my own merit, without the pressure of the mate bond. At least at first,” I said, giving voice to my thoughts. Baldor looked at me as if I’d just offered to let him drink his valok gel from my empty skull.

“You are a more patient man than I am,” he finally said, still looking at me as if I were half-mad. Perhaps I was. But this was something I was certain of. At least for now, I’d let Zerena get to know me on her own terms. Coax her into loving me, if she would. Give her a choice.

“I am still prepared to move my tent out onto the sands,” I told my Gahn. I did not want it to seem as if I were bringing up this news of a mate to avoid such responsibility. But I should have known Baldor knew me better than that.

“I know such things already, Xyan. You have never been one to shirk duty, or to put your own needs above others’.”

We turned and faced the settlement in companionable silence. From here, I could see the guards who stood at the settlement’s entrance. Beyond them, the tents, which were now dark houses of shadow in the evening air. The glow of the fire could scarce be seen between them. It would be good to expand the settlement outwards. Even without the arrival of the Death Plains tribe things were tight. And of course, the Bitter Sea men were coming here soon too.

“Do the water men sleep in tents?” I asked Gahn Baldor. We often called the huge irkdu-looking warriors water men, as they hailed from land beyond the Bitter Sea, swimming and hunting in watery depths. That was about all I knew of those foreign warriors apart from their massive size and almost incomprehensible strength. The warrior Kor, only half a Bitter Sea warrior with a Sea Sand mother, had bested me in battle and had bested Gahn Baldor, too. Such strength was basically unheard of in these deserts – strength that could bring down a Gahn with such ease. And his people, the pure-blooded Bitter Sea men, promised to be even more powerful. Strong allies. And potentially even more dangerous enemies.

“Truthfully, I do not know,” Baldor said. “Kor sleeps in a tent with his mate in the settlement. From all I’ve heard, the Bitter Sea men and women live in caves beneath land that exists out on the waves. I do not know if they use tents in their caves.”

“Hmm. Perhaps they will not need space for tents among us, then. Perhaps they will want to make their beds among the cliffs.”

Baldor grunted his agreement. I pondered that fact. Though I did not like to judge any man without reason, I could not help but feel a dark, swiping claw of territorial defensiveness when I thought of men so different from me. Men stronger than me. Men near my mate.

“When will they arrive?”

Baldor gave a low growl that hinted at irritation.

“Soon, I hope. They promised to return with haste. But it has been many days. It is likely the Death Plains people will be here before the Bitter Sea men, even though the Death Plains are much further from here than the coast.”

Perhaps this was good as well. That all five tribes of the Sea Sands would present as a united front upon the return of these incredibly strong warriors. More men to convince them to remain peaceful among us, despite their upper hand when it came to brute strength. Though they were naturally stronger, we were greater in numbers.

“I must return to my Gahnala,” Baldor said abruptly, his tail jerking. “Thank you for your thoughts about the settlement.”

“Of course,” I said, raising my tail once more as Gahn Baldor stalked back into the settlement to find Thereeza. My heart throbbed, aching to do the same thing with my own mate. I could go to her now. Find her at the fire and tell her everything. Tell her we are bound for now and all days. That we are fated, and that she is mine.

I sighed as I imagined how that might go. The flush of discomfort colouring her pale cheeks. The awkwardness, the pressure of what I’d thrust upon her. Cursed sands, I long to thrust so much more upon her…

No. I’d already made my choice. For now, I would not tell her.

With that thought pinned in my circling mind, I, too, returned to the camp for the night. When I stepped into my tent, dark and empty and small – a bachelor’s tent – I tried to ignore the hot stir in my groin and the punch of sensation against my ribs. It was such an unfamiliar feeling for me – I’d never had a female I’d been truly fond of before this. So now, to have this ferocious love, this hunger, awakened so forcefully… I was having trouble containing it. Hammering at my blade earlier had provided some small relief, but what to do now? I lit a candle in my tent, sending flickering light stroking up the walls, then put the new weapon carefully in a place I’d already prepared for it on the bone shelf I’d constructed. After doing so, I surveyed the tent with a critical eye, noticing how small it seemed, how bare. Hardly fit for a female as worthy as Zerena. But I’d never had need for more space, more objects before. All that was here right now were a warrior’s essentials – bedding hides, weapons, a little sustenance in the form of dried meat and valok. Already, I wondered how Zerena would change this place. How she’d arrange things to her liking. The objects she’d collect and covet.

The way she’d sleep naked among my hides.

A groan escaped from my lips as my cock hardened beneath my loincloth. Baldor was right – this was suffering. Torture. Never before had I needed the tight hot sheath of a cunt like this. Now that I was alone in my tent with no blades to hammer and no Gahns’ business to distract me, it was all I could think about. And once more, I fantasized about finding Zerena at the fire. Maybe she wouldn’t react with shock at my words. Maybe she’d smile broadly then jump naked and willing upon my cock…

Foolish warrior. I did not think I was a particularly dense or ignorant man. But my absurd fantasies were trying very hard to prove otherwise.

I sat on the hides, tearing into some dried meat with my fangs, chewing hard and fast. Sleep. For now, I would sleep.

Tomorrow I would decide my next course of action.

CHAPTER FOUR

Xyan

When tomorrow came, and I found myself once more hammering away at a blade, I realized I had a very large flaw in my plan.

Zerena had absolutely no reason to talk to me.

She did not know she was meant to be my mate. As such, why would she specifically come to me to spend her time and to find companionship? She was busy with her own work, with her human friends, not to mention the dozens of other unmated warriors settled now at this camp whom her beauty could instantly lull into servitude if she so beckoned with her tiny white hand. The sounds of my hammer had drawn her to me once, but that was only her simple curiosity about what I was doing. I could not keep hammering away here alone among the smoke and shadows and hope it would produce the same results again.

If I wanted to win her, I’d have to fight for her.

I will have to take Gahn Baldor up on his offer to learn more about what pleases the new women, I thought, pausing my hammering and straightening. But then again, I could not assume that what might please one new woman would please another. To me, Zerena was as unique as she was perfect. I’d have to discover what she, in particular, found pleasure in.

This task was more complicated than it had seemed before. Zerena and I were bound – meant to be mates. I assumed that that meant we would find our way to each other no matter what. But perhaps destiny sometimes needed a slight push. A push in the form of the warrior taking the first step.

I’ll go find her. Now.

I still did not plan to spring the news of the mate bond upon her quite yet, but I would have to take control of this situation more than I had done before. I was no longer content to simply watch her, lusting and loving, from afar. A simple conversation, at least. That much I could manage, I was sure.

With that in mind, I turned from the fire of my small forge, leaving a half-complete weapon on the slab, and headed into the settlement.

I did not get far. I did not even see Zerena before cries rang out. Instantly, I was on alert. Luckily, I had brought my newly-crafted blade with me today. It was strapped to my back. I slipped it from its strap, sprinting to the entrance to the settlement.

The warriors on guard there had their spears primed. Gahns Buroudei and Baldor were running to the scene, followed by more warriors. We formed a crowd at the edge of the settlement, all of us staring out over the sands.

“The Death Plains men,” I said, my sight stars pulling into fine points of focus.

“You are right,” Baldor said, jerking his tail as he came to a stop next to me.

The other men around us relaxed, but only slightly. I did not blame them. The Death Plains men had proven vicious and unfriendly towards the idea of the alliance. Not that we had not also been that way at first. But, as they were the last to join, they felt more like intruders than the other tribes around me.

The tiny forms of their irkdu grew in the distance as they approached. As they came further into focus, I saw the new Gahn Razek at the head of the group, his human mate Jozelyn riding with him. I had not gotten on well with this new Gahn in the time I’d spent with him. He’d very nearly tried to kill me for trying to retrieve Jozelyn from their tents. Luckily, the feral young king had the good sense to listen to his mate. The time I’d spent with Jozelyn had impressed upon me that she was a strong and clever female. I was glad that my own mate had women like her as her friends.

Speaking of my own mate…

A familiar scent, one I’d gotten my first taste of yesterday at the forge, spirited through the air to me, winding down the column of my throat, settling deep into my chest.

Zerena.

She was here.

I whipped around, causing several nearby warriors to jump out of my way. In the crowd, just off to my left, I spotted Zerena, her face shadowed under her hood.

My jaw cracked with tension. My hold tightened on my blade. I forged through the crowd towards her, planting myself in front of her and turning back to face the Death Plains warriors as they approached, blade ready. The Death Plains tribe was small. It would be suicide for them to try any violence here now. We could defeat them easily, and I knew Gahn Razek was not likely to risk his Gahnala Jozelyn’s ire by attacking. I knew all this, and yet…

“Xyan?”

The small, soft sound was a powerful strike against my back. My spine went rigid.

I glanced back and down over my shoulder. Zerena was looking up at me, her eyes hidden by the shining black eye-shells her kind wore during the day. Everywhere the sun touched her smooth, pale skin was a spot I longed to taste, and I clamped my fangs down on my tongues.

“Yes,” I said in reply.

“Oh, well,” her cheeks flushed with pink and she ducked her head. “I just wondered why you’d suddenly stopped in front of me. You’re kind of blocking my view.”

“I am shielding you,” I said simply. “I do not yet trust these Death Plains men.”

Her small mouth fell open, pink and wet, before she spluttered, “They’re our allies now. Their Gahn is Jocelyn’s mate!”

“I know this.” I turned around, no longer allowing her loveliness to distract me from protecting her if needed. The closer the Death Plains people got, the less likely it seemed I would need to swing my blade for my mate, though. Their weapons were not drawn and they moved at a quick but not aggressive pace. As their irkdu approached, I could see Jozelyn waving a small brown hand in the air, her face splitting into a broad smile as she returned to the settlement.

Normally, before now, I’d be at the front of this crowd standing next to my Gahn, ready to support him however needed. But I had not had a mate to protect before now. So I remained where I was, in the crush of the crowd, edging backwards ever so slightly until I could feel the spine-tingling brush of Zerena’s breath on my back. Being this close to her had the added benefit of throwing my own body’s shadow over her, keeping her out of the hot sun that was so hard on her delicate skin.

The Death Plains irkdu stopped. The four Gahns of the settlement stood ahead of me, tense but ready to greet the newcomers. Gahn Razek dismounted with Jozelyn, followed by his people, everyone’s feet hitting the sand. I cast my eyes over the group. They truly were a small tribe. The smallest of the Sea Sands. Fourteen adult males, five women (all mated) and four children. The Fol-Gahnala was the only elder among them, flanked by two tall warriors.

The Death Plains people were like us, and in ways unlike us. We were all strong warriors, but they came from a land so hostile it was carved into the lean, dark masks of their faces. I myself had almost perished in those terrible lands, along with several other strong men, when we’d journeyed there the last time. The skin of the Death Plains people was like all of ours – bronze and brown and black in places, but their sight stars were quite unique. Where I was used to seeing sight stars in shades of copper, gold, red, or silver, theirs glimmered in pale shades of dawn-blue, dusty rindla flower pink, or crystalline purple.

Pale purple sight stars were on me now. Gahn Razek glared at me, no doubt remembering my insolence in his lands when I’d come to retrieve Jozelyn from his grasp. Now that she was mated to him, I would never have a reason to attempt such a thing again. But that was before the Lavrika had summoned him, when I had not been so sure of his intentions. Some of my irritation at Razek’s past actions faded as I thought of how I would react if another male came to take Zerena. Even before the Lavrika had summoned me and awakened the mate bond, I would have been prepared to kill any man who came to steal her away from me.

The newcomers stayed together in a group on the open sands, their pale sight stars raking over us with suspicion. I noticed the claws of a few of the Death Plains warriors inching towards blades, and I readied myself to fight.

But then the tense silence broke open with the chirruping voices of the new women.

“I’m back!” Jozelyn cried, strutting from the group on the sands, waving her hand in the air again. “Did you all miss me?”

Razek’s sight stars flashed in alarm as she moved quickly from his side. In an instant, he was stalking after her, baring his fangs at any male who looked too long at his mate.

“Hello!” I heard from behind me. Zerena was leaning out from behind the wall my body had created, waving back at Jozelyn. They were friends, so it only made sense that she would wish to greet Jozelyn. But it made me grind my fangs. Because wherever Jozelyn went, Razek and his men were sure to follow. And I did not want a single one of them near my precious mate.

I kept my blade at the ready, straightening to my full height as the new Gahnala of the Death Plains approached with her easy smile, her mate prowling close behind. Zerena slipped out from behind my back, but I stepped up quickly, keeping pace with her so that I was right beside her when Jozelyn and Razek stopped in front of us.

“I’m so glad to see you,” Zerena gushed, and even though I was focused on any potential threat Razek may have posed, her happiness lit a small fire inside me. “One of your fallink plants started growing,” Zerena continued.

“Fantastic! Thanks for keeping an eye on things. Fingers crossed that means more are right behind it.”

I cocked my head at Jozelyn, frowning. How would crossing your fingers help a plant grow? If anything, tangling your fingers in such a way would get in the way of any work to be done. Wouldn’t it?

I stared down at Zerena’s soft white fingers, trying to imagine them crossing and wondering what such a thing would achieve. But staring at her fingers for too long made my tail twitch in need for them against my hide, so I wrenched my gaze back up.

“Hello Xyan,” Jozelyn said to me, pulling her eye-shells down her nose slightly and looking at me over their dark lenses. “You’re looking as stoic and serious as ever.”

Her golden-brown sight stars moved from my face to Zerena then back to me. There was a knowing, almost suggestive, glint in her eyes that I was not sure I liked.

“Greetings, Gahnala. I am glad to see you’ve returned safely.”

She grinned at me, even as Razek seemed to bristle at my words. He probably did not like that I was speaking to her at all. Jozelyn ignored her irritated mate, launching into rapid conversation with Zerena in their native tongue. I could follow not a single sentence that flowed between them and perhaps that was for the best. Because right now I was focused on communicating a stark but wordless message to Gahn Razek with my sight stars.

A message about Zerena.

A message that I hoped, for his own sake, he’d heed.

Come too close, Gahn though you may be, and you will die.

CHAPTER FIVE

Serena

“Somebody seems to be sticking quite near,” Jocelyn said in English, waggling her eyebrows and looking between Xyan and me.

I flushed and said, “I don’t know about that,” even though she was absolutely right. I didn’t really have a clue about what Xyan’s thought process had been this morning. It was like, as soon as he’d become aware of my presence in this crowd, he’d cut right through everything and everyone between us, stationing himself in front of me like some kind of immovable object. And it wasn’t like I was the only human woman in the crowd or even the closest one to him. In fact, he’d walked right past Taylor and Camille to get to me.

I am shielding you…

I cast a furtive glance to the side, my gaze travelling up the bronze lines of Xyan’s muscled arm, over his huge shoulder up to his face. He didn’t return my look, thankfully – I didn’t exactly want to be caught looking. He seemed to be locked in some kind of staring contest with Gahn Razek.

Trying to change the subject, I said, “Would you have a look at these two?”

Jocelyn glanced upward, finally seeming to notice the sparks of tension flying between Xyan and her mate.

“Ugh. Ignore them. Totally mad, they are. Razek’s disliked Xyan ever since Xyan came to try to take me back from the Death Plains.”

Even though I already knew the details of that story, for some reason hearing that part again sent a flash of jealousy through me. Which was absolutely absurd. Jocelyn was my very good friend, probably my closest friend on this whole planet. And she had her own mate! So why did the idea of Xyan searching for her, Xyan trying to rescue her, feel like a dark, poky shrub in my rib cage?

Jocelyn’s next words made that silly jealousy vanish as quickly as it had come, only to be replaced with a whirling turmoil of new emotions I was not quite ready to face.

“Like I said, totally mad. I’ve already told him Xyan’s got his eye on you.”

Heat slammed up into my neck and cheeks.

“Excuse me?” I squeaked, not quite sure I’d understood her right. Jocelyn tipped her sunglasses further down her nose, pinning me with her golden gaze.

“You haven’t noticed yet? He’s had his eye on you for weeks.”

I was sure I looked more like some poor fish caught for a biology study than a human woman based on the loose, floppy way my mouth suddenly seemed to be moving. Jocelyn grinned almost wickedly at my expression.

“I didn’t have a chance to tell you before, I’ve been so busy with the farming stuff and running back and forth all over the bloody desert. But the first time I talked to Xyan, he could barely focus on a freaking thing I was saying. Because you were behind me.”

“You’re way off base,” I stammered. “He’s barely said two words to me!” And the few words he had said were because I’d walked into his work area and interrupted him, basically forcing him to say something.

“I saw what I saw,” Jocelyn affirmed. “His sight stars were way up over my head and glued to you as you walked behind me. He couldn’t focus on me again until you were out of sight in the big human tent.” She laughed then, shaking her head. “Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I honestly thought you would have noticed by now!”

“I’ve noticed no such thing,” I huffed, still convinced that she was wrong. She wasn’t the type to make something like this up as a misguided joke or prank, but I just honestly didn’t believe what she was saying. I liked my body and my face – they were mine and they’d served me well so far in my life. But I’d never given much thought to being beautiful, or that someone else might see me that way. My mom had called me her “bonnie wee thing” when I was a girl. But that was when I was very young. Before she’d died. And the only long-term relationship I’d been in had always felt more cerebral and practical than romantic. My ex’s idea of a compliment had been things along the lines of “Is that a new jumper? It would look amazing on you if you lost a few kilos.” I couldn’t remember a single instance of him calling me attractive. So the idea that I would have a warrior as impressive as Xyan drooling over me felt totally foreign.

“Girl, for someone as observant as you, you’re blind when it comes to yourself.” Jocelyn’s smile softened and she tilted her head, the sun catching on a stray curl escaped from her hood. “And if I may say so, Xyan has great taste.”

At his name, Xyan finally broke eye contact with Gahn Razek, glancing down at us. Jocelyn’s words rattled around in my head, making Xyan’s gaze hotter than hell as it stroked over my face.

“We’re saying all good things, Xyan, don’t worry,” Jocelyn said in the language of the Sea Sands, flapping her hand dismissively at him. Gahn Razek didn’t have a chance to voice his obvious annoyance at Jocelyn talking to and about Xyan, as the other four Gahns had approached us in the crowd. Xyan raised his tail, and Razek turned to face the other four warlords.

“Let’s leave them to their politics. I’m starving and in desperate need of a good talka scrub,” Jocelyn said.

“Sounds good,” I replied. I’d missed having her around, and was dying to hear all about her journey. Not to mention I was excited to show her the progress her garden had made in her absence.

She linked her arm with mine and we moved out of the crowd. As we walked, she leaned closer, whispering conspiratorially to me.

“Turn around right now and you’ll see what I mean.”

It felt silly to turn around, childish, even, like I was risking a glance at some cute boy across a high school cafeteria. But my curiosity won out over any embarrassment and I jerked my head, tossing a quick glance over my shoulder back the way we’d come.

Based on how we were now behind where Xyan had been standing, I’d expected to see his back when I looked furtively over my shoulder.

But it wasn’t the bronze, muscled shape of his back that met my gaze.

It was his eyes.

His sight stars were pulled to sharp copper points, absolutely trained on me with unrelenting focus. Even as the Gahns beside him discussed what I was sure had to be important matters, he didn’t look at them even for a second. I felt my own eyes widen behind my sunglasses, and I whipped my head around again to face forward.

“Told you,” Jocelyn said in a sing-song voice. “That bloke’s got the hots for you big time.”

I didn’t answer her. I was too preoccupied with the surprising way Xyan’s sight stars had met mine across the distance between us.

And the way I could still feel them, even now, boring into my back.

CHAPTER SIX

Serena

Jocelyn and I spent a lot of the afternoon together as she cleaned up and got some food, catching up on everything that had happened while she’d been gone. She smiled at her lone little fallink sprout in the garden, nodding to herself. After that, we went together to check on Theresa (doing well) and Cece (doing not so well, but holding up).

“I’m going to hang out here for a bit,” Jocelyn said in Cece’s tent. “I’ll mix up some more of the grix drinks for everybody.”

“That would be awesome,” I said with a grateful nod. Even after straining the batch I’d made, it hadn’t been quite right. Too much grix, but steeped for too short a time, which apparently made the flavour bitter and overwhelming. Cece also made a sound of gratitude from where she was lying on top of her hides.

“I’m good here. You should go, I don’t know… Talk to a certain big, brawny, stoic warrior whose name rhymes with cayenne,” Jocelyn said with a sly look. I pursed my lips, wanting to squirm under her gaze. God, I was 33 years old! I should not have been feeling this fucking goofy!

“You know what? I will,” I announced, standing up. I was a grown-ass woman. There was no reason for me to be all silly and embarrassed. If Xyan was attracted to me, then so what? That didn’t mean I would have to hide away from him like a schoolgirl. And it’s not like I was… unaffected by his appearance either. Maybe talking to him more will be good. Get to know him a little better and I won’t feel so off-kilter around him.

I strode out of the tent, not bothering to pull up my hood or put on my sunglasses. Dusk was creeping up the sky with velvety paws, and the faint glimmer of stars followed close behind. The asteroid band that encircled this planet like Saturn’s rings was rising, too, a curving line of misshapen-looking moons turning the copper and gold of the desert and cliffs to shades of indigo and merlot with silvered highlights.

For a moment, before I got all in a tizzy looking for a certain someone, I paused, looking upwards. It was a sky so different from the one I’d been used to back home. Different, but achingly beautiful in its own way. Its stars sharper, its shadows deeper. There were times I wanted to go home so badly I could feel the strangling fist of it around my heart. But when I stopped among the constant action and stress of our new lives here, took a deep breath, and just took in the beauty of everything, it almost felt OK.

“I often wonder what you see looking up at those stars, knowing you have come from beyond them.”

A deep, gravelly voice directly behind me made my heart leap into my throat.

“Jumpin’ Jesus,” I breathed in English, the old slang rising instinctively at the shock. My hand on my pounding chest, I turned to find Xyan behind me.

I’d been speaking of the beauty of the night sky, but Lord thunderin’, it paled compared to the man before me. In the darkness of dusk, everything about him was deeper, more shaded, more intense. His copper sight stars gleamed with ochre smoke, shadows pooling beneath his hard cheekbones and between the defined curves of his muscles. I was overcome with an absolutely visceral urge to ask him to strip. Not in a pervy way, but so that I could study and eventually draw that insanely impressive anatomy. It had been such a huge part of my work back home, and it would be a wonderful challenge and an opportunity like no other – to make note of alien biology never before studied on Earth. But as my eyes stroked down the carved lines of his meaty pectorals and his hard abs, lingering on his loincloth before wrenching back up to meet his gaze once more, I had to admit that maybe, just maybe, my desires weren’t solely academic in nature.

So, OK, yeah. A little bit pervy after all.

Though you’d never get me to bloomin’ admit it to anyone else, that was for damn sure.

I cleared my throat, realizing the silence had stretched between us for a long moment. Xyan seemed totally unphased, not feeling a milligram of the awkwardness I felt. He stood still and patient. I realized he was waiting for a response.

“I was just admiring everything,” I stammered. Kind of a boring answer but I couldn’t think of a more interesting response. I’d always been an introvert, much more able to express my thoughts with drawing and writing than in conversation. Even teaching the undergrad courses back home was taxing for me. I much preferred holing up in my office than engaging in drawn-out conversations with most people.

But I realized as I looked at Xyan that I didn’t want this conversation, if you could even call it that, to end.

“I understand the desire to admire something, especially when it’s beautiful,” he said slowly, his sight stars lingering on my mouth before coming back up to meet my eyes.

“Well, the stars and asteroids are certainly that,” I stammered, feeling a right fool for some reason. Xyan cocked his head slightly, then took two steps forward, coming to a stop at my side and turning so that we were facing the same direction. I slid my eyes over to him, watching as he tipped his hard face up, his thick neck arching back to look at the sky.

“What are asteroids?” he asked.

“Oh. Right. The moons,” I said. “You can’t really tell from here, but those moons actually circle the entire world.”

He tipped his head down to look at me, frowning slightly.

“Circle?”

Right. It wasn’t like these guys had exactly studied astronomy or anything like that. Nor had they seen their own world from space, as I had.

“This planet, this world,” I said sweeping my hand in a cockeyed circle motion, “is a huge sphere. The moons aren’t just the line you see here. They’re a ring that goes around the whole thing.”

“A sphere…” Xyan said, still frowning, looking away from me, across the settlement, out onto the open sands. “I see no curve.”

The way he said it, it didn’t sound like he was challenging me, or that he was defensive about me challenging his worldview. It was a quiet and steady statement accompanied by an inward pulse of his sight stars, as if he were trying to see exactly what I was talking about.

“We can’t see it because the planet is so huge that the curve just looks flat to us,” I replied.

Xyan made a deep rumbling sound, then said, “You know much, Zerena who speaks of worlds. You know more of this place than even I, whose blood is of these lands.”

Oh, fuck me. Had I gone and stuck my foot in it? I didn’t mean to try to sound like I knew more about this place than the warrior who’d lived here his entire life.

“Oh, no, that’s not true,” I stammered, hoping I hadn’t offended Xyan. My ex had never liked it when I’d tried to teach him things or tried to correct him. “Sorry, I hope I didn’t come across like some know-it-all Nelly.”

“A… a what?” Xyan said, quirking a dark brow as he looked down at me once more.

“A know-it-all Nelly. Someone who tries to… To show off their knowledge,” I said. I could feel the hot flush of embarrassment in my cheeks, my neck. For some reason, I really, really didn’t want Xyan to think poorly of me.

But he looked surprised by my words and my dismay.

“I wish you would give me more of your knowledge. Your thoughts, your memories… all of it.”

My mouth fell open slightly and I slammed it closed again. He wasn’t getting irritated and calling me pedantic? What fresh hell was this?

“I know much of this place that you do not,” Xyan continued. I might have imagined it, but I thought he shifted slightly, creating the slightest brush of friction between his arm and the shoulder of my jacket. “And you know many things I hope you will share with me. Fate has brought our people together for a reason, Zerena. We can all learn from each other. This way, we are stronger. We are better.”

“I agree,” I said, smiling at his words. He was absolutely right. I may have known things like the shape of planets and the theory of gravity and how cells created energy, but he knew things that were just as valuable. How to forge blades that could protect your home. How to survive in the brutal wild heart of the desert.

How to make a poor Newfoundland girl all hot and squirmy.

“So, what are you up to this evening?” I said, linking my fingers together behind my back in a pose that was meant to look nonchalant. I noticed a sharp dip of Xyan’s sight stars down to my chest before, bless him, he snapped them right back up to my face.

“I am on my way to move my tent.”

“Oh!” I said, glancing at the settlement. Throughout the day, many of the male warriors had been moving their tents just outside of the settlement, creating a curved line of tents on the open sand. As we humans hadn’t needed to move our tent, I hadn’t been paying much attention, too preoccupied with other things. “Is that… safe?” I asked, biting down on my lip, suddenly worried for this massive man, sleeping alone out there.

“Do not worry,” he said kindly, almost thickly. “I am a strong fighter, as are the other men who are moving out there.”

“How did they choose who will go?” I asked, tightening my stomach against the knot that had formed deep in my guts.

“Unmated men, those without families, will erect their tents out on the sands. This way the women and children are safer behind that line.”

“So that means you don’t have a mate then, right?” I asked, hoping I sounded at least somewhat cool and disinterested. I’d never seen a woman, human or alien, hanging around with him. And I was suddenly dying to confirm that he didn’t have one already.

Xyan’s mouth thinned into a tight line, his jaw clenching, before he finally said, “I do not yet have a mate who shares my tent.”

There was absolutely no reason for me to be feeling that giddy about his proclamation, but there I was. A smile exploded onto my face. I couldn’t help it. So he’s definitely single, then. Jocelyn’s poking and prodding from earlier jumped into my mind. He’s got the hots for you… He has for weeks…

“So, you’re moving your tent, then? Can I help?”

Xyan’s sight stars pulsed slightly in surprise.

“You need not trouble your soft hands helping me,” he said, as if shocked by my request.

I laughed.

“I’m stronger than I look,” I teased. “I grew up on a farm back home.”

He smiled softly. It made my insides curl in the most delicious way.

“There is no one here who could question your competence, I am sure. And if one did, that fool would have me to answer to.”

My fingers tightened into sweaty fists. The dusk air was cool, but my body was flaming. I unzipped my jacket, yanking it off and scrunching it into a crinkly ball, sticking it under my arm. I blew a few strands of hair out of my face and adjusted the bra strap that had slipped down my shoulder beneath the wider strap of my tank top. Unfortunately, when I’d been taken from home, they hadn’t allowed me to bring any of my decent, properly-fitting bras. I’d been snatched in a ratty old sports bra that had already fallen apart, and now I was stuck with the nondescript uniform ones we had on the ship. In a properly-fitted bra, I’d been a solid F-cup back home, so these flimsy things were always riding up or sliding down in the most annoying way possible. Never thought big boob problems would be so much at the forefront of my mind on a hostile alien planet. But as I tugged the thin strap back into place, it seemed that it wasn’t only at the forefront of my mind.

Xyan’s sight stars buzzed, his eyes wide as he stared at my face, as if every hardened milligram of his warrior’s will was required not to look down at my breasts without my jacket on. The adult Sea Sand women didn’t have breasts unless they were pregnant or nursing, so the whole boobs thing was kind of a novelty here. With that in mind, I couldn’t really blame the guy for any curiosity. Besides, Xyan wasn’t alone in his gobsmacked feeling of novelty and awe. I, too, had had my own share of holy shit would you look at that moments when taking in Xyan’s impressive form. I mean, I was a biologist, after all. And a straight woman with eyes.

But still, I appreciated the effort he was using to keep his gaze trained on my face.

“I have said that I do not require your assistance,” Xyan said. “But… would you like to see my tent?”

Before I even knew what I was agreeing to, I found myself nodding my head.

“You bet I would.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Xyan

Tension thrummed through every limb as I trudged back to my tent. My knuckles were so tight they cracked as I flexed them. Beautiful Zerena seemed oblivious to my inner turmoil as she walked beside me. I had to remind myself to slow my pace for her short legs. The energy in my body urged me to sprint for all I was worth.

