Table of Contents

NOTICES

ALIEN EXILE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

TRIGGER WARNING

CHAPTER ONE | Zoey

CHAPTER TWO | Kor

CHAPTER THREE | Zoey

CHAPTER FOUR | Kor

CHAPTER FIVE | Zoey

CHAPTER SIX | Kor

CHAPTER SEVEN | Zoey

CHAPTER EIGHT | Kor

CHAPTER NINE | Zoey

CHAPTER TEN | Kor

CHAPTER ELEVEN | Zoey

CHAPTER TWELVE | Kor

CHAPTER THIRTEEN | Zoey

CHAPTER FOURTEEN | Kor

CHAPTER FIFTEEN | Zoey

CHAPTER SIXTEEN | Kor

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN | Zoey

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN | Kor

CHAPTER NINETEEN | Zoey

CHAPTER TWENTY | Kor

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE | Zoey

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO | Kor

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE | Zoey

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR | Kor

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE | Zoey

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX | Kor

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN | Zoey

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT | Kor

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE | Zoey

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 Exile Copyright © 2021 Veronica Doran

ALIEN EXILE

Fated Mates of the Sea Sand Warlords

Book Five

By Ursa Dax

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Like always, thank you to all my wonderful readers and new friends on this alien journey. And major thanks to my stellar husband, RSH, and my parents SMD and RPD for their unending support.

TRIGGER WARNING

There are mentions of parental loss due to a car accident in this book (not described on page). There are also some battle scenes with violence (described on page).

CHAPTER ONE

Zoey

“So what do you think it is?”

My question made Kat look up from her microscope. The lab’s white lights shone down on her shaved head and the piercings in her ears, eyebrow, and nose.

“Not sure yet. But it’s not like anything else I’ve ever examined, that’s for damn sure.”

I popped another Cheeto in my mouth, the bag snatched from the security room that had been my home for most of my time on this planet so far. Most of the time. But not anymore. I’d been in the alien settlement with the rest of the girls for a little over a week now.

Kat turned her attention back to her work. On a slide beneath the lens of her microscope was a drop of what everyone called the Lavrika’s blood. The strange white liquid that I had waded into in the caves and that had somehow imparted a whole alien language into my head instantly. It had also brought Kat’s boyfriend, or mate, as they called each other, back from the brink of death. I coughed, choking on my Cheeto, my throat seizing up when I remembered that terrible night.

Kat glanced over again, her brow furrowing.

“You need the Heimlich over there?”

I mouthed the word “no” between gasps, swallowing hard, unable to keep my eyes from wandering to the spot where I’d seen Kat’s huge alien man, Galok, bleeding out on the floor. Kat had cleaned that spot as soon as we’d come back here, scrubbing the tiles with a ferocity that I was sure would wear right through the metal. All that remained of that night now was a slight dark stain on the floor.

Luckily, Galok had pulled through just fine. In fact, he was so healthy that he had lots of energy to keep drifting in and out of the room to distract Kat.

I watched as he did so once again, probably for the 80th time since we’d gotten here a few hours ago. I took a wary step away as he moved in behind Kat, looking down over his shoulder. I was not used to these aliens, yet. I’d only seen them on security feeds for weeks. The other girls had been living side-by-side with them this whole time, some of them even falling in love with them. So far the Sea Sand people seemed OK, but I still wasn’t used to having them in my space.

Not that I could help that now. After the attack last time we were here, we were sent with a whole alien guard for our return to the ship. I’d already completed one half of our purpose here – collecting up a bunch more useful stuff from the cargo bay (including some of the contraband snacks that the crew had hoarded). Now Kat was working on the other part – analyzing various materials from this planet to find ways to create things like sunscreen. But she’d also brought a sample of Lavrika’s blood this time.

“What does this little black eye tube tell you about the Lavrika’s blood?” Galok asked, bending lower, trying to see around Kat, whose face was glued to the microscope’s lens.

“It’s telling me that you need to back up and let me work,” she grumbled, flapping a hand behind her, smacking it against Galok’s bulging bicep. Man, these guys were jacked. And a minimum of seven feet tall. For an Earth girl from Montréal, it was kind of… a lot.

Galok grinned, but acquiesced, moving away from Kat and back to the door. Other than an unusually sharp edge to his gaze, he seemed completely unbothered by what had transpired here last time. From what I understood, these guys fought and faced death all the time. I hadn’t quite wrapped my head around that yet.

Galok spoke with one of the other alien guards in the hallway, and I moved back in next to Kat.

“Seriously, though. What do you see?’“

“It’s crazy,” Kat breathed, not looking up from the microscope. “This is definitely what the humans wanted from this planet. Not only will it conduct energy, but it also is a source of it. It probably lit up every scanner on our research ship even from the caves in the cliffs.”

“Damn…” I breathed, pushing up my glasses and tossing my long braids over my shoulder. Yep, that would probably have been what the authorities were after. Was it worth dumping all of us on this freaking planet, though? I highly doubted it.

I sighed, trying to be like Kat and so many of the other girls who had accepted their life here. I had to accept that I was never going back to Montréal, never returning to my MA in Engineering at McGill. My only family, my parents, had died last year in a car accident, so I didn’t have anybody left waiting for me, but still…

I sucked in a breath, chest aching. I quickly blinked back tears, distracted by Galok who had once again wandered in to bother his mate.

“I cannot work like this,” Kat groaned, pulling away from the scope and pinning Galok with a murderous gaze. Not going to lie, that kind of cheered me up. Watching Kat’s scowls create bigger and bigger smiles on her besotted boyfriend’s face was weirdly charming.

“Night is falling. We should return to the settlement,” Galok said, and Kat sighed.

“Do we have to?” she asked, her scowl deepening.

“We should,” I said, my voice shaking slightly. Night had been when the attack had happened, when Kat and I had almost watched Galok die. Even though I wasn’t used to it yet, it was definitely better to be among the other tribes at night.

“Fine. You’re probably right. Can’t have this guy getting all banged up again,” Kat said, leaning into Galok’s chest. Her words were barbed, but her face softened. I knew how terrified she had been to lose him. I could see it on her face, even now, though it mostly looked like anger.

We packed up quickly and headed out onto the sands. The four warriors who had been guarding the hallway outside the lab came with us, and we greeted the other six warriors waiting outside with the irkdu creatures, their blades drawn and ready.

Yeah, if I thought the kangadudes were weird, their rides were even weirder. Huge, monstrous creatures, as big as a small whale on Earth, with dusty greyish-purple hide, hundreds of skittering legs, and a long, reptilian snout dotted with way too many eyes.

“You’ll get used to them,” Kat said, clapping my shoulder hard and smiling at me.

“I hope so,” I said slowly. The irkdu seemed pretty integral to life here. They were the main mode of transportation for any long distances. And moving between the ship and the settlement counted as a long enough distance to use them. Plus, we’d loaded them up with all the human supplies we were bringing back to the camp.

Galok lifted me as if I weighed nothing into the saddle on his mount. A moment later, I felt Kat plop down behind me. It was tight with both of us in the saddle, even though Kat was tiny. But I wasn’t ready to ride with one of the other warriors alone yet. I liked being with Kat and Galok. I took a steadying breath as the other warriors mounted and prepared to leave, casting my eyes over the desert. Dusk painted everything in deepening shades of copper, rust, even indigo. The ring of asteroids that surrounded this planet rose on the horizon, casting a shimmering sheen in the falling darkness. In the far distance, I could see the cliffs where we lived now, the Cliffs of Uruzai, a jagged black ribbon.

We took off, moving quickly over the sands. I yelped and grabbed the saddle with one hand, tucking my whipping braids into my solar protection jacket’s collar with the other. Behind me, I heard Kat give a whoop. The other warriors fanned out around us on the sand, creating a protective circle that sped over the land with us at the centre.

I rose and fell in the seat, bouncing as we trotted over dunes and dips in the desert. On these massive, crazy-looking animals, it didn’t take us too long to reach the cliffs. Our group slowed, moving in line with the dark stone wall, heading towards the dent in the cliff’s surface where we had settled.

Just outside the tents, we stopped. The irkdu were too big to come into the camp, and they seemed to graze all night, going wherever they wanted. Galok helped Kat down, then reached out a huge, clawed hand to me. With a tight smile, I took it, unable to help noting the alien-ness of his hide against my skin, the size of his giant hand against mine as he helped me slide down. The differences were only more apparent when he moved back in next to Kat, looping his arm around her back. Galok was one of the tallest alien men I’d seen, and Kat was definitely the shortest human woman. The contrast between them was almost comical. I shook my head as they walked together into the settlement, then hurried to follow. I’d gotten so used to being alone on the ship that I had to remind myself sometimes that I was part of this group again, and that I had to go where they went.

Even though it was almost fully dark, now, the settlement was abuzz with activity. And it was a lot more crowded than it had been when I’d first arrived here. I guess after the attack on Galok at the ship, the three tribes present here had decided to all stay together. So the third tribe, the one Melanie had joined as the Gahnala, had joined the first two tribes, all their tents were interspersed together in the space. In the centre, between these tents and the big one all the human girls slept in, some alien women and children were building the huge evening fire. Other women were crouching, cleaning the hunters’ kills, big bison-looking things that we ate pretty much on the daily. Men filtered into the camp, returning from their hunting and patrolling duties. From what I gathered, a lot of the men would still be out there, patrolling, in greater numbers than usual. But even so, the balance between men and women here was wildly off. No wonder they’re looking for mates…

Well, maybe that wasn’t fair. It wasn’t just the aliens choosing mates, but the Lavrika, the alien dragon god or spirit or whatever it was. The one who’d led us into its caves after Galok’s near-death. The one who’d healed him, and gave me the language of the Sea Sands. I still wasn’t 100% clear on all this mate bond stuff. Seemed kind of woo-woo to me. But then again, I’d witnessed the Lavrika’s power for myself. If it could bring people back from the brink of death, who’s to say it couldn’t make you fall in love, too?

Although, so far, it hadn’t made any humans fall in love. Just the aliens. And, from what I’d seen of Galok and Kat, the alien men had then had to work their asses off to win their human women.

“You coming? Come on, let’s go eat. I’m starving.”

Kat’s voice made me pause in my reverie. She had stopped walking with Galok, turning back to face me expectantly.

“Sorry,” I said, jogging to catch up.

“Still taking everything in?” Kat said with a grin as I fell into step with her and her mate.

“You got that right,” I said with a shaky laugh. I cast my eyes around us to the many brown hide tents, the alien people moving to and fro, the imposing, almost ominous dark cliff face behind the human tent. I stopped, gasping, almost stumbling over an alien toddler who ran directly in front of me. I said toddler because of the roundness to their cheeks and limbs, but the little boy was honestly the size of a human 8-year old, if not bigger.

“It’s definitely a lot,” Kat acknowledged with a bob of her head as we reached the edge of the fire.

“You could say that again,” I muttered. Most of the other humans were together in a clump, sitting with some of the alien women and children at one end of the fire. On the other side, I could see Cece with her mate, the leader of one of the other tribes, and Melanie with her mate. Chapman was sitting near the humans with her mate, a sketchy-looking bastard with red eyes and an expression that seemed to swing between intense rage and an insane smile. When those red eyes fell on Galok, he definitely moved into intense rage territory, but a swift elbow in the ribs from Chapman made him back down.

Wonder what the deal is there, I thought, sitting down with the other girls on my left and Kat and Galok on my right.

“How was the ship?” Theresa asked, leaning forward to look at me from between the other girls.

“Good,” I said. “Nothing crazy happened, thank goodness.”

Theresa smiled, the firelight flickering over her blond hair and dimpled cheeks.

“For this planet, that’s a damn blessin’.”

I smiled back, scooching closer to her now that Kat was completely lost in some kind of bickering conversation with Galok.

“What did you guys get up to today?” I was still trying to get a handle on daily life here, the rhythms, the routines.

“Just the usual stuff. Helped the other ladies around here beatin’ and cleanin’ the hides. I’ve been learning how to butcher the big animals they bring in from hunting, the dakrival.”

“Aren’t you a big animal lover?” I asked, feeling my eyes grow wide behind my glasses.

She shrugged.

“I mean, yeah, I am. I was a vet tech, after all. But I’ve also assisted on surgeries, and I had to do a ton of animal autopsies in school. So I’m kind of used to it. Besides, it has to be done. It’s the only real food around here, besides the cactus things. And I want to be helpful.”

She looked so sincere when she said it that I couldn’t help but smile again. Then I jerked, smacking my hand to my forehead.

“Oh my God, I forgot! We brought back a ton of Earth snacks from the ship. The crew had squirrelled a bunch of good stuff away. Chips and Cheetos and even chocolate.”

“Chocolate?!”

“Yep,” I said, grinning. I wrenched around in my seated position. From here, I could just barely see some of the alien men unloading the irkdu at the edge of the camp, putting the various crates and boxes next to the human tent.

I nudged Theresa, pointing over at them.

“Looks like we’ll have some dessert for back at the tent after this.”

“Thank the Lord. I mean, I’m happy to be fed and all, but damn. A girl can only have beef and cactus gel so many days in a row.”

I laughed, and with that, we finally dug into the so-called beef and cactus gel, knowing that some treats from home awaited us afterwards.

A LOUD SNORT FROM SOMEWHERE nearby woke me with a start. Heart pounding, I had to remind myself where I was. I was in the tent with all the other humans. I’m safe. I let out a long, quiet breath, trying not to wake anyone else. I’d always been a light sleeper, and I usually slept alone. Even back home, I lived alone in an apartment. No boyfriend or anything. Not even a pet. Which was probably good, considering the fact that there would be no one there to feed it now.

OK. No more sad thoughts.

I sat up, reaching for my glasses. I’d wrapped them in a spare bit of hide for now, but soon enough I’d need to fashion a real case for them. The last thing I needed was to have someone step on them. It’s not like I had my contact lenses or backup glasses here.

I pressed my glasses onto my face, drawing my knees towards my chest and resting my elbows on them, looking around the tent in the gloom. It looked like everyone was sleeping but me. I waited, torn between the idea of lying back down in the surprisingly comfy hide bed, or dealing with the rapidly-growing thirst I’d just become aware of. After the feeding frenzy of salty and sugary human snacks after the evening meal, I was dying for a drink of water. I vaguely remembered a crate of water bottles being left outside the tent, and trying to be as silent as possible, I rose, heading outside for them.

Chouette! Awesome!

I was right. There was a crate of water bottles out there. I crouched, grabbing one, before cranking it open and chugging. The valok gel stuff wasn’t half bad if you liked overly-strong green tea-flavoured gel, but it didn’t compare to drinking 500mL of water in less than 60 seconds flat. Stomach sloshing, I tucked the empty water bottle into my pocket, wiggling my bare toes in the sand.

Everything in the camp was still. Everyone within the settlement was quiet in their tents, and the only people awake were the guards, standing on the sand in the distance. From here, they were deceptively small, difficult to see even in the surprisingly sharp glow of the asteroids and stars.

I turned my eyes up to those asteroids and stars now, letting myself take in their beauty. It wasn’t the Earth sky I was used to, but it had similarities. And, I had to admit, it was just as lovely, especially without the ambient light of cities blocking out the diamond-dotted tapestry of its constellations. I sighed, letting myself fall into those stars, those asteroids, as if floating upwards. They seemed to be calling to me. Almost… buzzing?

I pulled my chin back down, frowning. No, there was definitely something buzzing nearby. Oh great. Was some giant alien mosquito about to drift over and take a big bite out of me? I looked around, crossing my bare arms over my chest, squinting behind my glasses.

The buzzing droned louder. It seemed to be all around me now. Right on top of me.

With a gasp, I wrenched my head back, staring upward.

And I was met, face to lens, not with an alien insect, but with a drone.

A human drone.

CHAPTER TWO

Kor

From my place in the shadows of the Cliffs of Uruzai, I watched.

By the time I had found my way here into these cliffs, to study the tents below, night had fallen. A few warriors patrolled, and a few more guarded the space between the tents and the open sands, but all the rest was quietness upon the sands. I adjusted my position, moving lower to the ground, further into the shadows. I was above and behind the settlement, on a ledge high in the cliffs, gazing down at everything like some kind of brazelbird. I had no wings. But that did not mean I could not climb.

There was no real movement, nothing special to see, and yet, somehow, I knew. I knew that I had found her. This was the place, the place I’d find my mate. The strange female I’d glimpsed in the water caves of the Kell, the water serpent that my mother called the Lavrika of the Bitter Seas. My mother told me long ago that her people, those of the Sea Sands, had their own Kell, the Lavrika who dwelled in these very cliffs. And like the Kell, it bound warriors to their mates.

But the Kell had only bound a warrior of the Bitter Seas to a woman of the Sea Sands once before – my father to my mother. And now, the Kell had bound me to someone even more foreign than my mother had been to my father. Everything in me ached beneath my scales as I pictured her face – luminous dark eyes in circles of white. Her long dark hair braided like the people of the Sea Sands, but showing few other resemblances to them. She was smaller, with no claws, and soft shell ears. Brown skin glowed over bird-like bones.

I did not waste time wondering what it meant. I only looked forward, planning for what was to come. I had never expected to have a mate, caught halfway between the water and the sand as I was, the only one of my kind. I would have lived, exiled and alone, with my mother forever had the Kell not called me.

But call me, it had.

And everything had changed. I had travelled further than I ever had, days upon days upon days of scraping over the Sea Sands alone, with only the bizarre vision of my mate’s face to pull me forward. I had no well-worn path before me. And yet, finally, I had made it here. Here, to where she was.

I was certain of it.

I had seen another strange female who was like my mate and unlike my mate, back in the mountains. Back when the warriors from my mother’s tribe had attacked the new Gahn, Taliok. I had killed the man who threatened her, but I did not have time to learn anything useful from her.

Nothing besides drinking in her foreign female scent.

That scent was amplified beyond measure, here. It came from the large tent directly below me. I stared down at its flat top, breathing in deeply through my nostrils. That scent was the scent of many females, different threads strung through it, making it rich and complicated. And above them all, one scent rose. Intoxicating and bewildering. It had to be hers.

Yes, she is here.

I bit back a hiss, my claws digging into the stone beneath me. A putrid animal instinct rose up inside me. I wanted to climb down the side of this cliff, tear open the tent, and steal my mate away by force. I had always hated that my father had done such a thing to my mother. But suddenly I understood it. It did not make his actions right, and even beyond his death I despised that history, but suddenly, against all the teachings of my mother and every moral instinct, I understood. Feral need mounted in me, and I felt my cock pulling behind my slit. I adjusted my loincloth in anticipation, in case my cock emerged. With my cock behind my slit the loincloth was largely pointless, but it was a scrap of my mother’s culture that I had always adhered to. The men of my father’s people wore nothing at all. But I knew little of them and their ways. My father died when I was too young to remember him. And since then, it had just been my mother, me, and the sand.

But not anymore.

Now, I had a mate. I had to carve a whole new life for myself. Something completely beyond any realm I’d ever imagined.

I breathed deep, groaning as I found her scent again. That scent seemed to wind itself inside my body, upending my scales, making my tail thrash behind me. I rose up off of all fours, standing to my full height, planting the butt of my spear down onto the stone beside my feet.

No, I would not steal her. Though a dark and ravenous part of me screamed to.

What then?

My mother had always kept me shielded from the Sea Sand tribes. The men of the Sea Sands knew nothing of me or my father’s kind. My mother had always feared that they would kill me on sight, treat me as an enemy. Even amongst their own kind, the warriors of the Sea Sands were territorial and violent. This, they had in common with the warriors of the Bitter Sea.

I could not reveal myself to the men of the Sea Sands here. And yet, I had to find my mate.

Perhaps I can wait. Wait until she emerges, and goes somewhere alone. Then I could corner her, and she would be so overwhelmed by the sacred mate bond that she would no doubt agree to come with me away from here.

That was one thing I was sure of. Even though my mother and father came from two different races, even though they had no common tongue, they both felt the sacred mate bond. My father was not good in the stealing of my mother, but she could not deny that the mate bond had been strong within them both.

Just as it would be between my mate and me.

Perhaps even now she feels it. Perhaps even now she waits for me, maybe even looks for me…

The thought made me curl my claws tighter around my spear in anticipation, my cock stirring again. I pressed a hard hand to my groin, forcing myself to focus. Losing myself in desires now would not serve me. I had to watch and wait and find my moment to strike.

But then, as if pulled from the dark of the night by the deep call of my desire, she emerged.

Everything went silent and still as my sight stars pulled in to focus on her below.

She stepped daintily from the tent, the starlight glinting along her braids and skin and the strange, clear shells that were held over her eyes. She crouched next to a very strange stone with sharp corners, then took something from within it, gulping at the contents of whatever she now held in her hand.

Even at this distance above her, I could see the pulsing of her tiny throat, the working of her narrow jaw. Gratitude for my strong sight overwhelmed me as I watched her, mystified. Entranced.

But I shook myself to action. Is now the time? She is mostly alone…

There were warriors down there. Maybe eight that I could see now. I was larger and stronger than any man of the Sea Sands, but I did not like my chances against eight of them. If I had to, I would fight them off in order to gain access to my mate. But I loathed to kill any of them. They looked too much like my mother.

A loud buzzing sound that made my fangs gnash sounded nearby, distracting me from my plans. My sight stars exploded in my skull, fanning out across my sight. I located the source of the sound immediately. There was a large, silver, bird-like creature, floating through the air on four spinning wings. I had never seen its kind before, but I was also in new territory. Perhaps it was native to these lands.

But, native creature or not, it could very well be a predator, and it was heading straight for my precious one.

My mate had no doubt heard the sound, even with her strange little ears. Her head rotated on her terrifyingly weak-looking neck. I hissed, hefting my spear, as the bird got ever closer to her. She turned her head just in time to see the thing approach her.

And just in time to see my spear smash through it.

CHAPTER THREE

Zoey

OK, when I was thinking about things I missed from home and wanted to see again, a drone was definitely not one of them. It was completely out of place here, almost anachronistic. It made absolutely no sense. There were some drones on the ship, sure. But nobody besides me would probably have the engineering know-how to activate them, and I certainly hadn’t done it. To be honest, I was kind of kicking myself, because I totally should have activated one of these bad boys to scan the surrounding area while I was alone on the ship.

But I hadn’t done it. And I was pretty damn sure that none of the other humans had done it, either. And it definitely wouldn’t have been an alien…

These guys were intelligent in their own way, and they definitely used tools. But activating and flying a human drone? I didn’t think so.

I leaned forward slightly as the drone hovered in front of me.

“What the hell…?”

I didn’t have much time to look at the thing. Because something shot down, in front of me in the dark, shattering through the drone. I screamed, falling back on my ass at the unexpected impact in front of me. A few sparks flew outward, and smoke rose from the ground where I could now see that the drone was pinned by a spear.

I blew out a shaky breath. It’s OK. Just one of the warrior dudes.

My scream had sent three warriors running my way, all still with spears in hand. I paused, looking down at the fallen drone again, realizing that the spear must have come from… above?

I tossed my head back, scanning the wall of the cliffs and its innumerable shadows and crags and ledges. Was there a warrior up there? It seemed like a bad idea – Theresa had warned me about the predators that nested high in the cliffs. Huge, carnivorous bat-creatures called krixel. So what was a warrior doing up there?

“What has happened?” The first warrior to reach me snarled, rearing back when he saw the wreckage at my feet.

“I’m not sure,” I said honestly, meeting his questioning gaze. Two more warriors soon joined him.

“That is not a Sea Sand spear,” said the second warrior. I stared downwards again at those words, realizing he was right. It didn’t look like any of the other spears I’d seen here. It seemed most of the men here carried spears with long staffs of bone and black zeelk-spur tips. But this spear was… different. Its handle appeared to be bone as well, but it was thicker in circumference than any other. The hand that would have to grip that would be massive, I thought with a shudder. And the pointed tip was different, too. Instead of a black zeelk spur, the tip of this spear was flatter and longer, shining and silver. Almost disc-like, but brought to a sharp point. It looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on exactly why. And then an image from my youth exploded behind my eyes. Fishing with my father on the shores of Lac Saint-Jean. Catching a pike and watching its silver scales shimmer in the sunlight.

It’s a scale.

Before I could figure out exactly what that meant, a flurry of activity behind me made me turn. Theresa stood in the tent’s entrance, her brown eyes wide. I heard other voices behind her.

“What happened out here? We heard your scream!”

I moved aside so that the others could see the smoking carnage at my feet.

“It’s a drone. It just flew over to me. And then a spear smashed through it.” I cast a wary glance upward again, but saw nothing. Nothing but shadows and stone.

“A drone?!” Theresa’s eyes looked like they were going to pop right out of her pretty face. “How is that possible?”

I was about to tell her I didn’t know when an authoritative voice cut through.

“I know how it’s possible.”

I whipped around to find Chapman crouching, staring at the fallen drone. Her grey eyes were hard, her red hair clearly rumpled from the sleep my scream had woken her from. Her serious gaze swung up to meet mine, then over to Theresa as her huge mate, the Gahn Fallo, loomed menacingly behind her. The three warriors raised their tails as she straightened.

“It means the research vessel is back. It’s in orbit.”

Several gasps rang out from the tent. One by one, the other human girls were coming outside. And they all looked to be varying degrees of worried or royally pissed off.

And I didn’t have a clue why.

“Wait, why is that bad? If they’re back, maybe we can signal to them what happened. Tell them that we’re stranded here!” My voice got stronger and stronger with each word. “Maybe it’s recon for a rescue mission. We should-”

“It’s not,” Chapman interrupted, her voice an icy bark. “It’s not a rescue mission.”

“How do you know?” I cried, feeling tears build at the back of my throat. I mean, I got that I wasn’t with these guys for a while. But I kept feeling like I was one step behind everything. Like I was on the other side of some kind of wall, where they knew everything and I was just barely catching up.

Chapman sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. Her massive mate moved closer behind her, growling.

“Speak in the tongue of the Sea Sands, my mate.”

Chapman switched gears, and it was as fluid as if the Sea Sand tongue was her own native language. And it was just as fluid for me listening.

“This thing on the ground is human technology. I believe it means our people are back.”

Gahn Fallo roared, drawing his great arms out to his sides, his massive head rolling.

“They have come to reclaim you? Because if they have, they have come to meet their deaths.”

“Not everyone has to go with if they come back,” I said quickly. I could feel my chance at a rescue slipping and slipping away, and I couldn’t figure out why. “Why don’t you guys want to go back?”

I turned around to scan the faces of the other girls. Theresa’s kind, sad expression caught my eye.

“What do you think they’d do with us, hun? Truly, what do you think they’d do? They drugged us and abducted us just to keep this mission secret. You really think they’re here to take us home after all that?”

My heart sank low. Not quite as low as it had when I’d learned of my parents’ deaths, but pretty damn close. Because it meant that I was never, ever going home.

Because Theresa was right. They were all right.

I’m so stupid. How did I not see it before?

By now, more warriors had arrived, and Kat strode into the group.

She crouched next to Chapman, poking the burnt wreckage then whipping her hand back with a hiss.

“Didn’t you see the smoke?” Chapman chided, but Kat just shrugged.

“They’ve gotta be after the Lavrika’s blood. But they obviously saw the wrecked ship on their scanners up there so they sent down a fucking drone to scope everything out. See how many of us are left and what the threat level is,” Kat said.

“I don’t think they sent it down,” I cut in, sitting in the sand next to them. “I think this is a drone from the ship. They activated it from orbit and steered it here.”

Chapman nodded and Kat rolled her eyes.

“Motherfuckers… They dumped us here to die, can’t they just leave us alone now?”

“They might, still,” Chapman said, her eyes looking far away. I blinked back more tears, trying to push away the fact that I didn’t want them to leave us alone now. I wanted it to be OK after all. I wanted them all to be wrong. I wanted the whole human cavalry to show up and take me home, damn it.

“Do you really think they will? Leave us alone, I mean?” I asked, my words coming out croaky. I sniffed, then cleared my throat, trying to mirror some of Chapman’s stoic strength and Kat’s fierceness. But it was fucking hard.

“I don’t know. This could be nothing. One last check on us before they cross this planet off the list entirely. Or…”

“Or what?” I pressed, not liking the way Chapman’s brows drew together in the darkness.

“Or, it is some kind of recon mission. Not for rescue, but rather to prepare to come down here to take whatever it is they want by force.”

“Let them try!” Fallo cried from above us, the asteroid light catching on his fangs. “We will destroy them all.”

“You don’t get it!” his mate snapped, her grey eyes flashing. “Our people have weapons that could wipe everything off the face of this planet. It would be carnage. And everyone would die.”

My blood ran cold at Chapman’s words, because I knew without a shadow of a doubt that they were true. How many times had humans done that exact same thing, to our own kind, on Earth? If they came down here, we could all be doomed. As much as I wasn’t used to our new alien neighbours yet, I didn’t want to see them blown to smithereens by the corrupt governments of our planet.

But Gahn Fallo didn’t seem as worried as any of us. He knelt in the sand beside Chapman, tipping her chin up with a claw.

“There is no enemy, from this world or any other, who would live after threatening my mate.”

“OK, then, humans aside, what about whoever threw this spear?”

Ghan Fallo’s buzzing gaze hit me. I gulped, a little surprised at myself for speaking to this insane, huge alien like that. But I was getting more and more unnerved by the fact someone had thrown it from above me.

“The drone and the potential human presence is definitely an important issue. But they aren’t here yet. Whoever threw that spear is here. And they could have been aiming for me,” I added.

Chapman, Kat, And Fallo all looked down at the drone once again. Fallo wrapped his clawed hand around the spear, yanking it easily from the ground, shaking sand and soot off of it. He examined it closely, then reared back with a snarl. The large number of warriors who had gathered by now pulled in tighter, trying to see what he held.

“This is not from the desert,” the huge Gahn rasped.

“This is my thought too, Gahn Fallo,” said one of the first warriors who had run to me after screaming. The one who had noticed the same thing.

Gahn Fallo’s flaring eyes raced up the side of the cliff, his fangs showing as he scanned the stone.

“Wake the other Gahns!” he roared, not tearing his eyes from the cliffs. “We must search the cliffs!”

“We are awake and we are here,” another deep voice boomed. I jerked, along with Gahn Fallo and the others, to see the other two tribal leaders, Gahn Taliok and Gahn Buroudei, striding across the sand. All of the alien men were insanely strong, but the Gahns were another level. They exuded a level of power that you could feel. And now all three of them were together in front of me. I didn’t know all the details, but I knew the peace here wasn’t always an easy one, and tension simmered in the air as Buroudei and Taliok drew level with Fallo.

Fallo filled the other two Gahns in on what had happened. Buroudei’s tail swished as he listened. Taliok was still and silent, his gaze fixed on the spear Fallo still held. I wonder what he’s thinking… His scarred face was a mask of stone.

But surprisingly, Gahn Taliok was the one to speak next.

“This spear is not of our kind. And so far we have only encountered one man not of our kind. In the mountains…”

“You believe this may be the work of the irkdu warrior?” Buroudei asked, sight stars spinning.

Taliok’s tail thrashed in acknowledgement.

“Yes. He was looking for a mate from among the new women. I do not believe he threw this spear to harm a female, but rather to destroy this thing.”

He nudged the mangled metal with one of his clawed toes.

Hold on… irkdu man? What the hell does that mean? And could he really have been protecting me?

Then again, from what I’d seen of pretty much every alien here, they were unreal warriors and had deadly aim. If someone had meant to hit me with the spear, they probably would have been successful. Especially given the slow, always-failed-at-dodgeball nature of the human target.

While my mind whirled with questions the other Gahns made quick plans.

“As Gahn Fallo said, we must search. But I agree with Gahn Taliok. I believe the intruder acted in protection of one of the new women.” Buroudei fixed his copper-coloured sight stars on me, and I gave a stiff, awkward shrug. I hadn’t seen the guy. All I’d seen was a spear come crashing down in front of me. I could only hope that he wasn’t aiming for me.

Gahn Buroudei continued speaking, more loudly now, to the entire gathered group. “There is a warrior here, one who looks almost as if he is part irkdu and part man. Capture him. If he attacks, kill him. But only then.”

“We should kill him on sight,” Fallo snarled, and I flinched. That seemed like an overreaction to me. Like Buroudei and Taliok said, whoever threw the spear hadn’t hurt anyone yet. To be fair, a drone to these guys would look like a threat that would need a spear thrown at it.

Buroudei agreed with my thoughts, saying, “If this creature has a mate from among the new women, you and I both know we have no right to kill him just for that. We cannot deny the will of the Lavrika so easily.” Once again, he turned to speak to the crowd in a thunderous voice. “We will not allow him to take any new woman by force. Five men are to remain here at the tent as guards while the rest will search. If you find this warrior and he attacks, any man may do whatever it takes to save his own life. But the orders are to bind the creature and bring him back to the Gahns. Now, go!”

The warriors surrounding us cried out, raising their weapons, gnashing their fangs, and loping away into the night. Some moved out over the sands, and many moved into the hundreds of openings and crags in the cliffs. I shivered, rubbing my palms up and down my bare arms. Those cliffs were labyrinthine. If someone was hiding in there, they might never be found. The fact that someone could be watching, unseen up there, even now… A creature… More irkdu than man...

“So, what exactly did they mean by creature?” I said as the Gahns moved away from us. Most of the other human girls went, whispering among themselves, back into the tent, and it was just Chapman, Kat, and me, plus the five warriors left as guards around the tent. Kat sighed, moving out of her crouched and plopping down on her butt, crossing her legs.

“It’s fucking weird. I don’t even know. I didn’t see him, but Melanie did. She said she saw some lizard dude in the mountains and that he was looking for one of us.”

Um. What the fuck?

My eyes bugged behind my glasses.

“You want to elaborate on that a little?” I sputtered, unable to fully process what she’d just said.

“Basically, Mel and I went to the mountains with Galok and Taliok a little while ago. While we were there some warriors of Gahn Baldor’s tribe attacked us. Galok stuck me behind some fucking rock, but at one point Mel actually got cornered by one of the enemy warriors. But she ended up safe because Mr. Godzilla killed him.”

“Mr. Godzilla?” I repeated, feeling slow and dull. But I couldn’t help it. Her words made no sense. It was like she was coming up with the most absurd scenario possible and spewing it at me, hoping I would buy it.

“Well, the way she described him, that’s what he looked like. I didn’t see him. But he had scales. And to me, that spear looked like it had a sharpened scale at the tip. Maybe it came from wherever the lizard man did.”

I gulped. I was still getting used to the Sea Sand people, but at least they were vaguely humanoid, kangaroo features and spinning sight stars aside. But a lizard man? Mr. Godzilla?!

“Anyway,” Kat continued, “sounds like one lucky lady gets the croc-man as her mate.”

“No fucking way,” I breathed, shaking my head violently. “That is not OK.” A reptilian monster was out there trying to find a human woman to mate with? The thought was a horrifying one.

Chapman’s fierce grey gaze met mine, and she broke her silence.

“I agree. We won’t let anyone touch a human woman who doesn’t want it. Sea Sand warrior, lizard man, it doesn’t matter. The Lavrika may create the mate bond in these guys, but it’s up to us to choose what we want and who we want. And all of us will support and protect the choice of any woman here.”

“So you definitely don’t feel this… mate bond?” I pressed. It seemed like everyone knew all the details of this alien weirdness but me. And I really didn’t like the idea of being forced to fall in love against my will. But both Chapman and Kat were shaking their heads.

“No, it doesn’t seem to work that way in us,” Chapman confirmed. “We have to fall in love the way we normally would. And like I said before, we’re not letting anybody touch a woman who doesn’t want it.”

I smiled shakily at her, feeling a bit better. Chapman was a hardened soldier, after all. So when she said she’d protect us, I believed her. Plus, I’d heard Gahn Buroudei’s orders – that no woman would be taken from here against her will.

Although what woman in her right mind would go willingly?

Kat kicked her boots in the sand, and did a couple of mock punches in the air, her small white fists tight.

“Chapman’s right. Any dude tries to come up in here and do something sketchy, we will take him out.”

I smiled again, leaning my head against Kat’s bony shoulder. But anxiety still gnawed at me. If he gets past the Sea Sand men, and finds the tent…

Finds the tent? He had obviously already seen it, and had seen me come out of it, judging by the fall of his spear.

“We should go back inside,” I whispered, casting my eyes up to the cliffs once more.

“Let’s go,” Chapman said, rising. Kat leapt up, too, and the three of us headed inside.

But even as we settled back in the tent with the other girls, my mind was back on the cliffs.

The rock, the shadows, and the crags.

And whoever was hiding among them.

CHAPTER FOUR

Kor

The bird threatening my mate was dead. Good thing, too, as its innards seemed to be made of fire. Sparks and smoke emanated from its fallen body, and I did not like the thoughts of what it could have done to my mate with that fire if it had gotten too near.

My mate was on the ground, and my body pulsed, aching to be near her. But she was no longer alone. Her high scream, a sound that had torn right down to my bones, had attracted three of the Sea Sand warriors to her side. Only three men… I could probably take down three if needed. And then I would have her alone…

Tense and shot-through with desire, I stared downwards, trying to gauge just what to do. I had no experience with a mate, and none with a tribe. My tribe had just been my mother and me, for all of my remembered life. To go down and interact with all these people, now, would be difficult.