Perhaps this was a bad idea…

Perhaps she should put that strange cloak of hers back on…

I’d never seen so much of her bare skin before. Plush arms that led up into gently sloping shoulders a feral part of me wanted to sink my fangs into. And her chest…

The round swell of her breasts made my cock thicken even as I gnashed my fangs, keeping my gaze straight ahead as I walked. I should not have asked her to come back here with me…

Not that I had any doubts about my own self-control. Certainly not. I would never do anything Zerena did not wish for. But I was torturing myself like this. Bringing her back to my tent – the dark, confined space of it – with so little clothing and so much tension between us.

Earlier, when the Death Plains men had arrived, I’d planted myself before her to be her shield. Now, it almost seemed as if she needed a shield from me. Or at least from my gaze. A gaze that had become more fierce, more lusty, than I’d ever known it to be.

“Here is where I sleep,” I said, stopping and gesturing to my small tent. I watched her face closely, trying to get some impression of what she thought. Pride and doubt commingled.

“It’s small,” she said, seeming surprised. A muscle flickered in my jaw.

“Yes,” I agreed, unsure if she meant it in a positive or negative way. Or perhaps it was simply a neutral observation.

Cursed sands, I had never been so unsure of myself before. So dependent on the emotions and reactions of someone else. I’d always been sure of myself. But as my lovely mate stood before me, her face shining under the light of the moons that she called asteroids, I wondered what she saw when she looked at my modest abode.

And I wondered what she saw when she looked at me.

“Can I see inside?” Zerena asked, glancing at me from below. Her cheeks darkened. “Sorry, was that too forward? Was that rude? I don’t-”

“Yes,” I said swiftly, twitching my tail in acquiescence. “You may come inside.” It was a desire so deep it was almost filthy – the intensity with which I wanted her in my tent, my space. So she’d be alone with just the darkness and me. My cock twitched, lengthening further, and I growled internally at myself to focus. To keep everything in check.

I lifted the tent flap and gestured inside the darkened space with my tail. She dipped her head in an odd human way and smiled slightly as she brushed past me. A whiff of her scent slipped through my air, settling hot and sweet in my loins. With a tightness in my chest, I slipped in behind her, letting the tent flap fall closed. We were plunged into darkness. But even with so little light, I knew exactly where Zerena was. I could see her well enough. And my body was aware of every curve and shape of hers in the darkness. A breath shuddered out of me as I stepped up closer to her, a mere whisper away from her back. I sensed her stiffen at my nearness, and immediately I stepped away from her. Well done warrior. Now you’ve made her uncomfortable. I turned to the bone shelf next to me, grabbing a valok candle from its place and lighting it with two stones. Warm light rippled outwards, illuminating my tent and all my possessions.

Zerena looked around, her slim light brown brows raised slightly.

“It’s so tidy,” she said.

I looked around, too, trying to see what she saw. A single roll of hides meant for one man. Bone shelves with only the most essential items.

She bent and placed her crinkled-up cloak on the sand next to the bone shelves. It was the only thing out of place.

And because it was hers, it did not feel out of place at all.

A hammer of sensation slammed through me. The need to keep her here. To make my home hers. To fill the space with more of her.

“It need not always be so tidy,” I said, my voice sounding gruff and strange to my own ears. “There is room for much more. And I could easily expand the tent, should I ever have the need…”

I was dangerously close to going back on what I’d vowed to myself. The vow not to pressure her with the mate bond. I was within a claw’s width of it. In all my words about making room and expanding, there was an unspoken promise. A plea.

If you let me, I’d move everything else aside for you. You are the very centre of my life. The core of my world.

I thought back to what she’d said about the moons, the asteroids. That they were a ring encircling Zaphrinax. It felt like I, now, was circling her much in the same way. Tethered to her with some invisible force. I could move and circle and spin around her, but that tether remained intact. She was the pillar holding me, the whole world guiding me. Every path, every movement, every stroke of fate, led me back to her.

“Are you alright?”

Zerena’s words, sharper than usual, had me clearing my throat.

“Yes. Why?” I asked.

Her slim brows lowered, her eyes searching my face. The black sight stars at the centre of her eyes were much larger now. Almost swallowing up the little skies there.

“Your expression… You looked… Far away,” she said stiltedly, as if searching for each word.

I tilted my head as I regarded her.

“Far away? I do not believe we have ever stood this close to one another.”

I emphasized the lack of distance between us by gesturing my claws in the air. I had probably stood a little closer to her outside earlier, but here in the tent it felt different. More intimate. Like the hide walls collapsed the space between us further.

“Oh, no. I guess that’s a human expression then. You seemed lost in thought.” She bit down on a plump pink lip before adding, “Though you were staring at me something fierce.”

Cursed warrior.

“Have I made you uncomfortable?” I asked. I thought of the way she’d tensed when I’d been so close behind her in the darkness a moment ago. Perhaps I had made a grave error in not telling her, right away, that she was my mate. If she knew I was her mate, she’d have no reason to fear any of my intentions.

Maybe I should tell her. Tell her now…

“Zerena, I-”

“No!” she said quickly, shaking her little head so rapidly that her shoulder-length brown hair whipped back and forth. I stiffened at her response, wondering how she already knew what I was going to say. And wondering, with some pain, how she was able to reject me so quickly.

“No, you didn’t make me uncomfortable,” she added, and I breathed out slowly. So she was not rejecting me, then. She was simply answering my earlier question.

“That is good,” I huffed.

She smiled tentatively. “I know you said you don’t need any help moving everything, but do you at least want some help packing up?”

“As I have said before, you should not trouble yourself,” I said gently.

“It’s no trouble,” she replied. “Really.” She looked at the objects on my bone shelves before adding quietly, “I’d like to learn a bit more about you. About the things you find important.”

You mean you?

“Alright,” I said, not yet willing to have her leave anyway.

She grinned. “Just tell me what to do!”

A jolt shot straight to my groin as I imagined telling her to do… all kinds of things.

“We can start by clearing the shelves,” I said roughly, turning myself from her. She began whistling behind me – a high, merry sound. I let it fill me as I crouched and rolled up my bedding into a tight parcel.

Once my bedding was tied with long strips of hide, I stood and turned back to Zerena. She was bent at one of the lower shelves, her round backside angled towards me in the air. I had to clamp down on the urge to step right up behind her and press my cock there.

You’ll go mad torturing yourself like this, Xyan.

“Did you make all these?”

Zerena straightened and looked at me. In her hand, she hefted one of my smallest blades. But in her hand, it looked much longer.

“Yes,” I said, twitching my tail.

“I don’t know anything about weapons, but it’s gorgeous work,” she said, hefting the blade slightly, her fingers curled around the bone handle. “Heavier than I would have imagined.”

“Ablik is very heavy and strong. It is why it makes such good blades,” I responded, unable to tear my eyes from her fingers on the weapon’s handle. There was something breathtakingly erotic about it. As if the bone handle of that blade was my own cock.

She moved her head up and down then placed the blade on the sand alongside the other objects she’d cleared from the shelves.

“So is that kind of your job, then? Weapons maker?”

“I have many roles. Hunter. Warrior. Weapons master is but one among them,” I said, biting back the words that would tell her that my most treasured role was that of her protector and mate. “My father taught me when I was young.”

Her large eyes, glistening in the candlelight light, moved to mine.

“Is he still around? Your father?”

“No. Both my parents have moved on from this world.”

“Mine too,” Zerena said, her lips pressing against each other. Her eyes gleamed brighter for a moment. She made a choked little sound then turned away, swiping at her eyes. I recognized this from things I’d heard from Gahn Baldor – these human tears. The bodily signal of sorrow.

My heart crashed inside my ribs as I crossed the distance between us.

I stood behind Zerena. She hunched forward, hiding her face in her palms.

“Sorry! I can’t believe I’m crying right now!” she said, sniffing loudly. The sound was an alarming one and I grasped her shoulders, spinning her to face me. She looked at me, startled, as I studied her face.

Wet tracks of her tears streaked down her cheeks. I leaned down and forward slightly, noticing the way her lashes clumped together, held by gems of wetness. I moved the pad of my thumb, so rough against her silken skin, to catch the rolling jewel of yet another tear. Her scent overwhelmed me and I clenched my jaw to keep my tongues from emerging and claiming her skin, her tears, the way I wanted to.

“Xyan?” Zerena breathed. She hardly moved, except for the rise and fall of her chest as her breath came raggedly in and out.

“Zerena,” I said in response, needing her name in my mouth. Needing more than that in my mouth. I rubbed the pad of my thumb up and down the soft curve of her cheek slowly, watching in fascination as crimson colour bloomed under her skin. I’d heard the new women bled blood the colour of axrekal berries, this land’s greatest poison. I hoped I’d never have to see it on Zerena’s skin. But this? This hot flush, caused by my touch?

That was something I hoped to see much more of. Along much larger swathes of her body.

“I understand you cry these tears when you feel sadness or pain,” I said, shifting my hand so that my palm cupped her jaw. “I also understand that I do not know yet how to comfort you when you feel such pain.”

My grip tightened at her jaw involuntarily as I made my next vow. “But I will learn.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Serena

What on God’s green Earth was happening?

I blinked rapidly, over and over, to try to make up for all the time I’d stared, blinkless, at Xyan. I was going to start crying all over again, not because I’d gotten all emotional at the fact that neither of us had parents around anymore, but because my eyes were getting so irritated from my shocked, wide gaze.

I will learn…

His words hung between us, glittering, almost as if they were made of solid matter. One thing that definitely was made of solid matter was his hand on the side of my face, hard and warm. His fingers were callused, but so gentle in their touch it made me want to lean in, to grind my cheek against that rough hide.

It makes sense he’d want to learn more about human women, I told myself, trying to keep a firm hold on reason as I fought against the urge to literally nuzzle into his hand. He might end up with a human mate. He did say he doesn’t have one yet…

Right. He definitely wasn’t specifically talking about me when he said he’d learn. No way. Definitely not.

“I want to learn more about you too. About all of the Sea Sand people,” I said quickly. His copper sight stars held my gaze so firmly, pulled me in so deeply, that it felt like I was falling. The only thing holding me steady was his hand at my jaw. Clearing my throat, I blinked yet again and looked away.

“That’s what I did back home. I’m a biologist. I spent a lot of time observing and studying other living things. Never got the chance to study someone from another world, though. Not that you’re just something to study! Of course not!” Holy mackerel, it felt like everything I said around Xyan was wrong and very possibly completely offensive. I didn’t want him to feel like I was only interested in talking to him because he was some foreign biological specimen to study. But his mouth quirked up in an expression that was somehow both sincerely kind and sinfully handsome.

“I would oblige any interest of yours.” His voice was a deep smooth river running down my spine, echoing the way his thumb traced the rapidly-drying tracks of tears on my cheeks. I was so distracted by the brush of his thumb and his voice that I almost didn’t process what he’d said.

“Hold on… You mean you’d be OK with me studying you? Your biology?” My breath caught as excitement flickered. I’d missed my work, missed learning new things, missed drawing. But this excitement went far beyond something professional. This was excitement about spending more time with Xyan.

“I do not know the word biology. But if I possess it, it is yours to do with what you will.”

My mouth fell open as I stared at him, gobsmacked. Why was this guy so… generous?! Was he like this with all the human women? Everything Jocelyn had told me about her time with Xyan had definitely painted him in a flattering light – he was a strong and noble male to his core. But even so, saying that everything he possessed was mine to do with what I would seemed a bit much…

But then again, the Sea Sand people have shared everything they possess with us humans. Their food, their shelter, their culture… They even offered us access to the Lavrika and we got the gift of understanding their language…

Wow. It suddenly hit me just how lucky we were with our Sea Sand hosts. We could have ended up on a planet with a native species that treated us unkindly. Or did worse things than just unkind ones. For a split second I wondered how the other Earth missions, the ones to other worlds, were faring. Had those other Earth abductees been as fortunate as us? Had they found a new home with good people too?

Xyan’s hand drifted down from my jaw to my shoulder.

“Zerena?” he asked, forcing me back to the conversation.

“Oh! Um. Yes. So, biology is the study of living things. Plants, animals, people. Their inner workings. How they live, produce energy, all that jazz.” Good grief, if this poor sod didn’t know what biology was, he definitely wasn’t going to know what jazz was. But he didn’t comment on that Earth turn of phrase. His hand fell away from my shoulder, causing a streak of goosebumps to erupt along my skin where he’d touched me. His hands stroked his own chest and abdomen as he peered down at himself.

“My… inner workings?” His gaze flashed up to meet mine, and I honest to goodness, had absolutely no idea if he was joking or not when he said, “I offer you everything that I possess. But I do hope that you will let me keep my innards intact as they are.”

I burst out laughing, wiping away yet more tears.

“Of course, sorry. Yes, you don’t need to worry about that.” He probably thought I wanted to cut him open or something. He smiled, his fangs glinting, and what a lovely sight it was. His strong serious face lit up with that knowing grin. He didn’t seem the type to smile very often, but when he did, it went all the way to his eyes.

“What I’d really like is to draw you,” I added as my laughter faded. I said it quickly before I could lose my nerve. But all the same, heated embarrassment flamed inside me. For some daft reason, the whole draw me like one of your French girls thing came to mind, and suddenly I was plagued by the image of Xyan posed and nude in dim flickering firelight as I worked away with my pencils and ink.

“Why? I am not a Gahn.” He must have seen the confusion on my face, because he added, “We carve the faces of Gahns into the stones of our homeland after their deaths.”

“Oh, wow,” I breathed. I’d love to take a look at that some day, if I got the chance. From what I understood, the Cliffs of Uruzai had been neutral territory up until now, belonging to no tribe. So there probably wouldn’t be any of those historical portraits here. I bet Taylor and Camille would love to see those, too… Taylor and Camille were our resident anthropology and history experts.

“Well, Gahn or not, I’d still very much like to do it if you’re willing,” I said. “Only if I’m not a burden or anything.”

Xyan’s smile deepened in a strange way. It almost looked… wistful?

“That is more of an impossibility than you know,” he said. Before I had to ask him what exactly he meant by that, he said, “I agree to this.”

“Well, thank you,” I said, letting my gaze trail down his face to his shoulders, his torso, past his thick thighs. A lot of the Sea Sand musculature was similar to ours – they basically looked like huge, body-builder type men from their thighs to their shoulders. But they had those long, clawed feet with the high ankles. Then of course there was the tail. And the ears, high like a cropped Doberman’s. The somewhat flat and almost cat-like nose. The pulsing sight stars.

He’d only just agreed to let me draw him and already I was itching to do it.

Get a hold of yourself. He’s a busy man!

“I must attend to whatever Gahn Baldor asks of me,” Xyan said. “But lately he has been content with me remaining at the settlement and forging weapons. You may come to me there any time. Or we can meet somewhere else after the days are done if it is to your liking.”

I wanted to tell him that his tent was very much to my liking, thank you, but he anticipated me.

“Once I move my tent out onto the open sands, it will not be as safe to meet here.”

I nodded, though I felt a little deflated about that. Being in here alone with him felt… Kind of special. I liked seeing his space, his stuff. I realized with a tingle of sensation in my pelvis that I really, really liked being alone with him in a small and intimate space. It wasn’t like I had my own tent we could meet in. I shared my sleeping quarters with every other unmated human woman on this planet.

“It’s fine. I’ll come to you at the forge,” I said. That would be the easiest way for now.

A smile lingered on Xyan’s lips as he twitched his tail.

“Good.”

I helped Xyan pack up the remainder of his items, tucking everything into a hide bundle as he took down his bone shelves. Then it was time to take down the tent itself. I found myself kind of sad about that. To end the moment we’d been spending together in there. And I really didn’t like the idea of him moving his tent further away, out into territory that was more dangerous.

But Xyan didn’t strike me as the type to shirk responsibility just because a random human pouted about it. So I stood without complaint, watching as he quickly worked to take down and pack up his tent. His arms bunched and pulled as he worked, his claws flying. Like I had been at the small forge, I was once again impressed with just how deft his fingers were.

Skilled hands.

Lordy, that was a dangerous thought. I’d felt those rough but gentle fingers against my cheek not long ago. And now I couldn’t stop thinking about how it would feel to have them… Other places.

Once Xyan’s tent was all bundled and secured, he stood. Together we looked down at all his possessions. With a shallow intake of breath, Xyan turned to me.

“Come. I will escort you back to your tent for the night.”

“I can help you bring all this to the new spot,” I argued, not wanting my time with him to end yet. But I already knew what he was going to say before he said it.

He said it anyway.

“It is dangerous out there. I won’t risk you.”

I nodded, pressing my lips together as Xyan bent and then straightened once more. In his hands was my solar protection jacket.

“Thank you,” I said, reaching for it. But before I could grab it, he stepped gracefully around me, moving in behind my back. Every hair stood up on end and my breath completely evacuated the facility of my freaking lungs (very helpful) as Xyan swished my jacket through the air, settling it onto my shoulders. Somehow I was able to get my arms into the sleeves, first the right, then the left, with Xyan’s claws guiding the fabric every centimetre of the way. Once my arms were in the sleeves, those deft claws moved upwards once more, straightening the fabric at my shoulders. And I probably imagined it, but for a second it seemed like his fingers lingered at my collarbone. The errant tip of a claw drew along my skin there, making my chest tighten. But as soon as those hands were there, they were gone again.

Xyan stepped around to my front once more. He reached down, catching the tab of the zipper between his thumb and his forefinger, and I almost yelped at how close his hand came to my crotch. A crotch that was being extremely distracting at the moment. I could feel my underwear growing damp, could feel my inner core pulsing, squeezing against nothing. A man putting on my jacket should absolutely not be turning me on so much! Maybe my first order of business when studying this guy is to find out what kind of magic alien pheromones he’s emitting.

“Would you show me how to do this?”

He was talking about doing up the zipper, of course. That much was obvious, and yet somehow I still had to remind myself that he was asking me to teach him to do up a zipper, not asking me to take all my clothes off. But his intelligent eyes and quick fingers and kind smile and heavy shoulders and muscled thighs were all combining into the most intoxicating cocktail I’d ever encountered. He was doing things to me. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been this attracted to someone. Maybe I never had.

OK. Yup, it was official. I definitely had a crush on alien Thor over here.

Xyan held the tab of the zipper steady as I pulled the other side of the jacket in to meet it. As if I needed to feel just a little more awkward, I could not for the blooming life of me get that damn zipper to line up. Eventually, with a soft grunt, Xyan gripped my hand in his large warm one, guiding the other part of the zipper in to meet his. Once they were locked in place, he tugged experimentally on the zipper’s tab. I noted a slight burst of his sight stars as the zipper whirred upwards. He pulled it more, doing the zipper up to my chin.

“I like this. The two sides meeting and becoming one,” he said, dragging a rough dark knuckle down the length of the zipper towards the hem of my jacket. As his hand passed my breasts, I felt my nipples prick and tighten.

“Thank you for all your assistance,” I squeaked. Truly elegant.

Xyan’s gaze moved from the zipper to my face.

“I should be the one thanking you. You did not need to help pack up all my things.”

“Oh, it was no trouble,” I said, flapping my hand at him and shaking my head. He stepped back, making room between us to raise his tail over his eyes before letting it move back down to the sands, swishing behind him.

We left all of Xyan’s things on the sand in the settlement. As promised, he walked me back to the human tent. We paused together outside the large, flat-topped hide structure.

“Goodnight, Zerena.”

I bit down on the inside of my lip, nodding.

“Same to you,” I said, not sure what else to add. I really didn’t want him to leave. Which was crazy, considering I barely knew the guy. But then again, how do you get to know someone without spending time with them? Xyan’s sight stars lingered on my face for a moment, and I thought I saw the faintest flexing of his fingers at his sides.

As he turned to go, I suddenly cried out, “Wait!”

It was loud. Like, absurdly loud. Way louder than I’d meant it to come out. It made nearby warriors stare, and made pretty much all the blood in my body rush to my cheeks.

I sighed as Xyan jerked around to face me once more. Oh well. No one had ever been able to describe me as smooth before. May as well just own the fact that I was awkward as hell sometimes and hope that it was at least somewhat charming to this epitome-of-masculine-coolness warrior.

“What is it?” Xyan asked, his sight stars searching my gaze urgently, no doubt alarmed by my very loud shout a second ago.

“I just…” OK, now I felt silly. But as Xyan’s sincere gaze slipped over my face, concern and genuine care carved into his handsome features, I felt a little better. Less silly. I felt… listened to. “Just… Be safe out there. Put your tent in a good spot.”

His full mouth tilted into a smile that made my stomach plunge. In a good way.

“I will do whatever it is you ask,” he said, his face becoming more serious. I stared at him, trying to parse what felt like sudden heavy meaning in his words. But his smile returned a moment later when he added, “It would not do to die now. I promised a certain biologist that I would assist her in her work.”

It took me a good second before I remembered that that lucky biologist was me. Woo doggies.

“Right,” I said, nodding over and over. “Well, OK then. Toodeloo and tally-ho!”

What was that?! Apparently, any skills I had at communicating with men (which, admittedly, weren’t much) had completely fucking evaporated between Earth and here. But Xyan had the good grace to look mystified, maybe even a little impressed by my random English slang.

“I wish you a toodeloo as well,” he said. His grave, deep voice and his careful pronunciation of the foreign word had me swallowing down explosive laughter. Before I got too red with the force of not laughing, I nodded sharply again and whipped around, disappearing into the tent with a backward wave of my hand.

In the safety of the tent, I howled, the laughter pouring out of me. Taylor, who was seated nearby, looked at me, her eyes wide.

“What is happening over there?” she asked, standing and eyeing me with a smile that looked half-entertained, half-terrified.

“Can’t even explain it,” I wheezed between laughs. It probably wouldn’t even be that funny to anyone else. And frankly, I kind of wanted to keep Xyan’s adorableness all to myself. Still chuckling, I made my way over to my bedding hides, plopping down. Once I’d gotten my laughter under control, my next order of business was to whip off that murderously uncomfortable bra. I wriggled out of the thing, sighing once it was off. Rubbing at my shoulders, I smiled vaguely at the tent wall beside me, somewhat aware that Taylor still had her slightly-concerned eye on me.

Well, she could keep her eye on me all she liked. And maybe she should! Somebody had to make sure I didn’t act like a blithering idiot in front of Xyan.

But as I took note of just how excited I was about tomorrow when I’d get to see him again, I realized that all the supervision in the world couldn’t stop me from yet more extremely smooth toodeloos and tally-hos.

And you know what? Maybe that was OK.

At least, Xyan made me feel like it was.

CHAPTER NINE

Xyan

All I wanted to do now was follow Zerena into that tent, slip my claws beneath her strange garb, and spill the news of our fate against her neck with my hot breath.

If I had done so, I probably would have spilled more than just the news that she was my mate…

My cock twinged, hot and thick, as I thought about spilling my seed inside Zerena.

It took every cursed bit of my ablik will not to do it.

So it was a very good thing that I was a steady warrior. With a very strong will.

Grunting, I forced myself away from the new women’s tent, stalking back to where my own had once stood. I gathered the collapsed tent and the other bundles of my things that Zerena had helped pack. I strapped my tent hides and bone rods to my back before taking the other items in my claws. One of the bundles that Zerena had helped put together still had the faint waft of her scent upon it. I brought it up against my face and inhaled deeply, groaning.

“Is all well, warrior?”

I tensed, lowering the bundle with Zerena’s scent away from my face, turning to see who’d spoken.

Gahn Taliok stood nearby, watching me with stark and steady eyes. The moon and starlight licked down his old wounds, turning his scars silvery and dark.

I raised my tail and lowered it in a brief, fluid movement.

“Yes,” I answered.

His sight stars tracked between my own eyes and the items I held.

“I saw a new woman here earlier. She had her hands upon those things. No doubt left her scent…”

If Gahn Taliok were not already a mated man, I’d be baring my fangs and hissing at him in warning right now. But he was mated, and though I was not yet used to trusting men of other tribes, everything that scarred Gahn had done so far had shown him to be an honourable warrior and leader.

“Yes,” I said again simply.

Gahn Taliok grunted, then turned to go.

In an echo of what my own mate had done earlier, I suddenly called for him to wait. The scarred Gahn stopped, turning back once more. I strode towards him.

“What was it like for you, Gahn Taliok? How did you win your new woman?”

Gahn Taliok smiled slightly. The first time I’d seen the expression on his face.

“I once asked the same thing of Gahn Buroudei. He told me some nonsense about tongues.”

Tongues?

“It actually did not turn out to be bad advice, in the end, once I understood what he meant,” Taliok said thoughtfully, raking his claws through his bluntly-cut shoulder-length black hair. I swallowed, my skin heating, already imagining what I’d do with my tongues… Stroke them along her neck, the soft curl of her ear, up to her pretty mouth…

“Taste her cunt. Rut her with your tongues,” Gahn Taliok said suddenly. I felt my sight stars burst at the unexpected bluntness of his suggestion.

“I will take that under advisement,” I said gruffly, trying not to let that image consume my every thought now that Taliok had planted it.

Taliok levelled his golden sight stars at me.

“That is what Gahn Buroudei should have told me if he were interested in actually being helpful instead of playing me for a fool. I am sparing you the riddles and getting straight to the point.”

“I appreciate it,” I said, still somewhat shocked by his delivery.

Gahn Taliok’s gaze grew distant. He stared over the settlement towards his own tent where his Gahnala likely rested now. “But warrior, the tongues come later. You have to wait for such feasts. You have to earn it.”

“I will,” I growled, meaning the words with every muscle, sinew, and bone in my body.

“Good,” Taliok said. “You ask how I won my mate to me. I simply offered her everything I have and everything I am. Then I waited. And like the most beautiful and timid brazelbird of the hills flitting down onto my outstretched palm, she finally accepted me. Though everything she has given me far outweighs anything I could hope to offer her. Every day I strive to be worthy of her.”

“Thank you, Gahn,” I said, meaning it. I appreciated Taliok’s candour. So much of what he’d said made sense to me. I felt his words as if I’d lived them already. As if I were living them right now. Because perhaps in a way I was.

I raised my tail again.

“Has the Lavrika summoned you yet?” he asked as my tail lowered.

I hesitated, wondering if I should tell him. I’d only told my own Gahn so far and he was my most trusted friend. But Taliok had been honest and helpful. So I decided to be honest as well.

“Yes. It has.” I still felt a glow of gratitude at that. That I had been one of the fortunate few to have been bonded to a mate. I felt doubly grateful to have a mate as beautiful and kind as Zerena.

“That is good,” Taliok replied. “I would wish you luck, but if the Lavrika has summoned you then you do not need it. Luck has no place where fate is concerned.” His face fell somewhat, then he growled, “But then again, these new women can be stubborn. So perhaps I will wish you luck anyway.”

I chucked, enjoying the feeling of the laughter rumbling through my chest. It felt good to think of such pleasant things. Of luck and fate and love. To not be so focused on battles and enemies and war. Of course, our greatest war may yet be on the way – it was why I was forging weapons every day, after all – but these moments and blooming hopes were cause for great joy.

“I thank you for your advice and for your luck, Gahn,” I said. “I hope I will only need the former and not the latter.”

“Now that I think about it, even with fate on your side, you will likely need both.” There was no insult in Taliok’s words. There was even a hint of an apology there. I was not offended. The more information I had, the better prepared I was to win my own beautiful mate the way Gahn Taliok had.

As I strode away towards the open sands, I became more and more sure that Taliok’s advice had been very good indeed.

“THAT’S TERRIBLE ADVICE.”

I stared at Gahn Baldor, surprised by the vehemence of his words.

“In what way?” I asked. I set down my tent bundle and other items on the open sands. Gahn Baldor was out here helping to direct the placements of the tents. All around me, unmated warriors rebuilt their sleeping quarters on the open sands. I’d found my place in the centre of the curved band of tents pushing outward onto the sand. That was where I stood now, with my Gahn, who was looking at me as if I were some kind of fool.

“Gahn Taliok is a young warrior. He does not know how to win a woman as well as men with more ages behind them,” Gahn Baldor scoffed.

I forced myself to hide my smile. “He has won his own mate, though,” I said cocking my head.

Gahn Baldor’s tail thumped the ground in annoyance. “This is true. I still think what he told you was bad advice.”

“What would you have me do differently?” I asked, beginning to set up my tent in its new place. Baldor moved around the other side, driving a bone pole into the ground, mirroring my own movements. Together we tossed the hides over the bone frame, securing everything with pegs.

“All his talk of waiting and patience is not helpful,” Baldor growled, straightening and surveying my tent. His silver sight stars moved to my face. “One must be patient, this is true. But one cannot just wait like a prey animal, off in the shadows, hoping one’s mate will come to him. One must… encourage his mate. Lure her. Fight for her and claim her.”

It did not surprise me that Gahn Baldor said such a thing. He had attacked this very settlement to claim his own mate, after all. After losing his first mate so long ago, it made sense that he had been so desperate to find Thereeza that he was willing to die in battle trying to get to her.

I would no doubt sacrifice myself for Zerena if ever necessary. I would do it without even a moment’s hesitation, not the slightest sliver of doubt. But unlike Baldor, I was an ally to Zerena. I hoped, even, her friend now. I would not need to plunge into battle, blade swinging, as Baldor had. But then again perhaps I had already done more than Gahn Taliok had suggested, as well.

“I must find my own way,” I mused out loud, more to myself than to my Gahn. But he grunted in response anyway.

“As you have always done. You have always been the type to listen to all men, then make your own choice.”

I flicked my tail in acknowledgement. He was right. That was always how I’d approached challenges. Trying to see all angles before making my decision.

“Well, whatever you do, I recommend that you at least tell her that you are her mate soon,” Baldor said. As I opened my mouth to re-iterate why I would not do that yet, he held up his hand between us to silence me. “You wish to have as much information as possible when you make decisions. Perhaps she does too.”

“Hmm…” I replied. Of course, I did not plan to conceal the truth from her for too long. I just did not want to force anything on her. To make her feel as if she had no choice in things. For now, I will stay the course. “I will consider all you’ve said, Gahn. Thank you.”

Baldor’s fangs glinted in the moonlight as he grinned at me.

“However you approach this, I have no doubt that you will win her, Xyan. You’re the best warrior I know.”

My chest warmed at his words. We said our goodnights, then he hurried away to meet his mate in his tent.

As I watched him disappear back into the settlement, I hoped that one day, one day very soon, I would have a willing mate waiting for me in my own tent, too.

CHAPTER TEN

Serena

What if he forgot? Or what if he was just being polite?

The questions plagued me as I marched through the hot Zaphrinax sunshine the next morning. My hood was pulled up to shield me from the bright morning light and against my chest I clutched a large lined notebook and a black pen from the ship.

Don’t be an idiot. Of course he remembers saying he’d help you study the Sea Sand biology…

Whether he actually wanted to or was just doing so to be polite, though, I was less sure of. Well, whatever. I’m doing this.

I’d taken care of my chores for the day already. I’d scrubbed my clothing with sand and talka gel, laying it out to dry and getting a fresh uniform after eating breakfast. I’d cleaned myself in our human sauna tent, paying careful attention to my hair and combing it smooth and flat with my fingers as it dried so that it shone in the light. I’d also made sure to give my face a good wipe-down and I’d brushed my teeth and tongue with an empty talka stalk until my whole mouth was herbal and squeaky-clean. What can I say, I wanted to look my best. I never wore much makeup back on Earth, but if I were going to see someone as drop-dead gorgeous as Xyan, I’d probably have at least put on some mascara and lip gloss. But here, just making sure my hair was tidy, my face clean, and my breath fresh would have to do. I was pretty sure at least one of the other girls had some contraband makeup snagged from the security quarters on the ship, but I wasn’t about to go asking to use it. What would I even say? A hot-as-fuck alien Thor said I could draw him and I want to look good for the occasion. Got any lippy?

Nope. No way! I could already imagine the questions and knowing looks and grins I’d get for that nonsense. And I was not interested in being elbowed and winked at by women ten years my junior, no matter how well-meaning they were. No, as far as any of the other girls knew, I was working. They didn’t need to know that “working” in this context meant drooling over my muscly alien specimen.

The hard clanging sound of a hammer hitting stone let me know that I was on the right path. I hadn’t actually confirmed anything with Xyan. I didn’t even know if he was expecting me to show up this soon. But once I knew he was OK with me doing this, I hadn’t been able to wait. My footsteps quickened, my boots landing on the sand in time with each of Xyan’s drumbeats. Once again, I had the odd sensation that I was being pulled to him. Summoned. The beat of his hammer like a song I couldn’t stop myself from dancing to.

That powerful beat drew me harder and faster until suddenly, there he was. He was just in the same place he’d been last time I’d come here, but somehow it felt… different. Maybe because I actually knew him a little better now. Last time, I’d been intruding on a stranger’s work area. This time… Well, I was pretty sure I was still at least somewhat intruding, but he didn’t feel like such a stranger anymore.

And if it was possible, he somehow looked even better than the last time I’d seen him swinging his sledgehammer here. Once again, his back was to me, the muscles bunching and cording, his bronze skin shining as he moved. His legs were planted powerfully on the sand, his tail tense and still as his arm swung. His hair was long and loose down his back, and the firelight from ahead of both of us licked around his form, making his edges glow.

I would have stayed there unnoticed all day if I could have, just admiring the beauty of his work (and his form while he completed said work) but I remembered his request from last time. The request that I should make myself known ASAP. A shard of hot black ablik stone zinged right past my face, making me flinch, only reinforcing the fact that I couldn’t just stand there silently. Not to mention the fact that kind of made me a little… stalkerish.

“Hello,” I called tentatively above the crackling of the fire and the pounding of Xyan’s hammer. His hammer froze in the air, then he spun gracefully to face me, the huge tool lowering to his side as he did so.

“Hello,” he said slowly, placing his hammer carefully upon his stone work surface without looking at it. His sight stars were glued to my face as he frowned and asked, “Is it also customary to wish one a toodeloo in the morning as well as the evening?”

Any awkwardness I’d been feeling vanished into the air, like a colony of scared puffins taking off from the water. A hearty laugh escaped from my throat. I’d forgotten about the fucking toodeloo thing from last night. Xyan looked somewhat surprised by my laughter, but not taken aback. If anything, as I wiped tears of laughter away, he seemed to move forward, getting closer to me.

“I like that sound,” he said gruffly, and my laughter died instantly, replaced by a terribly dry mouth and a throat that somehow no longer knew how to swallow. Clearing my throat, which, charmingly, sounded like something akin to a choking cat, I shook my head.

“No, toodeloo basically means goodbye. It’s kind of a goofy word. I don’t really know why I said it.” That was a lie. I did know why I’d said it. I’d said it because apparently I was the least cool person on this whole planet. And I’d been all flustered, talking to someone who very possible was the coolest person on the whole planet. So really, could you blame me?

“I like all your words. I hope to learn more of them,” Xyan said, his sight stars steady and his voice low.

Yup. Way too cool. How can a kangaroo alien even get that freaking cool?! He was beyond smooth. I took a deep breath, trying to approach something close to his level of calm eloquence.

“I brought my stuff. For the drawing.”

Xyan’s sight stars slipped down to my chest. I was about to get even more hot and squirmy when I realized he was glancing at the notebook and pen I held. I stepped to the side, into a spot of shade against the cliffs, and pushed back my hood before holding the notebook and pen up between us.

“See?”

“Yes. I do see it. I have very strong eyes, Zerena.”

“Oh! Sorry, I know. That’s not what I meant…” Good lord, I hoped I hadn’t offended him already. But he didn’t look too bothered, luckily.

“May I look at them? I’ve never seen objects like this.”

“Of course!” I squeaked, waggling the stuff at him, trying to make up for any possible faux pas from before. He took the notebook first. It was a decently-sized A4 notebook – 8.3×11.7 inches, but in his hands, it looked like a child’s diary. Tiny. He brought the flexible notebook up to his face, sniffing it cautiously. I bit back my smile at that, then chomped down on my tongue to stop myself from crying out for him to be careful with the pages. He was thumbing through the pages now, and his hands were so strong, his claws so sharp…

But not a single page got ripped. Or even bent. Not damaged in the slightest. Every movement was perfectly steady and careful and gentle as his callused fingertips and thumb slipped over the paper pages’ edges. He would have made a killer surgeon. Or museum archivist, looking after old books.

I had to fight hard to get the image of Xyan wearing white gloves and glasses and dressed in a white button-down shirt and dress pants, bent over a museum desk, out of my head. His hair would probably be neatly tied back. And with those broad shoulders and muscles, the shirt would be tight, nearly bursting at the seams…

“And that one?”

Xyan was holding the notebook out to me. I gulped and took it, handing him the pen he was now waiting for. Good grief, why was the image of Xyan in glasses and a white button-down shirt somehow even more erotic than him standing in nothing but a loincloth in front of me?

Xyan brought the pen right up to his eyes, his sight stars drawing into tight bullets of copper.

“It looks like a small blade. Or a dart of some kind,” he murmured, turning the pen over in his hands, its black length catching the light.

“The pen is mightier than the sword and all that,” I said, barely registering what I was saying. Once again, I was picturing Xyan in an Earth occupation, this time as a dark and tortured writer, hunched over a desk, scribbling away at some masterpiece by candlelight…

I forced the image aside once more when I realized he was looking at me questioningly.

“What you’re holding there is a pen. It’s an Earth saying. About how words can be more powerful than violence.”

He cocked a dark brow at me. I couldn’t blame him. He was a warrior through and through.

He held the pen out to me and I took it. As I did so, the rough callused pad of one of his fingers brushed against my wrist, flickering over the point of my pulse there and making me draw in a sharp breath.

“I believe anything in your hands can be powerful,” he said, taking that lovely rough hand away. I had to fight, really fight, from asking him to stroke the inside of my wrist just one more time.

“Well then, why don’t I show you what I can do with this thing?” I asked, smiling up at him. Holy mackerel, he really was gigantic. I had to crane my neck back to smile up at his face. Luckily, the sun was behind me, so I didn’t have to squint too hard or anything. He didn’t return my smile. If anything, when our eyes met, his expression seemed to deepen. Get even more intense. My smile faltered.

“That’s alright, isn’t it? Is it OK if I draw you? You can keep working. I won’t get in the way.”

“Of course. Please stay,” he said with a tight twitch of his tail on the sand behind him.

I nodded, still feeling a little unsure.

“Seriously, if you’re not interested, that’s totally fine! I-”

He stepped up to me so fast I would have flinched and fallen flat on my ass if the cliff wall hadn’t been directly behind me, steadying me.

“I am very interested,” Xyan said.

My stomach plunged, my core muscles clenching. He was so close, yet somehow he wasn’t crowding me at all.

“Just tell me what you need from me,” he said, his head dipping down slightly. Silken strands of long, glossy dark hair slipped over his shoulders, hanging between us. I stared at the way the sunlight caught on the glinting strands as I pondered his words. Yikes, that was a loaded question. A dangerous one. As warmth spread through my core, what I needed from him at that moment was wholly unprofessional and not the least bit academic.

Well, he was an alien life form with alien genitalia. It could still be a little academic…

“Just… Do whatever you like. You can keep working!” I whispered, ignoring the fact that I very much did not want him to just keep working. He didn’t seem to want to either, lingering close to me. After a long moment, he straightened, looking back towards his work area. As he did so, I slammed my jacket’s zipper downward, dragging the sweaty material off my arms and body and tossing it to the sand at our feet. Between Xyan and the fire and the weather on this planet, I was melting. And as lovely and polite as Xyan was, I was pretty sure he wasn’t interested in hanging out with a pile of melted human-girl-goo. I fanned myself with the notebook as he spoke.

“I will not continue what I was doing before. As I mentioned yesterday, a shard or a spark could injure you.” He turned back to me, his brows furrowing. “What are you doing?”

“I’m fanning myself! It’s so hot,” I complained, trying not to sound too whiny. But jumpin’ Jesus, the heat really was something else.

“Is that why your skin is so red?”

I was pretty sure I got about ten shades redder after that little comment. I knew he didn’t mean anything by it – he definitely didn’t seem to be trying to embarrass me. He’s just trying to learn about you. Same way you’re trying to learn about him…

“Yes,” I said, deciding to keep things simple and blame it on the heat instead of on the raging cocktail of hormones pouring through my veins every time I looked at this guy for more than half a second.

“If you are uncomfortable, then I will fix it,” Xyan said suddenly. “Come.”

“Oh… OK?” I said, trailing behind him as he turned and strode forward. As we passed the boulder that served as his workbench, he grabbed the weapon he’d been working on and another smaller stone, before continuing forward. I wondered if he was going to put out the fire, but he didn’t, instead walking around it and then stopping to make sure I had followed. I skirted around the small but merrily blazing fire, cursing it for the beads of sweat it was making roll down my back.

Behind the fire was a wide crack in the stone wall of the cliff that I hadn’t noticed. It was a dark opening that looked like it led into some kind of tunnel.

“Come,” Xyan said again, gesturing into the darkness. I peered forward, so many words of advice about not going into deep, dark, isolated places with men you didn’t know well echoing in my brain. But so many of the rules from my old life just didn’t seem to apply here. And certainly not to Xyan. I wouldn’t want to go down into some creepy dark tunnel with a human guy I’d just met the day before. But with a stoic, seven-foot-tall kangaroo warrior with a tail from another planet I’d just officially met the day before? Sign me the hell up.

Xyan held the small round ablik stone in one hand and the blade he’d been working on in the other as he stepped into the inky shadows of the tunnel.

“Are you going to need that?” I asked, a bit warily, gesturing towards his weapon.

“I do not believe so. The worst predator of these cliffs is the krixel, and it nests high up in the stone, not down here.

I nodded. The krixel. Yikes. I’d heard enough about their nastiness from Theresa, who’d been unlucky enough to get cornered by one of them back when we’d been staying with Gahn Fallo’s tribe.

“But either way, stay close to me,” Xyan muttered.

Don’t have to ask me twice… I stepped right up behind his back, watching the metamorphosis as we moved into the stone and away from the sun – the shifting of his bronze and brown skin into shades of shadow. His hair hung down his back, a dark and still river, and I curled my fingers harder around the notebook and pen to keep from reaching out and stroking it.

I was about to tell him that I’d need light to do anything. It was getting truly pitch-dark now, the sunlight behind us a speck that was swallowed up the further we moved into the stone. A moment of claustrophobia clawed at me, but I shook my head against it. Xyan was way bigger than I was. He wouldn’t take us anywhere where we could get stuck.

“Almost there,” Xyan said. He glanced back at me over his shoulder. His face was a mix of hard planes and painted shadows, but even in this dimness, I could see the beauty in it. And it made me feel better. That he was here with me. I really trust this guy… My only anxieties at that moment were due to where we were. None of them were due to the fact that I was alone with him. If anything, he was alleviating my anxieties.

Even so, as he turned back to face forward, I shifted my notebook and pen into one arm and then reached out and grabbed the strap that cut down across his back to his waist. There was no blade strapped there – perhaps to make room for the one he’d been working on today. As my fist tightened around the smooth hide strap, warmed from Xyan’s skin, my knuckles grazed his back. He didn’t stop walking, but there was no mistaking the rough intake of breath as he felt my skin against his and the tightening of the muscles along the column of his spine.

“Sorry,” I said, still not letting go. Normally I wouldn’t go out and grab anybody without asking. But the darkness and the stone walls were getting to be a bit too much. I needed to make sure that Xyan was with me. Really with me. Solid and sure and leading us forward.

In a liquid movement, his arm bent at the elbow, reaching behind his back and clasping my fist in his own. With a gentle movement, he pulled my fingers from the strap.

Mortified, I started to tug my hand away. Of course he didn’t want me grabbing at him like that. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I was about to apologize when a jolt went through me. Xyan threaded his fingers through mine, reaching back and down to keep my hand tightly in his.

“Here,” he said. “This is better.”

Thank God for the darkness and the fact I was behind his back. Because I was pretty sure the research vessel that orbited this planet would be able to pick up the glowing heat signature from my scarlet cheeks. My palm sweated mercilessly and I almost wanted Xyan to drop my hand because of it. Even though him letting go now would have been like a physical pain.

“Here,” he said.

I hadn’t realized it, but the tunnel had been opening up, widening and leading us into a large cave-like structure. It wasn’t totally enclosed, though. At the top, there was a slight opening, like a skylight, letting in some sunlight. Xyan came to a stop in the centre of the space, and I pulled up beside him, marvelling.

It was a natural cathedral with rippling stone walls and vaulted ceilings that led up into the peak where the sun came through. Our movement in the space had disturbed some dust, the motes of which careened through the sunbeams like little stars. The ground here was sand, like outside, but it was remarkably cool compared to where we’d just come from. The darkness at the edges of the room made the rusty red stone walls into rich burgundy curtains, the natural stone formations looking more like sacred statues or works of art than regular old rock.

“Beautiful,” I murmured, my head swivelling as I took in the space.

“Yes,” Xyan agreed. But when I glanced at him, he wasn’t looking around the cavern as I had been. He was only looking at me.

I cleared my throat, quickly unlacing my fingers from his. He let my hand go immediately. As it swung downward to rest at his side, I once again noticed a slight flexing of his strong fingers, the black claws glinting. A moment later, he switched the small ablik rock he’d brought back to that hand so that he wasn’t holding both it and the blade in his other.

“Well,” I remarked, trying to sound somewhat casual and failing mightily. “Shall we get started?”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Xyan

My hand felt so brutally empty without hers that I had to immediately put the ablik stone back in it. Otherwise, I was worried I would be reaching for her again. And I’d want to fill my claws with more than just her soft fingers…

“Well, shall we get started?”

“Yes,” I responded. “Just tell me what you need of me.” I’d brought the weapon I’d been working on as well as the ablik sharpening stone so that I was still being productive while away from the heat of the forge that so bothered my Zerena. Normally, I would wish to give her all my time, all of my attention. But if war was indeed looming, we’d need weapons. And I would not forgo preparing them. Not when those weapons, in my claws and those of the other warriors, would be the very things protecting her.

“I see you’ve brought that stuff to keep working on. Just go about your work as normal and I’m going to draw you and maybe make some notes. I promise I won’t distract you.”

I bit back a growl. That was a promise she would in no way, shape, or form be able to keep. I was already distracted, pushed and pulsing. Perhaps this had been a mistake, to bring her here. Having her alone with me made me want to abandon all my plans. Abandon any thought of not pressuring her. It made me want to back her up against the stone wall of the cliff, heft her breasts in my claws, and drag my fangs along her neck while I begged her to be mine.

I turned sharply from her, stalking over to a low stone. Gnashing my fangs, I sat heavily upon it, drawing my knees up and placing my newly-forged blade in my lap. To keep myself focused and my will intact, I started running the ablik sharpening stone up and down the weapon’s shining black blade. I kept my eyes on the blade but my ears primed toward Zerena. I heard her as she moved closer and then sat at my side upon the sand. I smelled her as she shifted slightly, getting into position for her own work.

My throat contracted as her scent threatened to overwhelm me. My knuckles cracked, gripping the stone and the bone handle of the blade.

Back. Forth. Back. Forth. The grind of that sharpening stone was the only sound aside from Zerena’s intoxicating breathing. I dared a glance down and to the side at her and immediately regretted it. In that one swift look, my sight stars had cascaded down her ethereal face, down her neck, and had plunged into the deep cleavage on display in her strange and sleeveless human tunic. I wrenched my eyes away from the generous swell of her breasts, but it was too late. My cock was already swelling under the hide of my loincloth. Arching forward and seeking my mate’s heat.

I never realized how erotic breasts were. I’d only ever seen them on pregnant and nursing women. But on Zerena – so fruitful, so lush – they seemed… so right. In harmony with every other curve of her form. I couldn’t wait to feel their swelling softness pressed against the hardness of my own chest.

Preferably with no clothing between us.

My cock jumped almost painfully, and I clenched my jaw, pressing the flat of the blade downwards against the engorged organ.

“Is everything OK?” Zerena asked. I did not look at her again as I resumed sharpening the blade.

“Yes. Why do you ask?”

“Well, I’ve been drawing your leg. The one here that’s closest to me. And all your muscles just tensed up something fierce.”

“I am… trying to better balance my blade,” I growled. Though my muscles were tensing in arousal – unspent need, the need to claim her – what I’d just said was not a lie. The positioning of my blade was no longer as steady now that my cock was pressing upwards upon it from below. I grunted, shifting. Immediately, I whipped my leg back into its previous position, worrying that I’d ruined Zerena’s work.

I risked another glance down at her, this time keeping my sight stars trained on the thing she called a notebook that was open in her lap. I stopped sharpening the blade, feeling my brows rise in surprise. There, on her notebook, was a twin of my leg. A perfect, tiny rendering in thin strokes of black paint that presumably came from her pen. I leaned further forward, amazed, as her hand slipped and flew over the notebook’s surface.

“This is a mighty power,” I breathed.

She stopped her mystical movements, looking up at me. I had leaned so far forward that our faces were a mere claw’s-length apart. My heart twisted as I studied the perfection of her visage. Pale soft skin. A low smooth forehead, high bony nose, round cheeks, and little pointed chin. Soft lips that were slightly parted, revealing her teeth, so small and flat like pebbles worn smooth by the Bitter Sea. Creamy pink was flooding her skin, creeping up her delicate neck and staining her cheeks. I watched the movement of that colour, up and up, until my gaze met her eyes. Those eyes, curse me. So wide and wet and blue that they would make the sky beg for some of its own beauty back.

Those eyes already made me want to beg.

And I had never begged for anything in all my warrior’s life.

“It’s nothing much,” Zerena finally said in answer to my earlier remark.

Nothing much? Nothing much?

That would not stand. I could not let her demean herself and her work.

“All you can do, and all you are, is everything.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Serena

Iblinked, absorbing what he’d just said. That was a bit over the top, eh? Like, that wasn’t just a normal friendly compliment you’d pay to someone, right? It was so hard to tell what was a cultural difference or what might actually mean something deeper with this warrior. Maybe all the Sea Sand guys said this stuff all the time to people they just knew in passing.

Could it be…?

A bolt of pure thrilling pleasure went through my core at the possibility that Xyan could want me as his mate. But no, don’t be an idiot. He already told you he doesn’t have a mate…

He could end up with someone else.

As non-spiritual as I’d been back on Earth, there was no denying the fact that the Lavrika had real power here. And that if it chose someone else for Xyan, he’d be head over heels for her and likely wouldn’t have any interest in spending much more time with me.

And for some stupid reason, that possibility was breaking my heart.

I stared up at his face. It was so close. One slight move from either of us would have us bumping noses. Or mouths… The slim shaft of sunlight coming into the space drenched one side of his face, turning it a blinding golden-bronze, casting the other half into shadow. On the shadowy side, his hair slipped forward in a thick dark curtain, wafting his scent towards me. A scent of sand and desert and power. I breathed in sharply through my nose, unable to get enough.

Do people pray to the Lavrika? Maybe I should try to pray right now…

As I looked at Xyan’s face, watching the way his sight stars stayed so focused upon me, I did send up a silent plea.

Please, please don’t choose someone else for him.

Maybe that was selfish. OK, it certainly was selfish. If he could have the chance at happiness with another partner, I should just let fate take its course.

Right?

This was all getting to be a bit too much.

Time for a subject change.

I jerked my head back, glancing up at the high stone ceilings of this cave.

“How did you find this place?” I asked, tapping my pen nervously against the notebook. I could tell from the corner of my eye that Xyan was still looking at me as he replied.

“I do not believe the Bitter Sea men sleep in tents, but rather caves. I have spent some time searching these cliffs for suitable arrangements for them.”

“Oh, that makes sense. Good idea,” I said. The only Bitter Sea warrior I’d seen so far was Zoey’s mate, Kor. His mother was from the Sea Sands, his father from the huge lizard people that lived on an island out on the Bitter Sea. Kor was a giant among even the Sea Sand warriors – nine feet tall. And from what I understood, the full-blooded Bitter Sea men were even bigger than that. Hard to imagine someone like that sleeping in a tent. And they were our allies now, so it would be good for them to feel welcome and comfortable sleeping in a more natural habitat.

“Yes,” he continued. “I also found a cave deeper within with a natural set of heated springs.”

“Um, what? You didn’t think to lead with that?” I sputtered, my eyes widening. There was a natural spring system here and he hadn’t thought to tell us human girls about it?!

He cocked his head at me, his brow furrowing.

“Is that of interest to you?”

“Yes!” I cried, scrambling to my feet. “Can you take me there now?” I realized that I was being kind of demanding, but holy shit, there were heated springs nearby! I hadn’t had a shower or bath with hot water in weeks. The sauna/smoke tent certainly worked to get us clean, but sometimes a girl just wanted to take a bath like she’d done back home.

“I can,” Xyan said, rising slowly. His movements were a bit stiff and he turned away from me for a moment as he strapped the weapon he’d been sharpening to his back. I noticed a quick flash of his hand towards his groin, as if adjusting his loincloth.

Maybe it rode up a bit while he was sitting down or something…

Great. Now that image was in my head. I wrenched away from him, facing back towards the tunnel that would lead us out.

“No, not that way.” I whirled to find Xyan gesturing with his tail towards another dark opening at the other end of the cave that I hadn’t noticed in the gloom.

I hurried to his side. Like before, he led me into the darkness of the tunnel. This time, when I reached for him, I didn’t have the chance to grab the strap at his back.

Because his own hand was already reaching back for mine.

I became very grateful for that steady and firm hand of his the longer we went along. It seemed that the springs he’d found were much further into the cliffs than the other cave we’d just visited. There was a slight incline downwards as we kept moving through the darkness, and slowly the ground beneath our feet shifted from sand into hard stone. My boots scuffed along, sending my footsteps echoing along the walls, a sharp contrast to Xyan’s soundless padding.

The air in that other cave had been cooler than the outside desert air, and it was getting cooler still as we continued. This tunnel wasn’t too narrow, and as we went along, it got wider and higher, like a hallway in a palace. Only there weren’t any lanterns or lamps or anything decorating the walls. Even though there was plenty of space, I still trailed behind Xyan, holding his hand, because I couldn’t see a blasted thing in this darkness.

“Do you and the other Sea Sand people see well in the dark?” I asked, swallowing a yelp as I almost tripped over an unseen rock. Xyan’s fingers tightened on mine as I stumbled and he turned and caught my elbow. With a quick movement, I was drawn against his hard chest. The heat radiating off of him was so different from the cool cave air. I wanted to burrow into it.

But too soon, Xyan was stepping back from me now that I was somewhat steady on my clumsy human feet.

“Thanks,” I murmured, blushing fiercely as we began to walk again.

“We can see well in the dark, though not as keenly as in the day. I assume this means your kind cannot?”

“Unfortunately, no, not really,” I said, breathing out harshly, blowing some stray hair out of my face. Man, compared to these guys us humans seemed so… Weak. Vulnerable. Needy. Not only could we not see well in the dark, but we also needed sunglasses to handle this planet’s daylight. What must he think of us? Of me?

“Hmm,” Xyan said, a thoughtful rumble in his chest. “Your kind is exceptionally clever. I have seen Zoey’s clear eye-shells, and the dark ones you wear. Where your body might otherwise fail you, your mind does not. Whatever you naturally lack, you build. You are a formidable people.”

There was no hint of false flattery in his words and I reeled from them. I mean, he was right, I supposed. Humans were nothing if not creatures of relentless growth and ingenuity, for good or for bad.

“Well, we still haven’t rigged up a human-style bath,” I chuckled. “I can’t wait to see these springs! I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about them sooner!”

“I would never withhold any pleasure from you,” Xyan said, and his words sent goosebumps over my skin. “But I did not know such a thing would be a pleasure. The people of the Sea Sands do not like getting wet.” He paused for a moment, then grunted, “Well, Sea Sand men do not mind getting certain parts of their bodies wet… Under very specific circumstances.”

Before I could fully process that little morsel he’d decided to drop on me, he gave my hand a gentle tug and said, “Here we are.”

I stepped up to Xyan’s side, still holding his hand, enjoying the sharp shock that went through me as our shoulders brushed. Wait, no, with the height difference… It was more like my shoulder brushing his elbow. I had some height to go along with my curves, and at five-foot-eight I’d never felt short back on Earth. But I was totally dwarfed by this huge warrior.

I stopped pondering height differences to squint and try to look around the space. Luckily, far, far above, at least fifteen metres overhead, there was the tiniest crack letting in some light. But it was nothing like the skylight of the cave we’d come from. This one was so tiny and so far above that the light coming in was almost entirely swallowed by the darkness by the time it reached where we stood.

With that sliver of light casting its small glow, I could just barely register shapes in the gloom. We were standing in a cave that had a fairly small floor area, but it also had a massively tall ceiling that led up to that little crack. Humidity kissed along my skin as steam billowed up into the cave’s cool air. I could already feel my hair going wavy and frizzy. But frankly, I didn’t care one bit. Because Xyan was right. There were the heated springs!

From what I could see in the dim light, there were three springs, all at different levels in the cave. On the ground floor, so to speak, straight ahead of us, was the largest one. The stone naturally rose up behind it, creating two smaller springs, one slightly higher than the other. I cannot wait to tell the other girls about this! Hot tub party, anyone?!

But before that happened, I thought that I’d better give the springs a test run. You know, just to make sure they were up to our human standards and all that. Grinning, I kicked off my boots and then stepped on the toes of my socks to pull them off without using my hands. Free of my footwear, I started walking to the edge of the closest spring -

- only to feel the firm tug of Xyan’s hand on mine, pulling me back.

“What is it?” I asked, turning back to him. In the darkness, he was a looming statue carved from onyx.

“I have not verified the safety of these springs yet. I assumed the Bitter Sea men would be using them, not the new women.

“Oh,” I said, feeling a little deflated and frankly kind of silly. I was a scientist, for Pete’s sake! What if the springs were full of bubbling acid or something?

I sniffed the steamy air. I didn’t get a whiff of any of the sulphur you might expect to find at an Earth hot spring. But there was something else there, another scent… Some kind of other mineral, perhaps. The scent upon the air was almost clay-like. Definitely better than rotten eggs.

“Maybe I should get Kat or Melanie to come check it first,” I said, thinking of our resident chemist and geologist team. But I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that I wouldn’t get to test it out right now. “I guess we need to make sure it’s actually water.”

“Oh, it is certainly water. That much I know myself,” Xyan responded. “Though I would not advise that you drink it. I doubt it is as clean as the water you have in your shiny clear jars.

“You mean our water bottles?” I said with a small laugh. I loved hearing how these guys interpreted things from our world that, to me, were totally mundane. Like plastic water bottles. I think I like shiny clear jars much better as a name…

“Well if it’s water, what’s wrong?” I asked, sniffing again and leaning forward, eyeing the surface suspiciously. Nope, definitely didn’t look like bubbling acid that would melt my face off.

“There could be predators,” Xyan said, his voice lowering into a warning growl.

“You think so?” The springs didn’t look large enough to support a predator that could cause me any problems. But then again, sometimes the smallest or least threatening-looking creatures could prove to be the nastiest. Like the black widow.

Or the Canadian goose.

“Choose which spring you wish to use, and I will verify its safety,” Xyan said.

“Thank you!” I said. “I suppose just this one right here.” I pointed at the largest spring right in front of us. If the springs proved to be safe, we’d get some lighting in here. For now, I didn’t exactly fancy climbing up the slippery rock to one of the higher springs in the dark. “But wait,” I said quickly as Xyan let go of my hand, “I thought you said you didn’t like getting wet -”

My words were drowned out by splashing as Xyan waded powerfully into the springs. There was just enough light to keep track of him in the water. At the centre of the spring, where it was presumably deepest, the water looked like it came up to the bottom of his rib cage. Which meant all of us, except maybe Kat, would probably be able to keep our heads above water even at the deepest point.

“How’s it looking?” I asked, wondering just how, exactly, Xyan was going to check the spring for safety. He didn’t answer, instead diving down to the bottom of the spring. I realized after a long moment of my lungs burning that I’d been holding my breath right alongside him. I gasped as he came back up to the surface.