And more men were coming, now, surrounding my mate and the fallen bird. That made a deep hiss grow in my chest. I did not like my mate among these other men without me. If it were not for the goodness of my mother, and the imbuing of her culture upon me, I would have torn each man to pieces. But as it was, I knew the Sea Sand ways. I knew that they treasured their women. Even, it seemed, strange ones like my mate.

More females like my mate peered out from the tent, and two more came from among the other tents. From my angle, and the darkness, I could not see much of them, only that, like my mate, they were small and tailless and wore strange garb.

Where have these females come from?

As far as I had known, the only types of males and female people of this world were either like my father, of the Bitter Seas, or like my mother, of the Sea Sands. These females must have come from very far away. From an unknown land. Or unknown waters…

I continued to watch, listening to the females and the warriors speaking with the Gahns who had joined them. My spine stiffened, my tail twitching when the conversation turned to me.

They knew that spear was mine. They knew that I was out here, hiding. Waiting.

I did not fear. I was here on a sacred mission. I was here in the holiness of joining with my mate. No man could deny me that. And I was stronger and larger than any man of the Sea Sands. I no longer had my spear, but I still had one blade tucked into the knot of my loincloth at my hips, as well as the weapons of my own body. My claws, my spikes. No, unless the entirety of the tribes descended upon me, I did not fear for my life. And it seemed the Gahns were commanding not to kill me, anyway. To bind me and drag me back to them.

That will not happen.

I would not be a prisoner. I could climb through these cliffs better than a Sea Sand warrior. I could hide forever if I wanted. Avoid their gazes and bide my time until my little mate was alone once again.

But impatience gnawed at me. I did not want to leave her alone any longer. Now that I had seen her in person, my blood pulsed for her. My claws felt empty without her, though they’d never felt empty before in my entire life.

No. I will not wait. I will outsmart the Sea Sand men. I will outrun them, move through these cliffs like water, then make my way to my mate somehow.

My mate had already disappeared back into the large tent along with her peers, and I felt a sharp pang when I could no longer see her. It felt as if only my presence beside her could keep her safe. I was almost mad with the drive of it – the drive to go to her. Protect her.

Rut her.

I growled, pressing a clawed hand to my groin again. Now was not the time for thoughts of mating. Now was the time of planning, of searching, of finding…

But as I watched the Sea Sand warriors disperse in search of me, I was distracted from all plans by a vicious shriek behind me.

I turned, yanking my blade from my loincloth and hissing, finding an ugly creature before me. It was almost as large as me, with powerful legs, a squashed-looking snout, and black wings with an enormous wingspan.

It was a hideous, awesome beast. One I had never encountered before.

I sighed. I hadn’t planned on wrestling a brutal beast into submission tonight. But it seemed it had to be done.

I roared, straightening to my full height, letting the spikes unfold down the back of my neck, down my spine to my tail. They sprouted outward from my arms, too, black appendages brought to a wickedly sharp point. I raised my arms out to the sides, roaring again, hoping to scare the creature off. Not that I feared it. No, I did not. But it was an inconvenience I wished to avoid. A waste of time to kill it.

But the stupid thing apparently wished for its own death, because it charged.

Fine.

I lowered onto all fours, moving like lightning along the ledge, further into the darkness of the cliff to meet it. As I approached, the thing tried to rake its claws along my back, but it reared back when my spikes cut the more vulnerable parts of its hands. From below, I sliced my blade upwards, aiming for its belly to spill its animal guts. But it jerked just in time. I sliced along its groin instead, spilling blood but not fatally injuring it. Rolling, I moved out from under it, snarling and standing again. Just in time to see a second winged creature approaching from the air.

That… Complicates things.

It was too bad I no longer had my spear. I did not regret using it in defence of my mate. I never would regret such a thing. Even if I met my death, here and now, my only regret would be the fact that I never got to touch her skin, skin that looked so soft it made me want to groan.

But I would not die here. Not until I’d claimed her.

I roared again, tail thrashing as I scaled the rough cliff wall, leaping up to meet the flying creature in the air. My weight forced it downward, right on top of the first creature. In the chaos, I managed to bring death upon the second one, slicing at its neck in the heap of clawing limbs and raking wings. Forcing its body to the side, I once again met the first creature head-on, bending low and tackling it to the ground. It screamed, pressing claws up towards my eyes, but I raked at its inner arms with my own arm spikes. It squealed in vicious agony.

I grow weary of this.

This was not what I had come here for. This was a colossal waste of time.

A surge of impatient anger lit up my veins, and with a final brutal cry, I killed the thing with my own claws, my blade forgotten. Hissing low, chest heaving, I stood, flicking dark blood from my claws. I scanned the darkness of the cliffs around me, then the starlit sky in search of more of the irritating winged things. But there seemed to be none.

Hopefully, the scent of their brethren’s blood, an homage to my victory, will keep any more at bay. I did not fear more of them. But I wished for no more distractions.

But the distractions just kept on coming. At that moment, three Sea Sand warriors appeared, sprinting up a nearby incline to the ledge where I stood. They made it to the ledge, weapons drawn and hissing.

Does every man and beast in this world conspire to slow me down?

I was starting to feel frustrated, now. I had walked for half an age to find my mate. And now that I was so cursedly close, things kept getting in my way. I could feel the brutal energy of my father and his people overtaking the goodness of my mother. The desire to stomp out every enemy, the desire to steal my mate and take her away from everyone and everything else. The way my father had done before me. What I’d sworn to my mother and myself that I would never do.

But circumstance was wearing me down. And my mother had always warned me that the moment I was seen by any man of the Sea Sands, I would be considered his enemy.

If they threaten my life, I will have no choice but to fight them.

I could kill the three of them. Though I loathed to do it. In every pulse and pull of their sight stars, I saw my mother.

Why does this have to be so difficult?

I straightened, raising my snout as the warriors approached me, gnashing their fangs.

It was difficult, yes. But nothing was too difficult for my mate. I would fight any man, any creature, cross any desert to find her. I knew it even without knowing her. Her life and mine were intertwined irreparably now.

“This is the creature from the mountains! The irkdu warrior!” one of the men snarled, his black blade flashing under the stars. I remained silent, watching all three of them as they approached me slowly. They watched me, too, waiting for any movement. I gave them nothing, remaining still. Though, every muscle beneath my scales was tense and thrumming, poised to strike the moment it was needed. But I would not make the first move, here. I would not kill these people of my mother’s race without provocation.

Another warrior spoke, drawing up on my right, tail thrashing on the stone beneath our feet. “I have heard tell he searched for a new woman. That he claims to have a mate from among the new females.”

The third warrior hissed, straight ahead of me. I gripped my knife a little harder, watching. Waiting.

“This beast? He cannot possibly be mated to one of the new women, so soft and small as they are. He will not touch any one of them.”

They think I am a beast. I was aware that my snout looked more like an irdku’s than the flat face of a Sea Sand warrior, but my father’s people were still people. Not dumb beasts like the irkdu. I fought to keep my spikes from emerging once again. I would not show any act of aggression… yet.

The warrior continued, “I say we kill the creature before he has the chance to get close to any new women.”

The first warrior growled, “Those are not our orders, Vakal. You know this.”

“Gahn Fallo would support me in this,” the other hissed back.

“But the other Gahns would not,” piped up the warrior on my right. “Though I do not like the look of him, our orders are to bind him and bring him before the Gahns, not to kill him.”

I was growing weary of this now, too. So many words. So much wasted breath and air and time.

I could kill them, so quickly and so easily, and be done with all of this…

The centre warrior hissed then swished his tail in agreement with the others.

“Fine. We will bind this beast. Though I do not think it wise…”

The three men approached more quickly now, and I could not help but be surprised by their actions.

Bold of them to assume that only three of them can overpower me.

The centre warrior was within arm’s distance, now, As he hissed and raised the butt of his blade to land a sharp blow on my head, I let my spikes unfurl. I felt the heat of his blood pour down the back of my head as his hand was sliced upon my spikes. I bent, moving to all fours as the other two warriors came at me from the sides. My shoulder pushed hard against the centre warrior’s waist, I shoved him back, back, until he stumbled over the body of the winged creature. I used that moment to whirl on the others, standing to my full height. I ducked out of one’s blade’s trajectory, but felt another slice deep between spikes of my arm. Hissing in annoyance, I brought my curled fist heavily against the temple of the striking warrior, rendering him unconscious. I’d had to restrain myself from my full strength. A blow to the head with a fist like mine at full power could have killed him. I turned my attention to the other warrior, but by now the first had risen from his fall over the creature on the ground. They both moved towards me, blades ready. One unlooped a roll of leather cord from around his arm, clearly preparing to use that cord on me. As if such a thing could restrain me. I raised my arms out to the sides, spikes flaring, roaring with my full power, shaking dust from the cliffs.

I levelled my gaze on the two Sea Sand warriors still standing, speaking my first words to them.

“I am Kor. I am of both the Bitter Seas and the Sea Sands. I am no beast. And you will not bind me.”

With that, I moved low, spinning and snapping my scaled tail under their feet, causing both of them to topple. In a moment, I was on them. A deep and pounding bloodlust, a terrible, territorial urge told me to kill them, kill them now. But my mother’s gaze and the softness of my mate held me back. I would not brand myself as a monster here more than I already was.

In quick succession, I rendered both of the remaining warriors unconscious, though I earned myself several blows from their blades in the process. With the cord they had brought, I bound their bodies together into a bundle, then hoisted them onto my back with a grunt before standing.

I could no longer wait and watch. I could no longer avoid being seen by more of my mother’s people. If I wanted to claim my mate, I would have to do so from within the tribe itself. I did not relish entering the tents like this, now. But I hoped the peace offering of these three living men would be enough. If it was not? Then blood would run among the sands. I would get to my mate no matter what. But I refused to be bound.

I trudged through the cliffs, down the incline towards the sand, the weight of the three men atop me slowing my progress. I was larger than them, and it was not overly strenuous to carry them, but they were still large and strong in their own right. I felt one of them stir, and gave him a quick bop on the head until he was still once more. I was satisfied to feel all three of them still breathing against my back, and I made sure to flatten my spikes as much as possible so as not to rend their flesh. Though they had not shown that same consideration to me. Now that the heat of battle was done, I was more aware of my injuries. I could feel the blood pulsing out of my wounds with every step.

But it was no matter. Because every step brought me closer and closer to my sacred one.

My mate.

CHAPTER FIVE

Zoey

“You’re blocking my view!” Kat whined, pushing against Chapman. The two of them were stationed at the tent’s flap, staring out onto the sands as the warriors ran around looking for the intruder. The one who’d thrown that crazy scale spear and destroyed a metal drone right in front of my eyes…

“You’re so puny that you could just stand in front of me and let me look over your head,” Chapman muttered, shifting over to give Kat a better view. I thought about joining them, trying to keep my eye on what was happening out there, but I decided against it. I’d had enough action for tonight, thank you very much. Hopefully, everything would just return to normal soon. Whatever normal was for this place.

I sat down with the rest of the girls in the centre of the tent.

“I wonder if we should blow out the candles,” I said, watching the warm glow flicker along the inner hide walls. “If someone is out there, you know, to draw less attention to ourselves.”

“That’s a good idea,” Kat said, wrenching her head over towards me. “Having less light behind us will make it easier to see what’s going on out there in the dark, anyway.”

I nodded, crawling over to the closest candle, a little green pyramid made of dried valok gel, and blew it out. The other candles quickly followed, plunging us all into darkness. The dark seemed to have a silencing effect, and no one else spoke. My heart thundered in my chest. It felt like something was coming.

Something terrible.

I forced myself to breathe out slowly. Ever since my parents had died, this feeling of dread had plagued me. But then again, considering I’d been abducted and dumped here, almost dying, maybe that feeling of dread had been warranted. Maybe I should listen to it more… It was growing stronger every moment.

And when I heard Chapman gasp and Kat say, “Holy fucking shit,” under her breath, I knew that my sense of dread had been spot on.

“What is it?” I asked, voice shaking. I curled my hands into fists, trying to continue controlling my breathing. But neither of them responded to me in the darkness. I bit my lip, no longer able to control my curiosity. If something bad was heading for us, I wanted to see what the hell it was.

I crawled past the other seated girls, peeking between Kat and Chapman’s legs, squinting at the starlight and shadows outside. At first, I wasn’t sure what they were looking at, what had made them gasp. But then Kat whispered, “By the cliffs, straight ahead.”

And I saw it.

A fucking monster.

He prowled out from the shadows of the cliffs, and when the light of the stars and asteroids fell on him, I froze. Barely breathing, I watched him trudge out of the darkness like some creature from the deep, emerging from murky waters.

“That must be him,” Kat hissed. “The lizard man Melanie saw in the mountains.”

“Has to be,” Chapman confirmed. “Fuck, I wish I had a weapon. If he comes looking for one of us…” I didn’t like her tone. A tone that said if he came this way, we would have no way to stop him.

“Oh, hell no,” Kat snapped back. If he gets that far, we will take him out. There’s no way I’m letting him touch anybody here.”

I shook my head, knowing that, though Kat meant her words 100%, it likely wouldn’t play out that way. And evidently, Chapman agreed with me.

“We can try, but look at him.”

We all did. I felt the other women crowding in behind me, and startled sounds ran through the group when everyone got a good look at him.

He was gigantic. A head, maybe even two heads taller than any of the kangadudes. More than eight feet tall, brushing nine. It was hard to get a sense of his colouring in the darkness. In this light, his body shone like dark and burnished metal, or like onyx. His massive, snouted head gleamed with dark ridges, his powerful legs and dinosaur-like tail working over the sand with heavy steps. And it looked like he had some kind of huge humpback…

“Oh, God!” Chapman snarled, leaning further forward. And then I realized why she’d exclaimed.

It’s not a hump on his back. It’s the bodies of three men.

I felt the blood leave from my face, my breath coming faster. He killed three men on his own? He might really be able to come here and take one of us…

He had a mate, apparently, in our human group. But who?

I don’t envy her, I thought, fear zinging up my spine at the sight of this huge creature. The kangadudes were definitely alien, but compared to this guy, it was like I’d grown up with them. Like they were my own next-door neighbours, my family. This creature was totally foreign. Reptilian and brutal.

By now, the other warriors who were near the tents had noticed the monster and were running for him. I breathed out a sigh of relief. I didn’t want to see this guy get torn apart right in front of us, but if he’d already killed three men, and was looking to take a human woman, then maybe it was best.

Before any of the Sea Sand men met him, he bent, lowering the bodies from his back to the ground with surprising gentleness and grace. Then he straightened to his full height, even taller than he’d been before with the men on his back.

Even from here, I could see his massive scaled chest swell. And when he spoke, the powerful, rocky growl of it sent goosebumps erupting over my skin.

“I am Kor. I have not killed these men. I wish no harm on any man who wishes none on me.”

The warriors running to him slowed, closing him in in a loose circle. I shifted, leaning to one side, trying to keep the big guy in my sights.

Was he telling the truth? Had he really not killed those men?

From the periphery, I saw three more men running to the circle. Instantly, I recognized them as the three Gahns. They pushed into the circle, weapons drawn. Taliok bent to the bundle of tied men, but even now I could see that the bundle was moving as at least one man came to.

I sagged with relief that those guys hadn’t died, and for the fact that maybe it meant this guy wasn’t as huge of a threat as I had thought. But then I remembered why he was probably here – to take a human mate. And all that relief vanished into the night air.

“He speaks true. The men live,” Gahn Taliok called to everyone gathered.

His words did little to ease the tension. Every Sea Sand warrior stood at the ready, a weapon in each hand. The lizard man remained utterly still, a dark, spiked statue among the men.

“Is this your spear?” Gahn Buroudei asked, raising the thing that had destroyed the drone.

“Yes,” came the lizard man’s simple answer.

“And why did you throw this spear into our territory?” spat Gahn Fallo, his head rolling on his shoulders as if warming up to fight.

The lizard man paused for a moment, and I found myself holding my breath. Why had he thrown that spear right in front of me? Was he trying to kill me, and he just had crappy aim? Or did he have some other purpose in that?

“I had to throw it to kill the flying thing.”

“Why did you do so when it was in our territory and of no concern to you?” Buroudei asked, staring down at the spear then back at the monster in the middle of the circle.

When the lizard man spoke next, the breath that I’d been holding whooshed out of me in a sudden rush. I clutched at the sand, lowering my head, feeling faint at his reply.

“I had no other choice,” he said. His voice as he spoke was primal and deep and terrifyingly sure.

His words went through me like his spear had gone through that drone, burning into my body, branding me.

“It was approaching my mate.”

CHAPTER SIX

Kor

“It was approaching my mate.”

Hisses and snarls and tail-whips of surprise ran through the circle of warriors surrounding me. I was, for the first time in my life, in true danger. I could not fight this many men. My mother had always warned me about this – about exposing myself to either of my parents’ peoples. I was too different from both races, and bound to be branded as a monster by both.

But I no longer had any choice. I could not deny the call of my mate. And these men held her, so brutally far from me. My gaze shot to the large tent. There was a slight gap in the hides there, but I could see nothing else in the darkness beyond. Is she there? Is she watching, even now? The thought that her eyes might be on me made heat run through my cold veins.

Gahn Taliok, now having unbound the three men on the ground, rose to stand with the other Gahns. Slowly, the three warriors on the ground began to regain consciousness. I did well not hitting them too hard, I thought to myself, satisfied. I had never hit a man of the Sea Sands in the head before, there was a chance I could have done more damage than I’d meant to. But all three men were now rising to their feet of their own power, thought shakily.

“So it is true, then. You claim to have a mate among the new women.” Gahn Taliok, the scarred Gahn of the mountains, fixed me with a long stare. The other man with him, whom I presumed to be another Gahn, watched in silence. A third man, who seemed to be yet another Gahn, exploded beside them, raking his blades through the air.

“He cannot have a mate. Only the men of the Sea Sands are called by the Lavrika,” snarled the tallest and angriest of the Gahns.

“I was called,” I said, fighting to keep my voice even. Anger was pulling its hot threads inside me. But I remained calm, knowing that one wrong move would be my end. “I had always been told that the warriors of the Sea Sands honoured the call of the Lavrika.” I used the name of my mother’s people, knowing it would inspire a reaction in the Gahns. And I was right. Though it was not their Lavrika, not the one of the desert cliffs, the name alone made them all freeze and flinch.

“You are not of our kind, yet you speak our tongue and know the name of the Lavrika? How?” said the Gahn with one long braid, the one who held my spear.

“I will tell you more, on two conditions,” I said finally. I did not want to stand here at their mercy forever. I had things to do and a mate to claim.

The angry Gahn’s sight stars flared, and he hissed, making the warriors raise their weapons higher. But the other two Gahns remained still, watching me.

“What conditions?” Gahn Taliok finally asked.

“I will not be bound nor be a prisoner here. I am a free warrior searching for his mate after the sacred call of the Lavrika. No man here has a right to deny me that.” The three Gahns watched me in silence, waiting for my second condition. The only one I truly cared about. “And I demand an audience with my mate.”

The angry Gahn scoffed, charging to me, snarling up into my face. I looked down, meeting his fiery gaze head-on.

“We have you surrounded. You have no power here. Why should we give you anything you ask?” he said. As he spoke, his blades rose up on the other side of him, ready to plunge into my sides. The fury of this Gahn was getting beneath my scales, but I fought to maintain composure.

I had only one thing to bargain with. If they thought me too much of a beast to honour the claim to my mate, I would have to use the one other thing in my favour I had.

I was the only one here who knew about my father’s people.

“There are more of me. Men much larger and stronger than me. Many of them. Enough to rend your tribes to pieces.”

The Gahn before me reared back, his fangs glinting in the light.

“You lie!” called the other Gahn from beside Gahn Taliok.

“Where do you think I came from, if not from more people like myself?” I spat, growing tired of all of this.

The other Gahns had to acknowledge the logic of my statement. What, did they think I’d risen from the sands, parentless and peopleless, a ghoul of the desert? My mother was an intelligent, observant woman. The fact she had come from a tribe of these fools was almost beyond comprehension.

“We must discuss this,” Ghan Taliok said, and the feral Gahn snarling at me finally backed away, joining his two peers. I stared at them with a stony jaw as they discussed what was to be done with me. If they did not agree to my second condition, that I should see my mate, then the sands would be painted black with Sea Sand blood tonight. I might die in the process, but I would not be denied this. I would not be denied the one thing I’d come for, the only thing that mattered.

After a few moments, the three Gahns turned back towards me again.

“I am Gahn Buroudei,” said the Gahn with one braid. “These are the Gahns Fallo and Taliok. We are rulers here, three Gahns of the desert who have allied themselves here.”

I said nothing, waiting for whatever came next. The words that would determine their fate and mine.

“We Gahns have agreed to grant you passage into our settlement for questioning. We wish to know more of what you speak, of these men who look like you. If you are forthcoming and peaceful with us, we will grant you supervised access to your mate.”

Rage sparked down my spine. Supervised access to my mate? They had no right! They -

A voice that curved in the shape of my mother’s rose inside me. Urging me to peace and strategy. If I denied the Gahns their wishes, I’d be torn to pieces by their men. If I acquiesced, and put my pride aside, I might actually finally get what I’d come here for. I might finally be able to see my mate up close. The thought was like a balm, like the healing milk of the Kell, and it smoothed my spikes back down.

“I agree to your terms,” I ground out. “Ask me your questions, and I will answer.”

“How do you know our tongue and our ways?” Buroudei was the first Gahn to ask a question. There was no way around it. I would have to tell them of my mother. She was safe, back with her people, in Gahn Baldor’s tribe. My words would not cause her any damage, now.

“My mother is of the Sea Sands. She is of Gahn Baldor’s tribe.”

More tongue clicks and hisses of surprise ran through the group.

“How is this possible? You are not of our kind. This cannot be,” hissed Fallo.

“You have strange females among you. Some of them you have taken as mates, this I already know.” I said, levelling my gaze on Fallo. I had met with Gahn Taliok’s mate in the mountains, and had seen the other pairing there, too. The little female with no hair and the tall warrior. “They are not of your kind either. And yet you have been joined.”

“He is right,” Taliok said. His scars turned his face into a dark mask. And yet, I trusted him most of all the Gahns. I felt I knew him best. When I’d travelled through his mountains, I’d observed him. I’d watched how he’d treated his mate and his men. And from that short stint of observance, I believed he was a good sort of Gahn.

“If your mother was of our kind, then tell us of your father and his people,” Buroudei demanded.

“My father’s lineage hails from the Bitter Sea. The great tract of dark water beyond the mountains, beyond the desert entirely. Beyond Gahn Baldor’s tribe. That is where my father’s people reside. They have their own language and customs and their own Lavrika. In their tongue, it is called the Kell.”

Fallo raised a blade, pointing the tip directly at my chest.

“You lie, foul beast. There is only one Lavrika. And it lives here, among these cliffs.”

I fought down a growl, my claws tightening around the handle of my blade. I was not a liar.

“There is not only one Lavrika. There is also one of the bitter seas. It called me to its caves, and in its pools I glimpsed the face of the strangest creature. A female. The one destined to be my mate.” The Gahns looked unconvinced and I pressed on. “How would I even know of the existence of these strange females in the first place if not for the Kell’s vision? I have travelled days upon days upon days to get here. Half an age spent crossing the desert to find her, searching with no map and no plan beyond the beauty of her face, hanging in the stars before me. Leading me onward. You can brand me a liar if you wish, you can exile me as I have been exiled my entire life, but know this. The greatest truth, the only truth, that rules my life now, is her.”

My words fell through the air like stones until Gahn Taliok finally spoke.

“This is the sacred mate bond. There is no denying that. I believe him.”

After another long pause, Gahn Buroudei swished his tail in agreement.

“As do I. Both Gahn Taliok and I went through what you are going through now. Witnessing the strange faces of our mates in the pools before even knowing such creatures existed. Your words ring true.”

Fallo seethed beside them but said nothing more. I continued.

“This same thing happened to my father before us. When he was summoned by the Kell, the Lavrika of the Bitter Sea, he did not see a woman of his own kind, but rather my mother.” Up until that moment, the two races had lived in utter ignorance of each other, separated by the vast darkness of the water. “My father swam many days, then walked many more until he finally found my mother.” Found was a delicate way to put it. In reality, he abducted her, and took her away to live in secrecy, away from both his people and hers. “My father died when I was a child, and I remained out in the desert with my Sea Sand mother.”

“Why stay hidden in the shadows? Why not make yourself known before now?” Gahn Buroudei asked, cocking his head, his sight stars pulsing.

I bit back a bitter laugh.

“Why do you think, mighty Gahn? Look at the reception I have received here.” I brandished my blade to the group. “I am only one man, and yet I am surrounded by dozens with their weapons drawn. I have killed no one here, and only subdued the men who tried to bind me. The only man of the Sea Sands I have killed in recent days was one of my mother’s own tribe, killed in order to protect one of your new women, the mate of Gahn Taliok. Now I come in search of my mate, a sacred task, and I am met with blades. It is what my mother always knew and feared. I was too different, so she hid me away to protect me. But now that I am a man, a warrior, I do not need her protection. And once I knew I had a mate, I could no longer stay hidden as I was. Fate demanded I shed my old life and come here. And so it has been done.”

“I do not trust this one,” Fallo said, slashing his blade through the air.

“I do.”

The high, soft words made all of us turn. One of the strange females, with hair like red stone, strode through the darkness, away from the large tent that housed my mate. Buroudei and Taliok raised their tails before her, and I watched in interest as she joined Fallo’s side. His mate. The Gahnala.

Her mate bent his head to her, and she spoke into his ear. But not all of her words were quiet enough to escape my primed ears. Words like “battle” and “war” and “allies.” The other two Gahns drew closer, joining in with their conversation. I assumed they would not share the contents of such a conversation with me. But it must have helped them come to some sort of decision, because when they turned back towards me, the next words Gahn Buroudei spoke made my heart lance like a spear.

“Come. We will allow you to see your mate.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Zoey

When Chapman returned to the tent, her face looked ashen. Her eyes fell on me immediately. That can’t be good. She strode over to me, then crouched down next to where I was sitting, her grey eyes meeting mine. Once the lizard man had found his way into the camp, we’d decided to light the candles once more, figuring it wouldn’t cause a problem since he was already here. But all the light in here now let me see the full frown of worry painted on Chapman’s face. And considering that she was a badass soldier, the fact that she was worried was… concerning.

Well, it is worrying when a nine-foot-tall lizard creature comes in here claiming you’re his mate!

That was what he’d said. There was no other way to interpret his words. He’d thrown the spear because the bird – the drone – had approached his mate. When his spear had gone through it, I had been the only one around. And the drone had been flying right in front of my face.

“So, here’s the situation,” Chapman said. I sucked in a breath, preparing myself for whatever was coming next. Though I wasn’t really prepared. How could I be? “We’ve agreed to let the lizard man see you.”

“You what?” I breathed out shakily. What did that mean? Like, alone? Why did I have to see him?

I wasn’t the only one with those questions. Kat exploded, jumping up next to me, saying “Hell, no!” The other girls nodded and spoke in agreement. But Chapman held up a hand, and eventually, everyone quieted. My heart hammered, my mouth went dry. What are they planning…?

“We have only agreed to let him see you. Not touch you. Not take you anywhere. It will be a supervised meeting. You won’t be alone with him even for a second.”

“But… why?” Why the hell did I have to go talk to the Godzilla that apparently wanted to snatch me away to be his little human wife?

Chapman sighed, then pursed her lips.

“It’s not ideal. I know that. But it might be necessary.”

“Necessary, my ass!” Kat said, crouching down with us and elbowing Chapman. “Tell us what the hell is going on. You know I’m just going to get it from Galok, who will hear it from Buroudei anyway.”

Chapman looked at Kat, then back at me.

“Alright, here it is. I think the presence of that drone means that the human forces might be coming back. We might need to put up a fight to protect the life we’ve built here. And to protect the people who’ve helped us.” The rest of her sentence hung unspoken in the air: The people we love… at least some of her lines of worry were for her mate. Kat went pale in the candlelight, no doubt thinking of her own Galok, the man she’d already almost lost once.

“OK, but what does that have to do with me going out to talk to some crocodile that walks on two legs?” I cried. None of this made any sense.

“He claims to come from a species of aliens who look like him. Many of them, even bigger and stronger than him. If we need to mount a defence against human forces, we’re going to need every ally we can get.”

My mouth fell open.

“You mean you’re bartering me away like some medieval bride? To get allies?”

“No,” Chapman said firmly, clapping her hand down on my shoulder. I drew my knees up to my chest, placing my forehead upon them, my breaths coming fast and shallow. This was all going way too fast. It was too much pressure. Too much weirdness. Just… too much. But Chapman’s hand felt firm and reliable on my shoulder, and I forced myself to listen to her words.

“We are literally just having this guy take a look at you from a distance. We would never send you anywhere with him. We would never give up any human for something like that. It’s not happening.” Chapman sounded sincere, almost angry, and I raised my head to look at her.

“We’re hoping that when he sees you, he’ll be even more attached to the survival of the whole group of us. And that he’ll agree to go back and speak to his people to ally with us against a potential attack.”

I breathed out unsteadily. I had to admit, it kind of made sense. If he really felt this mate bond or whatever it was, then he’d want me and my people to survive, right?

Or…

“What if he doesn’t care about anybody else or this alliance or anything? What if he tries to take me?”

I sounded pathetic, like a little girl after a nightmare, whimpering in her bed. But I couldn’t help it. Seeing that huge creature had awoken a primal fear inside me. And the fact that he knew my face, that he was looking for me, made it so much worse.

“He won’t,” Chapman said fiercely. “I’ll be there. So will all three of the Gahns, and a whole party of warriors.”

I chewed my lip, pushing my glasses further up my nose.

“When would I have to go?” I asked shakily.

“Honestly? Right now. I came in here to get you.”

I groaned. “Not much time to prepare, eh?”

Chapman shrugged apologetically.

“Sorry. Things are happening quick out there. But like I said, you don’t need to do anything. We’re just going to walk out there to see him. That’s it.”

Already, I was imagining a million ways this could go wrong. But if this was something that had to be done for the future protection of all of us, I already knew that I would do it. There was no other choice. And like she’d said, it wasn’t like I had to do anything, right? I just had to stand there and let him see me.

I nodded once. Chapman gave a thin, mirthless smile and stood, reaching for my hand and pulling me to my feet. Like it had on my shoulder, her hand in mine felt good. Solid. I can trust her. I can trust all of them. These were my girls, my people, my family, now. They were all I had left.

Chapman held firm to my hand as we exited the tent.

“I’ll be right next to you the whole time. Your own personal bodyguard,” she said, tossing me a sideways glance. I tried to smile at her, but I could tell by how it felt that it probably looked mangled and strange.

“Where is he?” I asked.

“We’re meeting just beyond the tents, in a clearing in the cliffs. It’s where Gahn Taliok’s people used to live. We wanted to be clear of the tents…”

“If everything goes to shit,” I said flatly. She squeezed my hand.

“Just a precaution.”

We exited the settlement and moved onto the open sands. I was vaguely aware of two warriors following us from the settlement, weapons drawn and ready, but I paid them little mind. In fact, my mind was totally blank. The only thing I was aware of was the heavy sink of dread in my chest as I made my way to meet the monster.

The sand gleamed in the night, the cliffs drawing high beside us like a rough curtain. Maybe we can just keep on walking forever, and never go see this guy…

But all too soon we reached a crevice in the cliff.

“This way,” Chapman said. The Sea Sand warriors with us split up, one leading the way ahead of us, the other following behind. We moved through the rock until everything opened into a large, round clearing in the stone. Above, the sky’s darkness poured down, the clearing open to the sky.

Gulping, I let my eyes fall over the scene. Like there had been in the settlement, there was a circle of warriors, but the circle was much tighter this time. The men were shoulder to shoulder. It should have been impossible to see what was in the centre of the circle, if it weren’t for the fact that the man in the centre was taller than any man between us.

Man? Nope. Definitely not.

Because the thing in the centre of the group was absolutely not a man.

The circle of warriors parted to let Chapman and me in. If it hadn’t been for her pulling me by the hand, I wouldn’t have been able to move. The creature before me was too unreal, too terrifying.

But there he was. Chapman and I stopped about three metres from the huge beast. On one side of the lizard man stood Chapman’s mate, Fallo. On his other side stood Buroudei and Taliok. I saw Galok behind them, in the circle, his usually jaunty expression stoic and serious.

I focused on the men I recognized so that I wouldn’t have to look at the creature I didn’t. But I could only avoid his gaze for so long. Finally, barely breathing, my eyes dragged over the sand between us, then up. Up over his long, three-clawed, scaled feet, up his thick lizard-like legs, his wide, muscled chest, his scaled shoulders. Up, up over his thick, ridged neck. Up over the crocodile snout. Up. Up to the eyes. Eyes pinned relentlessly on me.

I gasped, feeling every hair rise on my body. I wished I’d had the foresight to have brought my solar protection jacket. I was just in the grey pants and tank top we’d been given on the ship, and I felt beyond exposed. But then again, even with the jacket on, I wasn’t sure that I’d ever feel anything but exposed under that terrible glare.

His eyes were large and black and they had the glimmering, spinning shards that the Sea Sand men did. But they were positioned differently, further apart, and under a heavy ridged brow that made him look… intense.

Intensely angry.

Maybe I don’t meet up to his expectations. Maybe after seeing me, he’ll just pack his shit and head on out. But then I remembered what Chapman had said about needing him and his people, and I realized with an internal groan that that wouldn’t work.

“We’ve brought her, as you’ve asked,” Chapman said beside me, her voice remarkably steady. Damn, that girl was cool under pressure. I wished I had a slice of that somewhere inside me. As for me, it seemed my voice had disappeared forever.

“Yes,” the creature said, and I tensed at the nearness of him. He wasn’t even within arm’s reach, but his voice seemed to crawl right under my skin, deep and stony and echoing down my spine. His sight stars, the shimmering shards of his eyes, pulled tight. Moving from my face down my body so slowly that it made me cross my arms.

“Eyes up here,” I muttered under my breath, apparently finding my voice again. Chapman looked at me, as if surprised those were the first words I’d spoken to this guy, but could she blame me? He was raking his eyes down my body as if I were naked.

“Are you injured?” he finally said, his buzzing sight stars locking onto my eyes once more.

I blinked.

“What?”

“When I destroyed the bird that approached you, there was much wreckage and even sparks and smoke. But I do not see any sign of injury. Please confirm this.”

Oh. So that was why he was dragging his weird eyes down my body like that? To make sure I’m not injured?

Probably to make sure his wife isn’t some inferior product or something. Damaged goods.

Maybe I should lie. Tell him I did get injured. If that really is his thought process, then maybe he won’t want me…

It was stupid, I knew. But so was this whole fucking situation. The fact that I was on an alien planet, bound by fate to some lizard monster.

And I had gotten injured. Kind of. After the drone had fallen, I’d been poking around it and had sliced my finger on a bit of jagged metal. It hadn’t happened when he’d thrown his spear, but still.

“Yes, I was injured,” I said, my voice shaking like a freaking leaf on a tree. And not a hearty green leaf, either. Like the last, lonely, dried-up leaf to fall before the season’s first snowstorm.

I felt Chapman’s sharp look from beside me, since I obviously hadn’t complained to her about any injury. I pulled my hand from hers, holding it up so she could see the small cut on my finger. Then I turned forward once again, hoping that the lizard man had lost interest in me, somehow.

But when I turned back to him, I froze.

The brutal creature’s eyes were ablaze. Black and silver fire. He growled, moving to take a thunderous step forward. But all three Ghans reacted instantly, snapping spears and blades in front of him to block his path.

What the hell, why is he so mad? My heart in my throat, I stepped back.

The lizard man looked like he was about to tear apart the Gahns to get to me. But he didn’t take another step. His voice tight and growling, he asked, “Is your injury serious? And has it been treated?”

There was an odd note lancing his voice I hadn’t heard before. OK, obviously that tactic didn’t work.

“It’s fine. It doesn’t matter,” I said quickly, backtracking.

He glowered at me, silent for a long moment before speaking again.

“It does matter.”

I flinched as, in a heavy, fluid movement, the massive creature fell to his knees.

“Careful,” Chapman whispered to me, her eyes never straying from the kneeling alien.

“My mate,” the creature began, his voice rasping. “I have travelled untold distances. Days upon days. I have endured the desert and all its monstrosities to find you. And now that you are here, I cannot…” He paused, and his brow tightened, lowering. “I cannot find any part of myself worthy of your beauty. And now, knowing that I have injured you while trying to protect you…”

He tossed his knife down to the sand between us. I stared at it questioningly as he raised his massive arms out to the side.

“Do with my blade what you will. Take my own blood to match yours.”

Um. What the actual fuck?

“I am not going to do that!” I said, jerking my head towards Chapman. This meeting was going off the rails mighty quick. I pinned Chapman with a look that I hoped said fucking mayday, bitch!

Chapman nodded then turned back to the massive monster on his knees.

“This is not the way of the human women. She is not going to hurt you with your own blade.”

The creature stared at us. He almost looked… distressed? It was hard to tell on his lizard face.

“Why not?” he asked, now just looking at me.

“Because… that’s fucking insane!” I cried, shaking my head, making my braids whip back and forth over my shoulders. Not only was this dude massive and terrifying, but apparently he was also crazy.

He made a long, low sound in his chest. A rumbling, pensive growl.