As he rose glistening from the water and tossed his soaked hair back over his shoulder, the lack of light in here suddenly felt fucking criminal. Why, why didn’t I think to bring a flashlight or something with me today? Xyan was only in that water to check it for me. This might be literally the only time I’d ever get to see him all shiny and wet. As I took a subtle step forward to try to peer at him a little more clearly, I stepped on something soft.

Dear sweet baby Jesus. That’s his loincloth under my foot.

Which meant he was naked apart from the weapon he still had strapped to him. I snorted, then clapped a hand over my mouth, muffling the sound. The fact he prioritized bringing his weapons strap and blade into the water over the clothing that covered his genitalia was just… batshit fucking hilarious to me at that moment. Not like he’s going to have to fight off a big sea snake in there. If anything, the biggest sea snake in there is…

Nope. No, we are not going there right now.

Xyan dove beneath the surface a few more times, each time holding his breath for an impressively long spell before re-emerging. Finally, he came out of the spring. He reached my side, bending and grabbing for his loincloth while I attempted to look anywhere but at his bare form. Not that I’d be able to see much in the cave, but still…

He straightened, tying the soft ends of the hide together around his hips before brandishing something in front of me. When I obviously squinted, not seeing what it was, he moved closer, holding the object up right in front of my eyes.

“It is safe now that I have removed this,” he said.

“A… rock?” I asked, still squinting.

“Yes, a rock. It is very sharp. It could have injured your foot.”

“Well thank you very much!” I said, beaming. “I really appreciate it!” I meant it. I wanted to check those springs out and definitely didn’t want to slice my foot open doing it. “I’m glad you didn’t hurt yourself either.”

He grunted, tossing the stone off into some dark corner of the cave.

“Did you find anything else down there?” I asked, wondering about the possibility of alien minnows or crayfish or other little things looking to tickle my toes.

“No. If there are any small creatures who live in the springs, they hide away from movement.”

“Great,” I said. I still made a mental note to bring lights not only just for the cave, but also to see if we had a light that could go underwater. Just to have a better look around in there.

But I trusted Xyan. And if he declared it safe for my vulnerable human ass, then I was all good with that.

My boots and socks were already off, but as I reached the edge of the springs, I realized I’d have to do more than that. I wasn’t really interested in getting my entire outfit soaking wet in there. I tossed what I hoped was a subtle glance over my shoulder to get a sense of where Xyan was. Somehow, the warrior had snuck right up behind me, like some kind of silent alien ninja.

I snapped my head forward again, face burning. I couldn’t very well leave after all the fuss I’d made about wanting to go in. Especially after all the work Xyan had put in checking that it was safe, considering that he didn’t even like water. Plus, I really wanted to go in. One way or another, I was getting in that goddamned hot spring.

Fuck it. I wasn’t going to get bare-ass naked the way Xyan had, but stripping down to my bra and undies was basically like wearing a bikini, right? Not that I’d worn a bikini in a while. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d gone to the beach back home.

I could tell him to turn around…

You know what? No. I’m not going to hide. Even if he can see every stretch mark and dimple of cellulite in the dark. If he’s the kind of guy who cares about that, then he’s not the one for me.

Hold on… the one for me?!

When had I gone from merely crushing on Xyan to thoughts like that?

Blowing out a quick breath and steeling myself, I whipped my tank top up over my head, tossing the garment to the stony floor. I was keenly aware of Xyan behind me. Every nerve along my back and shoulders was on high alert, my skin prickling, my breath catching.

Before I lost my nerve, I wriggled out of my pants, too. I let them pool around my ankles then stepped out of them, kicking them off to join my tank top in its heap.

So far so good, I thought silently to myself. I’d done it. I stripped down in front of this gorgeous alien warrior, even though I knew he could see me way better than I could see him.

But there was only so long I could stand there half-naked so close to him. With every tight breath I took, I almost imagined I could feel the brush of Xyan’s chest against my bare skin. I could have leaned back a fraction of an inch to feel him… I almost did. Xyan was silent behind me, and I might have been imagining it, but it almost seemed like I could feel tension rolling off of him in thick waves, undulating on the air and coating my skin.

“OK,” I said, trying to break free of that tension. “I’m going in.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Xyan

“I’m going in.”

The words were not accompanied by any action on Zerena’s part. Her nearly-naked form remained still before me. My sight stars raked down the exposed parts of her flesh, my fangs grinding against each other. My claws flexed and trembled with the force it took not to touch her. With so little clothing, so close to me, her scent was overwhelming me, leaving me heated and strained, my cock aching. She practically glowed in the cave, the little light cascading over her pale skin, illuminating every soft line and mouth-watering curve.

It would be easy – so easy – to slip a sharp claw beneath the straps of the chest garment she wore, and then again through the skimpy bit of cloth around her hips, and destroy them.

But perhaps I would not have to destroy them. I did not like the thought of destroying anything that was hers.

“Will you not take these underthings off, first? They will get soaked,” I rasped.

I was testing myself – my strength and will. Having her completely unclothed before me may have been too great a temptation, even for a patient and hardy warrior like me. But I wrestled with myself. My good sense told me to keep her as covered as possible, as far away as possible. The thick, lusty love of the mate bond told me to tear it all off of her. Now.

“It’s alright. They’ll dry quickly outside,” Zerena said. I caught a slight tremor that swept across her frame.

“Are you cold?” I asked, knowing that sometimes the human women shook when the temperatures were too low for them. It did not seem very cold in this cave, especially with the heated steam coming from the water. I came slightly closer, my chest and abdomen brushing the painfully silken skin of her back, instinct urging me to keep her warm.

“No. I’m not cold,” Zerena whispered. And yet there it was again. That shiver dancing through her muscles. Being so close, I felt it this time. A tremulous skitter across my hide. I angled my pelvis backwards as my erection jerked so that my cock would not press upon her. I wanted to press my cock upon her. And inside her. More badly than I’d ever wanted anything. But I would not surprise her with such a thing now, without warning in the darkness.

“You should get in if you still wish to,” I growled, hoping she’d move away from me and doubly hoping she’d stay. But I watched her hair bounce as she moved her head up and down in that distinctly human affirmative way. And then, finally, she was walking away from me, picking carefully over the slick stones. She stopped at the hot spring’s edge, dipping one of her many tiny toes into the water.

“Perfect temperature,” she sighed before plunging her whole foot into the spring. I watched in perverse fascination as she moved, unable to tear my eyes away. But perhaps this was not too forward of me. Perhaps this was not offensive. After all, she was the one who had removed all her own clothing. And she had not asked me to turn away.

I was not sure what would have been worse. This temptation before me, so powerful it made my jaw crack and my cock pound. Or not seeing her at all, letting my imagination run wild.

But I knew, as her luscious body disappeared under the surface leaving only her head above the water, that nothing my imagination could produce would be as lovely as what was before me now. Even still partially clothed, even in the dark of this cave. Even obscured now by the water as she was, she was my most perfect dream come true.

“This is amazing!” she cried, spinning slowly in the water and turning to face me. Her arms swished just under the surface of the steaming pool, creating rippling movement outward. Her head bobbed as she walked across the stone at the bottom of the spring, exploring. Evidently, she found a place at the other end where she could sit, as the bobbing of her head and the swishing of her arms came to a stop. She sighed, leaning back against the rock, her head, neck, collarbone and shoulders visible now. Even from this distance, I could see the rivulets of water tonguing her skin.

I’d always hated water.

Now I hated it even more for touching her while I was not.

I picked up my ablik sharpening stone and I walked around the side of the hot spring until I was beside her. I crouched next to her, then sat, settling myself on a low stone and watching her from above. Her soft brown hair had turned much darker from the moisture – almost as dark as my own, though much shorter and finer than mine. Moisture pooled in perfect, glittering beads along her slim brows and the bridge of her nose. There was even a streak of shining moisture on her lower lip that had me burying a bark of irritation.

In order to distract myself, once again, I began sharpening my blade.

Zerena’s rhythmic, contented breathing created a perfect rhythm for the back and forth grind of the stone. It was so good just to sit with her like this, even though I wanted more. I’d sit at her side, quiet and in comfort, forever if I could.

“So, I feel like I’m slacking on my work,” she said suddenly, tipping her head back to look at me.

“How so?” I asked, keeping my eyes on my own work. No one would dare be able to tell me I was slacking. Certainly not. Not even with this beauty before me.

“Because I was supposed to be studying the Sea Sand biology and now I’m just relaxing in an alien hot tub! I’m one step away from drinking on the job!”

“You do not drink fluids during the day in your world?” I knew the climes she came from were not as hot as ours. But even so, it seemed that a creature who produced sweat and tears like she did would need to imbibe fluid throughout the day, no matter where she was.

“Oh, no, I mean drinking alcohol. It’s… How do I explain it… It’s like an herbal thing? Medicine? I mean it’s like medicine because it has physical effects on you after drinking it. But it can also make you sick.”

My frown deepened.

“So is it medicine? Or poison?”

She laughed, and my eyes were drawn to the rise and fall of her chest below the surface.

“It can be either, depending on the dosage.” She got quiet then, murmuring more to herself than to me, “I wonder if we could create a Zaphrinax cocktail. Ferment something… I bet Kat…” She trailed off, looking out across the surface of the spring. Then she tipped her head back once more. Her throat glistened. My tongues lashed at my fangs, wanting to emerge and stroke down that pale and pulsing column.

“Well, anyway. I should still try to be productive while I’m here. Like you are,” she said. She pulled her head upwards and forwards, then swivelled on the unseen stone she was perched upon in the water so that she was facing me. She rested an elbow on the rock at her side, balancing the side of her face upon her hand. “Is it alright if I ask you some questions?”

“Of course,” I replied. I tried desperately to ignore the way the tops of her breasts were now visible to me in her new position. One of the soaking straps of her chest garment had slipped down her shoulder. My sight stars trailed it hungrily. Curse me, I felt like a young warrior. Not the hardened man I had become, living and fighting through so many ages. She made me feel so much. A crash of youthful jubilance and lusty affection inside me every time she cocked her head and flashed her small teeth in a smile.

She was cocking her head at me now, tipping it to the side as she put more weight upon her hand and elbow.

“So, let’s see… What kind of organs are you packing in there? I assume you’re probably pretty similar to humans. One heart, two lungs, that sort of thing?”

“This sounds correct,” I said slowly. I did not tell her that I now considered myself to have two hearts – hers and mine.

But then again, she had not yet given me her heart. So perhaps she was correct after all.

“One heart. Two lungs,” I acknowledged, feeling strangely put out by the assertion. I ignored the feeling, pressing on and trying to give her all I could. “I’ve seen men injured in battle. When their abdomens are split, they lose ropes of innards.”

“Intestines. Yup. Us too,” she said, smiling. “Not so different after all.”

She still felt very different from me. Not in a bad way. I would not change a thing about her. But she was different. No tail, no claws, small low little ears. Singular sight stars.

And she did not feel the mate bond.

True, I did not wish to change anything about her. And yet, I could not help but wonder what would be happening right now if she could feel the pull of the mate bond as I did. It was unlikely that we’d be seated here like this discussing innards and organs. The only organ she’d be asking me about would probably be my cock. A cock that was currently pulsating with a fierceness I did not even know it capable of.

Maybe she will ask me about my cock. She is studying my entire life-form, after all. Maybe she will want to see it, maybe even need to touch it…

The thought was a breathtaking one, making my chest seize up. I grunted, forcing myself to breathe through that image. I could not decide if I was so desperate for her that I would accept her touch even if only in her biologist’s role, or if I would eschew such a thing because it would not be the loving touch of a mate. As much as I wanted her, it would probably be the latter. I didn’t think I’d be able to stand her intimate touch upon me without telling her the entire truth first. Baldor’s words about giving her all the necessary information echoed in my mind. He was right. It would not be fair to enter into an intimate situation with Zerena without her knowing everything.

So I would have to make do with stroking my own cock for a little while longer yet.

Not that I could do that right now. She was looking at me. Luckily her gaze was upon my face and my blade obscured my groin. But even a quiet and subtle warrior such as myself could not get away with grasping my cock unnoticed right in front of her. I’d already seen how observant Zerena was, how intelligent. And it would take neither someone observant nor someone intelligent to figure out just what, exactly, I was doing with my fist pumping beneath my loincloth.

Agony.

“I have a question for you now, if you don’t mind,” I grumbled, pressing the flat of my blade harder against my swollen tip.

“Oh!” Zerena looked surprised, but she smiled at me. Cursed sands – that smile, her scent, that skin, her eyes… the unrelenting throbbing of my cock. It was making me bold. Impatient. Something I was not used to.

I leaned forward so that my face was directly above hers, watching her drenched lashes shimmer as her eyes widened.

“If you could have any male in this settlement for your mate. Any warrior at all…” Her little mouth fell open and she blinked rapidly at my words, but I continued. I’d started this now. And I would not be able to find any peace until I saw it through. I took a rasping breath, then growled, “Who would you choose?”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Serena

Wait, what? Excuse me? Was that a trick question? A prank? I stared into Xyan’s face. Even with the lack of light, I could see the hard, serious stone mask of his expression. He didn’t look like he was joking or playing a prank. Hell, the guy was so serious I couldn’t see him ever trying to play a prank on anyone. And frankly, as a fairly clumsy human already prone to embarrassing myself, I appreciated that about him. Immensely.

“Why do you ask?” I blustered, trying to buy myself some time. Not because I needed time to come up with the answer – I didn’t. The answer to his question was one and the same as who had asked the question. It would be Xyan I chose, hands down. And not just because I was insanely attracted to him. But because everything I’d seen from him so far had shown him to be a thoughtful, steady, intelligent, and generous person. The kind of person I’d want to be around no matter what he looked like.

Although his looks certainly didn’t hurt.

“It is merely something that I need to know,” he ground out, his voice unusually low and tense.

“Merely something you need to know,” I scoffed, repeating his words in disbelief. “Merely!”

He was going to upset my whole equilibrium for a “merely?”

Was this some attempt at flirtation? He seemed way too growly and tense to be flirty, though. Did Sea Sand guys even flirt at all? Good lord, I was way out of my depth here. I couldn’t get a read on this situation for the life of me.

Now trying to buy myself some space as well as some time, I scooted to the edge of the natural stone bench I’d been sitting on.

I underestimated the slickness of the stone. With a cry, I slipped off the edge, plunging into the water.

I didn’t have time to even try to get my feet under me. A huge splash exploded next to me then two huge, strong hands gripped my arms, pulling me upwards and out of the water. I gasped, blinking rapidly as water ran down my face and into my eyes. I realized that my feet still weren’t on the rocky ground. Xyan’s grip had shifted – the metal bars of Xyan’s arms were locked against my waist, holding me up against him. Experimentally, I kicked my feet a little. Nope, nothing. No contact. He was holding my entire body weight up so that my feet didn’t even reach the ground.

Where there was contact, though? My entire torso against his. My stomach and breasts pressed into his hard front as I finally blinked enough water out of my eyes to meet his gaze again.

“Are you alright?” Xyan asked urgently.

“Yes, thanks. I probably would have been alright without you jumping in, just so you know. But I appreciate it all the same, especially since you don’t like water.” Growing up near the ocean in Newfoundland, I’d learned to swim before I’d learned to walk. And I didn’t think that little tumble I just took would have caused any damage. I didn’t fall hard enough to hit my head or anything like that. So there really was no reason for Xyan to jump in and come to my rescue…

But why did it feel so nice that he did?

“I believe in your strength,” Xyan said slowly. I watched a bead of water track between his dark brows, down the flat bridge of his nose, to his full mouth. Even after the water rolled down to his chin, my gaze stayed locked on his lips as he spoke again.

“But all the same, I will always be there to lend my strength to yours. To protect you.”

“Got it,” I said slowly, not sure how else to respond.

Even though Xyan was holding me steady, the position was getting slightly awkward. It would be much better if I wrapped my legs around his waist. That thought sent a hammer of desire straight to my clit, making me throb.

Before I lost my nerve, I just went ahead and fucking did it. I swished my legs up through the water, clamping my inner thighs against his sides letting my feet dangle in the water behind his back. I held my breath slightly, pussy pounding, waiting for any reaction. Not that I was expecting him to back me up against the side of the spring and start ravaging me or anything (not that I would have minded that at this point) but it definitely felt like a big step, a sign, showing him I was interested. And if he didn’t appreciate the gesture, I could try to play it off as trying to get a better grip on him in the water.

Well, it seemed like he didn’t exactly appreciate my gesture after all. As my burning thighs pressed into his waist, he made an oddly choked grunting sound. My crotch was flush against his abdomen, and I felt that sound as much as heard it – felt the rumble of it in his body, felt the tightening of his abs grinding against the soaked fabric of my thin cotton panties.

The next thing I felt was my ass being deposited back on the stone I’d been sitting on just a moment before. I let out a shaky breath, my whole body tingling as Xyan gripped my waist, making sure I was stable on my seat before pulling away.

Well, I guess I played that all wrong… Jocelyn was definitely way off base with everything she’d said. I bit at my lip as Xyan vaulted out of the water and seated himself back where he’d been before. He reached for his blade again, as if about to start sharpening it once more, but I shook my head at him.

“No, let’s just go,” I said, trying to keep my voice from cracking. There was absolutely no reason for me to be feeling so dejected right now. Making a move had been a gamble, I knew that. And it wasn’t even that much a move, anyway. It wasn’t like I’d declared my love for him and gotten shot down or something. Xyan probably just wanted to make sure I hadn’t inhaled a bunch of water or hit my head when he’d been holding on to me. Once he saw I was strong enough to latch onto him with my legs with the force of an angry toddler, he’d obviously realized I was OK and had put me back down.

So the burn of shame rocketing through my veins in time with my heartbeat and the ache or rejection in my throat were wildly displaced.

Didn’t mean I didn’t feel them, though.

“You are finished in the spring already?” Xyan asked.

“Yes,” I said. Xyan had his hands reaching for me without hesitation but I waved them away.

“It’s OK, I got it,” I said brightly, trying to mask the churn of emotions inside me. Xyan froze, his clawed hands outstretched, as I clambered out of the water. He probably thinks I’m going to fall over again. No way. I’ll make sure I don’t need his help now. Especially not if it’s some kind of burden on him…

The way he tensed up when my legs settled around his waist came back into my brain with a vengeance, making me grit my teeth in embarrassment.

Xyan was kind. I knew he was. That’s probably why he’d been helping me all this time. And I’d gone and bungled things. Gone and over-stepped his kindness with my inappropriate human crush on him. God, what if he was like… saving himself for whenever he got a mate? What if he had absolutely no interest in anyone until that happened?

What if he had absolutely no interest in me?

Fuck, that thought hurt. It had me hurrying away from Xyan and slipping into my clothing as quickly as possible. The drag of the fabric against my damp skin slowed me down, making me swear under my breath.

“Is all well?” Xyan asked, making me jump. The silent warrior had, at some point during my frantic dressing/depressing inner-monologue, come right up behind me.

“Yes! Of course!” I replied with false cheer. “Thanks so much for everything.”

“No thanks are required,” he said. God, why was he so perfect? So cool and smooth with a voice like sand and smoke. So generous and sweet and not-at-all-awkward. If somebody bottled some of that Xyan essence up, they’d make a killing selling it…

We began the trek back out of the cave system. Like before, Xyan took hold of my hand to lead me through the darkness. When we finally made it back out into the sunshine, I couldn’t wait to yank my hand out of his. I didn’t need to be a helpless awkward human burden for one more second. I mumbled my thanks to him again as I pulled up my solar protection jacket’s hood, hurrying back into the settlement, feeling his sight stars on my back the entire time.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Serena

“What’s your problem?”

“What’s that?” I mumbled, looking up and frowning. Kat stood over me where I was sitting at the evening fire.

“I said, ‘what’s your problem?’ You look all grumpy’n’shit.”

I sighed, shifting over to make room for her.

“You ever have one of those days where you just really need a drink? Well, it’s been one of those days,” I replied, absentmindedly grabbing a piece of smoked meat and popping it into my mouth. After my awkward departure from Xyan, I’d managed to avoid him for the rest of the afternoon. Now I was at the evening fire simultaneously hoping he’d show up here and hoping I wouldn’t see him again.

“I absolutely know what those days are like. I started drinking when I was fourteen,” Kat said. She smiled, and I was sure it was meant to make me feel better, but it didn’t. Her smile faded and she rubbed a hand over her shaved head.

“You know what? I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before. Although I guess we’ve all been kind of busy trying not to fucking die out here.”

“And busy with your sunshiney mate,” I teased, letting a smile touch my own lips. Kat and her mate, Galok, were one of the oddest yet cutest pairs I’d ever seen, here or on Earth. He was one of the tallest guys, well over seven feet tall, with a perpetual dreamy grin on his face. His mate, who sat beside me now, was possibly the prickliest human among us. She also happened to be the shortest, which only intensified the almost comical differences between her and her mate

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. He’s off doing something for Buroudei so I have a moment’s peace.” Her words were harsh, but her face turned tender as she said them. It made me happy to see that – to see some of the other women finding true happiness here. If I never found mine? Well, at least I could be there for them.

“Anyways,” Kat said. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before, but I could totally make some kind of valok alcohol. Or maybe use some other plant or herb here. We’ve got all kinds of shit in the lab. We definitely have ethanol…” Her pink tongue poked out between her lips, and she worried her tongue piercing between her teeth. “Yeah, I totally could. I’ll take a little break from my other stuff and whip something up tomorrow.”

“It’s funny, I was just talking to someone about this very thing earlier,” I replied.

“Oh yeah? Who?” she asked, looking surprised.

“Just… one of the warriors. Nevermind. How is your other stuff going, by the way?” I asked, trying not to get too hopeful about the prospect of drowning my Xyan-shaped sorrows in some kind of alien vodka.

“OK, I guess. We’re still working on the Lavrika’s blood. Analyzing it. Seeing how we might use it as a weapon. None of the Sea Sand guys are keen on that, but beggars can’t be choosers.”

That made sense. The Lavrika and its blood were sacred and healing to them. It felt wrong to use it to potentially kill people. But Kat was right. If it came down to it and we had to fight off human forces and weapons, we’d need all the help we could get.

“Working on a little happy juice will be a nice break tomorrow,” Kat said with a grin, elbowing me. “Thanks for the idea.”

I smiled back at her before standing and dusting off the back of my pants. I was done eating, and frankly, just done with this day in general. It was time for me to curl up and sleep my disappointment about Xyan off.

I bid Kat and the other girls at the fire goodnight before trudging back to our tent. When I reached the tent, I paused before entering, casting one last furtive glance out over the settlement. I couldn’t help myself from searching for him.

I didn’t see him.

But above the chatter at the fire, if I listened closely, I was certain I could hear the deep, rhythmic slam of a hammer on stone.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Xyan

Something was wrong. I did not know what it was. Only that it was wrong.

I had no evidence for this. Only instinct. And my instinct had never led me astray before.

Something was wrong between Zerena and me.

After our time together in the hot spring she had seemed… Different. More distant. Less welcoming to my touch when I held her hand. She had seemed almost desperate to get away from me once we were out of the caves.

And I was beginning to think I knew why.

I’d scared her off. When she’d adjusted her positioning and wrapped her legs around me, her thighs spread wide and her cunt pressed against my body, I’d almost lost control. Control of my body, my sanity… My cock. I’d almost spilled seed, right then and there, in the water.

And considering how much I hated the feel of water on my hide, that was truly saying something about the state of my unbridled arousal.

She must have sensed this. Maybe she felt the hard press of my cock against her backside before I put her down.

She must think me a beast of a man. A man without morals and without decency.

I had to apologize, that much was certain. Maybe now was the time – the time to tell her everything. To tell her that she was my only love, my only fate and future. To tell her that I was hers forever.

But then again, would that not be worse?

I could picture it now…

Zerena, I am sorry for the unforgivable poking and prodding of my cock yesterday. But you see, I could not help myself. Because you are my mate and apparently that means I am now once again an inexperienced young warrior with no sense of self-control.

If I was worried about having her feel pressure before, she’d certainly be feeling it after that proclamation. To know not only that she was meant to be my mate, but that she had also inspired such unfathomable lust in my body? That would be… a lot.

I did not want her to feel trapped. But now I felt as if I were the one who was trapped. I’d cornered myself – unable to get closer to her without telling her the truth. Unable to tell her the truth until I knew she would not feel any sense of obligation towards me.

Well, either way, I would apologize for yesterday. Though it was only early morning now, and I’d been with her just yesterday, I was already feeling a painful withdrawal from her presence. The air felt… thinner. The sunlight bleaker. My work more tedious. The day more dull. All of it combined to create a harshly potent truth: life without her was misery.

But even so, without her or not, I was alive. And there was work to be done.

I spent the day completing yet more weapons, as Gahn Baldor had commanded. I did not rush in this – the weapons had to be strong and fit for raging battle. But I must admit that I took more breaks than usual, pausing in my work to walk to the edge of my little forge and looking out over the settlement, hoping for a glimpse of Zerena.

I got no glimpses.

I wondered ceaselessly where she was and what she was doing. I had hoped to see her at the evening fire, but I’d had to stay working later than usual to make up for some of the time I’d lost in the hot spring with her. I imagined she, too, had work to do. Of course she did – a woman as competent and clever as Zerena would not wait around all day for a mere warrior such as myself to come and find her.

But tonight, I vowed, I would find her. I would apologize to her. And I would find a way forward for us both.

But when evening finally came and my work was done, I did not find her at the evening fire. I had not tarried too long tonight, so I was surprised not to see her there. I wondered if it would be too presumptuous to go to the human tent and look for her there…

“Xyan! It is Xyan, correct?”

I spun to find Gahn Buroudei’s warrior, Galok, coming my way with a strange container in his hand. It looked almost like a jar of some kind, but without a lid, and made of a very thin pliable material. Something from the new women’s ship, no doubt.

“You must try this!”

“What is it?” I asked, glancing down at the contents of the red and white jar and then back at Galok.

“It’s a marvellous concoction. My own clever mate created it. It is a human drink.”

“I am not thirsty,” I said, frowning and looking past him, still hoping to see Zerena. But still, there was no sign of her. The evening fire crackled merrily, with many Sea Sand people and human women alike seated beside it. But it was as if the entire place was completely empty and void of life. Because my mate was not there.

“This is not the kind of thing you drink when you are thirsty,” Galok continued, either not noticing or ignoring the fact I was no longer looking at him. “And are you not curious to know all you can of the new women? Of their tastes, their culture? The things they enjoy?”

That had me paying attention once more. I had not considered this – that by enjoying this human drink, I may be learning something about Zerena.

“I will take it, warrior,” I said finally. Galok grinned as I swiped it from his outstretched hand. His grin faded as I downed the contents of the thin little jar, its sides crinkling, then crushed, under the force of my fist.

“What is it?” I asked, coughing against the terrible burn of the liquid. If Zerena enjoyed drinks like this on her home-world then she was an even more formidable woman than I’d imagined.

“It is only that you were not supposed to drink that entire thing. I did not warn you quickly enough. It is potent stuff, the alcohol.”

“Potent?” I asked, my gaze narrowing. But even now, I could tell that he was right. Like strange petals of an exotic flower, heat unfurled inside me. I shook my head slightly, the movement feeling slow and somewhat burdensome. Another flash of heat bolted through me, making me grunt. I tried to remember what Zerena had said about alcohol before, but came up empty.

“Yes. I was meant to pass that cup, as Kat calls it, around to everyone. The Gahns did not want any one warrior too intoxicated.”

“You should have made that clearer,” I said, my tongues feeling thick and heavy in my mouth. For some reason, the three points of my tongues were not cooperating with each other as they usually did. My words came out slurred and slow. I shook my head again, but that only seemed to make things worse.

“Ah, well. I suppose one wobbly warrior will not hurt us tonight!” Galok said jovially, smacking his hand against my back. Normally, such a gesture from a lean young warrior like him would have been nothing more than the landing of a small brazelbird upon my back. But now, it sent me reeling. I stumbled forward, just barely catching myself before I fell.

I could not even remember the last time I’d ever stumbled and fallen.

Had I ever stumbled and fallen?

If my mother were still alive, she could tell me. I could not ever remember such a thing happening to me. But perhaps that was the alcohol with its foggy fingers in my brain.

Galok said something else that I didn’t catch before bounding away. I watched him go, unsteady on my feet, then looked down at the crushed cup in my hand, its sides snapped and cracked, its contents now coursing through my body.

The effects of this human drink were very strange indeed. Almost like some kind of strange magic.

I decided I did not like it.

It made me feel too weak, too slow, too out of control.

And it was getting worse every second.

I’ll return to my tent for the night.

It was all there was to be done. I’d sleep off this intoxication and be back to my usual steady self tomorrow.

I hoped.

I started walking but immediately slowed. The ground was infuriatingly not remaining flat for me. It tilted and dipped as if doing everything in its power to topple me.

I will defeat you, ground, I snarled silently to myself, stopping my walking to stomp upon it before continuing on my way.

I was away from the fire and at the edge of the settlement now, heading for the open desert where my tent was. I would have continued going in that direction had not the soft scuff of boots on sand stopped every movement in my body.

Even though my senses felt dulled, there was no way I would not have heard that sound.

The footsteps of my mate.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Serena

Man, it had been so long since I’d had anything to drink that I’d completely forgotten about how much it made me have to pee. I trekked out of the cliffs after peeing in a private spot, about to wander back into the settlement. I wasn’t sure if I was going back for more of Kat’s incredibly strong herbal ethanol concoction or to just crash in the human tent and sleep. I hadn’t gone overboard on the booze, thankfully, and having spent as much time in St. John’s pubs as I had, I had a pretty solid constitution when it came to drinking. So I was feeling buzzed, but not bad.

That could change fast. Another drink or two and I could be a depressed mess, thinking about that stupid moment with Xyan yesterday. It wasn’t even anything! Nothing worth getting so worked up over. But my darn brain hadn’t been able to convince my heart of that just yet.

I walked out from the cliffs with my head down. Ahead, I could hear the chatter and laughter from the evening fire. Kat was passing her drinks around to any of the non-pregnant ladies who wanted to imbibe. According to Zoey, there hadn’t been any movement or cause for concern on the scanners, so tonight was as good a night as any to have our own alien ceilidh – a good old-fashioned kitchen party. Not that any of the alien men were getting too tipsy from what I’d seen so far. Most of them had just taken a few sips, if tasting it at all, on the commands of their Gahns to stay sharp.