“I have caused my mate pain. My actions have injured her.” His tail swept upwards over his eyes as he lowered himself further, planting his dark, scaled palms on the sand. Then his tail fell away, and everything in me clenched as that intense gaze found my face once again.

“It will never happen again, my sacred one. When you and I leave here together as mates, know that I, Kor, will treasure you like the greatest grogar pearl of the Bitter Sea. Your hurts are my hurts, now. No harm will come to you, for as long as I breathe and my claws hold strong.”

But the one who wasn’t breathing now was me.

When we leave here together as mates…

“She is not leaving with you. That was never part of the bargain,” Fallo hissed, jerking his blade closer to the lizard alien. Kor. Kor stood immediately, snatching his blade from the sands in a movement that should have been impossible considering his size. He’s way too fucking fast…

“Will you deny her passage to leave with her mate?” Kor asked, almost sounding confused.

“But I’m not your mate!” I cried, unable to hold back any longer. All of this was going way too far. I felt like I was about to be scooped up and abducted. For the second time in my life.

Kor swivelled his massive head towards me. The asteroid light caught on the ridges and black spikes that lined his skull and the back of his neck. The size of him, his sheer deadly power, was overwhelming.

“What did you just say?”

His words had no tone of rebuke in them, but they made me freeze up all the same. But I had to keep going. Make this clear, now, in front of him and everyone.

“I said that I am not your mate.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Kor

I had never known such beauty and such pain. She’s here. She’s real. I was so close, now. Mere steps from her.

And yet I could not touch her. Could not go to her. It was an agony worse than any other. To see her. To smell her. And not be with her.

This was already not going how I’d expected. How I’d hoped. My mother had said that, once a warrior was summoned by either the Lavrika of the Bitter Sea or the Sea Sands, the mate bond was awakened in his mate, too. And that the first moment the female glimpsed her mate’s face after the summoning, she felt it. But I saw no sign of that bond in this tiny, strange, and lovely creature before me. I was not used to her flat, soft features, but they did not seem to show any trace of joy or love. Her dark eyes shifted, uneasy and mistrusting, behind strange clear shells. And then her next words came, shattering any illusions or hopes I had had about taking her away from here willingly.

“I am not your mate.”

This did not make sense. It did not add up. Ask her to repeat herself.

I must have heard her wrong.

“What did you just say?”

But the words were even clearer, even more poignant, even more piercing, than they had been before.

“I said I am not your mate.”

“How can this be…?” I muttered, feeling my sight stars unspool in confusion, trying to take in more of her. Learn more. Understand more.

“The new women do not feel the mate bond as we do,” Gahn Buroudei said from beside me. “Every man who has a mate from among the new women has had to win her love with his own power and skills.”

My tail thrashed in irritation, making the Gahns tense and hiss.

“But I have no such skills,” I growled. My mother had told me nothing of this. Of winning my mate’s love. Of forging the mate bond with my own hands, my own heart. She had only told me of the automatic birth of the mate bond in her, strong and sure, despite the distance, despite my father’s actions.

“No, you do not. A beast like you could never successfully win a new woman to him, not like the strong men of the Sea Sands,” Fallo sneered from beside me. And in that moment, I felt everything come down around me. Everything that had led me through the desert, that had given me hope. That had painted my world with such beauty. It was all collapsing.

Why not make it all come down… If my mate would not come with me, would never see me as a mate, I had no reason to maintain peace here. I turned to Fallo, snarling, spikes rising, ready to fight. I’d tear them all apart. I had waited long enough, suffered their injustices, their indignities, I would -

“Would you two knock it off!”

The voice of Fallo’s Gahnala made the snarl back down in my throat. Fallo, too, looked chastised, turning to face his mate. I turned, too, horrified to see the look of fear on my mate’s face at my show of aggression, the exposure of my spikes. I wanted to go to her, take her tiny face in mine, tell her that I would never hurt her, no one would ever hurt her. That my body was a weapon wielded only for her, now. But I knew the Gahns would not allow that. And she would likely have no interest in hearing it. Besides, it seemed the Gahnala had more to say.

“We’ve let you see Zoey.” Zoey. That was her name. Zoey. Was such a beautiful collection of sounds ever put together before? I did not think so. I looked at Zoey as the Gahnala spoke, aching at the way the silvered light glimmered on her dark braids, the way it turned her brown skin into shimmering silk. Maybe I can still fight them all off. Take her, and take her now.

Take her like my father took my mother.

I shook myself from that distasteful thought, focusing on the Gahnala’s words.

“Kor, we have more to talk to you about. You’ve seen your mate. Now we have a proposition for you.”

“What is it?” I asked of her, my eyes never straying from Zoey.

She paused, and I almost had to turn my gaze to look at her questioningly. But luckily, she continued with no such intervention, so my gaze on Zoey’s face was unbroken. Even if she never takes me as a mate, coming all this way has been worth it, just to see her…

“A war is coming. And we need allies.”

This made me turn to look at her. I was surprised by this. Wars and battles were often raging between the tribes of the Sea Sands. It was their way, their culture, and the normal state of affairs. I’d never heard of them needing to seek new allies before. In fact, the way the three tribes had already settled here together was unknown in their history.

“Why?” I asked. “With the three tribes here already, you will have no trouble facing either of the remaining tribes of the desert.”

“That’s not the enemy I’m talking about.”

Tension rolled through my body, and my spikes threatened to emerge again. The warriors of the Bitter Sea did not know of the men of the Sea Sands. My father had been the only one, and he had taken the secret of their existence to his grave to protect my mother and her people. So besides the other tribes, what other enemy could there be?

“The enemy is the humans. Our people. They left us here, and now we think they’re coming back with weapons.”

“To reclaim you?” I breathed through a tight chest. Zoey had already told me she did not feel herself to be my mate, But I still held out on some small hope for us. So the news that I could lose her completely was a terrible one. A thought that made me want to rage. Break stone.

“I don’t want to lie to you, especially if you’re going to be our ally. So I’ll tell you that I don’t think they’re coming to take us away. But I don’t think they’re coming in peace, either. They want the Lavrika’s blood. That’s why we were sent here in the first place, to examine it. To collect it. When our mission failed, we thought it was over, and we made our lives here. But now that drone – the bird you killed – makes us think that they might be coming back. And if they do, we’ll all be in danger.”

I stared at the Gahnala, trying to make sense of so many of her words. Finally, I asked the question that had haunted me since the moment I’d seen my mate’s face. And I did not ask it of the Gahnala. I asked it of Zoey.

“Who are you?”

The Gahnala gave my mate a small nudge and she spoke, haltingly, but her voice like sweet water in my ears.

“We’re humans. We’re from Earth. It’s another planet. Um… another world. Out there.”

She aimed a graceful, small arm up at the sky, and I followed her pointed finger in confusion. She was pointing out to the broad chaos of the stars.

“You came from the sky?” I asked.

“Beyond it,” Zoey said. I wrenched my head back down, trying to make sense of all of this. Of her. Could it be possible? To come from beyond the skies? She has travelled even further than I have to meet her fate. But now that she is here, she rejects it…

“We need allies in case things get ugly,” the red-haired Gahnala continued. “We want you to return to your people, tell them of the situation, and return with their leaders to negotiate terms with us.”

I took a deep breath, stilling myself. I already knew such a thing would be impossible.

“I cannot.”

The Gahnala narrowed her eyes.

“Why not?”

“Many reasons,” I answered honestly. “The people of the Bitter Sea do not know of me nor of any of you. My father left them and never returned with my mother or me. We remained hidden in the desert. If I were to approach them, I would receive a welcome much like the one I have received here. A welcome of weapons.”

“But if the new women are correct, if this enemy comes into our world once more, we will all be in danger. Your people and ours,” Buroudei said from my left, lowering his blade slightly.

“It’s the only way to protect Zoey,” the Gahnala called over, her voice hard like stone, and then I knew that I was trapped. I knew this was a manipulation – using my mate’s safety to gain my compliance. But even so, if there was even a shred of truth in what she said, that Zoey could be in danger, I would do it. I would do anything for her, even now. Even as she looked at me like I was no more than one of the vicious winged beasts I’d killed in the cliffs.

“I will do it,” I ground out, my gaze falling to my mate’s face once more. A face curved with more loveliness than anything of this world. For her, I would face the almost certain death my father’s people would offer me. “But you must know that it is unlikely I will be successful. They will view me as an enemy, as you have, and try to end me. Even if they do not, I am not sure I could convince them of all this. Of women from beyond the sky and enemies they do not know. They have no reason to trust me.”

“He speaks truth,” Taliok grunted.

“Yes, this is true. If an unknown warrior showed up and tried to convince us of all of this now, we would not believe him,” Buroudei conceded. Well, at least they see the folly of the death mission they send me upon.

“Then let’s all go. Let’s take a party across the desert to meet them.”

The Gahnala’s words made everyone still. Her mate was the first to react, hissing and whipping his tail.

“Absolutely not. We will not send any new woman across the sands for this. I do not even want to welcome the water men to begin with.”

“We need them!” his mate cried, and for the first time, I saw her calm authority slip, panic coming through. “We have no other choice. Going to meet them will be dangerous, yes. But the alternative is worse. If we don’t warn everyone, gather every ally we possibly can, we’re doomed. We’re probably doomed either way, but this gives us a fighting chance. If some of us go with him, his people will have to at least know we’re telling the truth about what’s out there.”

The Gahnala was wise and foolish at the same time. I saw both the purpose and the danger of this mission. But if the threat she spoke of was that great, perhaps she was right. Perhaps there was no other way.

“I agree to the mission no matter the terms. I will go alone or with people from your camp. But know the journey will be long and difficult. Once we get to the Bitter Sea, I will have to swim on without you and convince the leaders of the Bitter Sea to come back to shore to meet you.” I just hoped they would not kill me before then. I was the only one who spoke both the tongues of the Bitter Sea and the Sea Sands. I remembered little of my father, but his language was imbued into my bones and body. My mouth was more suited to it, my forked tongue moving around its sounds more easily than that of the Sea Sands. I would act as translator, messenger for the purpose of these tribes in order to assist my mate and her people. Despite the violence with which I had been welcomed, I would do this. For her.

“When will we leave?”

“As soon as possible,” the Gahnala said, and her mate grunted beside me. “If it takes as long as you say to get there, then we should leave tomorrow morning. First light.”

“Fine,” I agreed. I was already bereft at the thought of leaving without my mate. I would do this for her, whether she accepted me or not, but maybe in doing this, she would learn to trust me. Open to me. And later, come with me.

Assuming I survived.

CHAPTER NINE

Zoey

Chapman held my arm the whole way back to the tent, as if I’d fall right over without her. And I wasn’t entirely sure that line of thinking was wrong. My legs felt like rubber, my limbs weak from the adrenaline dumping out of my system.

When we got back to the tent, I sagged to a seated position. Kat and Theresa were at my side immediately.

“What happened?” Kat asked, her fierce gaze swinging between Chapman and me.

“I don’t even know,” I said, slouching forward, rubbing my fingers under my glasses, pressing on my eyes. I could feel the beginnings of a wicked headache brewing.

“I’ll keep it quick. We’re going to ask the lizard guy, Kor, to go back to his people and gain their alliance in case any Earth forces arrive here. If Earth forces come, and come with weapons, we’re probably fucked. But the more huge alien monster fighters we have on our side, the better,” Chapman explained.

“Holy shit, you really think that’s a good idea?” Kat asked, her eyes going wide.

“We don’t have a choice,” Chapman said with a tense shrug. “Tomorrow at first light, me, Fallo, Taliok, and maybe a couple of the other warriors are going to leave with Kor. Buroudei’s going to stay and look after things here.”

“Wait, you’re the only human woman going?” I said, pulling my hands away from my eyes and looking up at her. Standing above me like that, her hard shoulders set, her fiery hair pulled back tight, she looked invincible. But I knew she wasn’t, no matter how strong she was. None of us were invincible, especially here.

“I’ve been on missions before. I can handle it. Besides, I have to go to keep Fallo in line. He can be a bit of a loose cannon in situations like this, but…” Her face softened, her eyes growing far away. “But if things turn ugly, there’s no one else I’d rather have fighting at my side.”

I nodded, swallowing. None of this felt right. For some reason, I felt vaguely… Responsible for this. This lizard guy, Kor, had come here for me. He was apparently my mate, and yet Chapman was going to be the one risking her life to go find his people and negotiate for us?

Should I go?

No. What would I have to offer them? I mean, sure, I had skills as an engineer. But what else? I wasn’t a trained soldier like Chapman, or an untrained one like Kat.

Chapman said a quick goodnight then left the tent. Kat rose to leave, too, to return to Galok’s tent for the night, but I caught her hand, pulling her back down.

“What’s up?” she said, sitting again. I chewed my lip, feeling unable to put my feelings into words. They came out an awkward, garbled mess.

“How do you do it? Just, like, face everything head-on, no fear?”

She laughed, shaking her head.

“I wouldn’t say there’s no fear, necessarily. But I guess I trust in myself to put up a damn good fight against whatever comes my way.”

“OK… And what about your mate, Galok? Did you put up a fight against him?” I couldn’t imagine trying to mount a fight against Kor. One swipe of his claws would destroy me. And yet, the stark, aching gentleness of his words haunted me. Your hurts are my hurts, now…

Kat laughed again, more heartily this time.

“You should have seen how much I rejected him, man! Do you know how hard that motherfucker worked to make me like him, love him? Damn.”

I cracked a smile at that thought.

“Too bad I was stuck in the ship and didn’t get to witness any of that,” I teased.

Kat turned serious.

“Yeah, but you were in the ship right when we needed you. You ask me how I’m so fearless? Don’t you remember how you sprang into fucking action that night? Without even a second’s hesitation, you jumped in to help me when Galok was dying. You rigged a pulley up on the irkdu like fucking MacGyver. And when a literal alien dragon showed up and made you get into the pool, you did it, chin held high, even though you couldn’t swim.”

“I guess,” I mumbled, taking my glasses off to polish them. Kat’s words made me uncomfortable. None of what I’d done seemed particularly brave to me. It had just… needed to be done.

“Well, I think you’re a badass. Without you, my idiot of a mate wouldn’t be here. You wanna talk about fear? That was the most fear I ever felt in my life, I swear.” Her voice was hard, but I heard the threat of tears behind it. I looped an arm around her neck, pulling her in.

“We’re a team, that’s for sure,” I said. “All of us.” Like it or not, this was my life, my reality now. And these girls were the closest thing I had to a family. We were in this together.

And that’s when I knew it. I didn’t want to know it. I wanted to run from it. But I knew it all the same. Knew that it was true. That it was needed. That it was right.

I knew that I couldn’t let Chapman go alone.

I BARELY SLEPT, SO it was easy to rise before first light and quickly pack a bag with the essentials since I was already awake. I stuffed away an extra uniform, extra socks, sunscreen, and sunglasses. I packed the iPod I’d snagged from the security room on the ship, too, along with the little solar charger I’d whipped up with spare parts from the cargo bay. Even once it was all stowed away, it felt mighty light for gear meant to get me through a days-long trip across the desert. But it would have to do.

I slipped out of the tent silently, heart hammering. Maybe I should turn around. Go back. Let Chapman handle all of this…

No. I wasn’t going to do that. I had made my choice.

I walked through the settlement, unsure where to go. I hadn’t been filled in on whatever details had been shared after Chapman had left the tent. Well, I guess I’ll go towards the open sands. We’d have to leave that way, anyway.

I moved out of the settlement, stopping as I reached the open sands. I didn’t see anyone out waiting out there.

Tabernac. Did they already leave? Was I too late?

I looked right, then left, finally catching sight of someone. Two men, Sea Sand warriors, were standing a little way down the cliffs. I squinted, realizing they were standing at the entrance to the crevice we’d gone into last night. Hefting my pack, I jogged towards them, keeping close to the cliff wall. I’d seen what lurked out on the sands, and I wasn’t keen on getting skewered by an alien crab before the sun even rose today.

When the warriors caught sight of me, on ran to me, escorting me the last stretch of the way.

“You should not be out on the sands alone,” he chastised as we drew level with the other guy, still waiting at his station, spear ready at his side.

“Well, I made it, didn’t I?” The response came out more barbed than I’d intended. But after living on my own back in Montréal, then being alone in the ship, it felt weird to have someone telling me where I could go and what I could do. “I’m looking for Chapman, the Gahnala.”

The warrior who’d escorted me swished his tail in a gesture I was learning meant something like a human nod of the head, then moved into the cliff with me. I fought to keep my breath steady, trying to ignore the fact that not only was I looking for Chapman, but the whole party. Which meant I was looking for him.

We entered the round clearing we’d been in last night. The first blush of dawn was streaking over the sky, making things lighter and warmer than they’d been a few hours ago. The rusty light illuminated the reddish stone, casting burgundy shadows. In one spot, Chapman and Fallo stood together, In another stood Galok and Taliok. And in the centre of it all, his broad back to me, was Kor.

Heat slammed my body, sending my heart hammering up into my throat. He hadn’t noticed me yet, and was standing still, his head turned up to the rapidly lightening sky. I’d only seen him in darkness, before, but now, for the first time, I was seeing him in the light.

The golden-red sunrise drenched his scales and ridges, making what appeared to be a deep grey-ish blue look almost red, the colour of wine. Black spikes shimmered with sunrise-gold tips, laying flat against the back of his neck, getting larger down his spine and along his massive tail. He was standing upright on his legs, taller than anyone else in the place, his shoulders wider, his back broader. He was practically prehistoric-looking. More dinosaur than man.

And yet…

There was something in his posture, the positioning of his head as he stared upwards and the diminishing stars, the falling line of asteroids, that felt almost familiar. Almost recognizable. I looked up, too, following his gaze, taking a moment to appreciate the stunning beauty of the bright haze growing over the sky.

I sighed, then wrenched my gaze back down as I saw Kor stiffen. He’s found me.

He made no sudden movements. He didn’t spin and run towards me. He just, very slightly, turned his huge reptilian head on his massive shoulders, capturing me in his gaze. And it was like, with that one simple movement, he’d stolen every breath from my body. I couldn’t exactly place why. Part of it was fear, certainly. But there was more to it than that. There was an edge of anticipation that made me flinch.

I didn’t want to come back and see him. Did I?

But as Kor finally, slowly, turned to fully face me, I had to admit that there was a shred of curiosity inside me. Just a shred. I was an academic, after all. I was just interested in examining something new. Something I’d never encountered before.

Right?

Barely breathing, I stared at Kor. He remained still under my gaze as it tracked down his thick neck, his ridged shoulders, his powerful chest, his loincloth. Dieu merci. Thank God he was at least partially dressed. The hide loincloth was the only thing he wore. He didn’t have the many leather straps across his chest and back that the Sea Sand warriors did. I guess you don’t need all that when your whole body is a weapon, I thought to myself with a grimace, eyeing the long black claws, the currently flattened spikes.

He did have a few weapons, though. Someone had returned his spear to him, and he still had his one long blade at his hip, tucked into his loincloth.

His fanged mouth opened, as if about to speak, when Chapman finally noticed me. She jogged over, moving between Kor and me, and I saw him snap his jaws shut and turn away. There was something painful in his movement. Something that made me bite my lip.

“What are you doing here?” Chapman said, eyeing my solar protection jacket and pack.

“I’m coming with you,” I said, forcing my voice to be steady. I was sure of my decision. But I wanted to sound sure, too.

If Chapman was surprised, she didn’t show it.

“It’s going to be dangerous. It’s safer to stay here,” she said, cocking her head and looking at me appraisingly.

“I know,” I said firmly. “But…” My eyes tracked over to Kor’s dark, scaled back involuntarily. Shaking my head slightly, I turned my eyes back to the soldier before me. “But it isn’t right that you’re the only human out here risking your life. I feel like I should be going, too.”

Chapman stared at me for a long moment. I wondered what she saw. A quiet girl from Montréal who’d never seen a lick of danger in her life. But finally, she nodded, clapping her strong hand against my shoulder.

“I’m not going to order you to stay back if this is important to you. This mission could be key to our survival, and honestly, having Kor’s mate along for the ride might strengthen our case with his people. They’ll be able to see you’re real, and that you and all of us need their protection.”

I’d flinched at the word mate, and her hand squeezed at my shoulder.

“You know what I mean. His mate, as in, who he saw in his people’s Lavrika pools. Everything stands just as it was – you’re never going to be forced into a relationship with anyone, no matter what. No one will touch you without your consent.” Her voice grew hard on those last words, and I nodded, lifting my chin and pushing up my glasses. I believed her. I knew she and the other warriors would protect any of the women.

But honestly, would I even need that protection?

Kor had made no move to come towards me. He was facing me again, his gaze relentless on my face, intense and unending. But he wasn’t… doing anything else. There were only three men and Chapman here, now, and from what I’d seen he could take out three men pretty easily. But he didn’t try.

As Kor watched me, shadowy and scaled, it fully hit me. What he was sacrificing to help us. He’d said his people might kill him on sight. He was risking his life to help us, and had been given no indication that he’d get anything out of it. I’d rejected him completely, and yet here he was, putting his life on the line for us. For me.

My thoughts were distracted from Kor and the intensity of his dark gaze by Galok, Gahn Taliok, and Gahn Fallo coming our way. Chapman filled them in quickly on the fact that I was joining the party.

“She can ride with me,” Galok said, smiling down at me. I nodded, smiling back. That sounded good. Galok was one of the guys I was most familiar with, and I liked him. He was so chill and easy-going when so many of the other Sea Sand guys… weren’t.

“I will run back to the settlement and retrieve Kat’s saddle for you,” Galok said. He took off, loping out of the clearing, his long legs pumping. At his speed, it didn’t take him long to get back here with the bundle of hides used as a human saddle.

“Well… are we ready?” I said, glancing around. Chapman nodded.

“Yup. Time to get the irkdu and go.”

We moved back out of the cliffs, past the two guards who had met me earlier, out to the open sands. Fallo, Taliok, and Galok clicked their tongues and cried out, and soon enough three huge irkdu came lumbering out of crags in the stone further down the cliffs. Their hundreds of centipede-like legs carried them quickly over the sand. They huffed and tossed their heads, making a reverberating growling sound when they got close, snapping their huge snouts at Kor. Kor regarded them coolly, and I almost wanted to shout at him to get back. But the Sea Sand men were on it, commanding their creatures to back down. The well-trained irkdu relaxed, and a few moments, we all mounted – me with Galok, Chapman with Fallo, and Taliok alone on his mount.

As Galok helped me settle into the saddle, I turned to look at him seated behind me.

“I’m surprised Kat let you come on this trip alone. Considering it’s going to be dangerous, I would have thought she’d be fighting tooth and nail to come with you.”

Galok’s signature grin stretched across his face, his copper sight stars growing fuzzy.

‘“Yes, it was difficult to convince her to stay, it is true. But she wants to continue her own work at the ship. She is working hard to learn the secrets of the Lavrika’s blood.”

I nodded. That made sense. If the humans were going to come back and fight us for the milky stuff, it would be good to know exactly what it was. And maybe learn if we could use it to our advantage.

“She did command me to return to her side alive, though, lest she kill me herself,” Galok said jauntily, and I laughed, shaking my head and facing forward. As I did so, my eyes caught on Kor, so different from Galok’s ease and smiles. He was a hulking statue of reptilian intensity. I tried to imagine having banter with him the way Kat and Galok did, and I just… couldn’t.

Looking down at Kor, I realized something with a jolt.

“He doesn’t have an irkdu,” I said, whipping my head to look over at Chapman. She didn’t get a chance to respond, though, because Kor lowered himself to all fours, looking more like a crocodile than ever, but with much longer arms and legs and a slightly more humanoid shape to his shoulders and back.

“Do not worry about that. I will not slow us down.”

He tucked his spear’s long bone handle between his fangs and took off, moving with shocking speed over the sands. I stared after him, absolutely gobsmacked, my mouth hanging open in what I was sure was an extremely intelligent expression. But I couldn’t help it. Seeing him move over the sands like that, faster than any man, faster than a fucking horse was… Insane.

And with that, we were off. I tucked my braids into the hood of my cloak, pressing my sunglasses over top of my prescription glasses as the sun trekked higher in the sky. We caught up to Kor pretty quickly on the irkdu, and we let him lead the way, moving quickly over the shimmering sands of the desert.

AFTER A LONG DAY OF travel, we finally settled for the night, the sky darkening above us. We found a small outcropping of stone, high boulders dotting the sand that offered some protection, and stopped to set up camp. As we dismounted, Kor’s rumbling voice cut through the air.

“I will go hunt, now.”

Chapman’s boots hit the sand after Fallo lifted her down.

“We brought a lot of dried meat. We don’t need to hunt yet,” she said.

Kor’s eyes moved from her to me just as Galok helped me down from the irkdu. His gaze fell to where Galok gripped my waist, lifting me down, and was I imagining it, or did I see his huge knuckles tighten around his spear’s handle?

“I will not impose on the stores of meat meant for my mate,” he ground out. And a moment later he was gone, taking off on all fours across the sands again, a shadow in the falling dusk.

Chapman breathed out, watching him go, then turned to me.

“Well, we might as well get the camp ready.”

Quickly, we set up the tent that Chapman and I would share. I felt Fallo’s glare on my back as we did so.

“Is he gonna be OK with this? You know, not sharing a tent with you?” I asked, glancing at the angry Gahn sideways from behind my glasses.

Chapman laughed, tightening the last cord of the tent.

“He’ll be fine. It does him good not to get what he wants all the time.”

“If you say so…” Kor was definitely the scariest dude in our group when it came to appearance. But when it came to attitude, and sheer mental instability? Yeah. Fallo took the cake with that one.

“Where are the other tents?” I asked, realizing that Galok and Taliok were hard at work building the fire, no other tents in sight.

“The guys are going to sleep outside, taking shifts to keep watch.”

“Keep watch?” I thought I’d heard that the desert predators, like the zeelk, were less active at night. Then it hit me.

“You mean to watch Kor.”

Chapman’s mouth thinned into a hard line, and she gave one curt nod. For some reason, this bothered me more than it should have. I completely saw the logic in it. Kor was an unknown entity to all of us. But at the same time, he was risking his life to come with us. Didn’t that earn him at least a little trust?

Speak for yourself, said a harsh voice inside me. You talk about trusting him when all you’ve done is stare at him with fear.

It was true. I had. I mean, the guy looked monstrous, that was for sure. And it was unnerving that he wanted me to be his mate. That he would want to… Dieu, non. I couldn’t, I wouldn’t think about what sexual things with a lizard man would entail. I’d never even had sex with a freaking human man! I was supposed to start with a nine-foot-tall alien with claws and scales and a snout? No thank you!

But weird sexual stuff aside, I resolved to warm up to him. Just a little. He was doing a lot for us, and it wasn’t fair to keep treating him like some kind of enemy. I didn’t have to fully trust him, or anything, I didn’t have to be his best friend. But I could do a little better than the Gahns were doing.

And so when Kor returned not long after leaving, I took a shaky breath and smiled as he strode into our little camp, two dead rakdo in his clawed hands. Galok gave a stiff smile and nodded approvingly at Kor’s hands. The rakdo were long, pretty big animals, about the size of a lynx from back home, but with long, floppy ears and a coppery coat that helped them blend into the sand. They produced a decent amount of meat. I wonder how much protein this mec needs…

“Dinner’s ready?” I said to Kor awkwardly, gesturing to his kills. Then I sucked in a breath and froze. I’d just said my first real words to this guy, outside of our first meeting. Why did they sound so… stupid?

Kor stiffened, his huge head swivelling over to me.

“It will be ready as soon as you tell me how you want it prepared.”

Huh?

“And if rakdo is not to your liking, I will return to the sands and drag back a dakrival for you. But that will take more time.”

Heat flushed through me, and I shook my head quickly.

“Oh, no, that’s OK. You have it. I’m fine with the dried meat we brought.”

Kor remained still for a moment, then jerked his tail.

“As you desire,” he said. Then he shifted his gaze, speaking to the whole group. “Take half of my hunt. An offering.”

He dumped the body of one of the rakdo on the sand, then took the other rakdo around the boulder behind the tent, just out of sight. A few seconds later, the sounds of crunching bones and tearing meat filtered into the camp.

Fallo hissed, drawing Chapman against his broad chest.

“He does not even clean and cook his kills. A feral beast.”

A feral beast? Maybe.

But that “feral beast” had just brought me dinner and offered to prepare it any way I wanted. I was willing to bet that a good percentage of even human men wouldn’t do that for someone, let alone the girl who had rejected them and offered him nothing in return.

This is fucked up. This isn’t right.

I mean, the whole you’re my mate thing was kind of caveman-y, but had Kor really done anything wrong? All he’d done was come looking for his mate. For someone he thought would feel the same way he did. Ouch. When I thought of it that way, it all seemed even worse.

I stewed over all of this as we cooked and ate the rakdo Kor had killed, saving the smoked meat for later in the journey. And with each bite, I knew more and more I couldn’t just sit here anymore.

I wiped the back of my mouth hurriedly, then stood, brushing the back of my pants.

“I’ll be right back.”

CHAPTER TEN

Kor

“I’ll be right back.”

I heard my mate’s words from around the rock and rose immediately, cursing myself for coming over here. For letting her out of my sight for even a moment.

But I just hadn’t been able to stand before her any longer without touching her. I couldn’t be in front of her beauty. It was destroying me. When she’d refused my kills she’d made it clear that I knew nothing of her and how to take care of her. I knew nothing of what she wanted. I knew only what I wanted. And what I wanted was far too much. It was pounding through me with a vicious fury. So I’d had to leave. Come back here and eat in snarling silence.

But when I heard my mate say that, I regretted my weakness. Where was she going, and would she be safe? I took my spear from the ground, straightening and preparing to follow her. The Sea Sand warriors would likely try to stop me, but in this, they would not be successful. Out here on the open sands, all was danger. I would not let her go anywhere alone.

I took a step forward, only to stop mid-stride, my whole being awash with the sudden influx of her scent.

“Kor?”

My name shaped by her voice lit up my spine, making my tail jerk and my cock stir. I snapped my jaws shut, fangs gritting. I felt so different than I’d been before I’d seen her face. The mate bond had changed me irreparably. If I did not know that this love was meant to be good, I would think that it was poison. Loosening my body and burning up my mind. Making me question everything.

I turned to my mate slowly, not wanting to frighten her. I’d seen the fear in those lovely dark eyes. Fear that I had caused. Thankfully, last night the warriors had allowed a healer to paint Lavrika’s blood upon my wounds in preparation for our journey, so at least I did not have blood and torn flesh to add to my terrifying appearance.

Curse me, she was closer than she’d ever been. One step forward and I would have her. I could grasp her small body in my claws, press my snout to her neck, crush her against my frame. Imprison her with my body. I could do it. And it would be so easy.

My body wanted to. Badly.

But my heart did not.

So I remained still, watching the tiny creature that had so inflamed me. So doomed me.

“Zoey,” I responded. Saying her name was almost as intoxicating as hearing her say mine. I noticed a slight intake of breath, a rise of her chest under her strange cloak. My sharp sight fell to her throat, where her pulse thrummed quicker.

“Are you afraid?” I asked, unable to keep the words inside my throat. Her slim, flat brows rose.

“Do you want me to be honest?” she said slowly, tilting her head slightly.

“Yes. I want only your truth.” I ached for it. Burned for it. Even if it would hurt me.

“Honestly, at this point, I don’t know. I’ve never met a… person… like you before. I was barely used to the Sea Sand guys, then you showed up.”

I grunted. So she did not know if she feared me. Perhaps this was better than knowing she did.

I moved down to one knee so that I was not towering over her, raising my arms out to the sides, begging her to look at me, all of me, just as I was.

“I had no control over my parentage or the way my body has been shaped. I am not like the men of the Sea Sands, and I am not like my father’s people, either. And I am certainly not like yours.”

“You got that right,” she conceded with a shaky laugh. I wondered what her people’s men were like. Certainly not worthy of her. Of that I was certain.

But are you?

I pushed that thought aside. If there was ever the chance that Zoey would accept me as her mate, I would make myself worthy. Forge myself harder and stronger. Pull every fibre of strength from the seas and the sands and shape myself into anything she needed.

“I am aware that I may be frightening to you.” My words rasped lower, tearing from my chest. “But I need you to know that my body exists only in service of you. Everything you fear will only be used to protect you. My strength, my body, is solely pledged to you. You should never fear me. Never. Because the weapon of my body was forever meant for only you to wield. And beneath it all, beneath all that makes me strange to you, my heart recognizes yours.”

She stared at me, her small mouth falling open. The starlight caught on her flat teeth and I groaned. Groaned at the ineffectual bluntness of them. Of her defencelessness. I must survive meeting my father’s people so that I may come back and protect her. She is so very small…

“I… don’t even know what to say to that,” she whispered after a long moment.

“You need not say anything. I require nothing from you,” I stated, watching her, unable to look away. But apparently what I had said was not quite true, because as the silence stretched on, I wanted more of her words. “Why did you come back here?”

“Oh, well… I was worried I’d hurt your feelings or something. When I refused the meat you offered. We ended up cooking it and it was great, so thank you.”

I moved lower, seating myself on the sand, and in an almost clumsy, long-limbed movement that made my chest swell with warmth, she did the same.

“You did not hurt my feelings,” I said. “You only made clear how little I know of how to care for you. And I was shamed by that. By my own lack of understanding. My mother tried to tell me how to best care for a mate. She told me of the mate bond. But so much of what I learned from her does not seem to apply to you, to this. And I had no one else to teach me.”

“So it was just you and your mom, eh?” she said, ending her sentence with an odd sound I did not recognize in either language I spoke.

“Yes. My father died when I was very young. I remember little of him. My mother raised me alone in the desert.”

Zoey’s face crumpled inward in a terrifying way, and I was moving in an instant, on all fours before her, my face a breath from hers. My movement distracted her from whatever pain had made her face crunch up so and she gasped.

“What is wrong?” I asked, alarmed to see liquid seeping from the outer corners of her eyes. Before she could respond, I hooked a claw beneath the bizarre shells she wore over her eyes and yanked them away.

“Hey!” she cried, reaching for my hand.

“Wait a moment. Something is wrong with your eyes. Are you bleeding?” Perhaps these shells things were the problem. But then again, she always seemed to wear them, and she had never shed clear blood from her eyes before.

“It’s not blood. It’s tears. Damn. I forget you guys don’t know about stuff like this.” She made a wet sniffing sound and swiped at her eyes. “Can I have my glasses back?”

“What are glasses?”

“They’re the things you’re about to crush in your claws.”

Ah. Her eye shells?

I handed them back to her, and she gave a small smile of thanks. A smile that pounded into me.

“Why do you wear them?” I asked. “Do they stop the tears from coming out?”

“No.” She smiled again, and I leaned ever so slightly closer. She did not seem to notice, as she had busied herself returning the glasses to her face. “I can’t see well without them. They make everything clear.”

“Perhaps you should take them off when around me, then,” I grumbled, suddenly annoyed by the glasses. If she could not see me so clearly, perhaps she would not be afraid. Perhaps she could even grow to like me. Love me.

She sighed, shaking her head.

“No, see, that’s exactly why I came over here. I don’t want you feeling like that. This has been weird for both of us, I think. We’ve both been… shocked by each other. And each other’s reactions.”

She had shocked me, yes. With the otherworldly nature of her beauty. By her very existence.

“Look, I understand this is probably jarring for you. You thought you’d come here, and I’d feel the same way as you right away. And when I didn’t, well, I could see why that would hurt.”

So this was pity, then. Part of me wanted to reject it. I did not want her pity. I wanted the deepest wells of her love. I wanted to hear the secret sounds of her innermost thoughts, the ones no one else got to hear. I wanted all her ages, every moment, every day, from now until we met the dark claws of death. I wanted the richness of her womb and the eager wetness of her cunt. And more than anything else, I wanted her to feel the same.

So, yes, a part of me wanted to push back on the pity. But the larger part, the part that bit and ached and raged for her, wanted anything I could get. I would take anything she had to give. Whatever would drive her to my side.

“So why, then, do you have these tears?” I finally asked, entranced by the rapid blinking behind her glasses, the glossy wetness of her round eyes.

“When you mentioned that you lost your father… I lost my father too. And my mother.”

“So these tears, they are for them? An offering for the dead?” I somehow had gotten even closer to her. One shift of either one of us would have my snout bumping her soft mouth. What would such a soft, flat mouth feel like against my scales?

She sniffed again.

“No. Well. Kind of. It happens when my kind feel strong emotions. Like sadness.”

So sorrow made the tears come. I filed that fact away, working hard to learn everything I could about the tiny being before me. A few more tears appeared, tracking wet lines down her cheeks. I could smell the salt of them, so much like the Bitter Sea of my father’s homeland, and it called to something in me. Something primal, sunk deep in my bones. Before I knew what I was doing, my forked tongue emerged, its twin tips catching the tears as they rolled down her cheeks.

But Zoey did not like this.

She bit back a yelp and flung herself away from me. In doing so, her hip caught on a small rock, and she almost fell backwards. She was about to crack her small skull.

My claws shot out, wrapping around her, one hand at her back, the other cradling her head.

“Let me go right now,” she hissed, her blunt teeth bared in anger. I pulled her back into a sitting position and, regretfully, withdrew my hands from her.

“You’re lucky I didn’t scream! I almost did; I barely stopped myself,” she said, pressing her fingers to her eyes behind her glasses. “If I had screamed, you know those Gahns would have run in here, guns blazing.” I did not know what guns blazing was. But I could picture them running, blades drawn, ready to kill me.

I cast my mind back over everything my mother had taught me about females. About the mate bond. I could not ever remember her mentioning the intense desire to lick someone. I could not place where that drive had come from. But even now, I wanted to do it again. Taste more of her. Not just her tears, because I did not want her to be sad. Though I did like the taste of those, too. The salt of them was so much like the Bitter Sea. I had only been there once, to dispose of my father’s body after his death, and I was so young that I barely remembered it. But I remembered that sharp taste. And the memory flooded through me now, linking me to half my past. The half that made its bed among the waves.

“You taste like my homeland.”

“I’m not going to even pretend I understand what that means,” Zoey replied. “You can’t just go around licking people. First, you tell me to cut you with a knife, now this. Mon Dieu…”

I watched her in silence. The gap between us seemed to be widening the longer we knew each other. The more time I spent next to her, the more obvious our misunderstandings became.

“We are very different,” I said finally.

“Yes. We are.”

Her words hung in the air with mine. There seemed to be nothing else to say. We were so different. We’d come from separate worlds entirely. I had thought that the mate bond would smooth the way for us, lead us to each other without difficulty or strife. But clearly that was not to be.

How could such a gap be bridged? I did not want her to change, to become more like me. She was perfection as she was. But I did not know how to broach perfection such as this. Where she was soft gentleness, I was claws and scales.

Zoey stood, and I did, too. She began walking back around the boulder to the camp, and I remained in step beside her, not willing to give her up for the night yet. Maybe we can always remain like this. In silence. Then I will never say the wrong thing.

Though the licking hadn’t been said. It had been done.

The other human woman was not visible, perhaps already in her tent. The three Sea Sand men stood at our arrival, their eyes wary. They glanced between Zoey and me, and I could see the way they were checking to make sure Zoey was uninjured. My tail snapped in the sand behind me at the disrespect in their looks. The fact that they would think I could possibly hurt my mate was astonishing. And enraging.

Zoey walked over to her tent, and the Sea Sand men stepped up, making sure I did not follow.

I could tear all three of your throats out before any of you even drew a blade…

But Zoey’s soft voice distracted me from the violence of my thoughts.

“You’re right. We are very different.” I looked over the heads of the men to find her face in the darkness. She spoke again.

“But where I come from, we have a saying. I’m not sure it translates very well, though…”

“What is the saying?” I pressed, wanting anything she would tell me. Anything she would give me.

She said a few words I did not recognize in her tongue.

“What does it mean?”

She hesitated, clutching at the hide of her tent, ready to pull it open and move inside, but before she did so, she said two more words.

“Opposites attract.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Zoey

“Why the hell did I just do that?”

“Do what?”

Chapman looked up from where she was seated in a bed of hides, a lit candle beside her. Apparently I’d spoken my question out loud. I was losing control of my damn mouth all over the place tonight.

I slumped to the ground next to Chapman.

“I don’t even know. I think I just gave that guy some hope and… I can’t figure out why I did it.”

Chapman narrowed her eyes at me then gave a small smile.

“Ah, I see. You’re entering the ‘Who am I?’ zone.”

“The what?” I hoped she would start making sense, and start making sense fast. Because over here I was about to lose my mind over the fact that I’d just told a fucking lizard that opposites attract. I’ve probably already lost my mind, let’s be real.

“The ‘Who am I’” zone. The first time things got… intense between Fallo and me, I remember wondering who the hell I was and where the old me, the me who would never want to be with an alien, had gone.”

“Um, OK, I’m definitely not in that zone. Because I am still in the ‘I would never want to be with an alien’ zone!” I cried, my eyes widening.

Chapman looked at me for a long moment, then simply said, “You sure?”

I spluttered, staring at her. Excuse me, but what fucking audacity! I didn’t want to get with a kangaroo alien, and I definitely didn’t want to get with a crocodile one!

“I’m sure!” I finally responded.

“So then why did you say whatever you said? Whatever you did to give him hope?”

I froze, stumped. I mean, I’d partially said it because it was just true. It was a saying from back home, and my own parents had been total opposites – my dad the quiet, introverted engineer, my mom the vivacious, exuberant artist. And I’d also said it just because the guy looked like he needed a bit of freaking hope in his life. But then again, I’d never been the type to lead a guy on before. So why…?

I didn’t answer Chapman, instead lying down in my hides, running her question over and over again in my mind. A few moments later, Chapman blew out the candle, leaving me in the darkness with my own fucked up thoughts.

And they were fucked up. They were beyond fucked up.

Because when Kor had been so close to me, looming over me, I hadn’t necessarily wanted to push him away. And when he’d licked me, putain, I’d… kind of liked it. Outside of the shock it had caused me, and the jolt of fear the nearness of his fangs had caused, there had been a hot pang of pleasure that had sounded low in my pelvis. His tongue had been slightly rough, forked into two long parts, and the drag of it over my skin had been… weirdly nice.

Tabernac. I remembered when, in my first year of university, a girl on my floor had passed around a book of dinosaur erotica as a joke. I’d laughed at it then because it was so absurd. Is this who I am now? Someone who’s into dinosaur erotica? Someone who wants some adult Land Before Time action?

But then again, the dinosaur erotica story had been shallow and flat and frankly really weird. The dinosaur wasn’t able to speak, and was barely above an animal. And that was nothing like Kor. Jesus, Kor was like someone took a painfully sincere romance novel hero and wrapped him up in a big lizard bow. I mean, those words. Words that promised things I was pretty sure no woman on Earth had ever been promised. Words about the taste of his homeland and the way his heart recognized mine. Words that were so over the top they would have sounded beyond fake from anyone else. They would have sounded like lies. But from him, I knew that they were true. I had no doubt that he really felt that way. In fact, I didn’t even think he had the social wherewithal to lie about something like that. To try to manipulate me. There was something almost innocent and sheltered about him, which was crazy, considering what he looked like. Considering the fact he was a hardened warrior of the desert. But he’d only ever really known his mom before this. And I had a feeling he had no idea how to navigate whatever the hell this was.

But then again, neither do I.

Fuck. Was there even something I needed to navigate? Chapman’s words haunted me. You sure?

Why did he have to say all that stuff about his heart recognizing mine and wielding his body in protection of me? It was making everything murky. Because if Chapman had asked me that same thing, that simple question of “You sure?” yesterday, my answer of “Yes, I’m sure,” would have been much easier and much more true.

But now?

Well, now everything was a mess.

DESPITE MY ANXIETY about everything, I ended up sleeping deeply. The crappy sleep last night and the long day of travelling had left me exhausted, so I didn’t wake until Chapman started shaking my shoulder.

I sat up groggily, searching for my glasses, wrapped in a spare bit of hide to protect them from the sand on the ground. Pushing them up my nose, I blinked at her.

“Time to go,” she said. She was already fully dressed, her sunglasses pushed to the top of her head, resting on her combed-back red hair, tied in a bun at the back of her head. Her skin had the tell-tale white-blue glow of the industrial-level sunscreen we wore on this planet. I smeared some of the stuff on my own face, too, swiping around my eyes beneath my glasses before slipping into my clothes and solar protection jacket. Chapman waited for me until I was ready. As I moved to leave the tent, her voice stopped me.

“Kor was up before dawn, out hunting for you. So there’s food waiting for you.”

“Thanks,” I muttered, trying to ignore the weird flip-flop of my stomach at those words. I wasn’t happy that he’d done that. Was I? No, Definitely not. That would be weird. Right?

I stepped into the blinding sunlight outside, beginning to sweat almost immediately. Squinting under my hood, I reached into my bag for my sunglasses, angling them over top of my own glasses. It was awkward, and they always felt like they were about to fall off that way, but it was the only way to protect my eyes and actually be able to see.

Now that Chapman and I had left the tent, Galok and Fallo made short work dismantling it, and I rushed to help Chapman bundle our bedding and attach it to the irkdu. Helping her gave me something to do. Something to focus on, so that I wasn’t looking around for Kor.

But once everything was packed and secured, there was no way to avoid it. I turned, ready to finally face him today. Kind of. But the force of me spinning around sent my precarious sunglasses flying off my sweating skin.

Merde.

Before the sunglasses could even hit the ground, a dark clawed hand shot out, snapping them out of the air with ease. I kept my gaze glued to the ground, my heart pounding. I thought I had been hot before, but I was about a hundred degrees hotter now. My cheeks burned, my neck felt scorched. Slowly, I raised my gaze – up over those deep charcoal-grey and blue legs, up the powerful torso, up to his face. His eyes.

“Holy shit,” I breathed without realizing I’d said it out loud. This was the first time I’d seen his eyes up-close in the daylight.

And they were… beautiful.

Shockingly so.

They were large and black, similar to the men of the Sea Sands, no white to speak of. And like the kangadudes, he had the sight stars, hundreds of shimmering shards that pulsed and spun and tightened. But most of the Sea Sand dudes had eyes in some colour that matched the desert – copper or gold or, in Fallo’s case, red. But Kor’s were totally different. His sight stars glinted and pulsed, crystalline shards of piercing blue. Like sapphires.

My throat tightened involuntarily. I thought of one of the many precious things I’d left behind on Earth – a sapphire pendant my parents had given me when I’d graduated from my undergraduate degree. My birthstone.

“Your black glasses,” Kor said, and I shook myself, realizing I’d been staring up into his eyes for… a really long time. I swiped the sunglasses from his dark palm. As I did so, the tips of my fingers caught on his skin, traipsing over it. An electric pulse ran from my fingers right up my arm. His skin there was smoother than I would have thought. It was more like hide on his palms, rough but still somehow soft. I wonder what the scales feel like? I thought before I could stop myself.

And I needed to stop myself.

Because this was just getting so fucking weird. I got that other girls had already jumped happily into the arms of their alien men, but Kor was… something else entirely.

But as we finished getting ready (me eating a hasty breakfast prepared by Kor) I couldn’t stop looking at him. Recognizing the man-like parts of him. The bulging spread of his pectoral muscles and the shape of his shoulders were slightly human, at least, human-on-steroids. His face was definitely alien, but I was starting to get more used to it, now. And while I couldn’t say that he was handsome, exactly, there was something kind of appealing about him. In the immense breadth of his build, and the stoic, scaled ridges of his face. There was a raw power in all of it, something so serious and undeniably masculine.

A beast with a body of pure killing power and eyes like sapphires.

It was a strange combination.

Soon enough, we were ready, and Kor lowered himself to the sands again before taking off. I watched him from my perch on Galok’s irkdu as we began to follow him, unable to tear my eyes away. When he was down on all fours like this, he definitely lost any human-esque features. But even like this, he seemed so powerful. And maybe he didn’t need to be like a man, anyway. He was just… Kor.

Weird, scaly, sincere-beyond-measure Kor.

The alien who claimed I was his mate.

I tried to put it out of my mind. I wouldn’t be able to figure it all out now. We had a long day of travelling ahead.

So with that, I focused on staying steady in my saddle as we moved, scanning the sands around us.

And if my eyes kept finding their way back to the powerful figure Kor cut, loping over the sands, well, behind the dark lenses of my sunglasses, nobody knew it but me.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Kor

When we stopped to make camp, we were well within Gahn Taliok’s territory. The sand shifted a darker red here, with great crimson rock outcroppings rising from the ground, stretching for the sky. Tomorrow we would reach his mountains.

Zoey and the Gahnala were erecting their tent for the evening, and I was watching them. Well, watching Zoey, when Gahn Taliok’s voice distracted me.

“Once through my mountains, what is the best route to the Bitter Sea? Beyond the mountains is Gahn Baldor’s territory.”

I grunted. Gahn Baldor’s tribe lived between the mountains and the Bitter Sea. I had seen his men attack Taliok and his party the last time we had all been in those mountains.

“My mother lives with Gahn Baldor’s tribe. Those are her people. We can speak with her, and try to get a sense of Baldor’s activity based on that.”

Fallo and Galok turned my way at those words.

“How do you plan to go, unseen, to Baldor’s people’s tents to find your mother?” Fallo asked, lips pulling back from his fangs.

These men take me for a fool.

I would not walk, as if I had no wits about me, right into their tents. I had already done that once in my life, at the Cliffs of Uruzai, and even then I knew it was the act of a fool. But it had been done in order to secure my mate. So I had been willing to take the risk.

“When I left my mother to find my mate, and she returned to her people, we devised a way to overcome this very thing. There is a place, far from their tents, but not so far that it would be odd if she travelled there. A place of many stones, near the shore of the Bitter Sea. If I ever needed to find her or speak to her, I would go to that place at night and place one rock atop another specific rock we both made note of. She goes to this place every morning to check if I have left the rock. When I leave the rock, she will come to meet me in a secure place on the edge of Gahn Baldor’s territory.”

Galok’s tail swished, and Taliok spoke.

“It is a clever plan.”

“It is. I am a clever warrior.” There was a slight edge to my words as I said them, pride mixed with a warning. A warning that it was only the gentle purity of my mate beside me that held me here as their ally. That I was a force to be reckoned with, a force held only in check by her soft hands and strange eyes. Fallo hissed and moved away to his mate, but both Galok and Taliok stayed, watching me for a long moment, as if assessing me with new judgment.

Finally, Galok broke the silence. He grinned, then tapped his knuckles against the flattened spikes of my shoulder, a movement that made me tense at the unexpectedness of it.

“Away from the politics of the tribes and cliffs, when it is just us out here, it is easier to see you for what you are,” the grinning warrior said. “You have been a good ally thus far, Kor. I have decided that I like you. We are all in this together, after all. We are all here to protect the new women.”

I felt my ridges tighten over my eyes in surprise. My surprise deepened when Taliok spoke next.

“I agree with Galok. You have proven yourself a good ally thus far. You did not kill our men who tried to bind you in the cliffs, and you have not tried to steal your mate even though you are likely strong enough to do so, now.” Taliok regarded me for another long moment. “I apologize for the deep mistrust we have shown you. For the weapons we have born before you.” And then, in a display of respect that shocked me to my core, Gahn Taliok raised his tail over his eyes to me. Galok, seeing the actions of the Gahn, followed suit. Stiff and unsure, I did the same thing. I had never had to do it before. I’d never had cause to interact much with anyone besides my own mother. It felt strange… but also somewhat good.

Our tails lowered again, and Galok spoke, his voice more easy than it had been with me before.

“Do not expect Gahn Fallo to raise his tail to you. He does not raise his tail even among the other Gahns.” Gahn Taliok made a noise of distaste, then moved away to help build up a small evening fire.

My eyes fell, as they so often did, to Zoey, who had moved to help Gahn Taliok. She was so small…

“I should go hunt. Fetch more meat for my mate,” I said. Galok laughed, and the sound caught me off-guard. I was not used to the friendliness of it.

“We still have fresh meat from your kills this morning! You are a strong hunter, that is certain. No, come and sit with us by the fire tonight. Do not eat away from us as you have done before.”

Following Galok, I walked towards the fire.

It was just a small fire to cook my earlier kills. At one end, the Gahnala sat with her mate Fallo. She gave me a slight smile as I approached, though her mate did not mirror any such friendliness. But that did not matter. I was not here to win the approval of any Gahn. I was glad to have the friendship of Galok and Taliok, now, as it would make everything much easier. But ultimately, the only person here whose opinion really mattered to me was seated by my feet. Taliok sat next to Zoey, on her right. Galok moved to sit down on her left, then eyed me before jaunting around to sit on the other side, with Taliok. That left a space open next to Zoey. And so I sat.

As I did, my own scaled knee brushed hers. I felt the curve of her bone under her clothing and sparks flew under my hide.

“How are you after the journey? I hope the speed was acceptable.”

I hadn’t thought of it before, but what if I had led the party too quickly? Zoey was so soft and fragile-looking. What if the riding was too rough on her?

“Oh, no, it was OK. I’m a little stiff, but all good. We have the saddles for the girls.”

“I should have insisted you stay behind,” I groaned, eyeing her from the side. The firelight danced across her odd, lovely features, lighting up her profile. She turned to me.

“No way. This was my choice to come, remember? Besides, leave the saving of the world to the men? I don’t think so. I don’t think so…” She stopped speaking, then smiled to herself. It was such a pure expression of mirth. It made me want to lean in. Lean into her. All of her.

But I did not know why she had smiled.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s just a quote from a movie back home. The Incredibles. Actually, you’d fit right into that movie, I swear.”

I had not the faintest clue of what she was speaking. But I liked hearing all her words. So I did not do anything that might make her stop.

But she did stop to chew some of her meat. Pride swelled, strong and primal inside me, seeing her eat the meat I had caught for her. Knowing that I had provided for her. It made me feel strong. It made me feel like a worthy male.

I was also a ravenous male. Running at full-tilt for most of the day had used a lot of energy. I eyed the cooked meat before us with distaste. But I should make an effort to eat like Zoey, so that I do not disgust her. Biting back my revulsion, I took some of the cooked meat, working over it with my fangs.

All the sweetness of the meat had been charred out of it, leaving it hard and smoky. My mother had given up early into my childhood trying to get me to eat meat the way her people did. It seemed that, even as an adult, it was just as distasteful now as it was then.

“You don’t have to eat it like that,” piped up Zoey’s small voice from beside me. Surprised, I turned to look down at her. Our faces and ranges of expression were so different – had she been able to tell how I was feeling, even from the side?

“There’s still some raw stuff left. Eat that. It’s alright.”

My mate was such a gentle being. Kind beyond what any man could possibly deserve. What I had done to earn her, I did not know. And what I would have to do to earn her love, now, was just as much a mystery.

But I did as she said, taking the remainder of the raw meat. I ignored Fallo’s glaring eyes and began to eat as I was accustomed, biting through the flesh and bone, slaking my thirst with the blood. When I finished, Zoey was staring at me, her tiny mouth hanging open.

I am not a clever warrior after all. She is repulsed. I should have eaten away from all of them, as I have done up until now.

“Do I disgust you?” I asked. I could feel a drop of blood roll down my neck, and I caught the way Zoey’s eyes tracked it.

“No,” she said quickly, turning away and staring into the fire. Though I wished to believe my beautiful mate to be sincere in everything, I knew that when she’d said no, she’d told a lie.

And yet, look at her kindness. She did not want to tell you you disgust her.

That kindness, that pity, would be my undoing. It cursed me, doomed me.

And yet it was all I had.

For now.

Because in that moment, staring at Zoey’s soft form, her glimmering hair, her skin, her lovely eyes, I knew. No matter how different we were, how much I scared her, how much I disgusted her, I would win her love to me. The pity she held for me would be replaced by devotion and lust to rival my own. I would make it so. I was a strong warrior, stronger than any man of the Sea Sands, and some of those weaker men had won mates to them. I glanced between Fallo, Galok, and Taliok at the fire, all mated men now, and knew that I was stronger than them all. If they could do it, if they could unwrap the mystery of the new women, then I could, too.

There was nothing I wanted more in this world. Nothing I wanted more than for Zoey to look at me, not with any mixture of fear, pity, or revulsion, but rather, desire. I would make her want me. I would make it so that she felt she could not breathe without me, so that her cunt would always ache without me there to fill it.

How I would do such a thing, though, I had no idea.

But the one thing I knew was that I was no longer going to hold myself back from her or anything. The men had begun to accept me and no longer treated me as an enemy. Slowly, slowly, I had gained their trust. And that trust meant that I could do more, be more. I did not have to be the timid prisoner, holding himself back from his true power. I was a warrior with a mate. I’d had the greatest glory bestowed upon me, and now I had to reach out and grab it before it disappeared. Before she disappeared.

Feeling emboldened, I slid closer to Zoey. My hand moved down, palm to the sand, shifting behind her back. Zoey stiffened, and all my boldness disappeared, faltering behind thoughts of being too rough and too ugly and what if I was doing this all wrong?

But then, ever so slightly, so slightly I would not have noticed if I had not had the primed senses of a warrior, I felt Zoey shift. It was small. So small. But it was there. The slight lean, until her back brushed my arm. That one touch sent me spiralling. Unleashed wild desires on me. I wanted to pin her to the ground, profess my undying love for her over and over again. I wanted to spill my words into her mouth, directly into her cunt. Whatever it would take to make her accept them.

But, of course, I did no such thing. Instead, like the mighty warrior I was, I remained utterly still and absolutely terrified. I was scared of what she would do. And what she wouldn’t do. Scared that I might push her away. Scared that she might leave.

Who knew such a small and beautiful thing could make me so afraid?

In that moment, I realized just how much power these new women had.

How much power my mate had.

And how defenceless I was against her.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Zoey

After finishing eating, I scurried back to the tent, face on fire. What the hell was wrong with me? Watching Kor eat had been thrilling in the most messed up way imaginable. The strength of his jaws was alluring, and the way he’d asked afterwards if I’d been disgusted was heart-breaking. The guy wasn’t handsome by human standards, but he seemed to have no clue how impressive he was.

And when he’d slid his huge, alien arm behind me, I’d fucking leaned back. Not enough to make a statement. I was like some goofy girl at a high school party when the huge linebacker tried to make a subtle move that threw her for a loop. Only, instead of a human guy, it was a freaking lizard man.

But more and more, I had to admit was finding some of the things he did oddly cute. Kind of. A bit.

Like when he’d lifted his tail in such a stiff, awkward pantomime of Galok and Taliok. It was clearly an unusual gesture for him, but he was trying so hard. Trying so hard to help us, to make all of this work.

To make me his mate.

I mean I definitely wasn’t ready to be a nine-foot-tall crocodile man’s mate. But I was warming up to him. The more I saw of him, the less his weird reptile-ness registered, and the more his thoughtful actions did.

Chapman settled into her hides quickly, and I moved to do the same, slipping out of my pants and socks and reaching for the iPod.

Except it wasn’t there.

Merde. I’d left it out on a rock so that the harsh sun could power up the solar charger I’d built. I rose, pulling my pants back on, forgoing my socks and boots, before stepping outside.

The three Sea Sand men were still seated at the burnt-down fire. Galok smiled at me as he saw me emerge.

“Where’s Kor?” I asked, swinging my head around, frowning. I shouldn’t have cared so much about his absence. But… I did.

Galok’s easy voice carried through the night air between us.

“He has gone hunting again. I tried to convince him it was not needed yet, but he insisted he had to replenish the stores for his mate.”

His mate. Me.

After running literally all day long, instead of resting, the guy was out hunting, now?

“Does he ever stop?” I muttered more to myself than anyone else. But Gahn Taliok responded.

“It is the power of the mate bond. He will never stop doing what needs to be done for you.”

I froze, throat tightening. Taliok’s words hit me like a hammer on a gong, pounding through my brain. The level of that devotion was almost impossible to wrap my head around. I had a feeling I was only just starting to scratch the surface of it.

I turned from the group, walking around the huge red stone outcropping we’d built our camp next to. Just out of sight of the others was a small, flat red rock that I’d left the iPod and the little solar charger on top of. I grabbed the stuff off of the rock and clicked the iPod on. Full power. Perfect. I was often able to fall asleep without it, but I preferred to have a bit of music at night. In the loneliness of the ship, this iPod, the music on it, had become a kind of friend. And I felt so much better with it at my side.

“What is that?”

The grating rumble of the voice behind me made me jump, almost causing me to throw the iPod down to the sand in shock. I whirled to find Kor directly behind me, a dead rakdo in his claws.

“Putain, you scared me!” I cried, slapping the iPod to my pounding chest. He made a soft hissing sound.

“I never mean to frighten you. Though I worry that some part of that is inevitable due to my appearance.”

Aw man. For once, that had had nothing to do with why he’d scared me.

“No, not like that,” I said quickly, taking a steadying breath. “I just mean, you snuck up on me. That’s all.”

For a huge beast of a man, he was unbelievably quiet on those dark, clawed feet. Guess that’s why he’s such a good hunter, I thought, as he placed his kill down on the sand. When he stood again, I looked at him. Really looked at him. Not just at the ridges and the scales and the tail and the claws, but deeper than that. I looked at the way his head bent slightly towards me, downward, as if wanting to get closer to me any way he could without crowding me. The way his almost painfully lovely blue sight stars tightened up when focusing on me.

“You know, I’ve decided you aren’t all that scary after all,” I said, smiling slightly. I mean, his body was an alien killing machine, but there was something so restrained, almost weirdly gentle, about him. I didn’t know if it was me judging by appearances or letting the Sea Sand guys’ biases rub off on me, but I was starting to feel really bad about the thoughts I’d had about him. Thoughts of him being a monster who was here to carry me, screaming, away in his claws.

Kor said nothing, but I thought I saw the faintest indication of a muscle tightening in his reptilian jaw. Clearing my throat, I looked down at the iPod.

“To answer your question, this is an iPod. It’s a human device that plays music.”

“Music?”

I blinked. I realized I’d never heard any people of the Sea Sands singing.

“Yeah, music. Don’t you guys have music? Singing?”

“Both the people of the Sea Sands and the Bitter Seas have war cries and sometimes it can be quite melodic when synchronized. I have never heard of other music. Is that what the iPod is for? For a war cry?”

I laughed, stepping up to him, shaking my head.

“No, not really. It’s for… personal enjoyment.”

Kor looked down at me, his sight stars clouding over in confusion. I moved even closer then turned around, my back to his chest, holding the iPod up in the air so that he could look down at the screen. I distracted myself from the solidity of his massive chest, and the buzz it sent along my spine, by flicking my fingertips over the iPod’s screen.

“Here. Take a look. These are all songs.” I scrolled through the list, sucking in a small breath and tensing as Kor lowered his massive head further, right beside my own. He was so close that if I turned my own head towards him, I could drag my mouth right across his scaled hide.

Oh, hell no. Stay focused, please.

“Songs…” Kor repeated, and my mouth went dry at the rumble of his voice directly in my ear.

“Yeah. Like singing.”

“Show me. Please,” he asked. I felt the puff of his words, hot air against my cheek. Flushing and biting my lip, I laughed awkwardly.

“Well, what kind of music do you like? Oldies? Rock? Pop? I’m partial to rock, and a bit of metal now and then myself. Some folk too, when the mood strikes.” I was starting to babble. Kor took all my words in, even at their ever-increasing speed. I realized, even as I said them, that he would have no idea what any of those genres of music even meant.

“I know nothing of this music. Whatever you like will be perfect for me.”

I clicked, basically at random, on a song, trying to do anything to distract from the way my heart was starting to race.

I felt Kor tighten behind me, his chest rising slightly against my back with an intake of breath as Iron Maiden’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner started playing through the headphones.

“Can all of your kind do this?” he asked after listening for a moment. “Make this kind of song?”

“Well, kind of. Most people can sing in some form or another. But there are other things, musical instruments that add to it, too.”

“So you can sing?”

I froze. Then I hit pause on the song.

I wanted to say no, I couldn’t. That I never could.

But the reality was, I could sing. Like an angel, as my dad used to say. Just like the way my mother could sing, too. But I hadn’t sung a single word since they had died.

“I’m not sure,” I said honestly, after a moment. It had been a year now since their death. A year without singing a single note. Maybe I couldn’t sing after all. Not anymore.

“If you try now, you will see if you can or cannot. And then you will be sure.”

It sounded so simple when he said it.

But he was right. How long would it take me to try again? I’d never fully step out of the grief of losing my parents. And maybe, light-years from home, on another planet entirely, I could do it to try to connect with them again.

After a strained and hesitant breath, I opened my mouth and sang.

Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah was the first song to come into my head. In fact, it didn’t really even come into my head. It bloomed in my throat, pouring directly out of my mouth. In that moment, all I could see was my mother, singing at my side, and my father, watching with a far-away smile, seated at my feet. And all I could feel was the steady, solid, reliable wall of Kor’s chest behind me. My voice got stronger as I went along, lilting over lyrics I’d listened to and sung a hundred, a thousand, times before.

The song ended and I panted, tears springing to my eyes. Kor hadn’t said anything, remaining totally still at my back.

I’d been so wrapped up in the emotion of the moment, the pain and beauty of it, that I’d barely even heard myself. After all this time, and without warming up, my voice had probably sounded like crap.

“That probably wasn’t my best,” I said, sniffing and swiping at the tears under my glasses. A half a second later, strong claws descended onto my shoulders, spinning me around.

I gasped, staring up into Kor’s face. His sight stars were so pulled-in, so focused, that they almost looked like bright irises in his large dark eyes.

His voice, when he spoke, rasped, deep and low and scraping hot in my belly.

“What you have just done… That sound… It is miraculous. Like the wind, caught between worlds.”

More tears flowed at his words. Tabernac, how was a girl supposed to resist somebody who said shit like that? Even with all that alien-ness, the moment we were sharing was distinctly, unmistakably human, Or rather, maybe it didn’t even need to be human. It just… was. A connection. Kor’s word echoed in my mind. Miraculous.

“Are you sad?”

Kor’s words cut through my thoughts. I sniffed again.

“No. And yes. It’s hard to explain. My mom used to sing that song a lot. I still remember once when it came on the radio, and my parents danced to it in the kitchen.”

“What is radio? And what is danced?”

“A radio is kind of like the iPod. It plays music. Dancing is like…”

Dancing was something I definitely couldn’t do. I may have had a nice voice, but I had also been blessed by my father’s genetics with two left feet. So I wasn’t about to give Kor a demonstration.

But then again…

“Put your hands on my waist,” I commanded in a voice barely above a whisper. A tiny alarm was sounding at the back of my mind, telling me to back up now. Telling me not to fucking slow dance with an alien lizard in the middle of the desert of a foreign planet.

But I smacked that alarm down, down, down, until it was just the faintest echo of a sound. Because Kor had just reached up and brushed a stray tear away with the roughest and yet softest pad of a clawed finger before doing what I’d told him to do. His massive hands settled on my waist, his claws completely encircling it. I reached up, trying to place my hands onto his shoulders, but even with him bending to grab my waist, I couldn’t do it. I settled on placing my palms flat against his muscled chest.

“OK, now, follow me,” I said, feeling heat spread outward from his fingers on my body.

And in the most intense, raw voice he answered, “It is all that I will ever do.”

Biting my lip at his words, I started to move, shifting back and forth on my feet. At first, Kor just stood there as I moved within his grip. But then he started to move, too, swaying with me in the darkness. I stared at my hands on his chest, noting the differences between us. The strangeness of this all. But when the asteroid light caught on his flattened spikes, gleaming, and painted his deep blue skin a silvery-black, my breath caught in my throat at the terrible beauty of it all. I swayed closer to him, shuffling forward until I could rest my cheek against his chest, marvelling at the feeling of the texture of his hide against my soft human skin. The alarm bells tried to ring harder and louder, now, but I kept on ignoring them. Because right now, all I wanted to do was stay like this. It felt raw and weird and safe and right. For the briefest of bright moments, it felt like…

Home.

It felt like home. Which was absurd, considering I was in the arms of a fucking alien on another planet. But I couldn’t shake the feeling. In fact, it grew and grew, until I was fully pressed against Kor’s front, nuzzling into him. I realized a moment later we were no longer swaying, and with a barely repressed groan, Kor’s hands moved from my waist. He dropped to his knees before me, then wrapped his powerful arms around my back, drawing me in tighter, closer.

“I never dared to hope for a beauty like that which you have bestowed upon my life,” Kor growled against the top of my head. “If you choose not to be mated to me, I will never ask it of you. If you will only do this with me sometimes, this dancing, I will forever be contented.”

My chest ached, and I almost started crying at the purity of those words. But when he spoke again, his words suddenly not so pure, I no longer felt an ache in my chest, but rather deep between my legs.

“I will never ask it of you. But I must be honest in this. I wish for more than contentment. I wish for more than just being at your side. My cock aches to claim you. Every beat of my heart commands it. I fight it every moment. And I will fight that urge forever, but…”

He drew back, his sight stars pinning me. Drawing me in.

“But I want you to know that I do plan to win you to me. Somehow, I will make you want me as I want you. For the past few days, I have restrained myself from you. I have not wanted to scare you, nor push the boundaries of the allyship with the Sea Sand men. And I fear I have created some false impression upon you. Led you to believe that I am weaker than I am. But I am not weak. And my love for you makes me strong, stronger than I’ve ever been before. I would cleave the world in two to make way for your gentleness. And even more than that, I would see that gentleness turn to lust.”

I couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. Kor’s arms were like metal at my back. Hot metal. Melting me from the inside out.

His words should have sent me running. But I was glued to the spot, staring at his face. His eyes, the teeth that could kill me in an instant.

And, even though I could hardly fucking believe it, the words that came out of my mouth next were sincere.

“Kiss me.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Kor

“Kiss me.”

Kiss? What is kiss? Daft warrior, fool. After your speech of being so strong, so competent as to win the lovely Zoey to you, you now cannot even honour the simplest of her requests in your ignorance.

Zoey must have sensed my hesitation, because her small, indescribably soft hands moved to either side of my snout, exerting gentle pressure. I bent, allowing her hands to guide me, knowing that I’d let her lead me anywhere, even to my own death.

But it was not to death she led me now. But rather, she drew me down to her soft, hot mouth.

Her plush human lips pressed against the seam of my snout. I stiffened, unsure of what to do next. I did not have lips or a mouth like her. But this did not seem to deter my tiny mate. Her lips moved over my hide, and I groaned, my cock jumping and straining out of my slit when I felt her slick tongue probe my skin. I opened my jaws slightly, my own two tongues coming out to meet hers. The twin forks of my tongues slipped along the sides of hers. And then I could not stop them from plunging inwards, invading her small mouth the way I wanted to do to her cunt with my cock. It was throbbing, stiff and hot, pulling at the fabric of my loincloth. I could not believe it had already emerged from my slit. I was losing control.

But I could not stop it. Any of it. My claws tightened on her. My tongue dragged inside her. Her hands curled into fists on my chest, then moved to loop her slender arms around my neck. She shifted slightly, causing her inner thigh to brush against the heat of my erection. Even through both layers of clothing, the sensation was exquisite torture, and I groaned into her mouth.

She pulled back slightly, staring downwards, muttering several words in her language as her eyes caught on the stiff bulge beneath my loincloth. I was very glad, now, for my mother insisting I dress like the men of her people instead of going loincloth-less like my father’s. Because the brush of any part of Zoey against my bare cock would have been too much. I was barely restraining myself from throwing her to the ground, flipping her onto her belly, and rutting her right now. These feral urges were so foreign to me. And yet they were powerful. More powerful than anything I’d ever felt before.

A tentative brown finger pressed downwards, brushing along the fabric of my loincloth, stroking up to my tip. I remained utterly still, a hiss building in my chest.

“I cannot endure much more of this,” I breathed raggedly. I would never force her to do anything – the thought was abhorrent to me. But I would not be able to remain still like this for much longer.

“It’s just… I’ve never done this before,” Zoey said, her finger lifting away from my cock, a terrible loss but also a slight relief.

“Nor have I.” The only woman I’d been close with was my own mother. I’d never had the chance to lay with another female. And now that I was so close to Zoey, breathing her in, I knew I would not want to have been with any other female, anyway. There was no way it would compare to this.

“Well, I’m not ready to… Um… mate.”

I grunted in response, losing the ability to form real words. I felt like a dumb beast of the desert, falling into feral madness. Zoey’s soft voice was the only thing left pinning me to reality.

“But still, I want to do something…”

She shifted down slightly until her cunt was pressing along the top edge of my cock. She gasped at the pressure that joining formed, and I groaned at the heat of her, emanating outwards, through both layers of clothing.

Clothing. There was too much of it between us. I reached downward, wrenching my loincloth to the side, letting the dark length of my cock spring free, nestling upwards against her cunt again, the tip emerging past her rump. She looped her arms around my neck once more, sagging against me, and I moved my claws down to grip her rump so that she did not have to hold up her own weight.

“Move,” she whispered, and with a jerk of my hips, I did so, unable to hold back. My pelvis snapped forward and back, my cock rubbing against the cleft of her body. She moaned, a sound that jolted right into my groin, and she moved so that her thighs were tighter on each side of my cock. Gripping me. If just rubbing against her while she was fully clothed was this pleasurable, what would it be like inside her tight heat?

My pelvis rocked faster at that thought, grinding relentlessly, heat coiling between my legs and at the base of my tail. Zoey was panting against my chest, and she moaned again. Her hands moved, slipping against my flattened spikes, making me hiss as nerves along my spines lit up with her soft touch.

Was she experiencing pleasure the way I was? I felt like my entire body was dissolving, coming undone against her. Her moans became more frequent, louder as I rutted harder between her legs, grinding forward, trying to get as close as I possibly could without tearing right through her clothing. She had completely given up on the strength of her legs, and I was holding her full weight in my hands now as she grew loose against me. But then, suddenly she tightened, her back arching, her hands scrabbling against my shoulders. And the hot streaks of her breath against my neck, the long mewl of pleasure, sent me exploding against her, painting the sand behind her with rope after rope of my seed.

But even so, I was not done yet. Tightening my hold on her, I growled into her ear, words about how she was precious, about how I wished to never let her go. Words I was barely aware of as I said them. “You are my treasure and my wonder and my pain. Everything I never hoped that I could feel.” I growled as another rope of seed tore from me, sending undulating pulses of heat through my body. With a final shudder, I was spent, sighing harshly into her braids.

I moved my arms, shifting one behind her knees, the other behind her back, and I tucked her into my chest as I sat on the sand. We remained like that for a long time, her soft form moulded into mine. I felt at peace and abuzz with possibilities, all at once. My claws ached at the feeling of her in them, my heart soared. I did not recognize this amalgamation of feelings. This burning lightness. This heavy joy.