“Zerena.”

My name dragged from the shadows, a deep rasp that sparked along my spine, hitting every singly vertebrae on the way down to my pelvis. I clenched, my skin flushing harder than before, harder than just from the drinks.

Xyan.

He was standing alone about ten metres away, his chin held high, his gaze on me. His gaze seemed… a bit different than usual. Even from this distance, I could tell his sight stars were kind of hazy. Unspooled. But not exactly unfocused. No, if anything they were definitely focused on me.

I dipped my head, forcing a tight smile.

It’s OK. Just say goodnight and get out of here. This is all OK. You’re OK.

I gave him a little wave and continued walking, moving faster to get back to the safety of the tents and the fire and the laughter. Not that I didn’t feel safe with Xyan. Quite the opposite. Physically, I felt more protected with him than anyone.

But emotionally? I wasn’t so sure.

But if those same damned emotions didn’t make me stop in my fucking tracks when Xyan growled, “Wait.”

I halted, my whole body thrumming, blood pounding in my head and my hot cheeks and between my legs.

What, what did he want now? After getting away from me and dumping me on that stone in the hot springs as fast as he could yesterday, why was he now telling me to wait?

But even so, even plagued by icky, dark, prickly doubt – doubt that told me he didn’t like me, that he was just being nice – I remained there.

He… seemed to be taking his sweet ass time.

I turned back towards him again.

And, holy fucking crow, I almost lost my shit laughing.

This warrior – this huge, stoic, gorgeous god of an alien man, was walking like he was on some invisible tightrope. He prowled slowly and shakily, his arms thrown wildly out to his sides. His long dark feet padded uncertainly along and his tail thrashed and jerked to maintain his balance. I said he was walking as if on a tightrope, but by God, if that wasn’t the curviest, wiggliest tightrope I’d ever seen. It was totally absurd.

And totally adorable.

I jogged over to him, shortening the distance he had to travel.

“Are you alright?” I asked, still chuckling as I planted myself in front of him. His sight stars spun, misting outwards before he was able to tighten them in on my face.

“I am beyond alright. Because you are here.”

His words were slow and thick, but I could still make them out OK. Good grief, this guy could be saying utter garbled nonsense and he’d still sound cooler than basically anyone else.

“Well, that’s good then, I guess? I was heading back to join the others and probably just go to sleep.”

“I wish you wouldn’t.”

My breath caught at the raw demand of his words. The words themselves weren’t demanding at all – just a statement of his own feelings. His own wishes. But beneath the words themselves was an undercurrent of intensity that pinned me to the very spot. It made me hot and cold and certain and so unsure.

“Xyan,” I said suddenly, bolstered by my own drinks from earlier, though clearly, I hadn’t gone as overboard as the massive man in front of me. “Why did you put me down so fast in the springs earlier?”

Xyan’s jaw worked, his face darkening.

Shit. Shit. Double shit. This is why I stuck with my plants and my animals and my illustrations. After my ex and I broke up, I barely dated, and this was exactly why. Too many chances for hurt. Heartbreak. For embarrassing yourself in front of somebody who came from beyond your wildest wet dreams. Fuck.

“I am sorry, Zerena, I-”

“No,” I choked out, shaking my head. “No. No apologies.” That was just too pathetic. “Just tell me the truth. Do you… do you like me?”

God, why did that question sound so fucking stupid?! I felt like I was in grade ten again. No, not even that mature. Grade five. Bloody kindergarten.

Xyan answered without hesitation.

“No.”

My mouth fell open in soundless hurt and shame.

“Glad we got that figured out,” I stammered, hot anger rising to replace the hurt. To protect me. I turned abruptly, about to stomp away when Xyan spoke again.

“I like working with blades. I like the other new women. I like the warriors I have met at this settlement. But no, perfect Zerena, I do not like you. That word, that feeling, is reserved for others. Not you.”

OK, now I was just plain confused.

“So what then?” I asked. The air shifted. Every muscle in my body tightened as I realized Xyan had stepped up right behind me. Prickles of sensation scattered from my scalp to my toes as Xyan bent and spoke his next words directly against my neck, his breath a hot flush that made my toes curl in my boots.

“I put you down in the hot springs because I did not want to offend you with the urgency of my cock against your backside. And you have stayed so far from me since then that I was worried that my actions were not swift enough. That you felt my need and were repulsed.” His words were gruff and loose and raw, no doubt spurred on by his first experience with human booze.

Frankly, I was having trouble wrapping my head around them.

“You were… You were hard?!”

“Yes. As I am now. Though this time I am finding it much harder to move away from you…”

I swallowed a moan as I arched against him, feeling that hardness against my lower back for myself. So this was why he’d dropped me like a hot human potato? Because he was turned on?

What a wasted opportunity, I bemoaned to myself. The things we could have done in that hot spring…

“Zerena,” Xyan grunted, drawing me away from thoughts of getting railed against the side of the hot spring. “Will you answer my question from before? If you could have any man here, who would you choose?”

“You first,” I breathed, arching harder against him, pressing myself into his erection. I gasped at the resounding tension I felt roll through his body in response to the pressure I was creating under his loincloth. It was the same pulse of tension, I realized, that I’d felt earlier in the hot springs when I’d been pressed against him then, too.

Spurred on by that realization, I asked my own question. “If you could have any woman here for your mate, Sea Sand or human, who would it be?”

After everything that had happened, if he said someone else’s name, I really was going to be crushed. It was very possible that my crush on Xyan was already turning into something more – something deeper and more real. Something a whole lot more terrifying.

Xyan groaned, the sound once again right against my neck. Some impossibly light movement brushed my skin, moving up to my ear lobe. It was so feather-soft that I couldn’t tell if it was his lips or his deadly fangs touching me. And honestly, in that moment, I didn’t even care. All I cared about was feeling more of him. And hearing his answer to my question.

“It is you, Zerena. In any world real or imagined, you are the only one I desire,” he rasped, his claws rising to grasp my hips. Sensation exploded outwards from where his claws gripped me, heating my core. My head tipped back, allowing him better access to my throat. A giddy thrill ran through me as I felt his cock lurch against my back, seeking more contact with my body even though his hips were murderously still.

My clit pulsed as his claws dipped beneath the hem of my tank top, grazing my bare skin. That pulse became a deep, almost painful throb as he groaned again and said, “Oh, the things I would do to you, sweet human.”

“Show me,” I gasped, spinning in his grip to face him. “Show me right now.” I slid my palms up his chest to rest on his hard pectoral muscles. His fingers twitched, now clutching at my ass. His jaw tensed then released, his mouth opening in a silent moan when I pressed my stomach hard against his loincloth. This wasn’t just a physical need, this desire for him. I also just needed him to prove what he’d said. To prove he wanted me. Even though he’d just said it, I still was having trouble believing it.

Xyan’s face turned hard. Merciless. His grip tightened on my body and he marched me backwards against the cliff. His unsteadiness from before seemed to have evaporated, replaced with powerful, dark, unrelenting lust. He caged me in against the stone, dipping his mouth to my neck once more. I moaned, reaching for his loincloth, ready to tear it the fuck off. But he caught my wrist just before my fingers made contact, a warning thrum rumbling in his throat.

“What’s wrong?” I panted, squirming. His mouth was just above my neck, hovering so fucking close…

“Secrets and promises,” he murmured, his breath rolling down my throat, making my nipples harden. “Perhaps Gahn Baldor was right. Perhaps I am a fool.”

“You’re not,” I said, confused and almost alarmed by his words. I couldn’t imagine Xyan acting foolish in any scenario. Even now, drunk as a skunk, he still radiated heavy power.

“Whatever I am, I made myself a vow.” He pulled back, his sight stars stroking my face so tenderly that I could practically feel them on my skin. “And even outside of that vow, I cannot continue like this. Your potent human drink is making me come undone. And that is not even to mention your beauty. Right now I do not feel in control of myself.” He paused, a muscle in his cheek twitching, before he said, “And around you, I need all of my control.”

Even though it sucked, I nodded. He was right. He was clearly intoxicated. I’d been drinking, too, but I was more in control of my faculties than he was. It wouldn’t be right to go any further with him right now. I ignored the ugly pang of doubt that told me he was only with me right now precisely because he was drunk. That by tomorrow, he’d have forgotten all about this moment and all about any desire he had for me.

But he said if he could choose any woman, it would be you! And he obviously wasn’t just saying that to get into your human pants, because he’s the one putting the brakes on right now…

“OK,” I said. “We should just go get some rest for the night then, right?”

His mouth thinned into a hard line.

“Yes. Though I do not know how I will get any rest without you. Sometimes I cannot even breathe…” He took a sharp breath, then shook his head slowly while rubbing at his forehead. “I don’t know how you drink this alcohol regularly. It makes all my feelings come out of my mouth.”

Once again, I was laughing. This whole night had been some weird fucking fever dream. It felt kind of nice to just laugh about something like this. It felt… normal.

“Come on, big guy. Let’s get you back to your tent for the night.”

As we began walking, some of Xyan’s wobbliness returned, making me smirk. I leaned into his side, wrapping an arm around his waist, trying to steady him. Though the guy was so huge that if he started to go down I doubted I’d be able to stop it from happening. But still, this felt great. Holding onto him, trying to support him. It felt like we were any regular couple heading home from a night at the pub. No, not just any regular couple. I couldn’t remember ever feeling this blissed-out walking anywhere with my ex.

Couple.

Is that what we were now? This whole mates business complicated things. Did people, like, date without it? And what happened if you started something with someone, only to have them get a different mate?

Look at Kat and Galok, and Jocelyn and Razek, I reassured myself. They fell in love before the mate bond. It can happen. I tightened my arm around Xyan’s waist and smiled at the heavy weight of his own arm around my back.

We reached the edge of the settlement, and though I made no move to let go of Xyan, he did it for me. He dropped his arm from around my back, then reached for my hand, pulling it away from his waist.

“I know, I know. It’s not safe,” I said with a sigh, staring out at the tents that dotted the sand. Then I turned back to him, scowling. “But if it’s not safe for me out there, is it even safe for you? You don’t seem…” How to put this lightly? “At your best.”

He grunted, his tail twitching loosely behind him.

“It is true I do not feel as sharp as usual. But never fear, Zerena. I am still a strong warrior. I can protect you no matter what.”

His words were made very believable indeed by a sudden loss of balance that had his arms windmilling. His tail, luckily, steadied him enough on the sand to keep him from falling flat on his gorgeous alien ass.

I laughed, then sighed, shaking my head.

“Nope. No way. I’ve just decided that you’re not going out there. I won’t have you going out there and getting killed by something just because you had too much to drink.” My words were lighthearted, but that actual possibility of that happening was horrific. Nope. He was staying with me tonight. And that was that.

“I could sleep in the settlement tonight. I must confess, sleep has never called to me so hard as it does now,” Xyan replied, rubbing at his eyes.

“Good,” I replied, satisfied.

But now the question became: where?

I was pretty sure the other girls wouldn’t be too keen on me bringing home a guy, so to speak. It wasn’t like we all had separate private rooms in the tent, and I respected the fact that my human friends may not want some huge drunk warrior crashing among them. Hell, some of them would probably love it, but not all of them. And honestly? I wanted to keep him all to myself.

“I will do as my Gahn did before his Gahnala accepted him,” Xyan said suddenly, turning to stare at the human tent. For a moment, I wasn’t sure what he meant. Ah. Then it hit me – Gahn Baldor used to sleep outside the human tent, waiting for Theresa to accept him.

“You’re just going to sleep outside on the ground?”

“Yes. It looks very enticing,” he said longingly.

I snorted, reminded of all the times in university I’d see my fellow students passed out on lawns or kitchen floors or other uncomfortable spots, sleeping like they were in luxury hotel beds.

“Well, I’ll at least get you some blankets and stuff. Come on.”

We looped our arms around each other once more, hobbling off toward the human tent. With each step, Xyan leaned on me more and more, until his nose was dipping down against the top of my head.

“You smell so cursedly good,” he mumbled into my hair, making my face burn. “I cannot get enough.”

“We’re here!” I cried, pulling away from him. One more second of him pressing into me talking about how “cursedly good” I smelled and I’d be pushing him to the sand myself and mounting him right there. “You sit down,” I ordered, pointing at a spot on the sand beside the tent.

Xyan did as he was told, groaning as he hit the ground heavily.

“I’ll be right back,” I said. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“As you command, my -” He clamped his mouth shut. “I will not go anywhere.”

I hurried away, trying not to think too much about what he’d been about to say. In the tent, some of the other girls were already asleep, no doubt feeling similarly to how Xyan was right now. I snuck between the sleeping human lumps, grabbing my bedding hides and bundling them against my chest. On my way back out of the tent, I stopped to grab some valok plants, too. Human or not, Xyan would probably need some hydration in his current state. I did, too.

When I got back outside, I found Xyan with his blade in his hand. Though, bless him, he was still sitting where I’d told him to.

“And just what do you think you’re going to do with that?” I asked, eyeing the blade warily.

“A warrior must always be prepared,” he intoned. He tipped his head back against the bone post of the tent, stretching his legs out in front of him.

“Oh really?” I asked with a smirk. “And just what kind of warrior is going to fight somebody off with his eyes closed the way yours are right now?”

“They are not closed,” he said quickly, snapping them open again. I chuckled when, less than a second later, his heavy lids moved downwards once again.

“Besides,” he grumbled. “My eyes do not need to be open to sense an enemy.”

“Do you sense any enemies here now?” I asked, crouching next to him with the hides and the valok.

“Hmm, let me see,” he breathed. He took so long to respond that I thought maybe he’d gone to sleep. When he spoke again, it made me jump. “No. No enemies here. Just a beautiful female.” He paused, cracking his eyes open once more. “Though she poses her own sort of threat.”

Beautiful female. He was talking about me. Holy shit.

“What kind of threat?” I whispered. His mouth quirked into a slight smile.

“A threat to my sanity.”

“Excuse me!” I cried. “If anyone’s a threat to anyone’s sanity here, it’s you! I felt totally crazy after the hot springs thing, you know! I was totally confused!”

Xyan’s sight stars slipped over to me.

“I am sorry, Zerena, that was not my intention. I-” He stopped, a heavy breath dragging out of his body. “Tomorrow, I would like to spend some time with you. I have things to tell you. And I want to be clear of mind.”

Oh, great. Now I had to wait all night for whatever new bomb he was going to drop on me. But I nodded anyway, knowing there was no way around it. Xyan struck me as the type who did everything precisely when and how he planned to. Someone with immense patience.

I, however, did not have that same sense of patience.

I plopped down on the sand next to him.

“Here, have some valok then lie down,” I urged him.

He took the valok plants from me, opening them both with his claws.

“You first,” he said, pressing one of the plants into my hand. The pads of his fingers slipped over the backs of my hands as he drew them away.

“Let’s both just drink some,” I huffed. I just needed him hydrated and healthy and with a clear mind for tomorrow so he could tell me whatever it was he wanted to tell me. My mind was already reeling with possibilities as far-ranging as “I want to be with you” to “I changed my mind about you, peace out and have a nice life.”

I’m the one who’s going to have to get drunk if I want to have half a chance of actually getting any sleep now…

Xyan finished his valok and dutifully laid down as I’d told him to. I tossed my blankets over him as he stretched out. He laid on his back, placing his hands behind his head, his eyes closed. His mouth opened in a wide, strange movement, his fangs flashing, and I realized with a jolt that it was the first time I’d seen him, or any Sea Sand man, yawn.

He looked so fucking good like this. Relaxed and almost… vulnerable. He was always so strong and looking out for other people. It was kind of nice to take care of him.

“Move over,” I muttered, suddenly knowing that there was no way I was going back into the tent without him now. My heart was swelling in my chest, warm and gooey, needing to be near him. Other parts of my body needed to be near him, too, but I told those parts to shut it for now.

I wriggled under the blankets with Xyan. Instantly, a strong arm hooked around me, pulling me against his side.

“You should sleep in the tent. It is safer,” he murmured, nuzzling against the top of my head.

“Exactly which Zaphrinax predator or enemy is going to be deterred by a flimsy tent wall?” I scoffed. Besides, I felt way safer in his arms than anywhere else.

“Hmmph,” Xyan said, his massive chest heaving with the rumbling sound. “Then at least let me shift you so that you are between the tent and me.”

Before I could respond, both his hands gripped my waist, hauling me up and over his body. For a brief moment, I was straddling him, my legs spread, my hands on his chest. His eyes flashed, then he moved me gently to the other side. A moment later, he turned on his side, curving his massive body around me. I flattened my hands against his chest, unable to look up at his face because he was holding me so close.

Being held like this… It was almost too much. The warm bulk of him curled around me like a protective fist. His own body a shield for mine, even in his sleep. I was pretty sure he was asleep now and I was glad about that. Because now he wouldn’t see my ridiculous human sniffling, brought on by something as simple as being held.

I swallowed hard, burrowing closer into Xyan’s chest, realizing that no matter what he said tomorrow, one thing was already irrevocable and clear:

I was falling in love with him.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Xyan

Iawoke feeling very odd indeed. Not as odd as last night, but still… Odd. My eyes were gummy and dry as I cracked them open and the flood of morning light was like a spear in my skull. I groaned, my tongues feeling sandy and strange. I had never been one to waste the morning resting, but today I wished to just lay still a little longer.

Especially with Zerena in my arms.

I tightened my grip, pulling her closer, only to find that I was holding a bundle of bedding hides and she was nowhere to be found.

I sat bolt upright. Then, despite the resounding pain in my head and sloshing of my innards, I rose to my feet. I spun around, my eyes tearing over the settlement in search of her.

Foolish warrior. You slept too deeply after that poison last night. I was more and more sure of the fact that it was poison now. It had addled my brains and loosened my tight warrior’s body. I did not like the sensations then, nor the ones I felt now.

“Feeling alright?”

Sweet sound!

I turned quickly, finding Zerena behind me. She beamed up at me from beneath her hood and her black eye-shells. In her hands was a valok plant and some smoked meat. The thought of consuming anything turned my stomach, but as she handed them to me, I took them. I could refuse nothing from her.

“You need to eat and drink,” she said, her pretty mouth now set in a firm line.

“I do not wish to,” I remarked thickly, staring at the stuff in my hands.

“I’m serious, Xyan. Who do you think knows how to recover from a hangover? I would have brought you a cheeseburger or something if we were back on Earth, but hopefully this is close enough.”

I did not have the wherewithal to decipher the mysterious words she’d uttered. Instead, I focused on girding myself and taking a few bites of the meat, followed by sips of valok. The stuff did not go down easily, something my pretty mate no doubt noticed.

“If you want, I can go get some of that grix stuff. The drinks we’ve been using to help the pregnant women.”

I scoffed so hard at that that I began to choke on the bit of meat in my mouth. I forced it down, then growled, “Certainly not!” The idea of a hardened warrior using the potions meant for pregnant females was completely unacceptable to me.

Zerena grinned again.

“I was totally right about you being like some English duke. Stiff upper lip and all that. You have to promise to tell me if you have a brain tumour or something though. Hey! That reminds me. I wanted to ask you something.”

“What is it?” I asked, eyeing her as I sipped some more valok. Even like this, not feeling my best, my body was aching for her. Though last night was not as clear as other memories I held, I still remembered what I’d decided, and what I’d said.

Today I was going to tell Zerena that she was my mate.

I’d caused her confusion, and even pain, by not being clear before. I’d been trying to protect her emotions, but clearly it had not worked. Not how I’d intended. I would do as my Gahn had suggested – give her all the information I had, then let her make her choice. I simply hoped that her choice would be… me.

Zerena pressed on, unaware of my inner turmoil.

“You know how you agreed to help me study the Sea Sand biology? I was wondering if you would come to the ship with me. There’s an em are eye on board, and I wanted to take a scan of you if you’re willing.” Once again, I had almost no idea what she was asking of me. But because she was the one asking, there could be only one answer.

“Of course. Whatever it is that you wish,” I said. I finished up the meat she had brought me and tossed the empty valok husk to the sand. I had to admit I did feel somewhat better after eating and drinking. “I, too, have something to ask you,” I said, steeling myself. Zerena visibly swallowed, her milky throat pulsing and drawing my gaze. She was so beautiful. More precious a creature than any man could hope to deserve.

I would do anything to deserve her.

“I remember you saying you wanted to talk last night,” she replied. “Should we go somewhere more private?”

“This is agreeable,” I replied. “Let us return to the cave we visited yesterday. Where you did your drawing.”

“OK,” Zerena said. She pressed her pink lips together for a moment, then shook her head sharply.

“Come,” I urged gently. I wanted to draw her into my arms right then and there. I wanted to carry her to the private place.

And then I wanted to claim her as she’d never been claimed before.

But we had much to discuss first.

And she had a choice to make.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Serena

Even though we’d only been here together the other day, it already felt so long ago. I could tell that something was shifting between us but I was too nervous to put a name on it. I already knew I was falling in love with Xyan, if I wasn’t all the way there already. But I was so, so scared of the hope that that created.

Whatever happens, happens. However Xyan really felt about me, I was pretty sure I was about to find out.

In the darkness of the tight cliff tunnel that led into the cave, Xyan once again took my hand. The movement was so natural and perfect that it made my chest ache.

The trek through the tunnel felt way too short. I just wanted to keep on walking, my hand in his, forever. Who cared if it was limbo? It was safe there.

But it was safe here, too, I realized as we stepped into the cavernous stone space with the natural skylight. It was safe because Xyan was here.

The cave was just as lovely as it had been the last time. Sun spilling down its rippling walls, a sheet of gold cast down into the shadows from the hole above. Copper-gold sand running up against darker reddish walls, those walls all spiking upward towards the naturally vaulted ceiling. Xyan stopped walking, turning to face me. My throat tightened at the sight of him. He gleamed like his own polished stone, his face carved, his hair a ribbon of darkness. His sight stars gleamed a few shades lighter than the deep-coloured sand, pulsing as they settled on my face.

I realized he was still holding my hand. With his free one, he reached down and scooped up my other one. He held my hands together like they were something precious.

This is it. Whatever he’s going to tell me. Whatever he couldn’t tell me last night.

He sighed. “Though I have thought of this moment many times, I now find I do not quite have the words.”

“Just say it,” I whispered, my heart hammering harder than the sledgehammer he used to forge his weapons. If he took any longer I was going to puke or pass out or do something stupid. Like kiss him and beg him to be my boyfriend or something equally embarrassing.

“As you wish. Zerena.” His fingers tightened on mine. “You are my mate. The Lavrika has shown me your face in a vision. We are destined, you and I.”

My mouth dropped open. I blinked over and over again before whipping off my sunglasses.

“What?!”

“Did you not hear me? I will repeat -”

“No, no, I heard you!” I said, reeling. Thank goodness he was holding onto my hands or I’d have been in danger of falling right the fuck over. His statement had hit me like a freight train. I’d expected him to say something big, but not this.

“But… But you said you didn’t have a mate!” I stammered. Had I totally made that up?

“I said I did not yet have a mate who shared my tent,” he said slowly. “Not that I had no mate at all.”

“I don’t…” I took a huge breath, bending at the waist. Even holding onto Xyan’s hands, I was feeling a wee bit woozy.

“Sit. Sit!” Xyan said, concern colouring his deep voice. He shifted his claws from my hands to my elbows, guiding me down to the sand. I collapsed onto my knees, and he knelt before me, mirroring my position. His hands slid back down to mine. He turned my palms upward, tracing his thumbs over the insides of my fingers and down to the pulse points of my wrists, making my core ache.

“Why didn’t you tell me before this? Why did you make me wait so long?” I said, fighting not to let my eyes flutter closed at the feeling of his rough thumbs brushing over my sensitive skin. I was not going to go and get all melty over the stroking of those thumbs. No way. Not now, when this huge alien warrior had so much explaining to do.

“We only exchanged our first words together a few days ago, Zerena. The Lavrika called me less than ten days ago.”

Oh. When he put it like that… OK, that was kind of fair. I guessed it hadn’t actually been that long. He was right, we had only started talking to each other a few days ago.

“But still,” I moaned, finally letting my eyes close as his thumbs slipped into the sleeves of my jacket, tracing small circles on my skin.

“I am sorry if hiding this from you has caused you any distress. But I did not… I did not want to force anything upon you. I worried that if I told you you were meant to be my mate right away, you would feel a sense of obligation towards me. I did not want you to feel any pressure. I wanted you only to be able to make your own choice. To love me on your own terms.”

“So that was why you were dying to know who I’d choose for my mate,” I said, breathing out. Xyan’s movements suddenly stopped, his fingers hardening around my wrists, making me open my eyes.

His face was darker and more intense than I had ever seen it.

“Yes,” he ground out, his chest heaving. “And it occurs to me now that you have yet to answer my question.”

I licked my lips, panting under the intensity of his gaze. Kneeling before me as he was, tail whipping against the sand behind him, I couldn’t help but notice that, once again, he was hard, his cock straining his poor loincloth to its very limits. My pussy tightened in response to that hardness, sensation zinging through my pelvis.

I shuffled forward slightly until my knees bumped his.

“You really want to know? You want to know who I’d take as a mate? Who I’d take to my bed?” I felt drunk on this moment – way more intoxicated than I’d been last night. It made me bold.

His tail thumped the ground as his cock visibly twitched.

“Yes,” he rasped.

“There is someone. One man in particular,” I said, drawing the moment out. I pulled my hands from his, running them up his thighs. I gasped as his thick muscles leaped under my touch. His thighs were so fucking thick. I couldn’t wait to find out if his cock was proportionate. From what I could see so far, it looked like it was. And then some.

“Who?” Xyan growled, his voice more aggressive than I’d ever heard it. I didn’t want to torture him too much, but jeez – he’d known I was his mate this whole time and hadn’t told me, leaving me a quivering, confused mess! A teensy bit of payback was in order, in my humble opinion. Nothing too severe of course. As my hands reached the tops of his thighs near his groin, I squeezed experimentally, feeling a tight hot thrill as his cock once again visibly jerked.

“It’s someone you know well,” I panted. “Someone strong. Someone -”

My words died in my throat as Xyan shifted position suddenly. He moved forward so rapidly that I fell out of my kneeling position onto my ass, my legs splayed, my hands flat on the sand behind me. Xyan was on all fours, each of his hands on either side of my hips. His nose bumped mine and his lips quivered in a restrained snarl.

“If you say the name of another warrior, you may as well take my blade and run it through my very heart, Zerena. I know that you are merciful and good. Do not drag out this pain. Tell me now.”

I’d never seen this side of Xyan – impatient. Demanding. Forceful. I loved his patience and his steady kindness, but I realized I also fucking loved this side of him too.

OK, enough payback.

“Xyan,” I whispered and he groaned in response, his face slipping to the side, his lips brushing my ear and making me shake. “There’s no one else. It’s you. I think I already love you.”

Xyan’s chest hitched. Then he went very, very still.

So still that I started to get worried.

“Xyan?” I probed, placing my hands on his shoulders. The muscles there were locked into position – hard as rock beneath his smooth hide.

Uh oh. Had my declaration of human love broken this stoic warrior?! I’d always had rotten luck with technology – cars, computers, and cell phones seemed to crap out on me at alarming rates back home. I just didn’t think that my techno-curse extended to seven-foot-tall brooding aliens.

“Xyan?” I said again, a little louder this time. His shoulders jerked with his sudden intake of breath.

“Forgive me. You have brought more beauty and more joy crashing down around me than I could hope to bear. But somehow, I promise you, I will find a way to bear it. I have always been a strong warrior. I have just never met someone who can undo my world as you can.”

“Would you look at me and kiss me already?” I breathed. Even though, as Xyan had pointed out, we’d only really known each other a few days, I was done with all the waiting. We were in love, as insane as that was. And I couldn’t stand to be without him for one more second.

He dragged his nose up my neck, across my jaw, to press into my cheek.

“What is kiss? I will do it. I will do anything,” he said, his voice ragged.

“You don’t know what kissing is?” I was surprised – I’d definitely seen the other Gahns and warriors with mates macking on their ladies. But then again, maybe it was just the word kiss he didn’t know. I had said it in English after all. “Here, I’ll show you.”

I draped one hand along his jaw, brushing my thumb along his lower lip. His full lips parted immediately, his tongue coming out to lash at my hand.

Nope, not tongue. Tongues.

The legendary Sea Sand tongues.

How had I forgotten that these guys had three fucking tongues?!

Those tongues had completely captured my thumb, drawing it into Xyan’s hot mouth. I let my head tip back in ecstatic agony, solely from the sensations in my hand. Xyan gripped my wrist, groaning and dragging his fangs along my palm as he released my thumb.

“My mouth. Mouth,” I panted, completely dazed. Luckily Xyan was a sharp guy and didn’t require any more instructions than that. Wrenching my hood back, he caught my jaw between his hands, crashing his mouth against mine.

This wasn’t patient and steady Xyan. This was forceful and raw Xyan. His lips worked feverishly over mine, his tongues plunging inward, swiping and tasting. My own human tongue felt weak and slow in comparison to the skilled flicks and sweep of his own, and I grew wet at the thought of what those tongues would feel like in other places.

As we kissed, the scrape of Xyan’s rough hands lit up the nerves in my neck. His hands kept travelling lower until they hovered at my collarbone. A whirring sound alerted me to the fact that he was undoing the zipper of my solar protection jacket.

“Take this off,” he growled against my mouth. “All of it.”

He was already taking care of the jacket. His huge hands had made quick, deft work of undoing the zipper. Once that was done, he yanked the stiff fabric down over my shoulders. I shook my hands out of the sleeves and then stood to undress. I hooked my fingers under the bottom of my tank top, ready to pull it off.

Then I froze.

I was about to get naked in front of Xyan. In broad daylight. Sure, I was in a shadowy part of the cave, but there was still plenty of light spilling in here. Besides, I knew how good his eyes were, even in places with low light.

Am I really doing this?

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been naked in front of a man in the light. I blinked, realizing I’d never been naked in front of a man when it wasn’t pitch dark in the room. The rare times my ex and I had sex, it had always been with the lights out, often with one or both of us wearing a T-shirt or covering of some kind.

Xyan sat back on the sand, watching me with ravenous eyes. As I hesitated, my arms crossed over my torso, still gripping my tank top, he moved his hand to his groin. With murderous, erotic slowness, he undid his loincloth, slipping the fabric off of his erection and tossing it aside.

If I was frozen in my movement before, I was a goddamn statue now. My eyes were glued to his cock – a long, girthy dark organ that twitched in the light. Along each side of his thick, tapered dick, were the cock spears I’d heard so much about. From what I’d learned from the other women, the slim appendages were flexible yet firm, akin to cartilage. And apparently they created the best kind of friction against a woman’s most sensitive places.

“Am I to undress alone?” Xyan growled, his sight stars falling to where my fingers held my tank top. Once again, with a slowness that made me want to melt into a puddle of goo, his hand moved back to his groin. This time, his powerful fist wrapped around his cock. He gave his erection one long, slow pump, hissing.

He was that aroused by me. He wanted me. Not just a little bit, either. I was his mate. I’d brought beauty and joy crashing into his life. I’d undone his fucking world.

Taking a deep breath and telling my insecurities to fuck right off, I yanked my tank top off in one quick motion. Xyan let out a long, raw, almost pained sound as I did so, and my skin burned as I realized it was a sound of appreciation. I quickly pulled my bra off, too, letting it fall onto the sand.

Xyan’s fist tightened on his cock, his fangs flashing as his face pulled into a hungry snarl.

“I cannot wait to bury myself in you, Zerena,” he rasped.

The unabashed intensity of the desire on his face gave me the courage to take off the rest. I stood up, kicking off my boots before shimmying out of my pants and underwear. The socks were the last thing to go until I was finally standing totally naked before him.

I bit down on my lower lip, wondering what he was seeing, what he was thinking. His sight stars dragged from my face down to my heavy breasts, my soft stomach, my pussy, my thighs. His hand pumped faster on his engorged cock and his tongues lashed the air as if dying to taste every inch of me.

“You are perfection, Zerena,” he said hoarsely, his hand slowing somewhat. “And I wish I could be content to stay at your feet worshipping your beauty forever. But it is not enough.” His sight stars grew hard and glinting. “I need to touch you. And if you do not join me down here soon I will drag you down here myself.”

As much as I wouldn’t have minded being dragged anywhere by Xyan’s strong hands, I was just as eager as he was. He’d seen all of me – everything – in daylight. Curves and rolls and stretch marks and cellulite. And he’d called me perfection. He wants me just as I am.

And that was the biggest turn-on of all.

I liked my body, and I’d never really wanted to change it. Especially not for my ex – even with his little comments and remarks meant to make me feel bad. But I’d also never really thought about my body being beautiful, either. It was just… My body. The vehicle that allowed me to live my life. But under Xyan’s gaze, I didn’t feel like a regular woman with a regular body living her regular life. I felt like a goddess. Like a painting. A work of art. As I sank to my knees once more, settling between his splayed thighs, he only reinforced that feeling with a hot, hungry pulse of his sight stars. You are perfection, Zerena.

His huge hands reached up to grasp my breasts, and I arched against his touch immediately, pressing my chest into his hands. My nipples were electric points against his exquisitely rough palms, sending sparks down my spine. I let my head roll back, zeroing in on the sensations of Xyan’s huge hands cupping my breasts, kneading and exploring. When his claws grazed my nipples, ever so gently – so gently it made me want to scream – my head snapped forward once more. No longer able to wait, I reached for his erection.

“Are you going to stop me again like you did last night?” I asked.

“No,” Xyan choked out, his hips already grinding upward, searching for contact with my hovering fingertips.

“Why did you stop me last night, anyway?” I replied, suddenly curious.

“I wanted you so badly Zerena. Just as I do now. But I did not want to be intimate with you before you knew the truth of the mate bond. The truth of my feelings for you. And I did not wish to tell you such a precious secret while so… Unlike myself.”

I snorted. That was a euphemism for “drunk off my rocker” if I’d ever heard one.

“How are you feeling after that?” I asked, only now remembering that this guy probably had to have had a wicked hangover.

Xyan’s fingers grasped my wrist, pulling my hand down so that my fingers finally brushed his fat tip. I held my breath, stroking my fingertips over the impossibly smooth skin of his organ.

“I am feeling strong enough to do anything you want.” His words were punctuated by the sharp rocking of his hips against my hand. I made a loose fist, experimentally running it over his tip and down the shaft. As it neared the base, my fingertips had no hope of continuing to touch.

“What do you want?” I breathed, running my hand back up that shaft. It was so fucking hard. But his hide was so smooth here, like silk but thicker and stronger. I kept stroking up and down, clenching my thighs together against the arousal building in my clit. I brought my second hand up to join my first, playing gently with his cock spears, enjoying the feel of the pliable appendages: firm, yet so different from the stone-hard cock between them. The contrast there – that hard cock with the firm but flexible spears – would be unreal against my own body.

“I want to fulfill your every wish. I want to sate your desires.” Xyan’s words petered out into a harsh moan as my fingers pressed on his tip, smearing the drop of wetness that had gathered in the dark slit there.

“Right now, my wish is to hear exactly what you want to do to me.” I shocked myself with my own words. But they were so, so true. I could already see and feel how much Xyan wanted me. But now I wanted to hear it. Every filthy word of it.

Xyan’s breath shuddered out of him, his abdominal muscles tensing as his hips moved faster against my hand.

“I want you to wrap your thighs around me again as you did in the hot springs. But I want them on either side of my head. Your wet cunt pressed into my face as I lie beneath you.”

I wanted filthy words, and damn, he’d delivered.

“You want me to sit on your face?!” I asked, wondering if I’d pictured what he’d just said wrong.

“Yes,” he said, the word so gruff and growly I knew it had to be true.

“Won’t I suffocate you?” I cried, already unsure about this. My insecurities that had been so thoroughly vanquished a moment before were coming roaring back. But Xyan just slashed his hand through the air between us, the alien equivalent of shaking your head “no.”

“You will not suffocate me, Zerena. I am a strong warrior and I do not plan to die today. Not when I have so many more things I yet wish to do to you.” His hands moved to my nipples again, playing and squeezing, before he added with a slight grin, “Though if I were to die today, I could not think of a more glorious way to go.”

“Don’t even joke,” I said. I was nowhere near ready to think about him dying. Not now. Not ever. “What are you doing?”

Xyan had pulled away from me and was settling himself on his back, his dark cock jutting up into the air like some kind of stone monument to pure alien masculinity. He pinned me with sharp sight stars, the rest of his eyes dark and deep.

“I am ravenous, Zerena. Ravenous for you and waiting for my feast.” His sight stars slipped down to my thighs, and he grasped his cock again with one hand. His other hand rose to his face. “I want you to rub your cunt on my face.” He dragged the tip of a claw down the flat bridge of his nose to his lips. “I want you sopping wet and dripping right here.”

My eyes widened. Holy shit. Stoic, quiet, unreadable Xyan was gone. In his place was a beyond-blunt dirty-talker who was making my whole body quake.

Screw it. Let’s do it.

My heartbeat pounding equally hard in my chest, throat, and between my legs, I shimmied forward on my knees until I was beside his head. Then, before I could lose my nerve, I hitched one thigh over his face. I adjusted quickly, placing my hands on the sand behind his head so that I was basically on all fours, my pussy just above his face. Every muscle in my body was an elastic band pulled too tight. One little movement would make me explode.

Xyan’s hands skimmed up the outside of my thighs and I felt his harsh breath on my slick folds. It wasn’t just his breath I felt, though. A split second later, the hot drag of a tongue moved along my entire slit.

“Yes,” I breathed, arousal building so intensely that I knew I was already close to coming. “Fuck yes.”

Xyan’s tongue, presumably the biggest centre one, stroked back and forth along my wet skin. His fingers were like metal bars on my ass now, digging into my flesh as he tasted me. When his tongue probed over my clit experimentally, I cried out and jerked.

Xyan didn’t say anything – too preoccupied with other movements of his tongues. He kept lapping at my clit, and then suddenly the other two tongue tips were there too. All three of them swirled over my sensitive nub in a circular motion, one after the other after the other. A never-ending whirlpool that had me whimpering and desperate for more.

But all too soon, the exquisite movement of those talented tongues stopped.

“More, Zerena. Like I asked of you. Rub yourself on me. Hard.”

He really wants me to fucking sit.

The way I was now, I was kind of hovering over him, bent over his hand, my hands flat on the sand to support my weight. As if sensing my hesitation, Xyan reached for my hands, grabbed them, then pushed them upward, forcing me upright. My knees slid outward on the soft warm sand, planting my wet pussy directly onto his mouth.

Flushing, I scrambled to readjust, certain that he wouldn’t be able to breathe like that. But his hands clamped onto my hips, not just holding me there, but actually pulling me even harder against his face.

Breathlessly, I leaned back slightly, grabbing at his forearms as he held me.

And as his thick centre tongue entered my aching entrance, I finally let go.

Moaning, I tossed my head back, grinding myself furiously against his face. I tilted my head slightly, entranced by the pistoning of Xyan’s hips. His thick cock jerked upward, over and over again, driving against nothing in his need for me. I pulsed, groaning, as his centre tongue found my most sensitive inner places just as his outer tongues once again managed to get themselves against my clit. His lips and mouth moved beneath me, suckling and pressing at my flesh.

My fingers dug into the hide of his arms as the movements of my hips grew faster. Xyan seemed to appreciate my responses to his touch because one of his hands moved from my ass back down to grip his cock. As if he couldn’t take it anymore, he jerked himself, hard and fast, in time to my grinding movements on his face. The way his outer tongues were pressed against my clit, plus the thick centre one thrusting inside me, had me screaming my orgasm a few seconds later. I rode out my orgasm, seeing stars, my hands burying themselves in Xyan’s warm dark hair.

I was so heated and sweaty from the whole encounter that I almost didn’t notice the hot bolt of liquid jetting against my back. I twisted once more, another wave of orgasmic pleasure wracking my body as I watched rope after rope of ejaculate shoot from Xyan’s dark tip. He was coming so hard for me – the fact that spray was reaching me, all the way up at his face like I was, was insanely fucking hot. And so was the final, languorous brush of his tongue inside me. I panted, my legs turned to jelly. Xyan’s breathing was hard and fast, too, warm breath from his nose puffing against my skin and reminding me to get off of his face now.

As I shifted to get off of him, Xyan growled. The sound of it reverberated along his tongue, all the way up inside me, making me clench. He gripped my hips firmly, massaging my ass as he slowly drew his tongue out of me. I wasn’t pressed so hard against his face, now, and he could talk.

“Just a little more.”

I didn’t even try to move as his tongues continued to slick over my drenched skin. They moved more slowly now, a little more gently, tasting every part of me before once again congregating at my clit, repeating that swirling, circular thing that had driven me so crazy before.

And it was driving me just as crazy now. I’d barely come down from my orgasm and already I could feel the tsunami of it building once again. My skin prickled as the ligaments in my hips and pelvis seemed to turn into oozing honey. Everything loosening, opening, deepening, and warming against Xyan’s touch. This orgasm was less frenzied – deeper and slower and so powerful it squeezed the breath right out of my lungs as it overtook me. I couldn’t even make a sound. My mouth fell open in a silent moan as immense dark waves moved through me, crashing and splintering into a thousand shimmering crystals behind my eyes.

Three fucking tongues. Oh, the papers I could write on those tongues. I could write entire textbooks on this miraculous phenomenon – the power of an alien man with three tongues who knew how to use them.

It was only with Xyan’s help that I was able to drag myself off of his face now. My body felt totally useless in the best possible way, my muscles and joints pliable and melty. I didn’t even try to stand up, instead collapsing onto the sand beside him, the heated grain of it scraping pleasantly against my skin. Xyan rolled onto his side, propping his head on his hand, his elbow on the sand. His other hand glided over my body – over each breast, my stomach, brushing the curls between my legs before coming back up to stroke at the rapid pulse of my throat.

“For the first time in my life, I wish I had no other responsibilities to attend to. I wish to shirk all duties. Forsake everything for you and devote myself only to your pleasure.”

I huffed out a chuckle, still trying to train my mouth into making actual words.

“I know what you mean,” I said weakly. Spending all day rolling around on the sand with Xyan sounded like pure bliss.

But he was right. We both had stuff to do. No doubt he would be back at the forge pounding away at blades for Gahn Baldor today, and I had planned on checking on Theresa and Cece as well.

I turned my head to find Xyan staring at me with an expression so soft and lovely it almost looked out of place on his hardened features.

Almost.

“I had heard tell of it before,” he murmured, the light catching on his wet mouth, “the joy a mate brings. I had hoped for it, one day. But this is beyond any hope a simple warrior could fathom.” His fingers moved over my cheek, playing in the messy strands of my hair. “You are everything, Zerena.”

My throat tightened. I nodded, rolling towards him and burying my face in his chest.

“I love you,” I whispered thickly. “And not just because of what you can do with your tongues,” I added. His laughter rumbled as his large hands stroked my back.

“I do not care why you love me, Zerena. I am just grateful that you do. And I intend to keep that love, to earn it every day. Through the work of my tongues or otherwise.”

“Well that sounds just dandy,” I sighed happily.

We remained holding each other like that for as long as we reasonably could before we finally pulled ourselves upright to dress. Xyan was dressed much quicker than I was – he only had a loincloth to put back on after all. As he tucked his thick cock into it, I vowed that I would have him inside me soon. As soon as fucking possible.

I brushed the sand from my skin and wriggled into my clothes under Xyan’s gaze. After tying the laces on my boots, I straightened. He moved in behind me.

“Tip your head back,” he said quietly. I did so without question, closing my eyes, trusting him completely.

I gasped as the gentle rake of his claws through my hair tickled my scalp. Behind me, I could feel and hear grains of sand tumbling from the strands Xyan was combing with his fingers. He took his time with it, running his fingertips over my scalp, my ear lobes, the back of my neck.

If this keeps up, I’m going to need to get him naked all over again.

“Are you almost finished?” I asked breathlessly.

“Almost,” he murmured before bending to my neck and dragging his lips along my pulse. He settled his mouth at the sensitive place beneath my ear lobe, nipping then sucking at the skin.

“Xyan,” I groaned, leaning back against him.

“I know. I know. We must go,” he said against my neck. “Come, my mate.”

My mate.

Did it ever sound fucking perfect when he said that.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Xyan

Icaged myself in my forge for the rest of the day, pouring all my strength into my work. I did not leave for any reason. I did not allow myself a single break. I knew that if I did, any hope of completing my work would be lost. And so would I be – lost to Zerena’s beauty and body.

Even as I worked, though, I fantasized, my mind drifting back to the intensely exciting sensation of her rubbing her perfect cunt against my face with such abandon. I wanted to do that again. And again. As many times as she’d let me get beneath her.

And then I wanted to sink my throbbing cock into her hot depths.

I grunted as my hammer clanged down dangerously close to my own thumb. It would not do to crush any of my fingers now. I needed those fingers to caress my mate.

The joy shining inside me was so pure and bright that it was almost boyish. I felt like a young warrior, the promise of an entire life of happiness spread before me like an oasis. I had a mate. She’d accepted me. Together, we would have cubs. And I would take care of all of them. Zerena, and our future family.

I was not used to dreaming thus. I’d always been focused on duty and work and the present tasks at hand. But now, I found myself more wrapped up in my own mind and the future than I’d ever been before. A future with Zerena in it was one worth dreaming about. One worth waiting for.

One worth creating.

Together, we would create it.

As the sun descended and my forge’s fire became brighter in the darkness, I ceased my work for the day. Despite my distracted mind, I’d accomplished much. Gahn Baldor would have no reason to ask more of me today. And tonight, I would lie with my mate. I will have to bring my tent in from the open sands. Pride puffed in my chest. I was now a mated man, after all.

I straightened, moving away from my workbench and kicking sand over the small fire there before stepping out of my work area to join the larger evening fire. As I walked, my eyes tracked over the settlement viciously, tearing everything apart in search of my mate.

There she was. Seated among her human friends.

As much as my body urged me to go to her immediately, I paused, admiring her from afar. The way I’d been doing all this time, but now, it was different. Because now I was admiring my mate. Now, she was truly mine.

Now I knew the sweet and secret taste of her tight cunt.

She was not wearing her stiff human cloak and the firelight licked up her bare arms. Her hair looked slightly damp, as if it had just been washed with talka, and her fair skin glowed rosily. My heart lurched as she smiled at something someone else had said, her round cheeks dimpling with the force of her mirth. Without even meaning to, my own expression mirrored hers, my mouth pulling into a smile just at the sight of her happiness.

My precious one.

How had I dared deserve her?

Something caught Zerena’s attention and she turned her head, glancing over her shoulder at me. Her smile from before deepened, softened, making my ribs ache. Before I was even aware of it, my feet were moving, my body carrying me to her before I could even command it to do so.

She stood as I drew near, stepping out of the seated circle of her friends and jogging to me. I could not help the lascivious pulse of my sight stars, watching her beautiful breasts bounce as she ran to me.

“Hello,” she said, smiling again as she reached me. “How was the rest of your day?”

“It was wonderful after such a morning,” I replied, thinking back to our time in the cave. “The only thing that could have made it better would have been spending more of it with you.”

“Same here,” she said. Between the orange flicker of nearby fire and the silver polish of the star and moonlight, I could see the deep flush on her skin. I reached up and stroked the pad of my thumb down her cheek, enjoying the feeling of the warmth blooming there. It still had not quite sunk in that this was my mate. I could touch her, hold her, claim her.

She was mine.

I wanted to give her anything. Everything. I suddenly remembered what she’d asked of me earlier.

“Did you still need me to do your… What was it? Em are eye?”

“Oh! Yes, please! It would be really helpful.”

“Then we shall do it. Tonight, if you wish.”

Her slim brown brows shot upward.

“Seriously? OK, let’s do it! We need to go to the human ship to do it. That’s where the em are eye machine is.”

I frowned. I had not known it would involve taking her out onto the open sands.

“That is dangerous. I do not know if-”

“Xyan,” my perfect joy interrupted, “I will need to go back to the human ship now and then. I need to be able to leave the settlement. And I’d like very much for it to be with you.” Her voice got quieter, and she stepped closer, pressing into my chest. “I feel safest when I’m with you.”

I grunted, wrapping my arms around her. I was in agreement with her there – she certainly was safest when with me. I would trust no other warrior, not even a Gahn, with her safety. No other man would defend her as I would. Like his life, his very existence, depended solely upon her being well and whole.

“Then let us go.” I knew many of the new women travelled back and forth to the ship almost daily and were unharmed. If I kept my wits about me, everything should be alright. Especially now that it was dark and the zeelk were less likely to be active.

As Zerena packed a small bag to take with us – her pen and notebook among them – I ate a quick meal to replenish myself after working all day. Once that was completed, Zerena finished her preparations by slipping into her cloak.

“It’s crazy how cool it gets here at night,” she said, reaching to do up the cloak’s zipper. I stepped in, doing it for her, just as she’d taught me. The whizzing thrum of the connection could be felt in my fingers as I pulled the zipper up.

After that, we were ready. We headed to the edge of the settlement. Though I confess I had not thought ahead to this part, and we were stopped by the guards there. It was a well-established rule by now that no man was allowed to take a new woman from the settlement alone without chaperones from the other tribes. Unless that woman was his mate.

One of the guards present was of my tribe, and he called to me by name.

“Xyan, you know the rules. You cannot take a new woman from here alone.”

“I can if she is my mate,” I countered, wrapping a protective arm around Zerena’s shoulders. Hadryan, the guard who’d spoken, flicked his sight stars between my face and Zerena’s.

“He’s telling the truth. I’m his mate,” Zerena said loudly, pressing harder into my side. Hot pride and gratitude exploded from everywhere she touched me. She had not only declared herself to be my mate when alone with me, but now in front of these other men, too. Soon, the whole world will know she is mine and mine alone.

“If this is true, then you may leave. Where are you going, in case Gahn Baldor asks?”

“We’re going to the human ship,” Zerena answered. My tail flicked on the sand behind me.

“It is as she says. We are going to complete some of her human work there.”

One of the other guards piped up from the side. “Gahn Fallo and his Gahnala are there now, as well as the half-Bitter Sea warrior and his mate.”

I jerked my tail in acknowledgement of his information and they let us pass. Beyond them was the new line of tents recently constructed out here, including my own.

“On the way back, we will move my tent back into the settlement,” I said, squeezing Zerena a little tighter. “I refuse to spend another night without you in my bedding hides.”

She made a huffing little sound that sounded very happy indeed. And that, in turn, made me happy too.

As we passed my tent, I paused.

“What is it?” Zerena asked, looking up at me questioningly.

“I need to collect a few more weapons,” I told her. She looked surprised.

“You need more? You already have, what, two swords back there?”

“I have three blades on my back right now. I would add one more and collect my spear, too.”

“I’d say that sounded like overkill, but knowing this planet, it probably isn’t. Let’s do it,” she said.

I held the tent flap aside, allowing her entrance before me. I did not need to light a candle in the darkness. I could see well enough, and besides – I knew where everything was by touch alone. Everything in its place.

I strapped one more long blade to my back. But before I grabbed my spear, I turned to Zerena in the darkness. It was obvious she could barely see me right now, if she could see me at all. The dakrival hide of my tent blocked out any sliver of the evening glimmers cast down from the stars and moons.

A deep, primal need pulsed through me. I stilled myself, listening to the melody of her hot human breath. In the silence, I could hear her breathing grow shallower. Quicker.

It was a small tent. There was not much distance between us. I took one step, then another, prowling closer to her in the blackness. Her breathing hitched, her body heating and making her scent pour off of her as I took the last step.

With a bit-back growl, my hands shot forward, capturing her face in my grip. I felt her gasp more than I heard it as my mouth descended, sharp and silent, to hers.

Her sweet lips opened with a choked mewl as my tongues invaded her. Already, I was dying to have my tongues between her legs again. I wanted to have them everywhere, all at once. My hands grappled with her cloak before sliding beneath it, my fingers digging into her curved waist, her rounded hips. I knew we had to go, and I knew I did not want to keep her out on the open sands for longer than necessary. But having her so close to me in the pressing darkness of my tent made my hunger for her deep and insatiable. She was in my tent. My territory. My darkness.

My mate.

I forced myself to pull back from the temptation of her mouth just as Zerena looped her arms around my neck to keep me there.

“We must go,” I said, fighting to keep my breathing steady. And fighting to keep my cock from grinding viciously against her.

“I know,” Zerena panted. She took a small step back, letting her silken hands stroke down my chest before falling to her sides. I bent and finally retrieved the spear I’d come here for in the first place. That, with my four other blades, had me feeling at least a little better about taking her further out from the settlement.

I took her little hand in mine and together we stepped out of the tent. Grunting, I used the hard shaft of my spear to adjust my erection, keeping Zerena’s hand clutched in my other. I called out, high and sharp, my tongues clicking to summon my irkdu. It did not take long for the creature to appear, lumbering towards us from further down the cliffs. As the obedient creature neared, it occurred to me that I did not have a saddle ready for Zerena. She tried to tell me that this was alright and that I did not need to worry about it, but that would not do. I would not have her precious, perfect thighs pained on the journey.

Placing my spear on the ground, I ducked into my tent again, grabbing up my bedding hides and some hide rope. Once the irkdu was before us, I fashioned a cushion for her, strapping it all to the irkdu.

“As soon as we are back, I will construct a proper saddle for you,” I promised, annoyed with myself that it had not already been done. “Whatever you need, I will always provide it, Zerena. I hope you know that.”

“Xyan, I do know that! I just watched you turn your own bed into a seat for me!” She offered me one of her stunning smiles and patted my chest. “This looks perfect. Let’s go.”

Zerena reached for the makeshift saddle as if to try to pull herself up onto my huge mount.

Certainly not. I may not have had a proper saddle for her, but I would at least get her seated on the thing without her having to do it herself.

She let out a small cry of surprise as I gripped her waist, lifting her up above my head and onto the beast. She shouted, then laughed as she landed, grabbing the irkdu’s back to steady herself. Taking up my spear from the sand, I leaped up to join her. As I seated myself, she removed her pack from her back, then looped her arms through its fabric handles once more so that she held it at her front. Then she wiggled backwards, pressing her back into my chest.

I would need to do a lot more than merely adjusting myself to deal with the wave of hot blood pulsing in my cock. Curse me, I’d need to smash my whole spear upon it now.

Almost as if she had heard my thoughts, Zerena gestured to the spear I held ready at our sides.

“I haven’t seen this before. It looks different from most of the other spears around here,” she said.

No doubt she was referring to the zeelk spur tip of my spear. Zeelk spurs made excellent spear tips. They were large barbs, naturally pointed and stronger than ablik. And they were the only thing deadly enough to actually pierce a zeelk’s own armour. You could kill a zeelk with blades, as I myself had done, but it was much more difficult. And you were much more likely to get skewered by one of its legs or its tail before you completed your task.

“Our spears have zeelk spur tips,” I began. Zerena made a sound of distaste, a shudder running through her form.

“Ugh, zeelk. Not a fan of them, I have to say.”

That’s right. When her people had first come to this place, many in her party had been killed by desert zeelk. My claws tightened on my spear’s long bone handle so hard that my knuckles cracked as I thought about Zerena in danger from zeelk without me there to protect her.

It will never happen again. I will always be there to shield her.

“The desert zeelk, as you know, are black. Thus most of our spears have black tips.”

I hefted my spear, letting its ghostly white tip catch in the silvery light.

“I killed more than one zeelk while out in the Death Plains. I took many spurs such as this one.” The others were safe in my tent even now, ready to replace this one should I have a need.

Or ready to be placed upon the spears of my future cubs.

The thought of our future cubs dispelled the darkness created by thoughts of zeelk. A deep contentment settled in my chest as I drew Zerena harder against me with one arm, raising my spear again with the other.

I clicked my tongues once more. Zerena gave a laughing whoop as the irkdu sped into action beneath us, its many legs churning over the sand.

This was what life was meant to be. Racing over the plains of your world with your woman at your side. Wind in your hair and weapons in your claws and heat and night. Stars and moons. Zerena’s face among it all, the centre of everything. The anchor to which I bound all meaning.

I could not believe that I was to experience joys like this forever, now. And even greater joys. The bliss of sheathing my cock in Zerena. The pure creation of our cubs joining this world. Beauty, all bare before me. All mine. And all hers.

I raised my spear even higher, feeling it slice through the night. The wind whipped at my loose hair, sending it backwards in tangled strands behind me. Zerena’s own hair was bound with a small little tie at the back of her head, but her hood was down, so I knew she was feeling the wind as I was.

We were together. She felt the wind on her face as I did. She felt love for her mate, as I did. She had chosen me.

She made me feel stronger than I ever had before.

A stray sharp stone churned up by my irkdu’s legs caught on my shoulder, scratching the skin, reminding me that I was not invincible.

But with Zerena, I almost felt as if I could be.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Serena

“Is this useful?”

“Yes,” I replied. “But no more talking!”

Xyan went dutifully silent in the MRI machine. He looked absolutely massive in the big tube, and I smiled and shook my head at him. When we’d arrived at the ship, we’d pretty much come straight here after poking our heads in to say hello to Chapman, Zoey, Kor, and Gahn Fallo, who were all in the security room, watching the scanners.

I looked at the images produced by the MRI so far, chewing on the end of my pen as I studied them. Many of Xyan’s organs, from what I could see, were similar to human ones, except larger and in slightly different configurations. The heart and lungs were particularly noticeable in their size, which made sense considering they had to power an organic machine as huge and powerful as Xyan’s body. The bone structure was even more interesting – so much of it similar to a human’s, but so much of it different, too. The way the shins bent into those high ankles with the long, clawed feet was especially cool, as well as the fact that Xyan’s spine extended into his tail.

Fascinating.

And to think, this guy is my mate.

I still couldn’t quite believe it, but I would figure out a way to make it more real to myself. Because the alternative – that this might not be real? That was something I would never be able to accept now.

“Alright, come on out,” I said, opening the MRI machine and directing Xyan out of it.

“That was the strangest tunnel I have ever been in,” Xyan said, looking at the MRI suspiciously. “I am happy to help you with your work. But I am equally happy to be finished with that part.”

I snorted at this hardcore alien fighter looking so wary of a simple human machine. But then again I couldn’t really blame him. We were the aliens here. We were the ones doing the poking and prodding and probing on our foreign spaceship.

“What is next?” Xyan asked, turning to me. I felt a goofy smile unfurl on my face as I gazed at him. Even under the harsh and unflattering fluorescent light of this room, he looked like a god. His skin shone like burnished metal, his hair swept regally back from his face, tumbling in wind-swept waves behind his shoulders. His many straps that held his blades at his back gave him an almost blood-thirsty appearance, which was contrasted by his calm, steady expression.

“Next?” I hadn’t exactly planned anything else. I’d spend more time studying the scans I’d just taken later. Right now, I wanted to shift gears a little. Namely, I wanted to be with Xyan, not just doing work stuff.

That gives me an idea…

“Well, one thing I really should do is continue with my illustrations,” I said. I knew my cheeks were positively glowing red, which I tried to distract from by picking up my nearby notebook and flapping its pages in the air.

“Of course. How do you want me?” Xyan asked. “If you need me to pose a certain way, please let me know.”

Jesus Christ. Posing, like some nude male model. An artist could not have asked for a more perfect or more gracious subject.

“One thing we’ll need to really learn about is how our two species copulate,” I said slowly. Suggestively. “You know. Mating and all that. So I really should get some diagrams of the Sea Sand male sexual organs.”

Xyan tilted his head, then his sight stars pulsed slightly.

“Ah. Of course.”

I hid my giddy smile behind my notebook as he immediately whipped off his loincloth. Good fucking golly. Talk about a work of art. He stood, a full seven feet tall, massive and muscled with that huge, delicious cock already thickening under my gaze.

“You would do well to start,” he said stiffly. “I do not know how long it will be… like this.”