Then I realized what it was, as the melody of her breathing brushed my skin.

It was hope.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Zoey

I almost fell asleep in Kor’s arms. I shouldn’t have felt so safe, so at ease. But I did. Even after what I’d done, what we’d done – something I never in a million years I thought I’d actually do. I’d just hooked up with an alien. And not just any alien, but the least humanoid one we’d come across so far. I should have been freaking the hell out.

But… I wasn’t.

Right now, all I had the capacity to feel was the afterglow of a mind-blowing orgasm. A mind-blowing orgasm from him doing nothing more than rubbing himself against me. But, holy shit, it had been enough. More than enough. The waves of his desire, rolling off his body so forcefully I could practically see them, dark ripples in the air, had turned me on beyond what I would have thought was possible. That raw desire, the barely restrained intensity of his movements, awakened something primal in me. And even though I knew I wasn’t ready to go much further than that yet, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like if we did go further. I wondered what he looked like down there. I’d felt him through my clothes, but I hadn’t seen him. And I wondered what it would feel like to have him inside me.

My instinct was to recoil from that thought, to tell myself it was weird and bad and unnatural. But I just didn’t want to anymore. Because, more and more, I was starting to develop feelings for this huge, sincere, brooding reptilian warrior. On Earth, yeah, maybe that would have been fucked up. But we weren’t on Earth anymore.

As my eyes began to flutter closed, I forced myself to wake up.

“I should get back to the tent,” I muttered, turning in Kor’s arms to face him. My breath caught at the sight of his face. I was getting better at reading his expressions. His ridged brow was pulled low over his eyes, his sight stars pulsing. He looked… intense. Focused. Like he was staring at the most precious thing in the world. As if by staring that hard, he’d never lose it.

Lose me.

A dark claw moved up to trace the curve of my forehead, making goosebumps break out over my skin. His claw, so deadly sharp but gentle on my skin, moved down to tuck a stray braid behind my ear.

“Yes,” he finally agreed, though it sounded reluctant. “It is warmer and safer in the tent.”

I nodded, but made no move to stand. In all honesty, I wasn’t sure I would be able to after all that. My legs, my whole body, felt like cheese curds melting in a puddle of gravy. Besides that, I just wasn’t quite ready for this to end yet.

But Kor made the decision for both of us.

“Come, soft one.” In a fluid movement, he stood, cradling me against his chest. He held me so securely I barely even registered that he’d moved. The grace with which he moved his colossal body was frankly breathtaking.

Kor carried me, holding me so gently, around the massive rock outcropping until the camp came into view. The fire had been put out, and Fallo, Taliok, and Galok were in various poses of rest. Fallo’s ear twitched as we came into view, then he jumped up, snarling, drawing a long blade from his back.

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” I cried, panicking, scared that he was going to attack Kor. I guess it must look bad, him carrying me back to camp like this. “He didn’t do anything!”

“Come, Gahn Fallo. You and I both have strong ears. You know as well as I that the sounds we have heard tonight were ones of pleasure, not of pain.” Galok’s words practically made steam come out of my ears.

“Still, I do not like it,” Fallo muttered, not yet sheathing his blade. Gahn Taliok rose, placing himself between Fallo and us.

“Lower your blade, Gahn Fallo. Kor is under my protection, and we are in my territory, now.”

Even from here, I could see Fallo’s sight stars spray outward at those words.

“You would take the side of this creature above one of your own kind?”

Taliok remained deathly still as he spoke.

“I take the side of any man who proves himself to be my ally. And Kor has done that many times over now, more than you ever have.”

There was some bad blood between Taliok and Fallo. I’d gotten the gist of it when I’d been filled in on everything that had gone on while I’d been in the ship. Something about Fallo killing Taliok’s father-figure, the old Gahn of the mountains.

But I didn’t want that bad blood resurfacing now as spilled blood. This night had been weirdly and unexpectedly beautiful. A night of dancing and kissing and… more than that. I didn’t want violence, now, or ever, in our little party.

“Everything is fine. Everyone just go back to sleep,” I pleaded.

“These new women are smart. Listen to her,” Galok said, his expression remaining easy despite the tension. “We have a long way to go yet.”

Fallo snapped his jaws, then seated himself, finally sheathing his huge blade. Taliok, after a moment, sat too. Galok smiled and resettled himself, closing his eyes.

Kor remained still for a long moment, as if not trusting the peace that had descended. As if he was wary of putting me down. And that made my chest fill up with warm fucking goo.

“It’s OK. Time to get some rest,” I muttered, reaching up and patting the side of his face to get his attention. He grunted, then walked to the tent before gingerly setting me on my unsteady feet.

“I do not want to leave you for the night,” he murmured, sounding miserable. “Every moment away from you… aches.”

“I’ll be right here,” I said. Though, I had to admit, I sure was taking my sweet time getting into that tent. I knew it would be pretty cozy with Chapman in there, but the hide structure looked unwelcoming and cold compared to the scaled support of Kor’s arms.

Oh, God. Dieu, aides-moi. What is this? Am I… falling for him?

Shit. I was, wasn’t I? I could try to deny it, but out here in the darkness, with Kor’s massive frame like a beacon of warmth before me, his words rattling around in my skull, it was just too obvious that I was definitely feeling some kind of way about him. It’s OK. No need to freak out. It doesn’t mean you’re going to be his human wife and have weird little reptile babies with him or anything…

“I will sleep right outside so that I may hear your breath through the night,” Kor said, lowering his great head and nudging my cheek with his snout.

“I’m not so sure Gahn Fallo will like that, considering Chapman is in there,” I said with a shaky laugh. His snout probed closer, and even now I was tilting my head to give him better access to my neck, shivers running over my skin.

“I care not for what that foul Gahn likes. I care only for you,” he said, his words a hot slick of air over my skin, making me gasp. If I don’t get out of here now, I’ll be fucking mounting him in front of everyone.

“Good to know,” I said, barely able to think. But, somehow, I pushed away from him, stumbling back, my breath shallow.

“Oh, shoot,” I said. Now that I had a tiny bit of distance between us, I could somewhat regain function of my mushy human brain. “I forgot the-”

As I spoke, Kor’s massive hand rose between us, unfurling, palm up. In the middle of his claws and his scales, looking almost comically small in his grip, was the iPod.

And seeing it there made me want to fucking weep. Because of the thoughtfulness it showed. That he’d remembered something that was important to me when I’d even I’d forgotten it. He must have grabbed it when he stood up…

“Thank you,” I choked out, taking it. Before I could withdraw my hand, though, his claws closed around my wrist, holding my hand in his. His long dark thumb smoothed over the sensitive inside of my wrist, sending sensations exploding through me.

“I hope all the melodies the iPod sings for you tonight are beautiful, Zoey,” Kor said huskily. He let go of my hand finally, straightening. “As for me, I know that none of those songs can compare to yours. While you listen to the iPod, I will listen to the memory of your voice.”

He sat down in front of the tent, settling himself in for the night. Seeing him there, so huge even while sitting, looking almost regal, ready to wait all night by my side while I slept, was just too much. This guy was too fucking much.

Shaking my head, I leaned forward, bumping my mouth against his snout, planting a soft kiss there, not caring that the Sea Sand guys were close by, maybe even watching. I felt a shudder roll through him at the contact, then he pulled back slightly, nostrils flaring.

“It already taxes me greatly to let you leave to sleep in the tent, Zoey. I am a strong warrior, but if you keep doing this, this kissing, all the strength in my body will not be enough to let you go.”

“Sorry,” I breathed. He made a gruff snorting sound.

“Why do you apologize for laying more honour upon me than I could ever hope to deserve?”

Damn. My kisses were laying honour upon him.

“Guess it’s the Canadian in me. Nevermind.” Exhaustion was seeping through me, now. And, similar to how Kor was feeling, if I didn’t leave now, I never would.

“Goodnight,” I said in our shared language. Then, softly, I added “Bonne nuit.” I wasn’t exactly sure why I did. But I just wanted to give him something of me. Something from my old life.

“Goodnight,” Kor replied. “I would try to repeat your other words back to you, but I cannot make sounds as soft as those. My mouth was not made for it.”

“Your mouth is perfect,” I said before I could stop myself. It was weird and scary and reptilian and it was his. It shaped words that made my chest clench. It opened to kiss me. It was perfect.

And with that, realizing just how fucking deep I was in this, I turned and crashed into the tent.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Kor

I awoke to the rising sun unleashing hot beauty on the world. Everything was brighter, starker, more wondrous than it had been yesterday. I stood, breathing deep, searching for Zoey’s scent, the sound of her breathing in the tent. Fallo stirred in his place on the other side of the tent, near to his mate, but I ignored him. That foul Gahn would not ruin my mood this morning.

Last night had been… Perfect. Well, almost perfect. The only way it could have been more perfect would have been if Zoey had opened her sweet cunt to my shaft and declared her undying devotion to me. Unfortunately, she had not. But I would not let that deter my happiness today.

I tipped up my snout up, revelling in the feeling of the rising heat over my dark scales. I reached down and adjusted my loincloth. My cock felt larger and heavier in my slit than it had before. As if by spilling my seed with my mate, I had awakened it somehow. I was more aware of it than usual, feeling the thickness of its organ behind my hide. Soon, I hoped to bury that thickness in Zoey’s body. But only when she asked for it.

The thought of her asking made my slit pull open, my cock thickening further. The thought of her begging…

Do not get ahead of yourself, Kor. The only one likely to beg is you. She holds all power here.

And I knew it. It would never get to the point of Zoey begging me for anything. Because my whole body arched to meet every need, every desire she had, before it was even uttered.

Speaking of which…

She would be hungry when she awoke. I moved away from the tent, retrieving last night’s kill, and beginning to prepare the meat so that it could be cooked for the others. The other men were waking and stretching now, standing.

“You put me to shame, Kor! I have not had to hunt even once so far!” Galok said, crouching beside me and smiling. I decided that I liked his smile, and if my face could make such an expression, I would have returned it.

“I seek only to provide for my mate, not to take over your duties,” I said, slicing my blade through a particularly rough bit of cartilage in the rakdo’s leg. “Feel free to hunt if you wish.”

Galok’s smile melted into a wry sort of grin.

“Ah, well, since you have already done so, I do not see the need.” He settled languorously in the sand, stretching his legs out before him. His words made me snort.

“You are welcome to whatever my mate does not want,” I said, finishing butchering the kill. Galok’s tail twitched in the sand behind him, then he sighed.

“I wonder what my pretty mate is doing without me, now. Probably torturing someone with her angry mouth. Though I must admit, I do not like when she turns that anger on anyone but me.”

I levelled my gaze at him, curious about his small, hairless mate. I had only interacted, very briefly, with Taliok’s mate in the mountains. And I had spent some time now with the Gahnala. But Zoey was the only one I was beginning to truly know. She had shown me flashes of her anger before. Like when I’d licked her. But I had to admit I did not like that anger. I liked it in the sense that it was hers. But I rather wanted her happiness, her love, if I could help it.

“You like your mate’s anger?” I said slowly. Galok cocked his head, his teeth flashing in the bright morning air.

“I cannot get enough of it. It burns me in the best sort of way.”

“And you all think that I am strange,” I grunted. Galok laughed at that, and, oddly, I found that I liked it. I liked this ease between us. Is this what it would have been like, growing up in a tribe?

I did not regret any of my youth. I respected and loved my mother deeply, and knew that she, too, had sacrificed her own life with a tribe, that friendship and camaraderie, to protect me. To keep me secret. But sometimes, I could not help but wonder what things could have been like…

But none of that mattered now. Because every moment of my life, every step taken, every choice made, had led me here. To her.

To Zoey.

Zoey, the bewitching creature who had just emerged from her tent, yawning and rubbing at her eyes beneath her glasses. My chest tight with unusual anticipation, I rose and strode towards her. She looked out of the shadows of her hood, her brown skin streaked with pale blue due to the sun protection cream these women wore.

“Are you well, soft one?” I asked. I longed to slip a claw beneath that hood, draw one of the braids out and place it against my snout, sniffing hard. But, even after the wondrous closeness of last night, I did not want to intrude.

“I’m great,” she said, not meeting my eyes.

You are too tall, you dolt. I crouched, bending my head so that it was level with hers, gazing into the darkness of her hood so that it was easier for her eyes to meet mine.

“When did you get here?” she asked, jerking back. “A second ago I was looking at your chest.”

“Yes. And that was exactly the problem. I wanted to make it easier for you to see my face.”

She laughed, then, her round eyes finally meeting mine.

“You’re something else, you know that?”

Something else? I already knew I was different from the men of the Sea Sands, different from her. Something else…

“Something else besides your mate?” I asked, unable to stop myself. I did not want to push. I’d promised her I wouldn’t. But last night had taught me to hope in a way I hadn’t dared before.

Her eyes grew wide, her small mouth opening, but her words were cut off by the call of the Gahnala, ordering everyone to hurry and eat then pack so we could depart.

“I’ve butchered the kill for you. You’ll need your strength for the rest of the journey,” I said. Zoey smiled softly, though it was not soft inside me, but hard as the blazing sun. And then her gentle hand patted the top of my snout.

“Thank you, Kor.”

She jogged away to join the Gahnala. In order to be of service to her as she ate, I moved to dismantle the tent. Before long, we were ready to finish traversing Taliok’s territory and cross the mountains.

And then, the truly treacherous part of our journey would begin. Because after that, we would be entering Gahn Baldor’s territory. And after that? The Bitter Sea of my father’s people. Every step I took now could be one step closer to my death.

But as I looked at small Zoey, so soft and good, I knew that I would take every step necessary. I would step right into the jaws of death for her. I would do this, whether she chose to be mated to me or not.

Because I loved her beyond the limits of this world.

And there was nothing else to be done.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Zoey

Gahn Taliok’s mountains were insane. I’d spent a lot of time in the wilderness of Québec with my parents on camping trips, but I’d never seen anything like this. Huge red rock spears rising into a clear desert sky, like bloodied pyramids. These rock formations were taller than the Cliffs of Uruzai and much more pointed, with peaks and valleys and crags and shadows. Just before we fully entered the mountains, Taliok called to Kor from his irkdu.

“Fall back with us, Kor. I do not want my guards to see you first and think you are an enemy.”

I couldn’t stop staring at Kor as he slowed, moving to the middle of our group, rather than leading it. Taliok pulled ahead to replace him at the front. And it was good timing, too, as three warriors were rushing to meet us, blades drawn. We all stopped, and Taliok said a few words to them about our business. Kor stared straight ahead the whole time, his sight stars moving to and fro in his eyes, forever tracking everything in his vision. And while he stared ahead, I stared at him. At the broad, muscled back. The huge, ridged head, The tail that could crush bone with a single swipe.

I’d fucking kissed that alien lizard last night. And more than that. I’d ground myself against his fucking alien cock until I’d come. It was almost too hard to face him this morning, though he seemed totally unfazed by any of my awkwardness. When I remembered him bending down, thinking I was avoiding meeting his gaze because he was too tall, I snorted, which earned me a curious What was that? sort of sound from Galok behind me. I cleared my throat, shaking my head to myself. I did not need to be getting all giddy over the weirdly cute things Kor did.

More and more, though, it seemed there was no avoiding it.

I liked this alien Godzilla creature. I did. I couldn’t deny it anymore. He’d proven himself to be funny and weird and sentimental and strong. I really, really liked him.

But I was having trouble figuring out just exactly what that meant.

Does that mean I’m his mate now? That thought made me shake my head again. That was too much, too soon. We’d basically just met! But then again, things were already moving faster with him than they had with any human guy I’d ever dated. Maybe that’s just a feature of the planet. You could die any moment, so everyone’s way quicker to declare their undying love and bone. Whether it was the planet or me or something Kor had done, I was definitely… feeling things for him.

Taliok’s warriors moved away to continue with whatever their duties were, and we forged forward into the mountains. Kor remained standing upright, moving more slowly now and falling into step beside me on Galok’s irkdu.

“The last time I was in these mountains, it was the first time I saw any of your kind. The first time I had a sign that I was on the right path to finding you.”

His words were quiet, his gaze still forward.

“Must have been weird, seeing a whole new species like that,” I said, as the peaks of the mountains rose up all around us.

Kor’s eyes turned to me then. Even on the huge irkdu, we were about the same height now.

“Weird is not the word for it. Wondrous, perhaps. Because I knew I was getting closer to you.”

Everything that came out of this guy’s mouth was like it was designed to woo somebody. And it was so damn sincere.

And it made me think of something…

“How long were you searching?”

We had made it into a large, open area, a circular sort of plain, surrounded by huge peaks.

Before Galok could leap down from his mount and help me down, Kor turned to me, stepping up close, his massive body like a wall, his claws moving to my hips. Heat flooded my body at the placement of his hands. I found myself tipping my head back, my mouth moving for his -

I was lifted easily from the irkdu and placed onto my feet. Somewhat stunned, I blinked, looking around.

Oh. He was just helping you down from the irkdu, idiot.

But all that heat came flooding back when Kor fixed his spinning, sapphire gaze on mine.

“I walked for uncounted days. Dozens upon dozens. Close to one hundred days, if not more.”

A hundred fucking days. A hundred days trawling the desert to find me. Before, the thought had been an alarming one. But now? It felt…

It felt like everything. Devotion and heartbreak and hope and determination, all wrapped up in one. And it was inspiring a lot of those same feelings in me, now, goddamnit.

“Why did it take you so long?” It had only taken us a few days to reach Taliok’s mountains, and from what I understood, it wouldn’t be long until we reached the water.

“Because I did not know where I was going. I did not have a straight path to take, the way we do now. I could not risk leaving any part of the desert unsearched. And if I had not found you at the Cliffs of Uruzai, I would still be searching, now.”

“Oh,” I squeaked. The straightforwardness of that kind of quiet strength was extremely damn impressive. If I had not found you at the Cliffs, I would still be searching now.

The image of him, alone out there, looking and looking and never finding made tears rise behind my eyes. I placed my hand on his huge, spiny forearm,

“Then it’s a good thing that you found me,” I said.

“Not a good thing. The best thing,” he replied.

Before I could swoon too embarrassingly badly at that statement, Taliok’s stern voice distracted me.

“We will leave the irkdu here with my men in the mountains. The rest of the journey will be made on foot. It will make traversing Gahn Baldor’s territory at least somewhat safer. We will not be as easy to notice.”

“This is wise,” Kor said with a growl. I shivered, despite the heat beating down on my jacket. The finality of all of this was starting to set in. The fact that this was getting really dangerous. That we could be putting our lives on the line. That Kor’s life could be on the line. No. We’ll all be OK. We have to be.

What would I do if something happened to him?

The thought made panic rise like bile. No. No no no. That couldn’t happen. Wouldn’t happen.

And the strength of that reaction kind of scared the crap out of me. Because what did it say about how far I’d fallen into whatever the hell this was?

We didn’t make camp, but we did stop in the safety of Gahn Taliok’s mountains to rest up and have some food before the last leg of the journey. Well, relative safety. They had been attacked the last time they were here, after all. But Gahn Taliok had beefed up his forces since then, apparently, and I saw warriors moving through the mountains, patrolling, matched by many more out on the sands.

After some food and valok gel, Chapman stood, then grabbed what looked like a couple of talka stalks out of her bag. Smart. The talka stalks were basically like herbal alien soap in a long, spindly cactus husk. She yanked some extra clothes out of her bag, then looked at me.

“Coming?”

To get cleaned up? Oh, hell yeah. It had been days since my last talka scrub-down, and I was still wearing the same clothes I had been when we’d left. The fact Kor wanted to get within ten feet of me was kind of crazy. The man won’t let anything drive him away.

Fallo grumbled in protest, but Chapman waved his words away. I felt, rather than heard Kor step up behind my back as I bent to grab my own clothes out of my bag.

“I should go with you,” he said, sounding uneasy. “It may not be safe.”

OK, I may have ground my clit against this guy’s scales until I came last night, but I was not ready to have him right next to me while I was butt naked in broad daylight.

“I’m with Chapman, it’ll be fine. She’s a soldier, a warrior from where we come from.”

“What she said,” Chapman said, yanking a blade from Fallo’s back and flashing it in the light. “I won’t let anyone get near her.”

Kor made an unhappy grumble deep in his chest.

“We won’t go far,” I promised. It would be stupid, soldier or not, for us to go too far alone. I’d heard that Theresa had discovered that pretty early on in our time on this planet. She’d gotten herself cornered by a krixel and Chapman and her mate had had to rescue her. Yeah, I was not interested in anything like that. What we were doing on this mission was already adventurous enough.

Chapman and I headed around a small shelf of rock to a shadowy spot that was out of sight of the others. We quickly stripped down, sudsing up with the talka gel and wiping it away from our skin with some spare hide. Stepping into fresh clothes after that felt wonderful, and we took that time to scrub our dirty clothes with the last dregs of the talka gel, laying them on a nearby boulder to dry in the sun. Under that light and heat, it wouldn’t take long.

While waiting for our clothes to dry, I looked around, taking in my surroundings. There was a lot to see here – large babkit trees with their flat, leafless paddle branches, and winding dark vines that climbed the red stone. Lily-like flowers bloomed in breathtaking colours: hot oranges and dusty pinks, and different stones and gems glinted among the dust.

“I bet Melanie loved coming here,” I said, looking at all the shimmering rocks – rocks in glassy pink hues, deep rich reds, even smoky grey.

“I bet she liked it up until one of Baldor’s men had her cornered. Good thing your guy was there to take him out.”

I was about to protest the use of the words “your guy” but… I just couldn’t. In fact, thinking of him as mine when thinking about how he’d saved and protected another one of the human girls sent a small flare of pride through me. So instead of arguing, instead of denying, I just said, “Yeah. It was.”

We collected our now-dry clothes and rounded the shelf of stone that had hidden us. I yelped as I walked directly into another stone wall I somehow hadn’t seen. One that hadn’t been there before.

But it wasn’t a wall. It was Kor.

“What the heck are you doing?” I asked, bending to retrieve the clothes I’d dropped. But I was too slow for my alien warrior. He scooped them all up, being so careful with the fabric in his lethal claws.

“I knew you did not want me to follow you. But I needed to be as near as possible. As near you’d let me in case you needed me.”

“Nothing happened,” I said, taking my clothes from his hands. “So what would I have needed you for, anyway? Washing my back?”

Oops. That was probably the wrong thing to say. Kor’s sight stars pulsed, his nostrils flaring. Great. Now you’ve put that image in his head. And to be honest, the image was kind of in my head now, too. The image of Kor behind me, his huge clawed hands gliding over my skin. Down my back. Lower, lower…

“Come on, you two. I think we’re heading out soon,” Chapman called. I jerked, looking around Kor’s body at her. She was already far away, back with the others in the centre of the open plain.

“Come on,” I mumbled. “They’re all waiting for us.”

As Taliok had commanded, we continued the rest of the way on foot. For the remainder of that day, that meant picking our way through stony valleys. It was easy for the aliens, both Kor and the others. They all seemed to be made for this. Their long legs leaped easily from boulder to boulder, their clawed feet never slipping on the stone. Even more than Taliok, who’d grown up in these mountains, Kor moved most easily. He climbed up rock like it was nothing, like he could defy gravity. And he never lost his balance, never had to stop and take a break. It made me, sweating and swearing under my hood, tripping and slipping in my boots, feel like an idiot. Even Chapman was mostly holding her own, but then again she was a trained soldier.

“I’m a freaking academic,” I panted to myself. Kor, who had never left my side, though his natural speed and strength should have had him leading the pack of us, looked at me questioningly from the side.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I hissed, stumbling on a particularly loose set of rocks. Kor’s hands shot out and grabbed me. And instead of steadying me and putting me back down on my feet, he lifted me and held me to his chest, continuing to traverse the treacherous rocks with ease.

“What is an academic?”

“It’s… it’s someone who spends their time studying. Learning things. Training their mind. Kind of like the tribal healers, but instead of studying healing and bodies and herbs, I studied engineering. I made things. Designed things.”

“This seems its own kind of strength,” he pointed out, and I felt a little better at his words.

“You can put me down now,” I said.

“I can,” he agreed, somewhat slowly. “But I do not wish to.”

My face heated.

“Do you wish me to put you back down?”

Nope, definitely not. My feet and back were aching, and I was not looking forward to more walking in my sweaty boots. But that wasn’t the only reason I didn’t want to be let down. Being this close to Kor, held so firmly yet so gently in his arms as he moved over the insane rocky landscape like it was nothing was… kind of nice.

But it was just a tad embarrassing to be held cradled to his chest like a newborn baby when everybody else was walking, even Chapman.

“No, I don’t want to go back down. But can we switch the position up a bit?”

Kor stopped.

“Just tell me what to do.”

“OK, just put me down for a second. And get on your knees.”

He placed me gingerly on my feet, then immediately fell to his knees before me. The fluid movement, the lack of hesitation in it, the way he moved to his knees for me without question or argument was extremely appealing. Now is not the time for weird thoughts. I scrambled around to his back. At least riding on his back with my head held high had a little more dignity than being carried like a child. But as I climbed up his back, my thighs forced apart by his breadth, heat gathering between them, I had to wonder if there was more dignity in this after all.

I looped my arms around his thick neck, clasping my hands together under his snout.

“Put your arms under my legs and stand up,” I said, shifting slightly and gasping as a flattened spike ground against my clit. Kor did as I commanded, placing his muscled arms under my legs and rising. I shimmied up a little, looking forward over his shoulder. As he started moving again, much faster than he had been before now that he wasn’t holding back to stay next to me, I whistled, long and low, next to his head, at how cool it was to be so high up. He jerked, and for the first time, almost stumbled. I burst out laughing as he course-corrected, straightening with a grunt.

“If I’m too heavy you can let me down,” I joked, poking at the underside of his snout with my thumb.

“You are not too heavy,” he growled. “I just did not expect such a… penetrating sound so close to my ear.”

I turned to look at the side of his head, noting a dark opening under his ridges.

“Sorry,” I said, still giggling at the fact that whistling had thrown this mighty reptile warrior so off-balance. “Guess it’s not as nice as my singing, huh?”

“Everything you do is a melody in my bones,” he grunted. “Even that sharp sound, whatever it was. It was just unexpected, as I said.” It was basically impossible to tease this guy. He met every quip, every joke, with almost bull-headed honesty that took my breath away. I’m a melody in his fucking bones…

As his words settled into me, there was only one bone I found myself thinking of. Unable to tear my mind away. And it wasn’t really a bone at all. OK, I was thinking about his dick. I couldn’t help it. Being on his back like this, legs spread, feeling the bunch and surge of his muscles beneath some of the most sensitive parts of my body was turning into a weird sort of torture. To be blunt, it was making me horny.

He’s just giving you a piggyback ride. You need to relax, you’re acting like some sex-starved maniac.

Was I sex-starved? I’d never actually had penetrative sex with a guy. I’d dated a few people, and fooled around a bit. But actual penetrative sex had just… never happened. Up until now, I hadn’t thought that I’d ever really been missing out. It hadn’t seemed all that exciting to me, to be honest. But right now, my legs spread on Kor’s strong back, I couldn’t get the thought of his cock out of my mind. And the thought of what it would be like to be inside me.

I still didn’t even have a good idea of what his organ even looked like. Only what it had felt like, pressed against my pussy and my ass, thick and hard, strong and massive like the rest of him.

Dieu. This is not helping. Thinking about his cock is not what you need to be doing right now. What I needed to be doing was calming down the rapidly rising wave of heat between my legs as Kor’s hide and flattened spikes shifted and rolled beneath my aching nerve endings.

Blissfully, painfully, we ended our trek not too long after Kor had picked me up, just as the sun was beginning to set.

“Let us stop here for the night where we are still sheltered by the mountains,” Taliok said

“Good idea,” Chapman agreed, and I nodded, my chin bumping Kor’s shoulder.

We seemed to be at the edge of Taliok’s mountain range. We were at the bottom of a steep valley, two great peaks rising up on either side of us. In front of us, the land moved down in a rocky slope, meeting a flat red plain dotted with dark boulders that moved off into the horizon as far as the eye could see.

Kor shifted his grip, allowing me to slide down his body, and I bit my lip as my sensitive parts dragged along his ridges and spines. I almost toppled right over when my boots hit the ground, but Kor was there, as I should have known he would have been, his hands steadying me.

“Out on those plains is Baldor’s territory. Beyond it is the Bitter Sea,” Kor said. Without even realizing I was doing it, I leaned closer, wanting to feel the rumble of his words as they left his chest. “Tonight, while you all rest, I will travel to the place of rocks to leave the message for my mother. Then, in the morning, we will wait for her at the designated place.”

Chapman nodded, and the other men swished their tails in acknowledgement. I turned to look up at Kor.

“Is that safe? Going into his territory alone?”

The thought of him going into enemy territory alone at night was a scary one. Not that he couldn’t take care of himself, because he obviously could. But like… I didn’t know these Baldor guys. And he was just one man. And insanely strong lizard killing machine, but still just one man all the same.

Kor slipped the hood back over my hair, then eased my sunglasses off, staring down into my eyes.

“Do not worry for me, soft one. I do this for you. And anything I do for you will be done. It is impossible for me to fail.”

“That’s not all that reassuring,” I said. I didn’t want him relying on some luck or superstition related to me to get him through a dangerous task. The skin above Kor’s snout tightened, the ridges over his eyes bunching. I realized, shocked, that that was his version of a smile. How had I never noticed that before? In awe, I reached up, tracing those ridges with my fingertips. Kor gave a stifled groan, nuzzling into my touch.

“You never need to fear for me, Zoey. Nothing could stop me from returning to you, now that I have found you. When I was searching the world for you, I thought that I was determined to have you. But that was nothing compared to this. Now that I have found you, nothing, not even death itself could keep me from you.”

“Don’t mention death,” I whispered. I was starting to get really freaked out by the prospect of him actually dying. He was so strong, so solid and sure of himself. I wished I could be that sure, too.

WE HAD A QUICK, FIRE-less meal of smoked meat and valok. Even though we were technically still safe in Taliok’s territory, the scarred Gahn didn’t think it was a good idea to light a fire so close to Baldor’s plains. As darkness fell, turning those cracked plains into a dark swath, the boulders looming shadows, I wondered who might be out there right now. Who might be ready to attack us. To attack Kor.

After the meal, we settled into a small sheltered area where the stone branched out and created a curving sort of shelf. Above us, a large stone ledge blocked out the asteroid and starlight. Leaving behind the irkdu meant we were travelling light – no tent. Chapman snuggled into Fallo’s side against the stone. I hunched down in my jacket, ignoring the feeling that I really wanted to snuggle down with someone, too. And not just anyone, but a nine-foot-tall lizard alien.

But that alien was currently preparing to leave. He strapped his blade against his hip with the loop of his loincloth and hefted his large, scale-tipped spear. I watched him silently from the shadowy spot where I sat, amazed by the quiet grace of him. The enduring determination. Where we were all resting after a long day of travelling, he was preparing to just keep on going. For me.

Kor tossed a long look over his shoulder at me, then dipped his great head, turning to move into the broad darkness of the plains.

No. I couldn’t let him leave. Not like this. Not without saying anything.

I scrambled to my feet, leaving the sheltered spot to follow Kor.

He had not yet begun the descent down the rocky slope to the plains. When he heard me, or smelled me, or whatever, he tensed, stopping and turning back to face me.

“Wait,” I panted, traipsing over the loose rocks. “Wait a sec.”

“What is it, soft one? You should be resting.” Kor murmured. I stopped before him, suddenly unsure what to do or say. I hadn’t come here with any kind of plan. I’d just known that I wasn’t ready for him to go yet.

“You sure you’ll be alright out there?” I asked after a long silence.

“I am sure. As I have said before, anything I do for you will be done. Of this, I am very sure.”

I nodded, swallowing, my throat feeling tight. I looked around his massive frame, out to the plains. They looked so imposing and desolate and unending. It was hard to believe that soon enough we would reach the edge of the sea.

“Just… promise me you’ll be safe. Promise me that you’ll come back.” There was a desperate crack to my voice that shocked me. He has to come back.

Kor’s ridges tightened, his sight stars buzzing as he looked down at me. He placed his spear on the rocky ground, then brought both his great hands against the sides of my face. I sucked in a breath, realizing that, if he wanted to, he could crush my skull without a second’s thought. But all he did was cradle my head, staring down into my tipped-up face like it was the most heart-wrenchingly beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

“I promise you, soft one. I promise to return to you. Always. No matter where I travel, you are the one thing that will always lead me back. You are my destination and my homeland all at once.”

And that fucking did it. That made the tears fall, sliding out from under my glasses. Kor re-positioned his thumbs, catching the salty drops as they trailed down my cheeks.

“You have tears. Why do you feel sorrow, Zoey?”

“I’m scared,” I said shakily. Scared that he wouldn’t come back. And scared of how scared I was. Scared of how much my feelings had grown for him in such a short period of time.

“I do not know how to convince you not to be afraid aside from returning to your side as quickly as I can,” he rasped. “And yet, I am finding it difficult to tear myself from you, now.”

I pressed inwards against his chest, wanting to feel the thick solidity of him. He made a deep growling sound in his chest as I moved closer. But I still wanted to get closer. Closer than I’d ever been.

“Bend down,” I murmured, and he bent even lower, allowing me to wrap my arms around his muscled neck. His hands slipped down to my waist, and he straightened, hoisting me up against his chest. Gasping, I wrapped my legs around him. Heat bloomed between my thighs, the echoes of arousal from riding on his back earlier coming back with a fury.

And I wasn’t the only one feeling it. Kor’s sight stars blazed, then pulled in so fucking tight, his brow ridges falling lower over his dark gaze.

He walked forward, backing me up against the side of one of the mountain peaks, pinning me to the stone, caging me in. I was breathless with him – his size, his power, the terrible yearning in his strange face. A face I had grown to no longer consider strange. A face I really fucking liked.

“Zoey,” he ground out, his hands tightening on my body. My heart hammered, my skin felt hot under my clothes, despite the cool air.

“It’s OK,” I whispered. I wasn’t even sure what I was calling “OK.” Him, me, us. This moment. This need.

Unlooping my arms from his neck, I undid the zipper of my solar protection jacket. I had no idea what I was doing. All I knew was that I wanted him to see more of me. Before he left and maybe never fucking came back.

Don’t think like that.

I shrugged out of my sleeves, the jacket pinned behind my back against the stone. Then, hands shaking, I reached down, grabbing the hem of my tank top and yanking it up and off, over my head. I was bare from the waist up. My chest heaved. My mouth went dry.

Kor remained still as stone for a long moment. The only part of him that moved were his sight stars, dragging from my face down my torso, lingering on my breasts. Then his hands shifted, moving from where he held my hips up to my waist. He made a choked sound as his fingers touched my bare skin. Spearing electricity zoomed through me at the feel of those huge, rough-yet-smooth hands on my skin. I arched against him, shifting so that my nipples pressed against his chest, and stifled a moan at the sensations ripping through my body. The drag of my nipples against his hide was way too arousing. I could feel how wet I was growing, even under my clothes.

Clothes. Too many fucking clothes.

“Let me down,” I breathed against Kor’s snout. He made a strangled sound of complaint, but did so, his eyes fixed on me as I yanked my pants and underwear down. I shook off my boots and socks, then kicked all my remaining clothing off, standing naked in front of him.

And once again, Kor fell to his knees before me. Like I was a goddess his whole purpose in life was to worship. His huge hands slid up the backs of my legs, his snout pressing against my jaw. A shock ran through me as his massive forked tongue emerged, licking up the side of my neck. One of those forked edges slipped behind my ear, and I groaned, feeling Kor’s grip jerk against me.

And then, leaving a cold, empty feeling behind, that tongue pulled away from my skin.

I was about to complain, to pull him back to me, when a hot bolt of pleasure at my core shocked me. His tongue had come back, alright. And it had found itself between my legs.

My legs going loose, I bent and gripped the back of Kor’s head for support, my breath tearing out of me. He grunted, then with a quick shift of his hands, he lifted me to sit on a small shelf of stone behind me.

The rock was rough under my legs, and it contrasted with the smooth brush of Kor’s fingers along my inner thighs, pushing my legs apart. I didn’t have time to feel self-conscious about the fact that a snouted alien with an insane sense of smell was now breathing me in like he would drown without me. Because before I could even start to feel embarrassed, or like I should close my legs and move away, his long tongue, or tongues, met my skin.

I shook, arching, raising one hand over my head to grip the rock behind me. The other hand fell involuntarily to the back of Kor’s head. I felt the rumble of his groan under my fingers, felt it along my thighs, radiating deep into my core as his tongue slipped through my wetness. His snout bumped against my pubic bone, adding extra pressure from above that heated my clit, making me moan.

The twin forks of his tongue probed up and down, lapping at the wetness. Kor growled and pressed even closer, hoisting my knees over his powerful shoulders, my skin bumping over his ridges and flattened spikes. The combination of sensations was making me dizzy – the rough stone scraping at my back and ass, my thighs against Kor’s shoulders, his huge hands slipping up from my knees to grip my hips as he fucking feasted on me. There was something primal, almost animalistic about the ferocity of his mouth against me. He was so, so careful that his teeth never grazed my skin. But the drag of his tongue was desperate and raw. I was already so close…

And then, when both forks of his tongue probed into me, pressing right into my core, moving independently of each other, twisting and slicking inside me, I came. Explosively. I clenched hard around his tongues, and I felt him tense between my legs, his fingers growing tight against my skin.