“Like this?” I asked.

“It will be hard soon. I suspect that any time you get close enough to draw it, it will become hard. So work quickly if you need your drawing as things are now.”

“Right,” I squeaked. I looked around, spotting a rolling chair tucked into a corner of the room. I snagged it, dragging it across the metal tile floor, bringing it to a halt in front of Xyan. I sat down, pretty much at the perfect level to stare at his junk. Which, for my purposes, was exactly what I needed.

I placed the notebook on my lap, leaning forward and beginning to sketch. My gaze flicked between my book and Xyan’s cock. He was right – things down there were, ahem, changing rapidly. His cock was now half-hard, jutting out towards me. I licked my lips, making sure to capture the exact lines of a particularly prominent vein running up his shaft.

By the time ten minutes had passed, instead of having one detailed drawing, I had about eight sketches. His cock was hardening too fast for me to draw it perfectly in one go, the angles and the size changing every moment.

“You know a model is supposed to try to stay still, right?” I teased.

“I cannot help it. You are too near. And every time you lean forward to draw, your breasts…” He grunted, the words choked off. I looked down at myself. My jacket had been abandoned on the floor by the door into this room, and I had to admit, in this tank top, even with my ill-fitting bra, my cleavage was pretty damn impressive. Feeling just a little bit wicked, I pressed my arms against the sides of my chest, making my cleavage all that much more apparent.

“So you’re saying this is distracting you?” I looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes, and he groaned.

“Yes,” he bit off. As he spoke the word, his cock bobbed, lengthening further until he was completely hard. I let out a low whistle, admiring what I was lucky enough to get to see so up close and personal. And I didn’t just get to see it. I could do more if I wanted to. This fantastic man, this warrior, was my mate now.

“I suppose that’s alright,” I drawled. “I can still draw you like this too. As long as you promise not to move,” I added, casting a teasing smile up at him.

“I will not move,” he huffed, his shoulders heaving as he released a heavy breath. He cleared his throat, widening his stance and pressing his hands behind his back. I snorted, clapping my notebook to my face as I dissolved into giggles. He looked like he was standing in front of his army commander or something. Like he was waiting to get assigned a dangerous mission or receive some kind of punishment. That image was only strengthened by the look of dogged determination he wore on his face, his jaw set tight, his gaze serious.

“Very good,” I replied with mock seriousness, lowering my notebook once more.

Apart from the occasional twitch, his member was mostly held in one stable (very impressive) position now, which made it easier to draw. I started a new illustration on a fresh page, inking the lines of his heavy, velvety balls, the cock spears, and the hard, hefty shaft at the centre of the whole package. I chewed on my lip as I worked, squeezing my thighs together, trying to ignore the tension thrumming between my legs. I could totally understand why Xyan had gotten that hard just by looking down at me. Because I was now getting all squirmy and wet just from drawing his erection.

But Xyan, bless him, kept murderously focused, his sight stars pinned to the wall behind me. I honoured his efforts by actually focusing on the job I’d started. My pen flew, black ink creating a brand new Xyan cock on my paper. I was a pretty accurate illustrator – I knew I was skilled at rendering things on paper that I saw in front of me, even things that were complex for others, like faces. But I had to admit, even though I was pleased to say that this was some of my best work, it paled in comparison to the real, hot, meaty appendage right in front of my face.

Unable to continue scrawling on my paper, I flipped my pen in my hand so that the smooth button at the top was forward. My heart plummeting to my pussy, I dragged the smooth button at the end of the pen over Xyan’s engorged tip.

There was no foreskin. The whole cock was smooth and dark, with that fat tip now glistening from an unseen bead of moisture I’d just smeared. Xyan’s pectoral muscles jumped, his spine straightening.

“Is this part of your… artistic process?” he growled, his tail twitching.

“Maybe,” I said. I slipped that smooth end of the pen over his tip once more, dragging it over his wet little slit and then down the underside of the shaft. I paused to trace that one engorged vein I’d spied earlier, and Xyan hissed above my head.

“Are you… Are you painting on me?” he asked, finally tearing his gaze from the wall and looking down at me.

“No, I’m not, don’t worry,” I said. I slipped the pen further down, stroking its smooth plastic end against the soft place where the underside of his shaft met his balls.

“You can if you want,” Xyan rasped. “You can do anything to me. I am utterly yours to do with what you will.”

I shook my head, poking at the underside of his tip with the pen, a thrill singing in my nerve endings as his cock visibly pulsed.

“You’re a sweetheart, you know that?” I whispered.

“I do not know if my heart is sweet or not. But I would gladly dredge it up for you and watch it stop beating in your little hands, all so that you could taste it.”

“I didn’t mean that literally!” I cried, reeling from the gruesome image. “I like your heart exactly where it is, thank you!”

“But even so,” Xyan said, his voice cracking. “Inside me or not, it is yours. Wholly and completely.”

Fuck this pen.

I dropped the pen, no longer patient enough for its thin plastic ministrations. Rolling forward on the chair, I grasped Xyan’s shaft and sucked his tip into my mouth.

Xyan let out a long, satisfied groan above me, a sound that went straight to my clit, making me throb. That, combined with his smooth hardness in my mouth and the salted-smoke taste of him, had me clamping my thighs together even harder than before.

“Zerena.” My name was a raw croak above my head. A moment later, Xyan’s hands found their way to my scalp, slipping my ponytail-holder off and burying themselves in my hair.

But even with his fucking cock in my mouth, he was still a freaking perfect alien gentleman. He didn’t grip my head too hard, didn’t try to drive it down faster onto his erection. He simply held me, his fingers massaging my scalp as I sucked him, running my tongue up and down, over and under.

My own fingers stroked up his hard thighs and circled around to grip his powerful glutes. Desire pierced me when I felt just how fucking tense his muscles were there. Every ounce of power he had restraining him from fucking my mouth the way his body wanted to.

Good grief, if that didn’t make me even fucking hornier.

I tilted my head back, my mouth coming off of him with a slick popping sound. Xyan’s breath tore in and out of him. One of his thumbs stroked across my cheek to my wet lower lip, grazing it with his claw.

“I want you inside me,” I whispered before sucking his thumb into my mouth. I arched, my thighs parting on the chair as I sucked his thumb just as I’d sucked his cock a second before.

Xyan’s sight stars vibrated, a muscle pumping in his jaw. He pulled his thumb from my mouth, then in a quick motion, he moved to his knees. His palms raked up my thighs to my hips, gripping the waistband of my pants.

“Off,” he muttered darkly, tugging. I nodded breathlessly, working my pants and underwear over my hips. Xyan took it from there, tearing the clothing down my legs. He snarled as everything snagged on my boots, then quickly pulled those off as well. Soon enough, I was naked from the waist down, with Xyan kneeling between my splayed legs.

Once again, he stroked his hands up my thighs, his thumbs charting the most agonizing course along my inner thighs, stopping where the insides of my legs met my groin.

“Perfect,” he murmured, an almost pained look crossing over his features.

But it wasn’t enough. I wanted to be totally naked in front of him like I had been earlier. I worked quickly, yanking my tank top then bra off and throwing them somewhere behind me.

His sight stars wrenched from my spread pussy, up over my stomach and breasts, coming to rest on my face.

“If anyone should be studied and painted, it is you. Zerena. Forget carving the faces of Gahns into stone. Every surface – stone or paper or skin – should be a monument to you.” He grunted as his powerful hands forced my thighs further apart. “Starting with this.”

Oh lord.

My legs were spread as wide as they could go, Xyan’s fingers like bars of iron, holding them apart as he pressed his face closer. He didn’t move all the way inwards though, stopping about an inch away from my skin to just… stare.

“What are you doing,?” I panted, trying to wiggle and failing against the strength of his hands.

“You had your chance to study my anatomy and my arousal. Now I study yours.”

I tried to relax, but it was fucking difficult. Every puff of Xyan’s breath was torture against my sensitized skin. And when he pressed the rough pad of his thumb directly against my clit, I bucked and cried out.

“What is this called? This enticing bit of you?” Xyan asked, sounding almost reverent.

“It’s a clitoris. It’s very – ah! Sensitive!” He was pressing it again – not too hard. Just hard enough to make painful pleasure strike a deep chord inside me.

“I can see that you are sensitive here,” he said, gentling his touch, stroking me with his thumb rather than pressing now.

Between moans, I asked him a garbled question.

“How did you – ah! Earlier, when we… I… On your face. Oh! How did you know to… Use your tongues there? Did one of the other human women – holy fucking shit – give you advice?”

Hell, half the time human guys couldn’t even figure out a clitoris. And this literal alien had gotten it bang-fucking-on on his very first try?

“I did not receive advice from another new woman,” he said, continuing that maddening stroke over my pulsing nub. “I just paid attention to you, my mate. Your body, your voice, your face told me everything I needed to know. When I touched you here -” His thumb stroked faster, making me arch and moan louder. “You reacted. Just as you do now.”

“Makes sense,” I mumbled, letting my head roll back against the top edge of the chair. I didn’t have the clarity of mind for any more questions or conversation. I just needed touch. His touch.

And his cock.

“Xyan,” I mewled. “I really, really want you inside me now.”

Xyan’s fingers twitched on the flesh of my thighs and he made a strangled sound. “I wanted you to take your pleasure from my tongues first. But your begging makes waiting… A challenge.”

Ooh. Tongues. That sounded good, too.

I shimmied my hips, as much as I could under his hard grip, anyway. Grinding closer to his face.

“Just pick one. I need you,” I said, barely managing to string the words together as arousal burned me up from the inside out.

I sagged lower down on the seat of the chair, waiting for the flick of his tongues against my skin. So I was startled, my eyes flying open, when Xyan’s hands slipped up to my waist and pulled me upright.

I didn’t have time to get my bearings before he picked me up. My legs went around his waist immediately, just like they’d done in the hot springs. But this time, he didn’t pull away in some misguided attempt to hide his arousal. This time, he drove my back against the nearest wall, letting me slide down slightly until I could feel the hot steel rod of his cock against my spread ass cheeks.

“Even before the Lavrika came to me, I dreamed of doing this to you. For so long, I watched you and I waited, drowning in your beauty.”

His jaw worked as he stopped speaking. My own jaw ceased working entirely, my mouth flopping open as he drew his hips back and then positioned his tip at my slick entrance.

“But finally, I have you. I claim you, Zerena. And I can breathe again.”

With that, he nudged inside me, pressing forward slowly but firmly. He was huge – fucking gigantic – but I was slick and wet and so desperate for him that it almost didn’t matter.

Luckily it mattered to Xyan. One of us had to be practical about the size difference, here. If it were up to me, I’d have him slamming in and out of me as hard as he could immediately. But Xyan took his time – as he did with everything. He worked me open powerfully but slowly, driving a little further inside me with each tightly controlled thrust of his hips.

I’d never been fucked up against a wall like this before. I’d always imagined that it wouldn’t work all that well with a human guy – eventually, we’d both get tired from keeping me there, and I’d start slipping down. But not with Xyan. His bulky arms held me like it was nothing, his broad torso keeping me steady.

I looped my arms around his neck, arching forward so that my nipples brushed against his hide. They hardened and Xyan gnashed his fangs, staring down at my body.

“So lush,” he panted huskily. He pressed closer, pinning me with his frame and taking one of his hands out from where it was supporting my ass. With that hand free, he stroked it over my breasts, one then the other. His thrusts grew a little quicker, a little less controlled, his shaft driving deeper than before.

And I welcomed it.

I grabbed his hand, pressing it harder into my breast. I wanted him to drive into me. To ravish me. To take what was his.

Because I was his. Just as he was mine.

“Harder, Xyan,” I pleaded. I was stretched so wide from him, so overwhelmed by him, yet I still needed more. Pleasure gathered in a hot bunch at the base of my pelvis every time he drove into me. My clit pulsed and my core ached.

“Harder. Now.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Xyan

My beautiful mate wanted me to go harder. And I would not deny her that.

She had been tight – so tight – as I’d first entered her. But my slow and steady thrusts, combined with her exquisite wetness, had eased the way for us now. I slipped my hand free from her breast, back down to her backside, clutching at her, preparing to start driving into her the way I wanted to. The way my body was screaming to.

“I will go hard, soft one. Only for you.”

Her hands gripped my jaw, dragging me down to her mouth. I groaned into her lips, almost coming undone by the perfect mirrored heat of having my cock inside her at the same time my tongues were. I was everywhere inside her. In front of her. All around her. There was only her and me and the frenzied fusion of our bodies.

Snarling, I pulled back from the kiss, pressing her back harder into the wall before I started increasing the power of my hips. Her heat pulsed around me, milking my shaft, pulling every bit of pleasure out from my groin. My tail thrashed on the hard cold floor behind me as I drove myself inside her over and over again.

Her cries grew louder, her mouth falling open as her eyes closed. My eyes, though, were wide open. I couldn’t stop staring at her – at the bouncing of her heavy breasts as I pounded into her. At the way her soft, fair stomach contrasted so sharply with my own Sea Sand skin. My cock plunging harder, I tilted my head down and to the side, suckling at the tender flesh of her wrist against my shoulder. I pressed against her pulse with my tongues, dragging them along her arm down to her inner elbow, fighting the urge to sink my fangs into her, to forever mark her mine.

She was already mine. I did not need violence or pain to prove it.

Her love had done that.

The increased depth of my thrusts forced my cock spears into her slick folds. With the flick of a claw, I adjusted them so that their tips slipped against Zerena’s clit each time I moved. Immediately, her cunt tightened around me.

“Xyan,” she moaned, her eyes cracking open, hazed with mating fever. “I’m coming.”

“Yes. Do it.” I leaned forward, murmuring raggedly against the delicate shell of her ear. “Come for your mate. Take all my hardness, and give me all your pleasure in return.”

As she tensed around me, crying out sharply, I curled further forward, dragging my tongues down her throat, lashing at her collarbone. I thrusted through her climax, driven past the point of madness by the undulating pulsations inside her. Every part of her was an intoxication – her pulsing cunt, the flesh of her thighs pressed against me as my body forced them open, the scarlet flush in her cheeks, the glazed beauty of her blue eyes.

“I am yours, Zerena,” I growled as my own pleasure expanded in my pelvis, snaking vines of heat beneath my testicles and into my shaft. “My body, my blades. My cock. I pledge everything to you…” My words were tumbling faster and less controlled from my mouth, the same way my hips were losing their precise rhythm. “I pledge it all. My fealty. My future. My seed -” My words fell away as a haggard roar ripped from my throat. At the same moment, I exploded inside Zerena, pumping rope after rope of hot seed into her depths. Zerena clutched at my shoulders, moaning and grinding her pelvis against me, which only served to draw my own pleasure out longer.

Eventually, the frenzy of my hips eased. I stroked into her a few more times, enjoying the frissons of sensation running down my spine and tail. Then, we were both still, aside from the heaving of our breath and the thundering of our hearts. Making sure Zerena was still steady where I held her, I once again eased a hand out from her plush backside. I brushed my fingers down her throat, flattening my palm between her breasts. Her pulse was so fast. Fast and strong and singing for me.

“You were right about what you said a second ago Xyan,” Zerena said, her lips wet and swollen, her skin flushed. “This, all of this, is mine.” She squeezed around my cock, still inside her, and I bucked involuntarily, gritting my fangs.

“And in return, this,” - she placed her hand upon my own, pressing it more firmly against the place where her heart was beating - “this is yours.”

I bent forward, bumping my forehead to hers, overwhelmed by the moment. Zerena’s words echoed in my head, punctuated by the beating of her sweet organ beneath my palm.

This is yours.

Never before had I been granted a treasure quite so sacred.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Serena

It took forever to get dressed. For one thing, I’d been so thoroughly fucked that my muscles were next to useless. For another, every time I tried to grab my pants and underwear to put them back on, Xyan slowed everything down by distracting me with those very long, very eager, very skilled tongues. After my third orgasm, I was practically begging him to stop, my whole body a pleasantly trembling mess.

“If you wish to, then we shall stop. Forgive me for being so defenceless against your temptations,” Xyan said as he tied his loincloth around his hips. Fuck me, he looked great. All tall and dark and muscly and totally devoted to me. It made me want to tell him to forget what I’d just said and to bring those tongues back over here again.

But honestly? I was exhausted. It had been after dark by the time we’d left for the ship, and dawn had to be approaching by now. So I physically turned away from the magnetism of Xyan’s body and dressed myself, trying not to topple over as I did so.

Once I was dressed, I stuffed my notebook and pen into my bag, biting my lip at the erotic image of Xyan’s cock in various stages of hardness on the paper. Xyan took the bag from me, hoisting his spear in the other.

“Let us go,” he said. “I am looking forward to retrieving my tent and sharing it with you tonight.”

I nodded eagerly. I’d almost forgotten about that. Tonight, for what was left of it at least, I’d be sleeping next to Xyan. And I’d be sleeping next to him every night afterwards. For the rest of my life.

My chest squeezed at the thought. A whole lifetime with Xyan.

It was perfect.

On our way out of the ship, we ducked into the control room where all the security screens were. Zoey, Kor, Chapman, and Gahn Fallo were still there.

“Burning the midnight oil?” I asked. Chapman turned from where she was staring at a screen over Zoey’s shoulder.

“Yup. There was some kind of anomaly on the scanner earlier. We’re still trying to figure out what it was.”

Now my chest was squeezing for a whole new reason. Panic flooded my veins, and Xyan pulled me close against his side.

“What do you think it was? Another ship?” I whispered, almost too afraid to say the words out loud.

“No, we don’t think so,” Zoey said, swivelling in her office chair. “Nothing that big. It wasn’t even an object. It was more like… some kind of blip. It could have been a glitch, but…”

“But we don’t operate on the expectation that things are just glitches,” Chapman finished, her ginger eyebrows drawn down in a frown.

Well, whatever Chapman said, I was firmly in the “glitch” camp. This night with Xyan had been so perfect. I didn’t want to ruin it with some new dread on the horizon. Until we knew there was something to worry about, I wasn’t going to focus on it.

“Alright, well, we’re going to head back now,” I said, patting Xyan’s chest.

Chapman raised a questioning brow, and Zoey smirked, pushing up her glasses.

“Oh, I guess I should let everyone know… We um… We’re mates.” I gestured wildly between Xyan and me, feeling completely fucking awkward under the others’ gazes.

“We know,” Chapman said, her frown easing.

“You do?” I asked, startled. “How?!”

“First of all, the guards aren’t allowed to let any man take a human woman anywhere alone unless she’s his mate,” Chapman said. She grinned, leaning back against the desk that housed the computer Zoey was sitting at. The screens glowed behind her. Their light was almost instantly blocked out by Gahn Fallo’s bulk as he moved to her side, wrapping a possessive arm around her shoulders.

“And besides that, you smell like mating,” the red-eyed Gahn growled.

“We smell like… What?!” Was that some weird alien pheromone thing? Had Gahn Fallo picked up on some new hormonal shift in Xyan or something?

Oh my God. He’s saying we smell like sex.

Zoey burst out laughing, no doubt at the shameful crumpling of my expression.

“We’re happy for you!” she said between guffaws, wiping tears from behind her glasses. Her giant lizard man mate, Kor, bent his blue, scaled snout and bumped her cheek affectionately as she said, “Man, your face is red!”

“I can’t help it,” I groaned, turning to bury said red face into Xyan’s chest.

“I am taking my mate back to the settlement. I will be relocating my tent at the same time so that we may share it together as mates,” Xyan said. His voice was low and steady, no trace of the panicked embarrassment I was feeling. Must be nice to be a stoic, totally unflappable warrior sometimes.

“Sounds good. Travel safely,” Chapman said.

I peeked out from Xyan’s chest to see Chapman already turning back to the screens on the wall. Zoey smiled and wished us bonsoir, while Kor and Fallo gave unintelligible grunts.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” I said to Xyan, half commanding, half begging. I couldn’t wait until it was just him and me again.

Xyan slung my pack over his shoulder so that one of his hands was free to hold mine. Good grief, I’d just been beyond intimate with him back in the MRI room. So why did the simple act of him holding my hand make me feel so absolutely off-kilter?!

I squeezed his hand, smiling up at him as we set off through the ship’s shining metal halls. We moved to the back of the ship, towards the cargo bay that opened out onto the sands. As we stepped through the ruined doors that led into the huge cargo bay, I couldn’t help but think about how different things had become. Once, I’d been running through these doors for my fucking life, the zeelk behind us. Then, we’d been scooped up by Fallo’s men and had had no idea what would become of us. If I’d only known then what kind of goodness was in store for me…

I squeezed Xyan’s hand again as we walked through the cargo bay towards the open end. Outside, I could see the indigo screen of the sky, dotted with stars and asteroids. The horizon was flushed with dawn’s rose gold breath, making the deep sand glow.

As we stepped out of the ship and into that dawn, it felt like we were stepping, hand in hand, into our future.

It was a heart-wrenchingly beautiful moment. Just Xyan and me and the cresting dawn and -

“Don’t move!”

I froze, not because those words, coming from somewhere to my right, had told me not to move.

I froze because they were in English.

And the voice that had said those words? The voice that had told me not to move?

It belonged to a man.

A human man.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Serena

Xyan had me behind his back, spear cocked, before I could even try to look at who the fuck had spoken.

But there was no mistaking it. That had definitely been a male human voice a moment ago.

Once I was behind his back, Xyan drew his largest blade in a vicious yet controlled movement. His arms heaved out to his sides and he roared. The sound of it went straight through me – straight down to my bones. Throat tight, eyes burning, I clawed at Xyan, begging him to, “Wait, just wait!”

“Don’t move!” The words came again. I ducked under Xyan’s arm, peeking out, trying to figure out just what the fuck was happening.

And it turned out, what was happening was… Not good.

About five meters away from us, crouching by the side of the ship, was a man. My mind whirled as I squinted at him. Where had he come from? Had he been part of our original crew and hiding out here this whole time?

Even from this distance, in the rising light of the dawn, I could see that he was wearing a military uniform. It looked just like the one Chapman used to wear back when we were on the ship.

And in his hands was a gun, trained on Xyan.

“We’re not moving!” I called out from behind Xyan’s back, fear clawing at my guts. “Don’t shoot!”

“Zerena,” Xyan said. I swallowed, looking up at him. His sight stars never left the crouching soldier in front of us. His face was stony and expressionless, almost impassive looking, but for a pulsing muscle in his jaw. “Do not come out from behind me. Let me kill this creature and be done.”

“That’s not just a creature. That’s a human man! And he has a gun!”

“He is none of your concern,” Xyan seethed. “He will die.”

Xyan’s stance shifted ever so slightly, earning us another order not to move from the crouching soldier.

“Xyan, Xyan, please! Don’t do anything crazy! You don’t know what that is, but he has a gun. It’s like the fastest, deadliest spear you could imagine. He could kill you with one flick of his finger. Please!”

My voice shook and I tugged on his arm, trying to get him to ease into a less aggressive stance. I didn’t know who the fuck this soldier was, but I definitely was not interested in finding out how trigger-happy he may have been.

“Tell it to stand down,” the soldier called, rising slowly from his crouching position, his gun still trained on Xyan. Xyan hissed as the soldier began walking slowly towards us.

“Xyan, please. I’m begging you! Please don’t do anything!”

I wanted Xyan to get us out of here. I wanted him to save us and this whole situation. But I understood the odds of such a thing happening. We’d brought a knife and a spear to a literal gunfight. Xyan’s hide and muscles and bones were stronger than any human, that was true. But one well-aimed bullet would kill him.

And I fucking knew it.

Even if he didn’t.

“Don’t throw your spear. Before it’s even in the air he’ll shoot you.”

“It does not matter,” Xyan snapped. “Because my aim will still be true and he will die. And you will be safe.”

“I don’t want to be safe if you’re not!” I cried, tears spilling from my eyes and down my burning cheeks. The soldier was maybe three metres from us now. I could see him more clearly. He looked about forty, with a shaved head and flat, emotionless grey eyes. He looked like the coldest fucking bastard I’d ever had the misfortune of running into. And I had no doubt he’d pull that trigger now if we didn’t do what he said.

But Xyan didn’t even know what a gun was. He had no idea the damage it could do to him. He’d only ever lived in a world where he could conquer anything that came up against him, except for maybe a Bitter Sea man. And compared to a Bitter Sea man, this human soldier looked probably like a harmless kitten to Xyan.

“Tell that motherfucker to lower its weapons, now!” The soldier shouted.

“Please, just wait! Put your gun down, and we can -”

The soldier’s hissing words cut me off. “Don’t try to negotiate with me, you alien-fucking whore. Just tell it to do exactly what I said.”

“I do not need to understand his words to know he has insulted you,” Xyan snarled. His tail pounded the sand behind him. He raised his spear -

But suddenly, the soldier was turning his attention from us. He still had his gun aimed our way, but his head had jerked, looking out towards the horizon.

What…?

But then I heard it. A grinding animal howl coming from the horizon. I whipped my head towards it and squinted to see a mass moving over the sand at rapid speeds. As the sun rose higher, the mass writhed and glinted in shades of green and gold and brown and scarlet. Like a beaded tapestry, studded with gems, dragged across the desert by a murder-quick, invisible hand

“The Bitter Sea men have returned,” Xyan said, his sight stars shifting from the horizon back to the soldier before us.

Yes. YES!

“You’re outnumbered, pal!” I screamed at the soldier, giddy in my relief. Never thought I’d be happy to see an army of ten-foot-tall lizard creatures running towards us at top speed, but here I fucking am.

The soldier’s cold eyes flicked to the huge wave of Bitter Sea men, getting closer every moment, then back to us.

“A gun might hurt us, but it won’t do shit to the guys coming our way right now. And they’re our allies!” I shouted, jabbing my finger out over the sand. Damn, those Bitter Sea men were fast. I could see their forms more clearly now – each warrior more giant and ferocious than the last.

And that meant that our new gun-toting friend could see them, too.

“Fuck,” the soldier muttered under his breath. He kept his gun trained on us, then started walking backward swiftly.

“Wait!” I cried, fury rising in my chest. “You can’t just leave after aiming your gun at us! Who are you?”

He didn’t answer me. The bastard got a few metres further from us, then turned and sprinted away.

“No!” I cried again. We could not let him get away. Not when he could hurt others, not when he could have information that -

Just before the soldier disappeared around the curving hull of the ship, something flashed in the air. The man fell. I gasped, realizing Xyan’s spear was no longer in his hand.

“Did you kill him?” I cried, shaking my head over and over again, coming out from behind Xyan’s back so that I could better see. This was insane. Totally and absolutely insane.

“I did not,” Xyan growled. “He must be brought before the Gahns for questioning. I only hit his leg.”

The soldier was lying face-down. One of his legs was crumpled at an awkward angle, Xyan’s spear having ripped straight through it.

“OK, let’s just-”

My words died in my throat as the soldier hoisted himself up onto one elbow, wrenching at the waist.

He raised his gun.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Xyan

My spear flew from my hand, hitting its target. The enemy human man fell, incapacitated by my spear tearing through his right thigh. He collapsed onto his face.

I had controlled myself. But it had been difficult.

He had brandished a weapon towards Zerena.

For that alone, he deserved to die.

“Did you kill him?” my mate cried, moving to my side.

“I did not. He must be brought before the Gahns for questioning. I only hit his leg.”

No, he would not die. Not yet. Not until the Gahns had seen to him. Not until he told us where he had come from and what the omen of his presence here meant.

Then, he would die.

I would make sure of it.

But it looked like I would have to at least hit him once more to keep him down. Because even now he was raising himself up on his puny elbow, turning to face us again from the ground. The audacity of this pathetic warrior. To dare even look in my mate’s direction.

Cursed sands.

He still had his weapon.

He raised it, brandishing its dark, strange snout in the air. His arm was shaking.

Which meant his aim was poor.

And when his whole hand tightened, the thing was no longer aimed at my own chest.

It was pointed at Zerena.

I did not think. My body was instinct and fire and sand and stone. A shield of flesh. Guardian of bone. I heaved myself in front of my mate as a sky-tearing bang rang out.

For the first time in my life, I felt light rather than saw it. A hot white burn exploding through my back and up into my chest. Though the explosion was in my body, and though I was looking at Zerena and not at myself, I still somehow saw the bright flash of it behind my eyes.

A gun, my mate had called it. A spear faster than any other.

There was no pain. And then the white light I had both felt and seen was gone.

All the light was gone.

Was it not dawn a moment ago? I could have sworn we’d seen the sun. But now, night was falling.

Somewhere, a scream echoed – a distant melancholy. A stone-break of sorrow.

“Zerena,” I murmured, slumping down, my sightless eyes searching for her, my claws reaching.

The ground rushed up to meet me. It was hard.

But Zerena’s hands were soft.

They held me as the blackness hit.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Serena

Someone was screaming.

I fell to my knees. My throat burned, my lungs crushing in my chest.

It was me. I was the one who was screaming.

Xyan was limp, curled on his side on the sand. I stroked desperately at his face, sobbing. Angrily, I wiped the tears away before returning my hands to his cheeks again. These fucking tears were making everything blurry and I needed to see him.

“Xyan!” I cried, my grip tightening on his jaw. “Xyan!”

He wasn’t moving. And the worst part of it all, the part that made me want to fucking disappear, was his sight stars. They were totally, utterly still. Completely blown apart and misted over his eyes. Not focusing on anything.

Not focusing on me.

He couldn’t see me. He couldn’t hear me.

He’s going to die.

“What happened?” Chapman skidded to a stop in the sand beside me, a gun in her own hands.

I couldn’t get any more words out of my constricted throat, so I just pointed to the man with the gun.

He’d collapsed onto his face again, the sand around him staining darker every moment with his blood.

Good. I hope he fucking bleeds out right here.

I whipped off my solar protection jacket, pressing it to the bleeding wound in Xyan’s back. Good God, it was bad. Blood pulsed out of him with a vengeance. And based on where the bullet had entered, it could have punctured a lung. Or his heart.

No!

We’re not thinking about that right now. If I thought too far ahead, if I looked too closely at this catastrophe, I’d fall the fuck apart. What I needed to do now was just take things moment by moment.

Starting with stopping this bleeding.