But he didn’t stop. It was like he was drinking from me, parched, sucking down everything I had to give. I had to push on his ridged brow, feeling way too sensitive, until he finally backed off. But only slightly. His snout was still between my legs, his laser-focused sight stars glued to where he’d just had his tongues. Panting, I looked down at him as he stared at me, the wetness glimmering on his snout and scales making me feel all hot and prickly. Still, he didn’t move, his sight stars never straying.

Now I was definitely starting to feel the creep of self-consciousness.

I tried to close my legs, but his stony grip wouldn’t let me budge.

“One more moment,” he begged. “Let me look at you for one more moment.”

It was a plea and a command all in one. The ache of his heart and the intensity of his lust twining together and making my chest clench. Holding my breath, I spread my legs a little wider.

“So wet… And so, so soft,” Kor groaned reverently. One of his fingers moved to track its pad over my sensitive folds, and I flinched at the contact. “I did not know flesh could be this soft.”

I heard the desire in his voice, alongside the doubt. The doubt about trying to actually penetrate me with whatever it was that he was packing down there. I had to admit, I had my doubts, too. I wasn’t ready to go all the way yet, anyway, but it would be good to get a sense of what he had going on in that department.

“Let me see you,” I said, sitting more upright. Kor’s sight stars slipped up to my eyes, then back down, catching on my breasts. He stood, massive, carved from dark stone in the gloom, removing his loincloth and letting his erection spring free.

“Come closer,” I whispered. He stepped up until he was standing between my spread legs, his hips just below eye-level from where I sat on the ledge. I pressed my lips together, leaning forward to figure out just what exactly I was looking at.

From a subtle crease in his skin, a long, thick, dark organ emerged. My eyes bulged as I took it in – the size of it. The strangeness. It was vaguely spear-like in shape, tapered towards the tip, with no foreskin. A deep grey colour, black in the darkness of the night, so thick I knew I wouldn’t be able to get my fist around it. I didn’t see any testicles on the outside, but I did see… something else.

Around the base of Kor’s huge cock was a ring of spikes that mirrored those that ran along the back of his neck, his spine, and his arms and tail. They stuck straight up, following the same pointed direction of Kor’s hard cock. I felt the blood drain from my face, wondering what the hell kind of fucked-up evolutionary thing was that – having wicked spikes at the base of somebody’s dick. Wouldn’t they tear a girl up?

As if reading my mind, Kor said, tight and strained, “They are not sharp.”

I gulped. They definitely looked like his sharp spikes. Black and pointed, surrounding the base of his cock like one of those bear traps that snapped closed on animals’ legs. But as his chest heaved, his gaze stuck on me, I believed him, I trusted this massive alien warrior. And so, hand shaking only slightly, I reached forward to see if he was telling the truth.

Kor groaned, long and low, his hips jumping forward as my fingers touched his smooth tip. I licked my lips, enamoured with the feeling of his skin there. Where the rest of his body was covered by scales in some places, and hide in others, this felt like silk. So smooth, and, I realized, flushing, the tip coated with a slick wetness. Wetness that matched my own.

I let my fingers play over his smooth, pointed tip. I felt a slight opening, a slit at the tip that made Kor’s hips rock when I probed it gently. Fascinated and aroused, I felt more liquid bead up against my fingers as I pressed against the opening. I kept my one hand there, then moved the other down to explore the strange ring of spikes surrounding the base. Kor had told the truth – they weren’t sharp. In fact, they weren’t even as hard as his cock. They were more like cartilage, firm but pliable. I let my fingertips graze over the tips of all of them, my hand moving in a circular motion around the base of his cock.

Kor grunted, shifting closer, placing his two arms behind me on the stone until I was surrounded by his body. His hand placement was rather odd, and I realized it seemed odd because he wasn’t touching me. Wasn’t holding me. But when I saw the way his arms shook on either side of my head, the way his long, snouted jaw tensed, fangs snapping against each other, I knew it was because he was barely keeping himself under control. If he touched me, he’d completely lose it.

Heat flooded my body at that thought. It was a terribly alluring one. It made my hands move faster, harder against him. One hand stroked up and down the thickness of his cock, the other slipped over the pliable spikes at the base, creating a two-handed rhythm. Kor’s breath was short and hard above my head. His tail thrashed on the ground behind him. Slowly, his hips began to grind against my grip. His movements got faster, harder, more brutal. It got to the point that he was pressing me back against the stone of the mountains, and all I could do was keep my hands at his groin while he pounded against my grip. Eventually, I yanked one of my hands away to strum at my own clit. I couldn’t help it, couldn’t stop it. Seeing Kor so aroused, hearing his deep groans, feeling the hard rock of his hips, was lighting me on fire. I stroked over my wetness harder and faster, circling my clit before plunging two fingers inside myself, pretending it was him. Not that the physical sensation was anything close to the reality before me. My two fingers weren’t even a fraction of the girth of his cock. But, like that, fingers pumping at my own core and against his cock, I came again, arching and moaning. Kor shuddered over me, then tore himself away, turning just as dark liquid jetted out of him, black as squid ink, painting the stone beside me. I stared in shocked awe at the volume of inky seed spurting out of him, rope after rope of it. He fell to his hands and knees, growling, as his orgasm ripped through him, his hips pounding down against nothing. The image of me beneath that bent, aching form made me dizzy. What would it be like to be under him? Completely overpowered by him, feeling him grind against me like that?

After a long moment, Kor finally stood. I watched in fascination as his huge hand tucked his softened cock – still huge – into his body. I wiggled off the stone ledge, walking over to him, running my fingers up along that seem of flesh that he’d just tucked himself into. He threw his head back, his throat convulsing, as my fingers explored that slit. Behind the hide here, I could feel his cock jerking in response to my touch. The slit widened slightly, the dark tip of his cock pressing through again.

“My dearest loveliness, if I do not leave now, I will never be able to separate myself from you.”

I pulled my hand away regretfully and nodded. He was right. We had a mission out here. Things to do that could affect the fate of all the people on this planet. He captured my hand and brought it up to his snout, groaning against my fingers.

“Still wet,” he rasped, his tongue flicking out to taste my fingers. I blushed furiously as I realized it was my wetness, my arousal, that he was tasting. This was the first time I’d really seen his tongue up close. It was a deep charcoal grey, like his cock, and forked like a snake from Earth. But of course, it was way longer than the tongue of any snake I’d ever heard of. And it felt so fucking good against my skin.

“This taste, this scent alone, would bring me back from the dead,” he grunted, finally releasing my hand. The skin burned, but then felt cold without him.

“I must go now, soft one. But I will be back before you wake in the morning.”

“Promise?” I asked him again, even though he’d already done so. But he indulged me anyway.

“I promise.”

He bumped his snout against my forehead, his claws smoothing over my braids, my shoulders, down to my waist. And then, with a sound that made it sound like he was doing something incredibly painful, he pulled away. He retrieved his weapons and loincloth, dressing quickly. I did the same.

“Go return to the others. Once you are back and safe with them, I will leave.”

“Alright…” I said, hesitating. Finally, I forced myself to turn away from him, walking around the stone back to the camp for the night.

The last thing I saw, the image carved into my mind, was Kor, silhouetted in the darkness like some reptilian god, watching me go.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Kor

Leaving Zoey there was perhaps the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life. Her heat still ran through my veins, her taste was still slick upon my snout and tongues. Her cunt had been so soft and wet and sweet beyond imagination. If I had asked, she may have even opened it for me. For my ravenous cock. Even now, my cock was pulsing in my slit, seeking to fall forward and out at the thought of her. At the memory of the moments we’d just shared. I felt mad with her, dizzy with lust and shot-through with love beyond anything I’d thought was possible. So it was difficult, incredibly so, to leave her behind. Knowing she was without my protection, with the other men, made me seethe. But I was doing this for her and the safety of her people. It had to be done. And I was the only one who could do it.

I clenched my spear’s handle between my fangs, lowering down onto all fours so that I could move faster over the plains. Not only was this my quickest positioning, but it would also help me be less easily seen in the open areas of the plains if one of Gahn Baldor’s patrols moved past me.

Claws flying, tail thumping, I ran, the landscape blurring past me in dark streaks of night-tinged red and black. The further from the mountains I got, the more the air began to change. The ground became even harder and flatter, no sand left to speak of. And the air took on a bitter, salty taste that made memories pang deep inside me. I moved faster, flying over the land for uncounted moments.

The landscape began to change again. I was nearing the closest inlet of the Bitter Sea, now. Drawing close to its shore and the place my mother and I had agreed upon, right before I’d left her. In the distance, on my left, I could see the small points of the tents of Gahn Baldor’s tribe. My mother would be there, now, likely asleep. I ignored the tents, not heading for them, but continuing forward. Some time later, I finally reached the spot, the tents far behind me.

Here, the ground was all rocks of varying sizes. Some smaller than my eyeballs, some as large as me. A collection of boulders and pebbles all pushed together, leading forward into the sea. The descent into the water was gradual. Ahead of me, I could see the water glistening, rocks poking out of the blackened surface like hands reaching from the deep.

The water called to me, the ancestral pull of my father’s people, urging me to plunge into it. But I ignored it. I had a task to fulfill and a mate to return to. I picked along the rocks of the shore until I finally came upon it. The rock both my mother and I had made note of.

It was a very oddly-shaped boulder, different from many of the others. Where the other rocks were mostly rounded, or flat, this one had a large dent in its dark surface, almost like a bowl. I stood, staring down into the scooped-out centre of the boulder. Then I bent, picking up a large rock, a rock that would be too large to have ended up on top of this boulder by chance, and placed it in the centre of the rounded dent. I stood back to regard my work, my tail twitching in satisfaction. Yes, my mother would definitely understand the message. The rock on top of the boulder looked odd and out of place. She would see the change immediately and come to find me.

A frisson ran through me at the realization that my mother would get the chance to meet my beautiful mate. I did not ever think that I would have that chance. Neither did she. We always assumed that, once I found my mate, we’d still live apart to protect the secret of my birth and of both our peoples. But the time for secrets had come to an end.

I turned, casting a quick look around to make sure there were no warriors in my sightline. Then I returned to all fours, moving quickly away from the salted air of the coast, back into the plains.

By the time I returned to Taliok’s mountains and picked my way back into the camp, dawn was brushing the horizon. But, as I’d promised, I had returned before Zoey had awoken. The Sea Sand men stirred and tensed as I entered, my movements waking them. But Zoey remained still, curled under her cloak. I lowered myself to the ground next to her, watching the soft rise and fall of her chest. This was the first time I’d seen her up-close without her eye shells on, her glasses. Apparently she did not need them in her sleep, which I supposed made a certain amount of sense. Her dreams must have been clear enough without them.

I lowered my face down to the ground, directly in front of hers, taking in all of her delicate features. The soft roundness of her eyelids over her eyes, the dark fringe of hair surrounding those eyelids’ seams. The bony bridge of her nose, the plush lips and round cheekbones. She shifted in her sleep, her flat brows twitching, her mouth curving into a frown, and I bit back a growl. Who dared make my beautiful mate frown, even in her dreams? Though I did not wish to wake her, I could not help myself from reaching forward and pressing the pad of a finger to the crease between her brows, feeling the bunching of the soft skin there.

Her eyelids fluttered, then wrenched open, a sharp intake of breath rushing through her nose. I pulled my hand back, about to apologize for frightening her, when she smiled broadly, wriggling forward and throwing her arms up around my neck, dragging my head against her. I laid on my side, drawing her into my chest, throwing my tail over her protectively.

“You’re back,” she breathed against my chest. My tail smoothed over her hip.

“Yes. I promised I would be.”

“Glad to see you’re a man who keeps his word,” she sighed, nuzzling closer. I was about to scoff and protest that yes, of course I was a man to keep my word. I was a warrior of honour, despite what anyone may have thought about my unusual origins. But I felt her lips curl into a smile against my hide, and I realized she was teasing me. I was not used to such a thing, but it made me happy.

I would have stayed there forever, my small mate safe in the protection of my limbs and tail, but the sun was rapidly rising now. It would not be long before my mother discovered my message and moved to meet me.

“Come,” I said, moving to a sitting position and gently pulling her with me.

“I know we have to, but man, that was comfortable.”

Pride made my tail twitch behind me, my snout rising up, my hide tightening in a smile. My hard warrior’s body, so different to hers, had brought my mate comfort. My embrace had created a cocoon that she did not want to leave. Slowly, slowly, I was earning her. I was proving my worthiness to her.

I rose, pulling Zoey gently to her feet. Around us, the others were preparing to leave. We all ate quickly.

“I will lead the way. We will be much slower now without the irkdu, but the meeting place with my mother is not too far from here.” It was on the edge of Gahn Baldor’s territory. “Come. I will show you the way.”

We set off, me in the lead. I kept Zoey close to my side, just behind me, at all times, my spear ready in my claws. We moved in the shadow of Taliok’s mountains until there were no more shadows to be had.

Then we trailed through the plains in the broad light of day. Moving so slowly like this made me nervous.

“Zoey, climb onto my back as we did before.”

Zoey looked at me, her eyes invisible behind the dark glasses that she wore during the day.

“Why? I’m doing OK, not too tired yet.”

“Yes, but we are moving too slowly.”

“I agree,” grunted Gahn Taliok.

Gahn Fallo turned to his mate who, with a slightly annoyed frown, climbed up onto his back, his hands settling under her legs.

I lowered myself, and Zoey did the same thing, climbing up onto my back. The slight weight of her back there felt so good. Galok and Taliok crouched, ready to run, and I lowered myself onto all fours.

“Follow me!” I cried before placing my spear’s handle between my teeth and taking off. I felt, rather than heard Zoey’s gasp as we began to move at a much higher speed. The sound of her sharp breath was whipped away by the wind as we ran.

We moved quickly over the plains, though I was not moving at my top speed. I did not think Zoey would be able to handle that speed, and the other men would not have been able to keep up. Eventually, after long stretches of running, the landscape turned rocky again, the way it had been last night. I was not approaching the same stretch of coastline I had been to last night, but rather a spot further inland, closer to Taliok’s mountains but further from Gahn Baldor’s tents. The chosen spot was in sight as the sun reached its midway point in the sky. I could recognize it easily – a cluster of babkit trees among the rocks of the shore.

“Head for the trees,” I called, and I heard the Sea Sand men cry out in response. We thundered over the rocks, the crashing sound of the sea getting louder every moment, the air more saturated with its salt. The babkit trees were growing in my vision, getting larger the closer we got, until we were almost upon them. And beyond this small grove of trees was the sea.

We moved into the grove of babkit trees. These ones were large, larger than many of the others that grew in other places of the desert, taller than a man and thicker of trunk. The cluster of them provided some cover from the openness of the plains on one side and the rocky shore on the other. We moved into the trees then finally stopped. I let Zoey down to the ground. She immediately, followed by the others, moved to the edge of the trees, peering out over the rocks.

“Is that the sea?” she asked, sounding astonished.

“Yes,” I said, stepping up behind her. From the shadows of the trees, we could just see the edge of the water from here. The sun beat down on the rocks between here and there and glimmered on the rolling waves that smashed themselves upon the shore.

“Now what?” Gahn Fallo asked, his tail whipping impatiently. Everyone turned to look at me.

“Now we wait.”

WE DID NOT HAVE TO wait long. My mother’s form appeared in the distance soon after our arrival. I longed to go to her, to escort her back here safely. But that would only put her in more danger. Right now, to any of Gahn Baldor’s men, she looked like a Sea Sands woman out for the day, perhaps gone to collect babkit branches for the evening fire. But if I were to be spotted with her, it would create a whole host of problems. Luckily, I did not see any patrolling parties roaming this area, but there was always that risk.

I moved to the edge of the trees so that I would be the first one she saw. If the first thing she saw on approach were warriors, Gahns, from enemy tribes, then she might try to flee.

When she was close enough to see me, she started running, her Sea Sand legs moving easily over the land. In a few breathless moments, she was before me, her sight stars spinning. Her loose, long hair was tangled from her run, streaked through with grey. But her sight stars were as bright as ever, glinting a warm copper-gold.

“My son,” she breathed, smiling. She pressed herself into my chest, putting her arms around me, though they did not completely wrap around my broad frame.

I could tell the exact moment she noticed the others, because though she said nothing, every muscle in her strong body tensed.

I placed my claws on her shoulders, easing her out of our embrace. I kept one comforting hand on her shoulder as I turned to face the others with her.

“Mother, these men are my friends and allies. You see before you Gahn Fallo of the Cliffs of Zadazar and Gahn Taliok of the mountains. This man is Galok, of Gahn Buroudei’s tribe. This woman is the Gahnala Chapman. And this woman…” My voice caught in my throat as my gaze settled on Zoey. I could feel my mother’s questioning gaze on me, and then her sharp intake of breath as I uttered my next words.

“This woman is Zoey. Mother, this is my mate.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Zoey

I’d never exactly met a guy’s mom before, so I had no prior experience to compare this to. Heck, even if I did, would it even apply? Pretty sure that meeting a guy’s mom on Earth was nothing like surprising the mother of an alien man alongside some of her tribe’s most hated enemies.

I smiled hesitantly at her, taking her in the same way she was doing with me. I didn’t know what I had been expecting, but I wasn’t expecting… her. She seemed so tiny compared to Kor. Definitely on the shorter side for a Sea Sand woman. And where Kor was all snouts and ridges and scales, she was all bronzed smooth skin, soft lines, and flowing long hair. There was one thing they had in common, though. The sight stars. Though Kor hadn’t inherited the warm colour of her sight stars, the way they moved and pulsed in their gazes was almost identical. It made me feel like I already knew her a bit. And that made me feel a little more at ease.

“Hello,” I said, dipping my head awkwardly. I knew that I was supposed to raise my tail over my eyes in a situation like this, but I didn’t have a tail to raise. So stiff head-dips it was.

“Hello, Zoey,” the woman said, moving out from Kor’s side. She eyed the others warily, reaching for me, grabbing my arm, and pulling me away from the group, close to Kor and her. “My name is Jara. I am Kor’s mother. It is a great joy to meet you. Although…” her gaze flicked to the others behind her, then she looked at Kor with a worried expression. “Although I do not understand why these others are here. Why have you let them see you, Kor? Why are you all travelling together?”

“There is much to apprise you of, mother. And much we need to ask you.”

Taliok and Galok raised their tails before Jara. Gahn Fallo hissed, but a quick elbow in his ribs had him raising his tail a moment later, under Chapman’s watchful gaze.

“We are here, as Kor has said, as allies to him. We wish neither him nor you any harm,” Taliok said, lowering his tail.

“I suppose I have no choice but to believe that. You have already learned of Kor’s existence. And now you are all here. Why?” Jara asked.

“Come, let us sit,” Kor said. We all sat in a loose circle under the babkit trees. Taliok gestured at Galok with his tail, and Galok sprang back up to keep watch, his eyes trained on the plains out beyond the trees. I sat next to Kor, his mother on the other side, Chapman, Fallo, and Taliok across from us.

“I had no choice but to reveal myself to the men of the Sea Sands,” Kor began. I leaned in, listening to the deep, powerful toning of his voice. “My mate, Zoey, the beauty I had searched the desert for, was living among the three tribes now allied together and settled at the Cliffs of Uruzai. There was no way to reach her without making my presence known. Not unless I crept in and stole her in the night.”

His mother flinched.

“That would not have been the right choice,” she said stiffly.

Definitely not. If he’d abducted me, taken me away from the only people I knew on this planet, I didn’t think there would have been any way to come back from that. We never would have gotten as close as we were now. I never would have trusted him again.

I said a silent thank you to Kor, pressing in against his side. Thank you for letting me trust you.

I thought back to that strange night. The panic in the camp. The emergence of what looked to be a monster from the cliffs, carrying three men on his back in the darkness. If only I knew then who he really was, what he was really like…

Jara leaned around Kor’s broad form to look at me.

“Tell me of your people, Zoey. Where you and the Gahnala here have come from.”

“It’s a bit hard to explain,” I said, tossing a look at Chapman, who shrugged. “We come from another world. We’re not from Zaphrinax. We came here… flew here… in a huge thing like a bird.”

“Three of the tribes of the Sea Sands have allied to protect the women, each of those tribes having men with mates among the new women,” Kor added, and I nodded.

“These are strange tidings. Women from beyond our world. A blessing to the tribes, certainly. But it does not explain why all of you now travel into hostile territory. Gahn Baldor’s men have been on high alert. They seem to be preparing for something,” Jara said uneasily.

“Preparing for what?” Taliok asked, and Fallo growled, leaning forward to hear. Even Galok stiffened, his ears turning back towards us to better listen. That’s right – it was one of Gahn Baldor’s men that almost killed Galok in the ship.

“I do not know,” Jara replied. “Since my return to the tribe, I have been shunned. I was gone for so long, and I could not provide an adequate explanation for my absence. Telling them of my mating with Kor’s father, and my child, would have put Kor at risk. And I could not do that. Since I could not account for all the years I had been gone in the desert, very few trust me with any information now besides whether the dakrival meat is good today.”

“I am sorry for this, mother,” Kor said, sounding heartbroken. And, even though I’d just met her, I felt almost as sad for her as Kor did. From all I’d learned about this woman, she’d done everything she could to protect her child. Including living exiled in the desert, an incredibly dangerous place, and raising him alone. And now that she finally had the chance to return to her people, they didn’t trust her enough to really let her back in. That must have been incredibly painful.

But Jara frowned, waving away Kor’s words with a flick of her tail.

“It is no matter. There was no choice in it. I did everything I could to protect you. I would change nothing that has happened. Besides,” her eyes fell on me again, and she smiled, “you have a mate now. And that has brought me more joy than you could ever know, Kor. A beautiful mate, though she is unlike both of us.”

“Thank you,” I said, cheeks feeling warm, unable to deny the fact that I really fucking liked that I’d just gotten this strong, independent woman’s approval. I decided now wasn’t the best time to tell her I hadn’t actually officially accepted Kor as my mate. She looked way too overjoyed.

The others didn’t seem as interested in the mushy mate talk as Jara.

“So beyond the humans’ return, we now have Gahn Baldor rallying his forces for some unknown reason,” Fallo grumbled.

“How can the reason be unknown?” Taliok snapped, his voice dark. “It is obvious that he or one of his men has a mate from among the new women. No other reason would have him dare to attack three tribes banded together.”

“Whatever his reasoning, this definitely complicates things,” Chapman said, rubbing her chin. She turned to Fallo. “You’re not going to like this.”

Fallo stared at her flatly.

“What is it?”

She sighed and shook her head.

“You need to go back and warn Gahn Buroudei and the others. Gahn Baldor could travel back there and attack before we return, putting them at a disadvantage.”

Fallo jumped up, making a terrible sound.

“You must think me a weak Gahn if you believe I will leave you here with these other men and return without you.”

Oh, shit. I clutched at Kor’s arm without even thinking about it, and felt his tail shift to wrap around my hips. But Chapman, miraculously, kept her cool. How she deals with this nutcase on the regular, I will never know.

“Fallo. If you love me and trust me, you will do this for me. If there is an attack, we can’t have two of the three Gahns away from the settlement.”

“Then send Taliok,” he sneered, his red eyes tracking over to the scarred and brooding Gahn. Taliok stood slowly, and Fallo bared his teeth. Chapman placed a calming hand on her unruly mate’s chest.

“No, we should have all three tribes represented on this mission in case the men of the Bitter Sea do come back to negotiate with us. I will represent your tribe, Galok is here for Gahn Buroudei’s, and Gahn Taliok needs to be here for his own tribe.”

Fallo’s tail whipped ferociously, but I could see, we all could see, that he was running out of arguments. Chapman was speaking sense, after all. He just didn’t want to accept it.

Even though I thought he was batshit crazy, I did feel for him a little bit. I’d felt that desperation when Kor had moved into enemy territory without me last night. And I was feeling that same panic rise in me at the thought of Kor going to meet the men of the Bitter Sea.

Fallo brushed a stray strand of Chapman’s fiery red hair away from her face.

“You know that if anything happens to you, I will kill every man in this party, starting with Taliok.”

Taliok tensed, snarling, “As if I would ever let you get close enough.”

Before the two Gahns could get any further into their argument, Jara jumped up. Her strong voice shook the small grove of trees. She was the shortest of all the aliens present, but she spoke with an authority that made even the Gahns snap to attention.

“This is folly. You waste time. Gahn Fallo, if you must go back to the cliffs, then go. Your mate’s reasoning is sound. Warn them, if you will. I may be from Baldor’s tribe, but I do not wish to see yet more bloodshed over these grievances, and I will not betray your mission. But know that Gahn Baldor is preparing for something, something big. And now that I have spoken with you, I do believe it will be an attack, likely for possession of the new women.”

Fallo stared at her, his mouth hanging open. He snapped it shut.

“I thought it was only the new women who dared speak to a Gahn with such insolence, but I see that it is not,” he said slowly.

Jara laughed bitterly.

“I have been away from the tribal life so long that I have abandoned many of its courtesies. But I said what needed to be said. Even so, this is not what I really wish to speak on. This issue with Gahn Baldor is secondary. What is really pressing is what I thought I head you say a moment ago. I thought I heard you say that you wish to negotiate with the men of the Bitter Sea?”

Jara spoke those last words more to Kor than anyone. I squeezed his arm, and we both stood.

“Yes. I am returning to the caves of my father’s people. We need them as our allies.”

Jara’s sight stars exploded, her mouth falling open and closed several times.

“Why? Surely you do not need them as allies against Baldor. You already have the strength of three tribes against his one!”

“That is not why,” Kor said with a sigh. I squeezed his arm once more. I knew that none of this was easy. I tried to take the burden off of him by stepping in to explain somewhat.

“Our people… the humans… they dumped us here almost like a sort of sacrifice. They want something on this planet. We think it’s the Lavrika’s blood. We have reason to believe they will be returning to this world. And if they do, all of us will be in danger – the people of the Sea Sands, the people of the Bitter Sea, us human women. Even the Lavrika itself.”

“No one tribe could harm all those warriors, and certainly not the sacred Lavrika of either the desert or the sea,” she sputtered. I smiled sadly and shook my head.

“Unfortunately, our people have weapons the likes of which you’ve never seen. Weapons that could destroy entire worlds. We don’t know what they’re going to unleash if they return. But if and when they do come back, we need to be ready.” My voice grew stronger and stronger as I spoke. I really believed in this mission. Whatever it took, we would protect this place. The home we’d found. The home we’d made.

“So Kor will travel through the sea to find his father’s people in order to bring them into this fight,” Jara said slowly. I nodded. She turned to Kor, a distressed look on her face.

“But they might kill you on sight, Kor. And even if they do listen to you, they will likely be more interested in the enemy in front of them than an unseen enemy from another world who has not yet attacked. It could cause the greatest blood war this world has ever seen! There are fewer men of the Bitter Sea than there are Sea Sand warriors, but you know that they are much larger and stronger than the desert men.

Fallo made a scoffing sound at that, but Jara threw him an irritated look.

“You are a fool if you deny that, Fallo. Look at my son, look how he towers over all of us, and he is only half from the Bitter Sea. Kor’s father was even larger than him, and so are the rest of them.”

Fallo said nothing, but Galok piped up from his guard post.

“I believe you, Jara. In our cliffs, Kor killed two krixel alone, and then took out three of our warriors with little trouble. Though he was good enough not to kill them,” he added with a small smile.

“He is a strong warrior, and good,” Jara said, a note of pride winding through her voice. I felt a flicker of that same pride inside me, thinking of Kor’s strength and goodness, and I nestled closer against his huge arm. I didn’t even know he’d had to kill two of the krixel before being accosted by the warriors. He’s been through a lot, that’s for damn sure. And all of it just to find me…

Kor spoke next, his voice steady and serious.

“I am aware of every risk involved. I am aware that my father’s people may kill me. And I am aware that they may wish to move to war against the desert men once they know of their existence. But there is no other choice. It must be done. It is for my mate’s protection, and there is nothing I would not risk for that.”

My throat tightened, and heat pricked at my eyes. I wished he didn’t have to be the one taking these risks. I wished that there was some other way. That the human authorities would just forget about us and never come back.

But this was where we were, now. This was where we’d found ourselves. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, between the desert and the sea. And no matter how hard it was, we had to move forward. To get ourselves unstuck.

We couldn’t just wait for whatever was coming.

We had to rise to meet it.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Kor

It was not long into our reunion that my mother’s gaze moved back to the plains.

“I should not stay much longer,” she said. “The others already think I have lost my wits, but I do not want to raise their suspicions more than necessary. Kor, cut me down some branches so that I can return with something in my hands.”

I moved out of my mate’s soft reach, hacking down several flat babkit branches and handing them to her. She smiled in thanks, tucking the wide branches under her arm.

“When will you leave for the sea?” she asked, her gaze swinging between Zoey and me.

“Tonight,” I said. There was no sense in delaying. I would rest this afternoon, and then leave as soon as night fell. I heard Zoey make a small sound beside me, and I forced my gaze to remain on my mother’s face. If I looked at Zoey now, it would be too hard to ever look away again.

“So soon,” my mother replied, her mouth hardening. She dropped the babkit branches and pulled me into another tight embrace. I wrapped my arms behind her, bending my head to rest my snout upon her warm hair.

“Keep your strength and all your sanity about you, my son. Just as you did when you left to find your mate. Even then, I knew that we would meet again. And so I still believe, even now.”

My chest clenched. The optimism of her words was nice to hear. But the reality was that there was no way to know if I would survive this or not.

Finally, after a long moment, she pulled away from me. Before stooping to collect her branches, she moved to my side, pulling Zoey into her arms. Zoey made a small oof sound of surprise, but a warm joy filled my chest as her slim arms moved to my mother’s back, squeezing. Seeing the two of them together, my family, was an arching happiness I never thought I’d get to experience. I could feel the joy mixed with the pain emanating from my mother as she embraced her new daughter and contemplated losing her son. I felt that, too. Those same twin spires of love and sorrow.

When my mother let Zoey go, I was dismayed to see some of Zoey’s shiny human tears streaking through the blue-tinted stuff on her brown cheeks. My mother’s sight stars tightened up, and she leaned forward to regard Zoey’s face more closely.

“What has happened?” she asked.

Zoey sniffed, and I moved to her side, drawing her against me with one arm.

“It is a feature unique to the new women. When they feel strong emotions, liquid seeps from their eyes.”

“Your kind is very strange,” my mother muttered, cocking her head. “But that strangeness does not matter, now. I am so glad to have met you, Zoey.”

“Me too,” my soft one said, rubbing at her eyes. “Sorry for the tears. I lost both my parents and haven’t hugged my mom in so long.”

My mother’s face softened, and I held Zoey tighter against me.

“What you have lost you have regained here,” my mother said, taking Zoey’s small hand in hers. “You will forever have a mother in me, as long as I breathe on these sands.”

This time, it was Zoey who launched forward, throwing her arms around my mother’s waist. The look of surprised happiness on my mother’s face was an image I knew I would not forget for all of my days. Even if those days were very numbered, now.

Finally, the two women separated for the last time that day.

“Will your party remain here, in this grove?” my mother asked, turning to the others.

The Gahnala Chapman nodded her human agreement.

“Yes. Fallo is going to go back to the Cliffs of Uruzai. We’ll stay here, where there’s some cover, while we wait for Kor to return.”

It was a good place, a secret place, far enough from Gahn Baldor’s tents that most people would have no reason to come out here. There were babkit groves closer to their tents, and besides branches for fires, there were no other resources nearby that would draw anyone else from the tribe to this spot.

“Good,” my mother answered. “I will come back tomorrow, and every day after that for news.” She turned her eyes back on me. “I expect to find you back here, on one of those returns, my son.”

With that, she gathered her babkit branches and left, casting one last look at Zoey and me before she journeyed back out onto the broad plains, back to the tents of her people.

Zoey watched my mother go, too, and once she was out of sight, my small mate rounded non me, planting her small form in front of me.

“You’re leaving tonight?” she asked. My tail jerked in acknowledgement.

“Yes. Our needs are urgent and we cannot delay.”

Zoey’s brows furrowed, and she opened her mouth to speak, but the Gahnala interrupted.

“He’s right. And that means it’s time for you to go, too,” she said to Gahn Fallo. She and Gahn Fallo moved back out to the edge of the grove of babkit trees to say their goodbyes. I turned my attention back to Zoey, who was chewing her lip, her eyes shining.

“I didn’t think it would come this quickly.” Her voice was quiet. I could not stand how quiet it had become. With a groan, I pulled her into my arms, revelling in the sensation of her burying her face against my hide.

“You know that I will do everything in my power to come back to you, don’t you? And my power is very great, multiplied many times with love for you.”

I felt her nod her little head against me. After all the travel, and not sleeping at all last night, exhaustion was starting to pull at me. Soon, I would have to lay down to rest. But not quite yet. I was not yet ready to let my mate out of my arms.

But my soft one was much stronger than me. She pulled away first, ordering me down.

“You should rest before you go. You’ve been going non-stop since yesterday morning. Hold on.”

She fetched some meat from the supplies we had brought and tried to give it to me.

“You eat first, soft one. Before I rest I must make sure you are fed and safe.”

“It’s fine, take it,” Zoey said, shaking her little fists full of meat at me. But I shook my head back and forth in an imitation of the human gesture for “no.”

She sighed.

“Fine, if this will make you eat, I will.” She chomped her tiny teeth down on some meat, chewing hard. As she ate, I made myself useful, using my claws to hack down yet more babkit branches. I had started to create a fairly large pile of board-like branches when Gahn Taliok stopped me.

“I appreciate your efforts, Kor. But we will likely not have any evening fires here. It could draw too much attention.” I grunted, twitching my tail in response, and added no more to the pile. He was right, of course. Oh well, perhaps my mother can take from this store instead on her return.

I returned to my mate’s side. Some of the meat in her hands was gone, now. Satisfied that she had eaten, I finally sat, taking the remaining food from her hands.

“Thank you,” I said as she clambered down into a seated position in front of me.

“You’re welcome. Now hurry up and eat so you can get some sleep.”

Who was I to deny this goddess any of her commands?

I ate all she gave me, and more, filling myself and feeling strength bloom in my limbs.

“Now lie down and get comfortable,” Zoey urged. In the shade of the babkit trees, she removed her cloak, scrunching it into a crumpled little ball and placing it on the ground.

“What are you doing?” I asked, eyeing the cloak on the ground. Then my gaze slipped to her bare arms, so smooth and lovely and maybe I didn’t need to sleep after all, maybe I could just -

Zoey slapped my hand away as I reached for her.

“It’s a pillow. It’s for your head. Now lay down!”

My hide tightening in a smile, I did as she said, moving my head down onto her little bunched-up cloak. It was a very odd feeling, but I decided after a moment of shifting that placing my snout upon it, my body curving, my tail wrapping around it, was indeed quite comfortable. The joys and comforts this glorious woman has brought to my life are unending, I thought happily. And that happiness only grew when I felt Zoey move closer, placing her hand upon my head. She stroked along my ridges and along the flattened spikes of my neck and spine. I made a long, low growl of pleasure at the feeling of that incredibly gentle softness against the hardness of my body.

She bent her face closer to my head and began singing softly. The words were in her language, so I had no idea what they meant, but the pure beauty of her voice, the slow lilt of the melody, needed no translation. I let the loveliness of the sounds wind through me, wrap around me.

And like that, cushioned by the fabric of Zoey’s cloak and the wonder of her voice, I slept.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Zoey

I kept singing for a while, even after I was sure Kor had fallen asleep. I sang the same song, over and over again. It was the first song that popped into my head. A song my mother used to sing me as a child when I couldn’t sleep: À la claire fontaine.

I always knew it was a kind of sad song. But the lyrics struck a deeper chord now. Felt so much more meaningful as they moved out of my mouth.“Il y longtemps que je t’aime, jamais je ne t’oublierai.”

I’ve loved you for so long,

I will never forget you.

As I sang those lines, the chorus of the song, over and over, stroking my fingers along the brutal hardness of Kor’s hide, I realized they were fucking true. There was no way I could forget someone like him. Because, Dieu, I loved him.

I did. I had gone from fear, to hesitant liking, to love. I felt it in every stroke of my hand over his sleeping form. I felt it in the way I wanted him to sleep, the way I wanted to protect him while he rested. I felt it in the fear I had about him leaving tonight. I felt it in the deep longing for him to return, the way I missed him before he’d ever even left.

My throat tightened, and I couldn’t sing anymore. I moved from my sitting position to lay beside Kor, nuzzling up close to him. His heavy tail unwound from his tightly curled form, moving behind my back and drawing me in closer. Even in sleep, he was looking for me, holding me, trying to keep me near. And I really, really loved it. Loved him. All of him. Every weird, alien part.

We laid like that for a long, long time. And yet, it felt like no time at all. Because I was not ready for him to stir, just as the sun was beginning to set outside our little grove of trees.

The setting sun cast long shadows between the trees, making everything feel gloomy and kind of ominous. But when Kor moved up into a sitting position, the evening light dusting his scales with bronze beauty, everything felt warmer and brighter.

“How’d you sleep?” I asked, sitting up, too.

“Never have I slept so well as I have now, with you,” he said with a tightening of his ridges that meant a smile. I smiled, too, feeling like a woozy idiot now that I had finally realized I loved this reptilian fool.

“I am glad I got to experience such warm sleep, with you next to me, before I leave.” My breath stopped in my throat. My heart fell.

Before I leave.

He was leaving soon. Tonight.

Standing quickly, I tried to think of anything to delay his journey.

“You should eat again, make sure you have enough strength,” I said, my voice shaking. I sounded desperate. Crazy, even. Kor rose and placed his heavy hands on my shoulders.

“I ate enough before. The swim will not even take me a full night. If I need sustenance, there are many creatures of the deep that I can catch.”

I felt tears rising again, for what felt like the millionth time, and I blinked them back angrily. He was so fucking strong. I had to be strong, too.

Kor’s claws shifted under my chin, tilting my face up to look at him. Days ago, I wouldn’t have been able to read much into his alien expressions. But now, now that I knew him, I could tell he was looking at me with kindness, and deep, yearning affection.

“Remember what I told you before, soft one? Your hurts are my hurts, now. It pains me to see you upset like this.”

I didn’t want to cause him pain. I didn’t want him distracted by my messy emotions. So, I sucked it the fuck up, taking a snotty deep breath and clenching my jaw.

“I’m OK.”

Kor tilted his head, his blue sight stars looking darker, deeper, in the dusky light.

“Come with me, soft one. I will show you the way. Show you where I will go. Perhaps this will help you feel more at ease.”

I wasn’t going to feel more at ease until he came back to me. But I nodded, wanting to extend my time with him for as long as I could.

Gahn Taliok, Galok, and Chapman rose from where they were sitting among the trees to say goodbye. Both Gahn Taliok and Galok raised their tails again, and Chapman saluted Kor. This display of respect and admiration for Kor made my chest ache, and I grabbed his huge hand, squeezing it. Kor raised his tail, then lowered it.

“I will leave now. I expect Zoey to be kept safe in my absence.”

There was a dark edge to his voice.

“We will protect her, you can be sure. We acknowledge your allyship and your sacrifice, Kor. We will await your return,” Gahn Taliok said. Chapman and Galok smiled.

“Good luck,” Chapman said, nodding to Kor.

Galok placed a hand on Kor’s shoulder.

“I hope to see you again, and very soon,” Galok said, his smile fading and his face falling into a rare expression of seriousness.

“I will strive with everything I have to return. For my mate, and for all of us. How long will you wait here for me?”

Chapman and Gahn Taliok looked at each other.

“What do you think?” Chapman asked.

Gahn Taliok turned back to Kor.

“Three days.”

I jerked, my mouth falling open.

“Only three days?! What if it takes longer than that!”

No one answered me. And I realized why with the sick fist of dread clenching in my chest.

Because if it takes him more than three days to return here, he’s probably dead.

Well, they can leave after three days if they want, but I’m not going anywhere. I made the promise silently to myself, knowing that no one else, not even Kor, would agree to that. But I couldn’t imagine leaving without him, now. It was impossible. Unfathomable.

“Come,” Kor said, tugging gently on my hand. Turning from the others, we exited the grove of babkit trees. We didn’t move out onto the plains the way Kor’s mother had when she’d been going back to the tents. Instead, we went towards the shore, the ground growing rockier and more uneven with every step we took. The grove of trees wasn’t right on the shore at the sea’s edge, so we had to walk a little to actually reach the water. As we picked over rocks in varying sizes in shades of deep rust red, charcoal grey, and even deep, shimmering black, Kor held onto my hand tightly. His head swivelled as we moved, keeping a watchful eye for any of Gahn Baldor’s men, or any other predators that might be near. In the hand that didn’t hold mine, he kept his spear in a tight grip.

Looking for anything to distract myself from what was about to happen, I asked him about his spear.

“It’s different from the spears the Sea Sand men carry. Did you make it?”

Kor hefted it higher, letting the huge scale-like tip catch the falling light.

“It was my father’s spear. Its tip is made from the scale of the hok beast.”

I shivered, and Kor pulled me closer to him as we walked.

“What’s that?”

“The hok is one of the worst monsters of the sea. I have never seen one. I have only been to the sea twice, the first time as a child with my mother when we laid my father to rest. But from what my mother tells me, having heard it from my father, it is a huge beast of the waves. Always hungry, and very hard to kill.”

“So you’ve never been out in the water for any significant period of time? Do you even know where you’re going?” I asked. The rocks under our feet were slick with moisture, now, and we stopped. Spray from rolling dark waves cascaded up into the air, casting salty mist onto my glasses. I swore, and ripped them off my face, stuffing them into my pants’ pocket. I only really needed them for seeing distances, anyway. And the only thing I cared about seeing right now was right in front of me, standing huge and tall, his form clear.

“You are right. I have not been out in the water besides that time as a child, and just once more when the Kell summoned me to its caves. And yet…”

He turned, his snout aiming out to sea.

“And yet, I feel my father’s heritage stretching in every part of me. The water calls to me, and I know that I can find my way through it no matter what predator may come. Even outside of that, my mother told me the way. She told me where my father’s people live.”

Kor pulled my hand upward, pointing it out over the sea. He moved behind me, still holding my hand, his snout coming down to my shoulder.

“Do you see that? That mound of land in the distance?”

I pulled my glasses out of my pocket, wiping them and slapping them back onto my face, squinting. I followed the direction of my hand in Kor’s, scanning the horizon. It was getting darker now, and hard to tell what he meant. But then I saw it. A small bulge in the distance, looking more like a shadow than solid land.

“That is my father’s homeland. His people live in the caves there, beneath that mountain of the sea.”

“We call that an island,” I said. “So, wait, you have been there? When the Kell summoned you to the caves?”

“No,” he responded. “The Kell’s caves are not there. They are further down this coast, in another stretch of the sea.

So he really was pretty much going in blind, then. Absurdly, I wanted to yank my glasses off and press them onto his snout, as if that would somehow help. As if that would keep him safe.

But I couldn’t keep him safe. I felt so powerless, like I couldn’t do anything for him. Like I couldn’t give him anything.

But there was one thing I could give him. One thing I could tell him, right now.

“You have to come back to me,” I urged, raising my hands to his neck to drag his head down to my level. He obliged, bending and fixing his gaze on mine.

“I will. My love will -”

“No,” I cut him off, feeling panicked. “No, listen to me. You have to come back not just because of your love. But because of mine. OK? I love you. And I don’t want to lose you.”

Everything in Kor tensed, tightening, growing even harder under my fingers. When he spoke, his voice was a strained hiss.

“You do not know how long I have waited to hear those words. How much I have desired it. But…” His chest heaved, and his snout moved inward, bumping at my neck. His next words were a hot puff against me, making goosebumps erupt over my skin.

“But I do not want your words if they are only inspired by my death. If they only are some gentle kindness, some pity to be thrown my way, a false happiness to keep me warm in the waves.”

Even as he spoke, his body was betraying him. His heavy hands were sliding up my back, his snout nuzzling harder against my neck.

“It’s not that,” I said firmly, pushing his head back, forcing him to look at me. I removed my glasses once again, placing my forehead against the scaled tip of his snout.

“I do love you, Kor. It’s not pity that’s making me say this. Not at all. I just need you to know this before you go. If something happens to you, and I haven’t said it…” I couldn’t get the rest of the words out.

“I understand,” Kor said against my skin. Then his snout slipped down, meeting my mouth. With a hot gasp, I opened my mouth to his forked tongue. Desire slammed through me so hard it took my breath away. Harder than the waves throwing themselves at the rocks by our feet. I opened my mouth as wide as I could, wanting to take Kor’s tongues as far in as they would go. I wanted to feel him invade me, overpower me. I wanted to be so filled with him, so branded by him, that no distance between us would be able to take away that burn.

My hands fell to Kor’s loincloth. I pulled at the fabric blindly, my tongue slicking against Kor’s, until I felt the fabric fall away along with his knife. I dropped it all, then moved my hands back in, gasping and letting out a small moan when I realized his cock was already free, standing hard.

Kor pulled away from our kiss with a feral-sounding groan, a shudder rolling through his impressive form as I stroked him. But I wanted to do more than that.

“Sit down,” I said breathily, clenching my thighs together. His sight stars never leaving my face, he did so. I moved to my knees, shifting between his legs, ignoring the press of the rocks and pebbles through my pants. I ran my fingers along his dark length with one hand, the other hand brushing over that strange ring of pliable black spikes along the base. His hips bucked, his cock jerking in response to my touch.

I was going to do more than just use my hands, though. I’d never given a blow job before, but it had to be kind of instinctive, right? Besides, this wasn’t even a human dick, so any experience I would have had from back home may not have even translated well, anyway. All I knew was that I wanted to taste him, slick my tongue along his length, nibble at those spikes below, and feel his body respond.

Bending, I gave his tip a tentative lick. He made a choked sound above me, his claws scrabbling at the pebbles on either side of his hips. So far so good…

I pulled back slightly, taking in the view of him. When moisture beaded at his tip’s dark slit, it sent an almost animalistic pleasure pulsing through me. I finally understood what all the fuss was about when you were really attracted to someone. The almost primitive urges that flooded your senses. Because they were definitely working in me, now. I didn’t just want to suck him. As my pussy clenched on nothing, I knew I wanted him inside me, too.

But first, more of this. I moved lower, dragging my tongue from halfway up his hardness to the tip, tasting the wetness there. It wasn’t an unpleasant taste at all. Far from it. It was vaguely salty, a lot like the spray of the sea wetting my skin and eyelashes. When my tongue probed the slit at the tip, Kor made a sharp sound, a rough outburst of breath. I steadied myself by placing my hands on his thick thighs, and I could feel his muscles thrumming. Trembling.

Suddenly I didn’t feel so powerless. I might not have been able to control what was going to happen to Kor out there. But I could control this, this moment. Here, between the two of us, I had so much power. Kor was giving me that power. He was the bigger and stronger of us two, there was no way around that. But right now, every move I made, every touch, every desire made real, was overpowering him.

“Zoey,” he croaked, his voice twisted, as my mouth slipped back down his length to lick at the spikes below. I nibbled gently on one, probing the firm flesh with my teeth, earning a deep groan from Kor.

“I do not know how much longer I can withstand this,” he panted. One of his hands fell to the back of my head, then slipped against my face, pulling my mouth away from his engorged cock. But it was all good. As much as I was enjoying seeing, feeling his reactions to my mouth, I wasn’t going to last much longer like that, either. I needed more. A deep pulse pounded between my legs, a flush running under my skin. I quickly rose and stripped out of all my clothing. Kor groaned, not moving, but watching me. When his sight stars fell down my body, resting on the curls between my legs, I saw his hips grind upwards, his cock visibly twitching.

“Even if I do die tonight, I will die happier than any other warrior of this world. The bestowal of your beauty… it is a great gift,” he breathed.

I crouched, moving up and over his hips, straddling him just above his pelvis. As I moved into position, I felt my pussy drag along his cock, which made both of us moan.

“Don’t talk like that,” I whispered, settling myself just above his cock, feeling the hard press of it against my ass. I didn’t want to think about what would happen after this. I didn’t want this moment to become sad.

“Forgive me,” he rasped, his hands rising to slip up to my waist. Grunting, his claws moved inward, the rough pads of his fingers brushing gently across my breasts. The electric zing of sensation when he touched my nipples made me arch and cry out. Placing my palms on his abdomen, I started grinding myself against him, unable to help myself, as his hands continued to brush over, then knead, my breasts. Some of the spikes of flesh around his cock were caught under me as my hips rolled, and I moaned when one of them slipped inside me. Kor’s sight stars exploded, and his hands moved down to my ass, gripping the flesh there. That one pliable spike inside me was so, so good. But it wasn’t nearly enough. It was only about the width of my thumb, and I needed more than that. By the looks of things, so did Kor. His nostrils flared, his fangs glinting in the rising starlight. I moved up, slipping off of that smaller spike, then tried to reposition myself to take him inside me. But his cock was too long like this, and my legs were not long enough.

“Lie down,” I breathed, and Kor did so without question. I leaned further forward and fumbled behind me, pressing his hardness flat against his groin, pointing it towards my entrance. Then I slid my hips back, my mouth opening in pleasure at the drag of his spikes over my clit. A half a breath later, I felt the hard, smooth tip of him against my pussy. Kor’s hips pulsed, but he shut down the movement before he entered me. I whined slightly, that movement sending tickling spikes over my folds, probing at my clit.

“Zoey, are you sure?” Kor asked. His fingers dug hard into my ass, his chest sinking and rising with barely controlled ragged breaths. Biting my lip, I pressed my hips back, back, sighing as his tip nudged inside me.

“Yes, Kor,” I said, barely able to get the words out as I started to grind harder against him, taking more of his tip inside me. “I’m sure. I want this. I want you.”

“I do not wish to hurt you,” he growled.

This was my first time having penetrative sex, and I was aware there could be a little pain. Not to mention the fact that this was no normal human first time. He was bigger than any human. But he was also gentle and considerate and working so damn hard to keep himself from thrusting up into my sopping pussy. I could tell by the way his hips twitched, as if trying to pump upwards, held in check only by his iron alien will.

“Just stay still,” I whispered. Then I pressed back further, harder, gasping as more of him filled me. I was so wet already, and he was slick, too, which eased the way. But it was still a lot. He was massive. I paused a moment, then ground forward, slipping back up, before pressing back and taking a little more of him.

A long, guttural sound ripped from Kor’s throat, and his hands gripped my ass even harder. His need was palpable in the air.

“I’m sorry if this is too slow,” I said, trying to push myself further onto him but flinching and stopping when there was a bright flash of pain.

Kor’s sight stars, clouded with desire, locked onto me.

“Never apologize. Not for this. You have already given me more pleasure than I could ever hope to earn.”

His words went straight to my groin, making me clench. He hissed at the contraction of my muscles, and I started moving again, dipping slightly lower each time. Every time there was any moment of pain, it was immediately replaced with heat, pleasure swelling and undulating in my pelvis.

I pressed lower, taking more of him than I had before, feeling the slick reward of his spikes pressing in all around my entrance – prodding at my folds, brushing my clit, and up against my ass. The gentle brush of that sensation was contrasted sharply with the intensity of Kor’s hardness inside me. I leaned further forward so that I was basically lying atop him, feeling pleasure rise at the sensation of his spikes being crushed against my clit by the weight of my body.

But lying down like this, I couldn’t move my hips anymore. Oh, Dieu, did I need movement.

“Rock your hips, but go really slowly,” I murmured against Kor’s chest, pressing my cheek to his hide. His hands still held my ass, and, his grip like steel, he began to pulse in short, jerking movements. Every time he pressed up into me, I whimpered. He was hitting some deep point of pleasure inside me, and that, coupled with the firm spikes rubbing against my clit, had me so damn close.

“More,” I mewled, and Kor grunted, his hips snapping faster. He was still keeping his movements under tight control, though, and for that I was grateful. He was so huge, so strong, that that kind of control was necessary.

All pain had faded, a hot remnant, and all that was left with the pulsing fill of him, stretching me to my limits, filling every sense. I went totally weak, every muscle melting against him as he rocked his thick member in and out of me. One of his hands moved up from my ass, and his claws wound through my braids, brushing my scalp and sending my nerves alight.

And that did it. His fingers in my hair and his cock in my pussy made me arch and cry out. My muscles weren’t loose and weak now – far from it. Every muscle was alive and tensing. I moved up, placing my weight on my hands and elbows on his abdomen. Running his fingertips down the length of one of my braids, his gaze glued to my face, his expression fierce and feral, I felt him come, pulsing hard inside me. His fangs snapped, and a few days ago I would have been scared of the animal roar that ripped from him. But now? Now I couldn’t get enough.

He pulsed in and out of me again and again, riding through the peaks of pleasure while I clenched on him. When he finally stilled, I collapsed onto his chest once more, his thick cock still inside me.

I didn’t move. I barely breathed. I didn’t say a word.

I felt like if I stayed totally still and quiet then this moment couldn’t end and he’d never have to leave.

But, of course, that was stupid. And even if Kor had wanted to stay lying with me like that too, he was too strong to do so. He had to go. I knew that. I knew it. But still…

When he spoke next, I pretended I didn’t hear him. I pressed closer to him, breathing in the leathery, sandy scent of him. But he spoke the words again, louder this time. And, biting down on my lip hard, I realized there was no way to pretend I hadn’t heard this time.

“Rise, my mate. It is time for me to go.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Kor

I was truly a terrible mate. Filling my woman full of my seed for the first time, for both of our first times, and then immediately rising to go fulfill other duties. My only duty should have been remaining at her side throughout the night, caring for her, and, as soon as she was ready, filling her with my cock and seed again.

But it was not to be.

“Rise, my mate. It is time for me to go.”

It was a sharp pain to say those words, even more so to repeat them when Zoey did not move. Her wet, tight heat was still all around me, and I had no real interest in pulling myself from her depths. But I had to dive into other depths, now. Ones much colder and less welcoming than those of Zoey’s body.

She lifted herself, still atop me. I arched upwards, lifting my shoulders and head from the ground so that our faces were level. This was truly the most potently beautiful moment of my life. Zoey on top of me, her cunt clenched around me, not a scrap of fabric or anything else between us, not even her glasses. The moon and starlight turned her braids to silvered cords, her eyes to shimmering pools deeper than any part of the Bitter Sea. She was a revelation, a vision so perfect I felt I must have dreamed her.

But she was real. And she needed my protecting. Which meant that I had to leave her, now.

Apart from rising to look at my face, she made no move to actually get off of me. I hooked my fingers behind her rump, being very careful with my claws beneath her thighs, and lifted gently. I hissed, my hips pumping involuntarily as I slipped out of her. I rose to a sitting position, readjusting her to stand beside me before I stood myself.

“I’m not ready to let you go,” Zoey said. And, curse me, I was so weak. I almost, in that moment, promised to stay and doom us both. I forced my gaze from her, collecting my loincloth and my weapons – my spear and knife – from the rocky ground.

“Do not be ready for that. Instead, be ready to meet me when I return,” I murmured, turning to her once more. She pressed her lips together, shaking her head, her eyes wide, before stepping up to me and placing her forehead against my chest. And, how I wanted her. Even now, right after spilling myself inside of her, already I was thickening with desire once more. I ran my hands up her back, then once they reached her shoulders, I gently pried her off of me.

“Dress yourself, mate. The night air is cool,” I urged her. After a long moment of looking at me, she did so, ending it all off by tying the cords on her foot-coverings and then pressing her glasses to her nose. She looked just the way she had when I’d first seen her. Unthinkable in her perfection.

I wrapped one arm around her shoulders, carrying my belongings with my other hand.

“I will walk back with you to the trees and make sure you are safe before I leave.” This was something I would not forgo – I would not leave Zoey to walk anywhere herself. But even so, it worked out well, delaying me from leaving for just a few moments more. A few more moments to bask in my mate’s presence. My mate’s love.

She had told me she loved me. Hadn’t she? As we walked back to the grove of babkit trees, I had the alarming feeling that everything that had just come to pass had not happened at all. We reached the edge of the grove of trees, and I heard Gahn Taliok’s voice in the shadows. She is safe now.

But I was not quite ready to let her go yet. I need confirmation of what she’d said. Maybe it made me pathetic. Maybe it made me weak. But it was what it was. If I was weak, it was only for her.

“Zoey, tell me once more what you said down by the water. I’m sorry to ask anything of you, I’m sorry to beg. But I… I need to hear it one more time. Before I go.”

Zoey stilled under my arm, then moved to my front, placing her warm palms upon my scales.

“I love you, Kor. I love you, and I need you to come back to me.”

Ah. There it was. It was real, after all.

And I no longer felt weak, but strong. So strong that I could split the black shadows of death with my own claws, if she would only ask.

I ran the pads of my fingertips over her flat forehead, down her rounded cheeks, to her tiny chin before bending and bumping my snout to her mouth. She sighed, her lips pressing and moving against my hide. But I had already waited too long. Time was slipping from me, like the waves pulling away from the shore.

“It’s time,” I said, my words falling like stones at her feet. Heavy and final.

I watched her strange human tears appear, rolling down her cheeks in shimmering lines. But my strong mate didn’t falter, didn’t crumble. She just nodded her small head.

“Remember what you promised. Remember to come home,” she said, and I could tell she was fighting to control the shaking of her voice.

“I will remember. Always. Here, take these.”

I handed her my knife, my spear, and loincloth. Her eyes went wide.

“But you need them! You might need them for protection.”

“They will only get in the way while I am swimming. If it gets to the point where I need to fight off my father’s people, no spear or blade will make a difference for me. But it would make me feel better, knowing that you have them.”

Wordlessly, she took the offered items. The weapons looked so huge in her small arms. And it made me want to despair. At her tiny softness, her lack of defences without me. The separation about to open up between us.

She clutched everything to her chest and gave me one last, long look. Without another word, she turned and moved into the shadows of the babkit trees. I lost sight of her quickly behind their trunks, and for a moment I remained, trying to see her one more time.

Move, Kor.

There was no sense delaying the inevitable now. I turned from the trees, from the sound of Zoey greeting the others, and walked back to the shore.

The water lapped, dark and hungry, at my feet. The cool wetness felt good. It felt like I was back somewhere I was meant to be. It must have been hard for my father to leave this and live out the rest of his days in the desert. But if he felt even a fraction for my mother what I felt for Zoey, I understood. I would give up everything, anything, to be near her. I’d peel the hide off my bones if necessary.

I’d face my father’s people, and maybe even face my own death.

Breathing out, I walked knee-deep, then further, up to my waist, the waves crashing upon my chest as if trying to drag me home. I took one huge gulp of air, then dove, my body pummelling the water, flying through it. I could hold my breath for a very long time, but I had no ability to breathe beneath the waves. And the swimming used more energy, which meant my breath would not last so long. I would have to return periodically to the surface.

But even so, swimming at my hardest like this, beneath the rolling surface of the water, I would be able to hold my breath for long stretches of time. It would not hinder me.

The darkness did not hinder me, either. The last time I’d swum through the water at night was when the Kell had summoned me, and like that night, I found my eyes adjusting to the blackness easily. The few small sea creatures I saw fled at the sight of me, leaving my path open and clear.

I pounded forward, tail stretching and propelling, feet kicking. Endlessly, I swam, bobbing back up to the surface in short bursts only to thrash back down, swimming forward faster to make up for the time I’d lost.

I covered the distance quickly, but I did not come close to approaching the island, as Zoey had called it, until dawn was breaking over the horizon. It made the water glossy, lit up the land of the island, leading me onward. I was not sure if this light was good or bad. It would probably mean I would be seen sooner, but I was here to communicate with these people. I would have to be seen either way.

Even so, as the light strengthened, I took another breath, heaving myself back below the surface. At least this way I would not be an immediate target for a spear aimed at the water.

But soon enough the water turned shallow. Here, the shore did not have rocks, but rather smooth sand, even finer than that of the desert, and lighter in colour. I crawled, keeping myself mostly submerged in the water, moving up the wet sand, casting my eyes up and around. So far, I saw no one.

I moved up onto the sand, staying low, enjoying the striking of the sun on my back after all that time in the dark water. From this beach the land sloped upward. Here there was sand, higher up the slope up there were babkit trees and gem-like shrubs with glinting leaves. Dark vines, like the veroar vines of Taliok’s mountains, wound between babkit branches, and I could see the flashing wings of brazelbirds and drizelflies. Some kind of creature with a shell that looked like the surface of one of our moons scuttled away from my hand. My arm snapping out, I caught it, smashing the shell and eating the creature inside. I had used a lot of energy to get here, and I did not know when I would get to eat again.

The meat was good, tasting vaguely of the sea, and tender. I tossed the shell aside.

The island was large, but not so large that I would have to travel far to find anyone. The babkit trees and other brush were thicker and taller than anywhere else I had seen, so it would be possible for warriors to be hiding among them even now, but so far, all was quiet besides the chirping of birds and insects.

I trudged back to the water, slipping into it and sinking down as the sun tracked higher, illuminating everything. I swam, rather than walked, around the outskirts of the island. After passing what felt like an endless stretch of empty beach, I came to an inlet of sorts. A lagoon, where the sea was shallow and warm in a large pool with a sandy bottom, surrounded on either side by rock and sand. At the far end of the lagoon was a large opening in the rock-face. And it was guarded by two men.

My sight stars contracting, I sank further into the water, watching. That opening would likely be the opening into the caves where the people of the Bitter Sea lived. I eyed the two guards there, assessing them. They both held spears similar to the one I had left behind with Zoey, and wore no loincloths. They were similar in appearance to me, but also different. Even from here, I could tell that they were each a head taller than me, their shoulders more broad. Their snouts were longer and more pointed, and where I had smooth hide in many places on my body, they seemed to have only scales, everywhere. They also had different colouring to me. The guard on the left had scales that were a deep, murky green, shifting into greenish-black where his spikes were – along his neck, arms, and back. The other guard glinted in shades of brown and grey, his brow ridges and spikes tinted a deep red. I had no idea who these two were, in fact, I knew very little about life here at all. Everything I knew had come filtered through my mother, based on the small amount my father had shared with her. From her, I knew that there was one leader here, the Hakah, and that, at least when my father was here, there were about a hundred people living in the caves, including women and children. The people of the Bitter Sea did not have the wild mismatch between males and females that the desert tribes did, which meant there would probably be about thirty strong male warriors here, if not more.

There would be no way to get past the guards unseen, and what would be the point of that, anyway? Get past two guards only to be confronted with more upon entering the caves. No, I would reveal myself, here and now, to these two men, and hope they did not kill me on sight.

I paused before I did so, stilling myself and closing my eyes. I let my mind fill with the image of Zoey – her round and shining eyes, the curves of her face, the brown peaks of her breasts, the slick beauty of her cunt. If I die now, I want it to be with that image in my head.

Feeling calm and ready, finally, I rose from the water, standing in the sand at the far end of the lagoon.

The two warriors noticed me immediately. At first, they did not react with aggression, no doubt thinking I was of their tribe on first glance. But then their gazes grew harder, and I heard hissing.

They did not allow me the chance to speak before spears flew. One missed. The other caught my shoulder. I extended my spikes a moment too late, and the hok scale slashed through my hide, spilling dark blood down my arm.

Ah, I guess we are doing this the difficult way. I sighed, then crouched into the water, preparing to fight as the warriors dove into the water, heading for me. I would not be able to fight them both off at once. I was sure of it. I retreated, moving to the side, scuttling up a nearby rockface, forcing the two guards to come out of the water after me. They chased me over the stone, but I was almost at the entrance to the caves, now. At the entrance, just before I plunged into the darkness, the green-scaled guard caught my tail, dragging me back with a strength I had never experienced in an opponent before. I crashed down onto my chest just in time to see more men come running from within the tunnel into the caves, spears ready.

But I was not ready to die quite yet. Not until I saw Zoey one more time.

As the brown-scaled guard caught up to his peer, grabbing onto one of my legs, I took a chestful of air and called as loudly as I could, in the language of my father’s people.

“I am Kor! Son of Kon! I have travelled far, from the land beyond the waves, to speak to the Hakah!”

The two men who had caught me froze, though their claws remained hard and cutting on my tail and legs. Hisses ran through the crowd of about fifteen men before me.

“How dare you call yourself the son of Kon. Kon was one of our strongest warriors, brother to the mighty Hakah Gog. He would never produce a son as small and weak as you,” snarled one of the guards who held me.

I did not let those words wound my pride. That would not serve me well in my mission. I was not here to prove myself or to be proud among these men. I was here only to serve my soft one.

“Let me look at him!”

A commanding voice ripped through the crowd, and the men gathered at the mouth of the tunnel immediately moved aside, pounding their fists against their brow ridges. A huge man, taller than all the others, stepped forward. Of all the men gathered here, despite his size, he looked the most like me. Our hides were of the same colour – deep grey-ish blue, with black spikes. But I noticed with a start, when he got close enough for me to see, that he had no sight stars. None of them did. Instead, he had a disc in the inner corner of each eye that expanded and contracted. When he crouched down before me, the disc, a bright blue in his black eyes, expanded so far that it almost made the black invisible.

“You do not pound your brow before the Hakah?”

I felt the guards’ claws dig deeper into my flesh, heard their hisses of disapproval, but I ignored them.

“Where I come from, it is polite to raise one’s tail. But as you can see, I am not in the position to do so.”

The huge warrior’s eyes flicked to the guard holding my tail, then back to my face.

“It makes sense that a liar would not show the Hakah any respect.”

Ah. So this was the Hakah. Then this was the man called Gog? And, if the other man was to believed, he was my father’s brother.

I let my gaze drift over him, and I was more and more convinced that yes, he must have been a relative of mine. Even outside of the colouring, the spikes on his arms laid just the same way as mine. It felt odd to encounter my family in such a way. With violence and bared teeth.

No, I left my real family back in the desert.

“I do not lie,” I said, wrenching my gaze back up to Gog’s. “I am the son of Kon. Many ages ago, Kon was called by the Kell to see the face of his mate. That mate was a woman unlike any other he had ever seen. He journeyed over the waves to find her, and tracked her down among a tribe of sand-dwellers who are called the warriors of the Sea Sands. People beyond the sea. I was born of their union and I have come with important news. You must hear me.” Urgency sharpened my last words. I had not been killed yet, but nor did it seem I was likely to be successful in my endeavours, either.

But the urgency in my tone must have offended the Hakah, my uncle. He hissed, showing great fangs, much longer than mine.

“These are unnatural tales that hold no standing here!” he cried, standing, drawing himself to his full height. The men around him pounded their brow ridges again, crying out.

But a high, clear voice cut through all the pounding and growling.

“But father, look! Look at his scales. Look at his spikes.”

My head jerked to find the source of the sound. Another person stepped forward, up to the side of the Hakah. I knew immediately that she was a female, despite having no experience with these people. She was shorter than the men here, but still likely a little taller than me. She had slightly different proportions – her torso was longer, her legs shorter. I realized that this made sense – a longer torso to make room for a gestating child. Her snout was more rounded than the men’s, her brow ridges not so defined. But she was of the same colouring as Gog, the same as me, and she met the Hakah’s gaze with a blazing courage that matched any man here.

“Look,” she urged again. She swung her gaze down to land upon me. “His scales are like yours and mine. And look at his eyes. They are broken and strange, but they are blue. You know as well as I that no one else has eyes bluer than the Bitter Sea outside of our lineage.”

I stared up at her. She had the same discs in her eyes as the Hakah, and they were just as blindingly blue as his. I had glimpsed my own face in the water before, and I knew that my sight stars, though many more in number than her discs, were the same cerulean hue.

“I believe he is telling the truth,” the female said.

Her father snorted and tossed his head.

“Then you are not the wise daughter I thought you to be. This weakling lies through his fangs. He has been dragged up from the deep to test my leadership. Well, I will not falter.”

His eyes shifted to the men behind me, holding me.

“Imprison him in the lowest cave. Bring him no meat. That will loosen his tongue enough to tell us what his true dealings are.”

The two guards holding me moved forward, hauling me up by grasping my arms between them, ready to drag me forward. The Hakah, my uncle, turned and began to walk away, his great tail sweeping. I called after him, my voice tearing through the air.

“I have been nothing but honest in my dealings with you, uncle.” I bit out that familial title harshly, and the great Hakah froze. “I am the son of Kon. You may believe that, or you may not. But your belief does not change why I am here. Nor will it change what is coming.” I watched his spikes twitch slightly at my words. But he did not turn back. And a moment later, he charged into the darkness of the caves. I followed, dragged between the two guards. I wrenched my head to look back over my shoulder. The last thing I saw was a crowd of jeering warriors, and, in the centre of them all, a pair of steady, piercing blue eyes, watching me disappear into the dark.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Zoey

“Kor?” I woke up saying his name. My dreams were already fading, but I knew he’d been in them. When I opened my eyes, I half expected to see his dark snout, his shifting blue eyes right in front of my own face. But he wasn’t there.

He only left last night, idiot. Can you calm down?

But, no. It seemed that I could not calm down. As soon as I realized he was gone, and remembered everything that was going on, my heart jumped right onto the anxiety train, ramming forward in my chest. I rose, swallowing hard, putting on my glasses.

“How you feeling?”

Chapman’s voice made me jump. She crouched next to me, offering me a valok plant, and I took it weakly.

“Thanks,” I said, not drinking any. Chapman frowned at me, her ginger brows drawing together.

“You need to stay hydrated and keep your strength up,” she said. “We may be resting here for a few days, but we’re still recovering from the journey, and we’ll have to take that same journey back soon.”

Soon. But not without Kor.

“Right,” I said, taking a sip of the bitter gel. She was right. I knew she was right. But it was just a little hard to think about eating or drinking when the person you just realized you’d fallen in love with could be dead.

“It’s hard to be away from them. I understand,” Chapman said, more softly, sitting down beside me.

“Thanks,” I said again, meaning it. I’d almost forgotten Fallo had gone off, travelling through the desert alone. I was so wrapped up in my own thing that I hadn’t really been able to wrap my head around Chapman’s stuff. Not that she seemed like she wanted me to. She was already waving her hand dismissively in the air.

“These bastards are tough as nails. Fallo will be fine, and I’m willing to bet that so will Kor.”

I sure as hell hoped she was right. This whole thing had been her idea in the first place. I wanted to get angry about that fact, to blame her for Kor being gone. But I couldn’t. I knew it had been a good plan, made with good intentions. I just didn’t like the way any of this was turning out. I had a bad feeling about all of it.

I finished my valok gel, then rose. Galok and Taliok were eating some smoked meat, but they weren’t speaking. Galok’s usual smile was tempered. With Kor gone, a pall had fallen over the grove of babkit trees.

“I’ll be right back,” I said to Chapman. I jerked my head beyond the trees directly surrounding us to the spot we’d been going to pee. She nodded, and I slipped away.

Away from the others I did my business quickly and pulled up my pants, trying to keep my mind off of Kor. But it was impossible. Every moment, my mind drifted back to him, wondering what he was doing, wondering if he was OK. What if they do treat him as an enemy? What if they don’t even hear him out, what if -

“Zoey!”

I flinched in surprise at the sound, peering out beyond the trees. Jara was walking towards the grove, and I smiled, relieved to see her, though slightly disappointed it hadn’t been Kor calling my name. Not that their voices sounded anything alike, but still.

“Good morning,” I said, my smile widening at her happy expression.

“And to you. I am happy to see you this day,” she said, stepping into the shade of the trees and clasping her hands onto mine.

“Kor’s not back yet,” I blurted. I couldn’t keep my voice from cracking on those words. Her presence was so comforting, so motherly, even though I’d only just met her, that I couldn’t help spilling my worries to her. Even though those worries were about her own son.

She squeezed my hands, her smile fading but only slightly.

“He likely has only just arrived at the homeland of the people of the Bitter Sea. He is strong. And I know he will do anything to get back to you.”

I pursed my lips but nodded. She was right, but her words didn’t make me feel any better.

“Will you sit with me?” Jara asked, settling on the dry, cracked ground and patting the place next to her.

“Of course,” I said, falling into a cross-legged position beside her.

“Kor is so strong, and so good. He is different from his father, but also in many ways the same. His father was strong, too.”

Out of everyone on the planet, even the other humans with alien mates, I realized that Jara and I might have had the most in common. We’d both had mates from the unknown Bitter Sea people travel long distances to find us.

“Was it strange, when you first met him?” I asked her tentatively She smirked, sighing.

“Strange is one word for it. Kon, Kor’s father, did not have Kor’s patience, nor as much of his goodness. Like Kor has done for you, he searched for me. But unlike Kor, he crept into the tents of my people and stole me.”

I gasped, staring at her. She’d been abducted by her mate?

“That’s terrible,” I murmured, looking at her with new appreciation. She was an amazingly strong woman.

“It was hard to be torn from my people. And Kon and I had no shared language. It took many, many days to be able to communicate with each other. But even so, the mate bond was strong in both of us from the beginning. He was wrong to take me as he did, it is true. But he had no guidance in his actions, only the vision of the Lavrika of the Bitter Sea and his instinct. Despite our rough beginnings, we were a good pairing. I valued him as a mate for the short time I had him.”

Her voice went low, and I felt tears springing to my eyes. Our stories had similar beginnings, with strange mates coming to find us. But I hoped against hope that they had different endings. That Kor didn’t die early the way his father had.

She kept speaking, her voice gaining strength once more.

“But I always instilled in Kor my own values. From his childhood, I tried to teach him better ways. I tried to teach him how to care for a mate, and how to approach her if he ever found her.”

Her eyes met mine, her warm sight stars settling on my face.

So this was why Kor had walked, practically with a target on his back, right into the camp at the Cliffs of Uruzai. This was why he’d put his life in danger just to be near me. Because he was too good to do what his father had done. Because he wouldn’t use his strength and secrecy to kidnap me in the dead of night.

A rush of aching love rose in me, and I choked out, “You did well. I couldn’t imagine a better mate.”

I truly couldn’t. For so long, I’d thought he was the furthest thing from a partner, a mate. But over and over, he’d proven his goodness and his kindness and his devotion. And there was no doubt in my mind that Jara had played a huge role in that. “Thank you,” I whispered.

“There is no need to thank me. The fact he has been granted a mate at all, and myself a new daughter, is more joy than I ever could have hoped for in this life. Now, all I want is for his safe return. For the safety of all of us.”