As I gritted my teeth against the tide of slippery blood, stuffing my jacket into the hole in Xyan’s back, movement ahead of me caught my eyes. I glanced up, seeing Chapman jogging, gun drawn, towards the fallen soldier. But she was overtaken by her bounding mate. Gahn Fallo ran past her, two massive blades drawn. He brought them down on the soldier’s back with sickening force just as Chapman screamed at him to stop.

“Fallo! We needed to question him! There could be more of them!”

“If there are more, then we will find them,” the massive Gahn said, his face twisted with mad fury.

Another voice echoed behind me.

“Mon Dieu…”

A moment later, Zoey was on her knees beside me. A giant shadow fell over me as I realized Kor had taken up a station behind me, protecting me from the sunlight now that I was without my jacket.

That kindness made me want to weep.

But I didn’t have time for that.

“We have to help him. Please!” I cried. Blood was seeping out from my crappy jacket bandage.

“There’s Lavrika’s blood and first aid supplies in the ship,” Zoey said, her words hushed and quick. “Kor! Get down here and pick him up. We need to carry him inside.”

Kor bent immediately. A sob caught in my throat, but I muscled it down as Kor lifted Xyan’s limp form in his bulging scaled arms.

“Wait! Kor, we need you here to translate!” Chapman was sprinting back towards us, Gahn Fallo close behind. I scrambled to my feet just in time to see the Bitter Sea men finishing their approach. The alien army stopped, a hard, glittering line of scales and claws and teeth. One of the biggest stepped forward. He was similar colouring to Kor. Somewhere in my panic-stricken brain, I remembered that this was Kor’s uncle, the king of the lizardmen.

“Kor, tell them we need some of them to spread out and cover ground here, looking for intruders. There could be more where he came from.” Chapman jerked her head back at the dead man on the sand. “Fallo, you take Xyan from Kor.”

Fallo growled, but if he wanted to argue about leaving Chapman’s side to help Xyan, she stopped him before he even got the chance.

“Don’t you say a thing, Fallo. Do as I say. Do it now.”

Fallo stepped up to Kor, holding out his arms. Kor deposited my broken mate gently into Fallo’s grip. Gahn Fallo grunted softly. Fallo was big, but so was Xyan. Xyan was no doubt heavier in his arms than those of someone like Kor.

But Fallo didn’t complain about the weight. He didn’t say anything at all. He stalked back into the cargo bay, tail swishing, muscles bunching beneath his blades. Zoey and I hurried after him. Chapman’s orders barked in the background as Kor translated her words for his kin.

“We need to get to the lab,” Zoey said again, hurrying ahead of Fallo. “I’ll show you. Come on.” She started sprinting. I hurried to keep up with her, begging Fallo to speed up too. I knew that Xyan hadn’t originally been part of Gahn Fallo’s tribe, that not long ago they’d been sworn enemies. But if he didn’t do everything within his power to help my mate now, I was prepared to go full fucking feral on his ass.

Luckily, that was not required. Fallo’s jaw tightened, and he started running too. I bit down on the urge to tell him not to jostle Xyan too much. But he didn’t have the size and strength Kor had to keep Xyan steady in his arms as he ran. It was either speed or stillness. And I chose speed.

I was drenched in sweat by the time we reached the lab. Zoey rushed in ahead of us, knocking things off a large stainless steel island in the centre of the room.

“Put him there!” I ordered Fallo, not even caring that I was screaming commands at a deadly alien warlord who could kill me with a single flick of his claw.

Fallo did so, easing Xyan’s form down onto the steel slab. I rushed to Xyan’s side, leaning close to his face.

He was breathing. Barely.

Zoey ran back to me from the other side of the room, a glass jug in one hand, piles of fluffy gauze in the other.

“Lavrika’s blood. We keep it in the fridge. We started doing it after Galok got attacked here. Man, this is bringing back way too many memories…”

Thanks,” I told her. “Let’s turn him over. Let’s get him on his front so we can see his back. That’s where the bullet wound is.”

The three of us rolled Xyan onto his front. I adjusted his head, tilting it to the side so that his face wasn’t pressed into the hard steel.

“Hold up,” Zoey said, staring at his back. “If there’s only one wound…”

Fuck.

“No exit wound,” I said, breathing out shakily. I wanted to scream, to tear at my hair, to go into a corner and just crumple up in a ball.

But Xyan needed me. He was hurt because he’d protected me. He’d taken a fucking bullet for me.

Now it was my turn to take that bullet out.

“Get me anything we can use to take out the bullet,” I told Zoey, taking the Lavrika’s blood and gauze from her.

She hurried away, calling, “Fallo, help me look! Look for scalpels – small knives. Or tongs.”

“What are tongs?” Fallo grumbled. But, mercifully, he joined Zoey without needing to be asked again, his dark claws sifting through drawers and wrenching open cupboards. As Zoey frantically tried to explain what tongs were, I turned back to my fallen mate.

There was so much blood. Too much. Under the harsh bright light in here, his rich bronze, brown, and black swirling skin looked too pale. Almost greyish.

I need to stop the bleeding.

I could at least do something while I waited for the right tools. Drenching some of the gauze in Lavrika’s blood, I plunged it into the deep hole of his wound. Even Lavrika’s blood wouldn’t be able to immediately seal over a wound this bad, but I hoped against hope that it would at least stem the vicious flow of black blood.

“Scalpel!” Zoey cried, running to me, the little tool shining in her hand.

“Tongs,” Fallo grunted, prowling behind her with a small pair of tweezer-like tools.

Zoey dumped them on the table by Xyan’s feet, then grabbed yet another nearby jug.

“Ethanol. Dieu merci. Kat didn’t use it all,” Zoey said. She unscrewed the cap on the jug, dumping alcohol onto the tools.

“My hands!” I said, jutting them towards her. She dumped more of the clear liquid onto my skin. My jaw clenched as I saw how much blood got rinsed away.

“OK, here we go,” I said. I took the scalpel in one hand, the tweezers in the other before, stepping up to Xyan’s limp form.

My hands shook.

You can’t shake. You can’t doubt. You can’t be afraid.

But I was so fucking afraid. I wasn’t a doctor or a surgeon. Sure, I had first aid training, and I’d performed lots of autopsies on animals, plus I was more familiar with his inner workings than anyone else would be after the MRI. But I was taking Xyan’s life into my hands like this…

“If you do not wish to cut him, I will do it,” Gahn Fallo said, reaching a clawed hand for the scalpel.

Well, didn’t that just give me the shot of steel I needed to get my ass in gear. No way in hell was Fallo was going anywhere near my mate with a knife.

“No thanks,” I said quickly, waving him away. Taking a deep, long breath, I eased the gauze out of Xyan’s wound with my scalpel’s handle.

The gauze was soaked. Completely black with Xyan’s inky blood. But luckily it seemed to have at least helped somewhat. Blood wasn’t pouring out of him as quickly now. But as I leaned down, squinting at the wound, I realized that I still couldn’t see a damn thing.

“Is there a flashlight or anything?” I asked frantically, desperate not to waste any more time.

“Oh, here! Gahn Fallo, grab that!” Zoey cried.

Fallo reached overhead, taking hold of a light located above the table. It eased downward on silent hinges, like the light above a dental patient’s chair.

“Thank you,” I said as Zoey clicked it on and aimed it at Xyan’s back.

I raised the scalpel and held it over Xyan’s skin. It felt so wrong. I’d just stopped some of his bleeding with Lavrika’s blood, and now I was going to make the wound even larger. But it had to be done. I wanted to get that bullet out of him. I had no idea what risks would go along with leaving it in there – infection, I assumed, at the very least. Plus we didn’t know how his alien biology might react to the materials in the bullet.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered thickly. Then I pressed the scalpel into his skin.

Lord, his hide was strong. But the scalpel was sharp and it did what I needed it to do. I widened the entry wound. Zoey sprang into action beside me, sopping up the blood streaming from the new cut. Still no sign of the bullet. Biting my lip and blinking my eyes against droplets of sweat, I pressed the scalpel further. Further.

Until it hit something hard, up in the region of his shoulder.

“I might have it,” I muttered, yanking the scalpel back and plunging my finger inside the wound. It was horrible – to feel the extent of the damage with my own hand. To feel how weakly Xyan’s chest expanded with each dragging breath.

From what I could feel with my fumbling finger, the bullet seemed to be lodged in bone, up at his shoulder. It made sense since the gun had been fired upward from the ground. It tracked through his back and part of his chest before hitting the bone. I prayed that it hadn’t destroyed any organs on its way, or that if it had, the Lavrika’s blood would be enough to fix it.

I will make this better, Xyan. I promise.

I pushed the tweezers into the wound, fumbling for the bullet. Each time I closed around the bullet, though, the tips of the tweezers slipped off. My hand wasn’t strong enough to grip it and get it out of his bone.

“This is painful to watch. Give it here,” Fallo snapped. I turned to stare at him, eyes wide.

“I don’t think so!” I scoffed. No way was I giving the Mad Gahn more access to Xyan’s wound than necessary.

But what if it is necessary?

“It is no great matter to me. He is your mate. Do as you wish. I just cannot stand watching your weak human hands slip over and over as they are doing now.”

“He’s right,” Zoey said quietly. Her dark eyes were sad but steady behind her glasses. “You need help.”

I blinked rapidly, trying to get rid of the tears that I’d managed to keep mostly under control. I brushed my fingertips upwards along the back of Xyan’s arm, fingering the ends of his long black hair.

“Fine,” I said sharply, handing the tweezers to Gahn Fallo. “But don’t you dare hurt him.”

Fallo grunted at me, his sight stars flashing. Whether it was some shred of decency or fear of Chapman’s wrath that kept him from some angry retort, I wasn’t sure. Whatever it was, the huge, bristling Gahn bent to the table, shoving the tweezers back into Xyan’s wound.

“Careful! Gentle!” I cried, unable to help myself from leaning down right next to Fallo, clenching my fists as I watched him work.

“Gentle?” Gahn Fallo snorted. “Your hands are gentle. And they could not finish the job.” His lips twitched, his crimson sight stars drawn to vibrating points. “He does not need gentleness. He needs strength.” With that, Fallo inhaled roughly. At the same moment, his arm drew back sharply. In his claws were the tweezers. And between the tweezers’ points was the bullet.

“Oh my God! You did it!” Zoey cried, a grin splitting over her face. “Nice!”

“Of course I did it,” Fallo growled back at her. “I am a Gahn. A powerful warrior, the strongest man who-”

“Yes, yes! Thank you, Gahn Fallo! If I had a tail I’d raise it to you a hundred times for this. But please move so I can finish!” I said. I was grateful to him, but there was still more to be done.

Fallo made an irritated rumbling sound but stepped aside as I’d asked. Now that the bullet was out, I just wanted to focus on getting everything closed up as quickly as possible. I poured Lavrika’s blood into the wound, pressing gauze on top of it, holding the liquid inside.

Please, please, let his heart and lungs be alright.

I didn’t realize Zoey had stepped away from the area until she returned with a first aid kit in her hand.

“Here! For stitches,” she said, slamming it open on the stainless steel table. I threaded a needle, so glad that I’d gotten some practice with sutures back when Gahn Baldor’s men had attacked and we’d spent the whole night sewing up injured warriors. Pulling back the gauze, I worked quickly, trying to be thorough and neat, pulling him back together. Making him whole again.

“If it doesn’t work, we can do what we did with Galok. We can take him to the Lavrika’s pools,” Zoey said softly, placing her hand on my shoulder. I nodded, trying to pretend that she was right. Trying to ignore the fact that Xyan probably wouldn’t make it there now. Not at this rate, not in his current condition. Maybe we should have taken him straight there first.

“I doubt he will die now,” Gahn Fallo said suddenly, as simply and emotionlessly as if he were commenting on the weather. But even with the careless delivery, I drank down his words, clutching at them, wanting more of them.

“What do you mean?” I asked, my eyes wide, my hands putting pressure on Xyan’s newly-closed wound.

Fallo explained, “I have been in battle with this warrior before. He did not die even after Kor brought him down. He refused the claws of death, and that was before he’d even seen you. The fact that he is mated now will only serve to help him. If there is anything that will drag a warrior back from the darkness, it is the voice of his woman.” He fixed me with his swirling red eyes. “Tell him you demand that he return. Command him. The mate bond is strong. Somewhere, somehow, he will hear you.” His sight stars drifted from my face, suddenly far away. “When I was bleeding on the battlefield with Buroudei’s axe buried in my neck, the only thing that kept me alive was the bone-deep desire to come back to Chapman. I vowed, even if I was nothing but ash and bone, that I would claw my way back for her. Well, it was that and the need for revenge.” His gaze returned to me once more. “Tell Xyan that you expect nothing less. Tell him he is to return to your side. Accept no excuses and no concessions. Accept no death.”

Gahn Fallo’s voice was so sure, almost arrogant in his certainty, that he actually made me believe him. I believed that I could call Xyan back from the edge of death with nothing but my voice. Hell, this was a planet of alien dragon gods with magic healing blood who could make a man fall in love instantly. Stranger things had happened.

So I did it.

I talked to him. I called to him. I begged him and I pleaded with him. I even sang to him, though my voice probably would have made him (or anyone else for that matter) head straight for the light at the end of the tunnel instead of towards me.

For the entire day and most of the night, I did that. I only left his side for one very quick shower which Kat physically dragged me into on one of her trips out here. Zoey and Chapman were kind enough to bring me food and water which I consumed numbly, staring at Xyan’s unmoving form. I slept fitfully, only to wake screaming for my mate and clutching at his hands.

Though I remained like a statue at my post, the ship became a hive of activity. Usually, there were only a few of us hanging around here on any given day. But now we were on high alert. According to Chapman, the soldier wasn’t part of the original crew. He hadn’t been on this ship hiding out after the zeelk attack.

Which meant he’d come here, and recently.

“The glitch,” Zoey had said. “On the scanners. It could have been a small craft with some kind of scanner scrambling tech. Some kind of cloaking tool. It must have wobbled a little. That’s what we saw on the scanner.”

And that craft was what so many people were looking for now. Bitter Sea men and Sea Sand warriors stalked the land on patrol, day and night, looking for any more humans that may have arrived with the other soldier.

Even though I knew these were big important things happening around me, I just… didn’t care. All I could do was focus on Xyan. Wishing for some kind of change in him. Willing it.

And when he hadn’t woken up by the afternoon of the second day, I decided to get tough with him. So far, I’d shied away from going as far as what Fallo had said. I hadn’t demanded anything of him. I’d begged and wished, but I hadn’t commanded.

But I was ready to try anything.

I placed my hands palm-down on the steel table, resting my chin upon them, staring at Xyan’s face. He was still lying on his stomach to keep blood and pressure from the main point of the wound in his back. His head was turned to the side, his face expressionless. Motionless.

Lifeless.

No! Not lifeless. He was breathing. His heart was beating.

He’s in there somewhere.

And I was going to drag him the fuck out.

“OK, Xyan. This is your mate speaking,” I began. I cleared my throat, taking an authoritative tone. “I get that you’ve been through a lot. More than most people would survive. And I’m so sorry about that. I’m so sorry for-” I stopped, grinding my teeth, tears threatening. No. Now wasn’t the time to dump all my pain on him. Now was the time to be strong. I breathed in, then sat up straight, squaring my shoulders. “As your mate, I demand that you come back to me. Right now. You’ve lollygagged long enough. As weird as it feels, I’m not even going to say please. Because I’m not requesting this of you. I’m ordering you. I am telling you, right now, that it’s time to come home.”

My voice had risen until I was crying out, my demands echoing in the room. I clapped a hand over my mouth, suddenly filled with guilt for shouting. God, he was lying there, maybe dying, and I was yelling at him? Ordering him to come back to me?

Fucking Fallo. Why did I think that was a good idea? Why did I-

“A shame the Lavrika tied you to a simple warrior. You would have made a fearsome Gahnala.”

My other hand flew up to my mouth, covering my first. Tears weren’t just threatening now – they were overflowing, running down my cheeks and catching on my hands. I stared at Xyan’s face – a face that was no longer expressionless. His brows contracted as he let out a low groan, and he cracked open an eye. I never thought I’d be so happy to see sight stars more. At that moment, the living galaxies in his eyes were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

The next most beautiful thing? The weak grin tugging at Xyan’s lips.

I stood so quickly that the wheelie chair I’d been sitting on flew backward, rolling chaotically to some other corner of the lab. It crashed into something, but I ignored it. With some effort, I pulled my hands down from my face.

“Xyan? Is this real?”

“I hope so. Though if it is only a vision, I am glad you are the one I see.” His grin faded, a flash of pain moving over his face. “Touch me, Zerena. Let me know you’re really here. That you’re with me.”

Breaking into sobs, I pressed my hands to his cheek, then ran my fingers over his hair. Pressing my forehead to his temple, I cried, my chest aching from the force of it.

“I am sorry for this pain, Zerena. I am even more sorry that I caused you to have to use such a ferocious tone of voice with me.”

A strangled chuckle broke through my sobs. “So you did hear all that, did you? That was Gahn Fallo’s idea. He told me I had to order you to come back here.”

“For a Mad Gahn, in this, he speaks sense. My whole existence is at your fingertips, Zerena. My fate is bound to your will.”

“OK then. My next order is that you need to get better. You need to heal, Xyan. You need to get strong again. We have a long life to share, you and I,” I said, half-laughing, half-crying, wiping away my tears.

“Then I shall do it.”

Before I could stop him, he was pushing up on his hands, easing into a seated position on the tabletop. His legs swung down over the edge as he straightened.

“Hold on! Are you sure you should be doing that!” I cried, grabbing his knees and staring up into his face, looking for any sign of weakness or relapse or pain.

But I didn’t find it.

Frankly, he looked better every second. I guess our surgery combined with the Lavrika’s blood and his batshit crazy alien strength all combined into a goddamn miracle.

Xyan stretched experimentally, rolling his shoulders, stiffly at first, then with a little more ease.

“This is fine, my mate. I have been through many battles. I have brushed death more than once. I know my own body and strength. I am alright.”

He took my hands from his knees, placing gentle kisses on each of my palms before he slipped down to join me, standing on the floor.

His sight stars tightened as our gazes met. His fingers wrapped around mine. He tugged me closer. “I hunger, Zerena.”

“Oh, of course! You’ve been out for almost two whole days! There’s lots of food here now because so many people are-”

“Not for meat.” His sight stars moved hungrily to my mouth.

“Um, no! No funny business until you eat something and I’m sure you’re not going to keel over anytime soon!” I cried, batting at him. “You almost died!”

“All the more reason to indulge me. Poor, battered warrior as I am,” he murmured.

“One kiss. One!” I squeaked as his hands let go of mine, moving to my waist. Then to my ass.

“Whatever you command,” he said, before leaning down.

My hands flew to his hard jaw, my mouth opening desperately as his lips met mine. I’d told him one kiss, but could I even hold myself to that? All the desperation and grief and panic and pent-up love of the past few days poured out of me and into our embrace. I sucked his tongues into my mouth, pressing myself into his chest. I clutched at his neck, his hair, feeling the warm solidity of him. The life and vigour.

The hardness.

He was getting hard.

And even though that sent a stab of arousal between my legs, it was enough to break the spell of the kiss. I pulled back, panting.

“You. Food. Now.”

We managed to get some food into Xyan, and he even agreed to rest after that, waiting until darkness fell to further assess the situation. When evening came, Xyan declared that it was time for us to return to the settlement.

“Are you sure?” A trip over the sands was perilous at the best of times. I didn’t want him putting himself at risk if he didn’t need to. “We can stay here another day or two. Let you regain more strength.”

“I have regained enough for this,” he said. “And the best way to aid my recovery is for you to get into my tent with me, Zerena. I will have you in my hides tonight.”

“To sleep,” I said, wagging a warning finger at him. But with that, it was decided. We exited the ship via the cargo bay. As our paths echoed the one we’d taken just a few days before, I willed myself to remain calm. The soldier was dead. No one was coming for us. At least, not yet. So far, even all the talented hunters and trackers of the tribes hadn’t been able to find any trace of other soldiers.

Outside on the sand, the night spread above us, Xyan called his irkdu. Soon enough, we saw it thundering towards us on the horizon. But, no, that wasn’t Xyan’s irkdu. This one already had a rider.

As the irkdu approached, charging over the sand, Xyan raised his tail, wincing slightly from the movement. “It is Gahn Baldor,” he said.

“Good,” I said, suddenly annoyed that the Gahn hadn’t come before now. I knew that he was probably busy among all this turmoil, and his mate Theresa was pregnant, but still. Xyan was his right-hand man, after all! Gahn Baldor leaped off his irkdu while it was still in motion, bounding up to us on powerful legs.

“Xyan! You look well. I am glad to see it. I would have come sooner, but I was combing the sands, trying to find any other threats to the settlement,” the Gahn said. His silver sight stars moved between Xyan and me. “This is your mate, Zerena, correct?”

“Yes, I am,” I said, leaning into Xyan’s side. Every time I said that it just felt better and better. “Have you guys found anything?”

“Not yet,” Baldor said. “The Gahnala Chapman thinks it is unlikely that one warrior came alone, though. So still, we search for his allies. Our men and the Bitter Sea warriors are all patrolling.” As he said that, I caught a glimpse of one of those Bitter Sea warriors in the distance. He was so fucking huge, even far away. As I watched him, he raised up on his legs, standing at least ten feet tall as he sniffed the air with a brutal snout. It was hard to tell what his colouring was in the darkness – under the asteroid light, his scales glinted in shades of smoky red and bloodied black. He moved back down to all fours, his tail thrashing like a spiked weapon – hell, it was a spiked weapon – as he turned and moved swiftly away into the darkness of the desert.

Wonder if he’s found something…?

I was distracted from watching him by Xyan’s irkdu finally coming to us from wherever it had been these past few days.

“I will escort you back,” Gahn Baldor said, mounting his irkdu again. Xyan helped me up, then mounted himself once I was settled on the makeshift saddle. The solid warm wall of him behind me was so reassuring, so real. I leaned back, just a little, not so much that I would put too much pressure on him. But Xyan looped an arm around my waist, drawing me hard against his chest, making me gasp.

“Right here, my mate. Right here. This is where you belong.”

Relaxing against him completely, I sighed, tipping my head back to look up at his face.

“Come on. Let’s go home.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Xyan

Though we rode hard, the journey back felt long. I could not wait to have my precious mate alone in the dark safety of my tent again. Luckily, Gahn Baldor and Zerena both helped me to pack the tent up, making the work swift. Gahn Baldor helped me to erect it in the settlement, in a good place, near to the cliff wall. When it was finished, he grasped my arm firmly.

“I am glad you survived, Xyan. Though I expected nothing less from one as strong as you.” He smiled, his sight stars slipping over to Zerena, who was adorably trying to drag my heavy bone shelves into the tent on her own. “Have your mate aid you in your recovery. Spilling seed is good for the health.”

I bid my Gahn a good night, turning to watch Zerena pulling at the shelves. Though she was charming, her little hands tugging with such devotion, I did not want her to injure herself.

“Leave it all, mate. We do not need it. Not tonight.”

All I needed was my bedding hides and the warmth of her body.

Really, I did not even need the hides, if pressed. But luckily those were already inside.

“Come,” I said, lifting the tent flap and gesturing her inside. She stepped into the darkness, and I followed.

Just as I would follow her anywhere.

“Here, you should lie down,” Zerena whispered. “You’ve been through a lot.”

“Lying down does sound very tempting. Even more tempting if you are above me, your cunt against my mouth,” I said, bending down to suckle at her earlobe.

“Xyan,” she moaned, sagging against me. “You need rest.”

“Exactly. That is why I will be lying down. Resting.”

“Alright, just lie down.”

I did so hurriedly, eager for her to join me. This was not exactly how I’d expected to spend our first night together as mates in my tent. I had not expected to be recovering from a deep wound or to have Zerena constantly telling me to rest. But she was here, and that was all that mattered.

I watched Zerena slip out of her human clothing in the darkness, my cock stirring already just from her nearness. Sadly, she did not immediately sit upon my face. Instead, she wiggled into the hides at my side, placing a hand on my chest.

“How do you really feel, Xyan? How are you healing?” she asked. Her voice sounded so small. It made me ache, and I drew her harder against my side.

“I am healing well. Truly. There is an ache where the wound is. But that is all.” I was hiding nothing. It was the truth. I could tell that it would not be long before I would be almost back at my full strength.

“So your breathing feels normal? Your heart?”

I realized that she probably would not appreciate a comment about how she owned my heart now, so she would have to tell me whether or not it was functioning properly. Instead, I took a deep breath, paying attention to any pain or oddities in my chest.

I felt nothing truly out of sorts.

“All is well, my mate. I promise you.”

“OK,” she said, pressing her face into my hide. “You don’t know how scared I was, Xyan. I was terrified.”

“Zerena,” I murmured, rolling onto my side and hugging her close. “You need fear nothing – no man nor weapon. Not even my death. If anything, death should fear you, seeing as how sternly you called me back from its clutches.”

Glorious creature, she laughed. My muscles eased as I breathed in her scent.

But my cock didn’t. It hardened to its full length.

“Zerena,” I groaned, running a claw down her side to her human underthings still on her hips. “Do I have to beg you to take these off? Because I am not above begging for something this magnificent.”

Zerena’s soft breath hitched. Her hands moved downward, slipping her underthings off. She took her chest garment off, too, freeing her luscious breasts.

I shifted down, taking one round nipple into my mouth, feeling it harden under my tongues. Zerena gasped, arching against me, and I groaned into her flesh. I massaged her other breast with one hand, slipping my other hand between her legs, running the pad of a finger along her seam.

I released her nipple. “You’re already wet for me,” I growled, arousal pulling taught inside me.

“Yes. The whole ride back here, feeling you behind me…”

I groaned, sucking her nipple into my mouth again. She’d been aroused the entire journey back, just from me sitting behind her? That thought sent yet more blood pumping into my cock. I hoped there would still be enough blood to keep the rest of my body functioning, especially in its weakened state.

Luckily I was a very strong warrior. With lots of blood.

I stroked along Zerena’s folds, spreading her wetness.

“Roll onto your back again,” she moaned.

“Yes,” I answered, obeying her instantly. I readied myself for the sweet slick of her cunt over my face, but it didn’t come. Instead, I felt a fist jerking along the length of my cock. Then wetness at its tip as Zerena straddled my hips.

“Already?” I asked, surprised. “I would have done more to -”

“I know,” she said. “But I just need you inside me right now, Xyan.”

Who was I to deny my mate anything her perfect little heart could fathom?

She eased herself onto my tip slowly, sighing as she sank lower and lower. I gritted my fangs, fisting the bedding hides, holding myself steady. I remained completely still as she worked my cock, stretching herself on me, her fingers splayed on my chest.

“It’s so good, Xyan,” she moaned. She reached down, stroking my cock spears before adjusting the angle of them so that they pressed against her clit. The pressure on my cock spears was exquisite, rivalled only by the hot sheath of her cunt around my cock. She placed her hands on my chest once more, rocking her hips faster. I stared up at her, in total awe.

Finally, I couldn’t stand not touching her any longer. I ran my hands over her thighs, her hips, grasping at her back and pulling her down onto my chest. Clutching her to me, I began thrusting up inside her. She relaxed into my chest, angling her hips to better take my cock as I stroked in and out of her.

I was losing myself in her. Her scent, her hair, her cunt. My testicles ached. My cock burned. Zerena trembled in my arms, her cunt beginning to tighten so sweetly around me as she neared her climax. My own was not far behind.

“I’m so glad you came back,” Zerena whimpered, and I felt the hot wet streak of her tears on my chest.

Dismayed by her tears, clutching her tighter, I replied, “There is nowhere in this world nor the next where I would not hear you call for me. I love you.” I had so much more to tell her. So much more I wanted to say. Promises and praise and vows for the future. But pleasure was stealing my words from me, turning them to harsh growls as my hips bucked harder.

“I love you, Xyan - ah!” Zerena tightened around me, her own words disappearing as mine had. I drove into her over and over, grinding through her orgasm as she shook in my arms before I joined her in pleasure. I coated her insides with seed again and again and again, and once I was finished, I already wanted to begin it all again.

But as I held my mate to me, stroking her hair and her back, listening to her breathing, I reminded myself that we had time.

Time to heal. Time to love. Time to do it all again tomorrow and the next day and the next.

Time to live a whole, beautiful life.

With her.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR reading Serena and Xyan’s story! These two were such a delight to write. If you want to keep up to date about my future work and be notified of new releases, please subscribe to my newsletter atwww.ursadaxwriting.com/contact

Were you curious about our big Bitter Sea friend out searching the desert at the end of this story? You’ll see him again in book nine. Read on for a little peek at the next book!

A peek at book nine…

Our recon mission has gone to shit. I watched Cole get murdered by those huge alien bastards. And so I got the fuck outta dodge. The mission may have fallen the fuck apart, but that doesn’t mean I have to die here like Cole did, with some alien’s spear up my ass.

I can survive out here. I know I can.

I know how to hunt, how to track, and how to hide.

But no matter how good I am, someone else is better.

Someone’s watching me. Someone’s closing in.

Someone not even close to human.

FATED MATES OF THE SEA SAND WARLORDS

BOOK 1 ALIEN TYRANT

“If you should flee, no matter where you run, I will always follow.”

Book 2 ALIEN ENEMY

“They call me the Mad Gahn. But I never felt truly mad until I saw her face…”

Book 3 ALIEN ORPHAN

“I have trained, battled, and fought my whole life. But winning my mate’s love is the greatest challenge I have ever faced…”

Book 4 ALIEN REJECT

“She is a difficult creature, my tiny Kat. But I have never met with a creature I could not tame…”

Book 5 ALIEN EXILE

“Beneath all that makes me strange to you, my heart recognizes yours…”

Book 6 ALIEN HUNTER

“Now that I have found her, I refuse to lose her…”

Book 7 ALIEN VICTOR

“I found her, I saved her, and once I am Gahn, I will claim her. There will be no other tribe left for her but me…”

Book 8 ALIEN SHIELD

“I have always been a patient warrior. But now that I have her in my sights, I cannot wait to claim her…”