I nodded, swallowing thickly, trying to get my emotions under control. It was tough, though. I had a feeling that, until Kor came back in one piece, I was going to be a freaking basket case.

We sat together in the heat of the morning for a while in silence. Eventually, Jara stood. I rose too, and we grasped hands once more.

“I should return to the tents of my people, now. But I will return every day until your departure,” she said. She didn’t need to add the last bit – that she would return every day to see if Kor had returned safely. That part, I already knew.

“See you tomorrow,” I said. Before she turned to leave, I vaulted forward, throwing my hands around her waist. A second later, her strong arms circled me. Jara was so many things wrapped into one – my only connection to Kor. And the only sort of mother figure I had left. For someone I’d just met, the attachment I already had to her was intense.

She seemed to feel the same way, because it took her a long time to let me go. She finally did, though, and I watched her retreat over the plains, back towards her own tribe. I was already looking forward to her return.

And she did return, as promised, the next morning. But there was still no sign of Kor, no good news for her. Nor was there the next day. The third day. The last day.

“You will leave tonight?” Jars asked me on the morning of the third day. Once again, we were seated together under the flat paddle branches of the babkit trees, away from the others.

“Yes,” I said dully. I still couldn’t believe that the days had already passed us by. And that Kor hadn’t come back. I felt numb, empty. I’d spent a lot of last night crying, and it seemed that there was nothing left.

Jara was stoic, but I could tell she was feeling the effects of all this too.

“Even if you leave tonight, there is still a chance he will return to the sands safely and come find you,” she offered. I said nothing. I wanted so badly to believe her. And a part of me did. A desperate, aching, loving part that believed in Kor’s strength and determination. The part that believed in our intertwined fate. It really felt like Kor’s and my story had just begun. But it was getting harder and harder to reconcile that part of me with the reality staring me in the face. That my mate had gone straight into a death trap, and he hadn’t come back.

Jara stayed with me long into the afternoon, but eventually, she had to leave.

Rising to say goodbye to her almost felt as hard as saying goodbye to Kor had been. We embraced tightly, and she whispered warm words against the top of my head.

“No matter what happens to Kor, I will hope that somehow, someday, we will meet again, my daughter.”

Hearing her call me her daughter fucking broke me. I sagged against her, gasping, my chest heaving. She clutched me tighter, and one of her hands rubbed comforting circles against my back. I couldn’t manage any words, but I nodded desperately against her chest. We were family, now. And, as painful as it was, it was good to know that I had her out there.

Jara left our little grove of trees for the last time, and I watched her, squinting behind my sunglasses until she completely disappeared on the horizon. Taking a steadying breath, I turned, trying to ready myself to return to my group.

I walked back through the trees and was immediately hit by the heaviness in the air. Each day that had gone by, Taliok, Galok, and Chapman had grown more reserved, more quiet. With every passing day, they all knew what I knew – Kor’s chances of surviving his journey were diminishing.

But even so, they were already making preparations to leave. Galok had gone hunting earlier, and was butchering meat to sustain us on our journey back. Taliok and Chapman were re-organizing the few items we had brought with us, and had collected a pile of newly cut valok plants.

Seeing them all getting ready to go before the three days were even fully up, before giving Kor the fullest chance we could, infuriated me. My despair was instantly replaced by rage. And even more than that, determination to fucking do something instead of sitting here waiting for my mate to come home. If I were in danger, he would do anything, anything, to help me. And, I realized in that moment, I would do the same.

My eyes moved over the silent people and the objects we had in our little camp. My gaze snagged on the pile of babkit branches Kor had cut down before he left. An idea exploded in my brain, and I latched onto it. I have to move quick. And even more than that, I wouldn’t be able to let the others know about my idea. Because there was absolutely no way on this planet that any of them, even easy-going Galok, would let me go.

I bent, scooping as many babkit branches into my arms as I could. Not enough. I wouldn’t be able to carry enough branches like this. I dropped them all, then grabbed for a spare bit of leather cord from my backpack, wrapping it around the huge bundle of wood.

“What are you doing?” Chapman said, narrowing her eyes.

“I’m bringing this to Jara. She just left but she forgot to grab the wood. Since we’re not using it, I figured she’d better take it so it looks like she was doing something productive when she goes back to her tribe.”

I was shocked at how easily the lies spilled from my mouth. I kept my eyes on my work, tying everything tight, avoiding Chapman’s gaze.

“OK, but don’t go beyond the grove. Giving her the wood isn’t as important as staying in a safe area.”

I nodded, not saying anything else. I grabbed onto the cord I’d tied and started dragging the huge bundle of flat branches. Before I left sight of the others, I grabbed Kor’s knife. I would need it for what I had in mind.

“Just in case,” I said noncommittally. I wanted to bring Kor’s spear, too, but there was no way I’d be able to carry the gigantic thing.

I could feel Chapman’s steady grey gaze on my back as I dragged the wood out of the camp, but I ignored it. I just prayed she wouldn’t figure out that I was lying and come looking for me before I had done what I needed to do.

I didn’t go after Jara like I’d said I would. Instead, I turned sharply, dragging my bundle of branches over the rocks towards the water. I brought them right to the water’s crashing edge, and, getting misted with salty spray, I untied the cord, letting all the wood fall apart to the ground.

I scanned everything I had, doing quick calculations in my head. It wouldn’t be much. Barely enough.

I can do it.

I got to work immediately, not letting doubt or rational thought get in my way. I felt fevered, insane, my hands flying – cutting wood, shaping it, placing the pieces together like 3D puzzle. I didn’t have enough cord to tie everything together, and with desperate eyes, I scanned the area around me, looking for something I could use.

A little way down the shore, I noticed a shallow area of water between rocks. I ran to it, slipping and almost falling on the salt-slick rocks.

Yes!

As I’d hoped, in this shallow pool, there were dark, long, viny ropes of plant matter. Alien seaweed. And like everything on this brutal planet, it was stronger, tougher, than what I would have found on Earth. Thankfully, Kor’s knife was beyond sharp, and I cut long lengths of the black plant matter with ease, running back to my project and putting those cords to immediate work.

I didn’t have any other good fasteners, though. Cursing, I fashioned some from more wood, hammering the handmade dowels into place with the handle of Kor’s knife. I was sweating buckets, and my hands were aching, my fingertips torn and bleeding, but I didn’t slow down. I could practically feel the clock ticking around me. The countdown until one of the others came looking for me. And the countdown on Kor’s life.

The thought of Kor spurred me on even faster, and soon enough, I was done. It wasn’t much, barely more than a raft. But the design was sound, I was sure of it. The babkit wood was lightweight and flexible, but incredibly strong. I tested my manual crank-propeller, watching curved babkit boards spin behind the small craft.

You can’t swim.

The words hit me hard. But I ignored them, pushing them aside. I didn’t need to know how to swim. I was an engineer, and a damn good one. I’d engineered my way around the need to swim. This craft could get me there. The island couldn’t be that far – even now, I could see it in the distance, hovering above the waves. Unless something absolutely insane and unexpected happened, my little boat would hold.

Ignoring the fact that absolutely insane and unexpected things seemed to be the norm on this planet, I dragged my boat to the water’s edge, and with one last, deep breath, I pushed off.

Hold on, Kor. Attends-moi. I’m coming.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Kor

In the darkness of this cave, it was impossible to tell how much time was passing. But even so, I knew that it was too much. Hunger gnawed at me, telling me that it had been perhaps two days. Maybe more. Soon, Zoey and the others would leave the grove of trees by the shore.

And perhaps that was for the best. With every passing moment, success on this mission was less and less likely. It would be better for Zoey and the others to go back to the tribes at the Cliffs of Uruzai. Where it was at least somewhat safe.

I could feel the distance stretching further and further between my beautiful mate and me. In the dim light of the cave, I fixed the shape of her face in my mind. But it was not enough. I needed to touch her again. Slip my claws through her braids and over her skin. Feel the wetness of her mouth. Her cunt.

I bit back a growl at the thought, causing one of the guards nearby to toss a warning hiss at me. There were two hulking guards at the narrow entrance to this cave, blocking me from leaving. It was not a large space, this prison cave, and dark, but unusual rocks, covered in a slick material that glowed faintly blue, lit the place with odd, weak light. This cave seemed to be below all others. I’d been dragged down, down into the bowels of the island. And here I had remained, seething and ravenous and trying to plan my escape.

But so far, I had no plan. Trying to take down the two guards in my weakened state would be a death mission. But what else was there to do? Remain here and starve?

A voice shook me from those thoughts, and I looked up from where I was seated on the floor. The voice spoke from behind the guards, someone I could not see. But the voice was familiar.

“Move aside. I am here to question the prisoner.”

The guards had their backs to me now. I rose slightly, trying to see around them.

“Why do you bring meat? The Hakah said he was to have no meat.”

I breathed deeply through my nostrils, my stomach clenching. Beyond the damp stone, I could smell it. Strange, salty meat from some creature of the sea.

“It is my father’s orders. He wishes to tempt the prisoner with food in the hopes that he will talk.”

The guards did not move, and that voice grew stronger, angrier.

“You dare defy me, daughter of the Hakah? I carry his direct orders to you! I am here to question the prisoner. Alone.” She hissed that last word, and after a moment of hesitating and looking at each other, the two guards moved away into the darkness beyond the cave I had been put in. Now that they were gone, I could confirm that the voice belonged to the female I had seen earlier.

She moved hurriedly into the cave, then stopped, crouching down before me. Our eyes met, and she regarded me for a long, quiet moment. But I could not hold that gaze for long. Because soon enough my eyes fell to the meat in her hands – a creature of pale white meat and shimmering scales.

“I brought this for you to eat. I am sorry it has taken me so long. It was the first moment I could get away from my father unnoticed.”

She handed me the meat, and I bit into it immediately, not caring if it was poisoned in my hunger.

“There is an organ inside with fluids to quench your throat,” the female said, the blue discs of her eyes large in the dim light. I dug into the creature, finding what she meant – a large organ filled with liquid. I did normally not need to drink much or take in much valok, but after days of not consuming anything, the odd, salty liquid was a balm to my throat. I consumed the rest of the creature quickly, bones and all, panting as I finished. Then, somewhat sated, I turned my gaze back to the female before me. In her hands, hidden below the meat she had brought me, was a small pouch. She opened it, then gestured to the wounds on my shoulder, legs, and tail.

“Milk of the Kell,” she said, handing the pouch to me. Quickly, I smoothed the milky stuff into my hurts, feeling the ache of their half-healing immediately subsiding as the white liquid went to work.

I finally spoke when, after a long moment, she did not.

“You are the Hakah, Gog’s, daughter?”

“Yes, I am Gigga,” she confirmed. Then, eyeing me, she added, “We are cousins.”

Cousins. I had never had a cousin before.

“So you believe everything I have said?” I questioned. I had heard her say so before, but I needed more confirmation.

“I do,” she said. “Your eyes are strange, but they are like mine and my father’s in colour. And they were like Kon’s, before he disappeared.”

“If this is so, and it is so obvious to you, why does your father not believe me?” I could not keep the anger out of my words. I had done nothing but tell the truth, yet still I was imprisoned here like an enemy. A monster.

“Even you must know that you look strange to us,” she said.

“This is because of my mother’s lineage. I already tried to explain that,” I countered.

Gigga sighed.

“You are right. My father is normally a wise man, a good Hakah to our people. But he is blinded with grief over his brother’s disappearance. It is clouding his judgment when it comes to you.”

I grunted. This made sense, but it did not ease my anger.

“But I believe you,” Gigga said, placing her claws on my now-healed shoulder. “And I want to help you, if I can. But first, tell me more about why you’ve come here, and where you’ve come from.”

In fits and starts, trying to find the best place to begin, I told her all of it. I told her of my father, Kon, leaving this place to find my mother. I told her of his death, and of my life alone with my mother, exiled in the sands, unable to return to any tribe. I told her of the new women from beyond the sky, of the Sea Sands men, and, last of all, my perfect mate. As I spun words of Zoey’s goodness and beauty, it was almost like I could touch her, taste her here with me. Last of all, I told her of the enemy we thought was coming – the weapons they would bring. The destruction.

Gigga remained quiet after I finished, as if thinking hard. Then she said, “We have always been told there is nothing of value beyond the waves. That the land we see in the distance is empty rock, and that all we needed was here.”

“There is much beyond the waves,” I assured her. “There is little water, but there is sand and plant and animal life, and many more people than there are here.”

Gigga took all this in, sitting down, her tail sweeping along the stone floor.

Finally, she spoke again.

“I will help you leave this place. I respect my father and listen to him in all things. But in this, I believe that he is wrong.”

I froze, my heart thundering. I would be able to escape after all. I’d return to my Zoey.

“On one condition,” she said, and my attention snapped back to her.

“What is that?” I asked, suddenly suspicious.

“On the condition that you take me with you. I want to see this land and these new people for myself. You will act as interpreter.”

“Agreed,” I said quickly. This was exactly what I’d hoped to achieve – a sympathetic ally who would come back and hear our cause. And having just one female come back with me would be less dangerous than a host of male warriors. “But we must leave soon. My party only agreed to await me for three days. If we miss them, we will have to travel far to find them.”

“Then we must go now,” Gigga said sharply. “This is the morning of the third day you have been here.”

I jumped up, groaning at the weak stretch of my stiff muscles.

“Are you strong enough for the journey?” Gigga asked, her blue eye discs narrowing as she took in my form.

But I answered instantly.

“Yes.”

I did not need food or fluid or sleep or strength. Because love would propel me through the waves, back to Zoey’s side.

“How will we leave without being noticed?” I asked, watching Gigga go to the mouth of the cave and look out.

“I know a secret way. A small, dark passage I played in when I was a small child. The way will be very tight for us as adults, but no male warriors can fit through that passage. It leads directly to the sea.”

She turned her gaze back to me.

“The guards have still not returned. Hurry, we must go now.”

Without even a moment of hesitation, I followed her.

We moved quickly through the darkness of the cave system. I did not recognize the way – Gigga was taking me away from the tunnels that had led me down here three days ago. We turned sharply, and very soon the ceiling of the rock came down against us, forcing us down to all fours.

The tunnel shrank and shrank, pressing in on all sides. Gigga was right – no full-blooded Bitter Sea male would be able to fit through this dark passage. Even Gigga and I were sorely squeezed, and for a breathless moment, I thought we would both be stuck, trapped forever. But just as it felt the grip of the stone walls would never let us go, I heard a splash, and Gigga’s tail disappeared from in front of my face. I groaned, wiggling hard, and finally plunged forward into blessed open space before falling into water. We were still under the island, in a dark pool. Gigga’s head rose from the water.

“Continue to follow me, Kor. Once we are in the open waters, I will follow you.”

We slipped back beneath the surface. Here, the water was calm and still, sheltered by the stone. I kept my eyes fastened to Gigga’s tail, a tail so similar to mine, as she swam down, down into the dark depths. Again, I had a moment of fear – fear that she was leading me astray, that she meant to drown me in the darkness. But then I saw where she was going – an opening in the rock ahead of us.

We swam through another long, dark passage, this one much wider than the one in the caves. Beyond Gigga’s swimming body, I could see the water growing slightly brighter and more blue instead of black.

Sunlight.

We were out in the open water now. Fierce passion pulsed through my veins, driving my limbs through the water despite my weakness. I pulled ahead of Gigga, ready to lead the way.

I was free.

And my mate was waiting.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Zoey

Well, I’d at least gotten almost halfway to the island where Kor had been headed before everything started to fall apart. For the first little bit, before the water got too rough, my little raft did remarkably well. My propeller spun just as it should have, moving me along with a pretty decent speed, even though my arm was aching before long. But once I got into deeper water, where the waves were high, things started to go…awry.

OK, they started to completely go to shit.

My raft held together, at least. My design, and the materials, were strong enough to keep it from splintering beneath me even as the waves buffeted it. My clothing and hair were soaked, and the spray on my sunglasses made it hard to see. I swiped at them between crashing waves, keeping my gaze focused on the island in the distance. My arm shook as I fought to angle the propeller to keep myself on the right course. The waves grew, almost causing me to slide right off more than once, my grip on the propeller crank’s handle the only thing keeping me from sliding into the sea.

This could capsize, I realized, panic swelling inside me. If that happened, I’d be done for. And I hadn’t even made it to the island yet.

I gritted my teeth, an agonized groan pressing out between them. This was so fucked up, so unfair. There was no way things could get any worse than this.

But oh, how naïve I was. Because a moment later I saw the flash of a huge animal erupting from the waves ahead of me. And I realized things had, indeed, just gotten way way way worse.

The thing was gigantic, close to the size of a blue whale, from what I could see. Its body was thick and vaguely tubular, pointed at one end like a squid’s. But instead of a squid’s many tentacles, it looked like it only had two, forking out of its shining body. It crashed back into the water, but before I did I saw its large, shining scales, iridescent in the glaring sun.

Scales that looked just like the one on Kor’s spear.

The thing arched out of the water once more, and between cruel splashes of waves blinding me, I realized it was coming straight for me.

“Come on, are you fucking kidding me?!” I screamed raggedly at the sea as the thing disappeared once more. I was gripping my propeller’s handle with both hands, holding on for dear life. I wouldn’t even be able to grab Kor’s knife and try to defend myself.

I scanned the frothing dark water, trying to see where the alien monster, the hok, had ended up. This had to be it. This had to be the end, now. I was either about to drown or get eaten by this alien squid thing. Tears blinded me even more than the salt spray of the waves, so I barely saw anything as the hok pounded up out of the water right next to my raft. The tidal wave its huge body created finally flipped my raft. My worst-case scenario was rapidly becoming my only scenario, my reality.

By some miracle, I managed to hold onto the propeller’s handle. It, and me, were both underwater, now, but, scrabbling and holding my breath, I worked my way along until I had grabbed one of the bottom boards of the upside-down raft, yanking my head just barely above water.

My sunglasses were long gone, but my other prescription glasses had gotten one of their arms stuck in one of my braids. Keeping my arms as steady on the slippery board as I could, I manoeuvred my glasses back onto my nose, feeling the pull of my hair at my scalp. Glasses on, I scanned the water frantically, kicking my legs and trying to pull myself up onto the raft. But my glasses were coated in water, so I could barely see the raft I was grabbing onto, let alone try to see the hok under the waves.

I discovered pretty quick that I wasn’t strong enough to pull myself up onto the underside of the raft. The waves were still beating down on me, and I was already weak from cranking the propeller the whole way here. But, clenching my jaw, I held on. Because there was no other choice. I wasn’t going to let go now. I hadn’t found Kor yet.

But the sudden smashing of giant, scaled tentacle through my raft forced my hands. Literally.

My raft splintered apart under my grip, sending me crashing back into the ferocious waves. I hadn’t even had time to suck in a breath. Beneath the surface, I kicked and swung my arms to no avail. Even if I could swim, it probably wouldn’t have helped me, now. The water was too rough. And I was too far gone.

My heart pounded faster and faster, rapidly using up what little oxygen I had. The surface seemed to be growing further and further away, no matter how much I fought to get back to it. The light faded, and darkness gathered around me. Suddenly, I felt so, so cold. Colder than I’d ever been in my whole life.

I’m sorry, Kor. I tried.

I stopped trying to swim. Stopped fighting. I held onto my breath, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to do that much longer, either. My lungs burned, my throat clenched, aching to take a breath. I closed my eyes, and my limbs went limp. I could no longer feel my body. Could no longer feel anything but the cold and the wet and the dark.

But when familiar, strong claws closed around my wrist, I felt those. More profoundly than I’d ever felt anything in my entire life before.

I was aware of movement. My body being dragged powerfully through the waves. And then, mercifully, the beat of bright air against my face.

I gasped, my hands scrabbling in panic, worried I would fall back beneath the surface. But as I finally figured out what was happening, I knew I wouldn’t slip back beneath the surface again.

Because the strong grip holding me above the water was Kor’s.

My glasses were hanging by the side of my face, still tangled in my hair. But I didn’t need them to see him now. His ridged, snouted face, his pulsing blue sight stars.

My chest heaving, my throat on fire, I clutched at his neck, wrapping my legs around his waist as his own legs pumped beneath us, keeping us upright. I didn’t have a chance to revel in Kor’s sudden appearance, because at that moment the hok re-emerged near us. It seemed to be moving more slowly, now, though, and I noticed a deep greenish streak between its scales that looked like blood.

Kor grunted, heaving us away in the water, turning so that his back was to the alien monster, shielding me with his body.

“No, Kor, no!” I screamed. The creature, though injured, was coming straight for us. And Kor was stuck holding me instead of being able to defend himself.

I watched over Kor’s shoulder as a dark shape emerged from the water, leaping up onto the hok. I stared in confusion, trying to process the scene, as a second Kor slashed at the one huge eye of the alien sea monster. The hok gave an awful, echoing howl as the warrior who looked so much like Kor plunged his fist deep into the sole eye socket, his strong arm disappearing up to the shoulder. The hok made another much weaker sound before it stopped moving entirely. The other warrior yanked his arm back out of the dying hok’s head, then zipped through the waves to us with shocking ease.

Kor said something as the warrior approached, but I didn’t understand the words. I was too overwhelmed and in shock to say anything, so instead I just stared at the other warrior. He was even bigger than Kor, and instead of sight stars, he had two large blue pupils at the inner corner of each eye. He was similar in colour to Kor – shifting blue, dark grey, and black, with similar black spikes. The other warrior regarded me with just as much interest, treading water in front of us, gaze roaming over me.

Kor completely turned his attention away from the other warrior, his sight stars raking my face. Beneath the water, I could feel his hands slipping over my body, probing for injuries.

“Zoey,” he growled urgently. “Tell me you’re alright. Tell me you’re unharmed, or I will have to split open the very sea in my rage.”

Teeth chattering, I tried to answer, but found I couldn’t. Instead, I gave a stiff, jerking nod. Kor made a raw, aching sound, crushing my body harder against his chest. Even here, out in the middle of the rough water, after almost dying, I felt safe. Safe, because Kor was here. By some goddamn miracle, we had found each other again. I held tight to his neck – so tight I was pretty sure my muscles had permanently locked themselves into that position.

“We need to get you back to land,” Kor growled. He said something to the other warrior, reminding me that we weren’t alone.

“This is Gigga,” Kor said. “She is my cousin.”

She?

I definitely would not have guessed that – she was even bigger than Kor! But as I squinted at her, blinking against the spray of water, I could see that her ridges were slightly less defined and her snout was more rounded than Kor’s. I nodded again at her, unable to form the words to properly greet or thank her.

“If I shift you onto my back, Zoey, will you be able to hold on?”

Once again, I nodded. Yup, my arms were so damn stiff and tense that someone would probably have to pry them off of Kor. He slid me around his spiky back, and I nestled in, hooking my legs harder against him.

“Hold tight to me, soft one,” he called to me over his shoulder. I could hear the concern colouring his voice. But he didn’t need to be concerned. Not now. Now that he was here, I was not letting him go. Even if we had to swim for days, I would still be holding on.

I hadn’t covered as much distance as I’d thought I had in my little raft, so the swim back to shore didn’t feel too long. Or maybe it was just because I was too shocked and weak to register time passing. Because when we finally did drag ourselves out of the shallows, the sun was setting.

Once Kor was out of the water, he collapsed down to his knees, reaching for me and yanking me around to his front. My arms finally came undone, and they collapsed against my own chest and Kor cradled me close.

In the distance, I heard the call of my name. But I couldn’t focus on it. Every sense was overwhelmed with Kor – his wet rough hide against me, the rise and fall of his breathing, living chest. His breath shuddered against my head, and I closed my eyes once more.

The last thing I was aware of was more frantic calling of my name, and the sound of boots crunching over wet rocks. And then, there was nothing but darkness. Darkness shaped by scales and spikes. Darkness that curled around me, cradling me until I fully drifted away.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Kor

My mate was doing alarming things. She was not speaking to me, was not looking at me. And she was shaking, every limb tensing and shuddering against my chest. My chest constricted with worry, only slightly easing when I heard the voice of the human Gahnala call Zoey’s name.

Good. Another new woman will know what to do.

This wounded my pride – the fact that I did not know how to care for Zoey in this moment. But there was no room for pride here, now. I only wanted my soft one to be healthy and safe. And I would do whatever the Gahnala told me to. I would have to, because Zoey had just gone completely limp in my arms, sending blinding panic arching through my veins.

When Gigga saw the Gahnala approaching, she crouched and hissed, and I growled to her, not tearing my eyes from Zoey’s face for even a moment.

“This is my ally and friend. She is one of my mate’s kind and she means us no harm.”

Gigga made a sound of acknowledgement as Chapman finally reached us, panting.

“What the hell happened?” she demanded, staring down at Zoey in my arms. “You know what? Nevermind. She needs to get warm, now. Get up, let’s go.”

I jumped up immediately. Chapman was about to turn and lead us back to the grove when she froze, her eyes settling on Gigga.

“Gigga is my cousin. She helped me to escape my father’s people and was a close ally on the water.”

Chapman sighed.

“I don’t have time to worry about this now. Is she going to kill me while my back is turned?”

I posed the question to Gigga, who hissed her distaste for the accusation.

“She will not,” I said. I began to run upright, back to the grove of trees. Gigga kept pace with me easily, and Chapman trailed behind. But the Gahnala caught up quickly enough when we reached the babkit trees. Zoey still had not stirred, completely limp in my arms. But every moment, I could feel the rise and fall of her breathing against my body. And this gave me hope for my soft little mate’s life.

“Tell me what to do,” I half commanded, half begged of the Gahnala.

“Get more branches. We need a fire,” she said hurriedly. I laid Zoey gently down, loathing to stop touching her for even a second. But I trusted that Chapman knew what needed to be done. Using my claws, I wrenched down several babkit branches. When I turned around, I saw that Chapman was undressing Zoey, pulling her sopping garments off. Jaw clenching, I wrenched my gaze away, horrified by how limp Zoey still seemed. I busied myself with tracking down fire stones from among the belongings collected there, lighting a spark to grow the fire. In the shadows, Gigga watched everything silently. Fire built, I turned back to my mate, feeling helpless in a way I never had before. I did not like it.

The Gahnala was pulling new, dry clothing onto Zoey’s body.

“Help me,” she grunted, trying to pull Zoey’s leg coverings up over her damp skin. I immediately lowered myself, pinching the fabric between the pads of my fingers so that I would not tear it, helping the Gahnala to pull it all upward. Now that Zoey was fully dressed (besides her feet coverings) we shifted her closer to the fire. I curled myself around her, my body becoming both a nest and a shield for my mate. Noticing her glasses tangled in her braids, I got to work slowly pulling them out, being careful to neither cut nor pull her hair with my claws. Once freed, I placed the delicate glasses on the ground beside us.

“It’s not ideal, having the fire like this, but I don’t think we have a choice,” Chapman said, staring at the flames. “We’ll just have to keep it small.”

“Where are the others?” I asked, finally noticing that Galok and Gahn Taliok were not present.

Chapman’s brows contracted and she sighed angrily.

“Where do you think? They’re out looking for Zoey. But we said we’d meet back here at nightfall, so they should be back soon.”

Darkness was well and truly falling, now, the fire the only source of light. It flickered over Chapman’s features and Gigga’s, illuminating the differences between all of us. But I did not care for any of that. I only cared to watch the firelight flicker across my mate’s still face.

Sounds outside the trees made all of us tense. Gigga whirled to face the shadows, hissing and falling to all fours. Chapman jumped up, squinting into the darkness, and I coiled tighter around Zoey.

The Gahnala relaxed.

“It’s just them,” she said.

“It is the Sea Sand men, my allies,” I told Gigga. Her eyes flicked over to me, but she remained in her defensive stance.

Taliok and Galok came into view and Gigga moved lower to the ground, staring up at them with wary eyes.

“These creatures are so different from me. Even from you,” my cousin said. Gahn Taliok and Galok froze upon finding her there, reaching for their blades.

“Stop!” I said, half rising from my position. The two men jerked to look at me.

“Zoey! You have found her!” Galok cried, the first to abandon his blade. He crouched beside us, staring down at her. “Is she sleeping?”

“She’s unconscious. She tried to swim out to find Kor,” Chapman said. I did not like the accusatory tone of the Gahnala’s voice.

“My mate is no fool. She did not swim. She rode on a craft made of babkit branches. A craft I am sure her own clever hands constructed.”

The Gahnala’s orange brows lifted in surprise.

“Really? Well, she is an engineer. I just didn’t think she’d do something like that. Tell us what happened.”

Taliok and Galok sat with us, while Gigga remained crouched on the other side of the fire, taking everything in with observant eyes.

I told my story quickly – how I’d found my father’s people. How they’d imprisoned me. How my cousin, Gigga, had been the only one to believe me and had helped me escape. And how she had dealt the death blow to the hok when we came upon Zoey’s broken raft.

Once I fully explained what the hok was, the men glanced at Gigga with both wariness and approval. Approval for her bravery and strength. Wariness because it meant she could likely tear us all apart if she wanted to.

“Well, I have to say I’m really glad you’re both alright,” Chapman said. “It was looking grim for a while there. For both of you.”

I refused to think any grim thoughts now. I focused only on holding my mate. And, I realized a short moment later, that very mate was stirring.

Relief and joy rammed through my chest. I stared at Zoey’s fringed eyelids as they fluttered, worshipping at the miracle of her existence in my arms.

I was distracted from Zoey’s movements by my cousin rising, making the Sea Sand men tense.

“I have seen enough to know that all that you have claimed about this land and its people is true, Kor. I choose to believe in the threat you have outlined to me. Now that I have seen proof of your words, I will return at once to my father to inform him.”

“He didn’t listen to you before, when they moved to imprison me. Why do you think he will listen now?” I asked her.

“Because my father knows I would not lie to him. When I lied to his guards to see you and then free you, that was the first time I ever defied him. And the last time when I said I believed you, I was only asserting my opinion to him. I believed your words, but I had no proof of anything. Now I do. He will want to hear what I have to say. If he agrees, I will bring him back here to negotiate further. And I will work very hard to make sure that he agrees.”

She moved to the edge of the grove.

“I am a fast swimmer, much faster than you. If my father agrees to return here with me, we will be back in the morning.” Her steady gaze locked onto mine, intensifying. “You have brought much turmoil to my people and my life, Kor. But still, I am glad to have met you, cousin.”

“I feel the same,” I said. “Thank you for all that you have done.”

With a flick of her tail, she turned, moving out of sight into the shadows.

“What did she say? Where’s she going?” Chapman asked.

“She returns to my father’s people now that she has proof of all I have said. She will try to return by morning with their leader, my uncle.”

“Then we will stay one more night. Your mate needs the rest, as do you,” Gahn Taliok said.

It was at that moment that Zoey’s eyes finally, finally, fully opened, landing on my own.

“Kor,” she croaked, and I groaned, pressing against her. Everyone else melted into the shadows. Even the fire disappeared. Everything was lost to me.

Everything but her.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Zoey

When I started to come to, the first thing I felt was the rocking of waves. Fear gripped me. I’m still on the boat. I’m out on the water. I have to get to Kor…

I tried to open my eyes, tried to get my bearings. But my eyelids were so, so heavy. The rocking continued, but for some reason, it got slower. Less forceful. And then, I became more aware of heavy solidity. Strong arms around me. A tail curved up my spine.

I was warm. The rocking ground to a halt, and with a great effort, I finally opened my eyes.

And there, Dieu merci, was Kor. His face was close to mine, his body wrapped around me as I lay on the ground.

“Kor,” I breathed, my throat feeling so dry. He was here. Had I found him, really?

Or maybe something worse…

Had I died? Had we both died? Fuck it. We’re together. One way or another, I found my way back to him.

But when I heard Chapman’s voice from somewhere above me, I knew I hadn’t died. I was back with everyone. But how…?

“Quick, give her this. Make sure she takes it.”

My nose wrinkled as Kor stuck an opened valok plant under it. My stomach rolled at the thought of eating or drinking anything. No, all I wanted to do was keep laying here, my pounding head heavy in Kor’s arms.

“Drink, soft one.” Kor’s urgent voice made me open my mouth. He slipped the edge of the valok husk against my mouth, and I slowly, gingerly, sucked down the contents.

“Now this,” I heard Chapman say. I still couldn’t see her. All I could see was Kor. And frankly, that was all I cared about seeing right now.

Kor pushed a small piece of smoked meat to my lips. I groaned in complaint turning my head away, but he kept at it.

“You must eat, mate. You must.” His words turned into a ragged plea, and tiredly, I opened my mouth, taking the meat and slowly chewing it, forcing myself to swallow. A moment later, Kor fed me another piece, and then another.

“OK, that’s all I can handle. Seriously,” I said weakly. “Can you help me sit up?”

Kor’s muscled arms lifted me to a seated position with ease. He nestled me between his legs, my back sagging against his chest and abdomen.

A small fire illuminated everything in the babkit grove, confirming that yes, I had somehow gotten back here.

“What happened?” I asked, my tongue feeling thick, my head fuzzy.

“What happened is that you went on a suicide mission on a homemade raft into dangerous waters, that’s what,” Chapman said, fixing me with a sharp gaze. “You exhausted yourself in the heat out on the water, and then you almost drowned, and you ended up losing consciousness.”

It all came back to me, but slowly, like the hazy remnants of a dream.

I gasped as the images became clearer, turning to look at Kor.

“You found me! And there was that squid thing… the hok.”

“Yes,” Kor said, and, fuck me, the rumble of his chest against me was so comforting. I nudged in closer as he spoke.

“Gigga helped me to escape from my father’s people. While we were swimming back here, the hok crossed our paths. We were happy to see that it was moving away from us. Until I saw you on your little craft on the waves.”

I remembered that moment now. The fear as that huge sea monster came for me.

“It was a beautiful and terrible moment. Seeing you there, so close to me, made my heart call out. But then seeing the hok heading for you…”

His voice ground to a halt, and I let out a low breath.

“I’m sorry,” I said, knowing how terrifying it must have been to see me in danger.

“All is well, soft one. I injured the hok, but when I saw you fall into the water, I went after you. Gigga killed the beast.”

I straightened, looking around for her, but she was nowhere to be found.

“Where is she?”

Kor filled me in on everything I had missed – the details of his visit to the island, and the fact that his cousin had gone back to retrieve her father.

I chewed my lip, thinking everything over. Then I looked up and caught the gazes of Chapman, Gahn Taliok, and Galok.

“I’m sorry I went off alone and worried you guys. But I just… I just couldn’t leave without Kor. Not without trying something. Anything.” My voice petered out as the others regarded me. Galok smiled.

“We were unhappy that you were in danger. But no one here can claim that they would not want to do the same for their own mate, if the chance arose.” Taliok grunted at that, and Chapman sighed, giving a reluctant nod.

“But no more of that, you hear? Kor is back, and we all stick together now. I swear, you guys are going to give me an ulcer.”

I managed a weak laugh at her words.

“You should eat some more, then sleep,” Chapman said. I looked distastefully at the meat she offered me, but I took it, working it into my unwilling mouth. I knew she was right. I needed to regain my strength if we were going to head back to the cliffs tomorrow. I didn’t want to slow them down.

Gahn Taliok banked the fire, the light flickering down.

“Come, Zoey,” Kor said, easing me back down into a lying position and curling around me. I sighed contentedly at the feeling of being in his arms, against his hard strength. He was back. We were together again. No matter what came now, we’d face it together.

I kept my eyes open as long as I could, drinking in the sight of Kor’s face, his spikes, his chest and abdomen. I ran my fingers against his hide, snuggling in, part of me still not believing that he was really there. I wanted to ward those thoughts off by forcing myself to stay awake, but I was too exhausted from the day’s events to do so. Curling into Kor’s love, I fell asleep.

I woke again to find that Kor truly was here. The palest shimmer of dawn light was peeking through the trees, turning Kor into a ghostly silhouette. I shifted even closer, hooking my thigh over his hips, pressing hard against him. I placed my palm to his chest, my eyes burning at the gorgeous feeling of him breathing next to me. That breathing shifted slightly, changing rhythm, and Kor opened his eyes.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, fingering the end of one of my braids.

“A lot better,” I whispered. As much as I’d hated it at the time, Chapman making me eat had definitely been the right call. That, coupled with the sleep, left me feeling sore from yesterday, but way stronger.

“This is good,” Kor grunted. One of his hands slipped down over my shoulder, against the curve of my hip, squeezing. I gasped, feeling the nudge of his cock against my stomach. Feeling fevered, I reached down, hefting the dark organ in my hands, feeling it swell and harden even further against my touch.

“If you are still unwell, if you need more rest -”

I cut him off.

“Nope. All good.”

But that being said, as overwhelmed as I was by sudden need for him, I wasn’t about to turn this into a spectator sport, banging him right here in front of everyone.

“Come on,” I said, rising to my feet. Kor followed instantly. My eyes fell over his impressive form, settling on the swell of his dark member.

I gripped his hand and pulled him out of the trees, away from our sleeping friends. Just beyond the trees, in a spot somewhat sheltered by a large boulder, we stopped. I took the hand I was holding, and pulled that arm, wrapping it around my front and pressing my back into Kor. I felt his cock jump against my back, and with a violence of motion that enthralled me, he ripped my pants down my body, nudging at my hot sex.

“Not yet,” I moaned, even though those words felt like a betrayal to my body. My body wanted him, and wanted him now. But he was still fucking huge, and I wasn’t even close to used to his size yet. I kept his one arm pinned to my chest, then guided his other hand between my legs, gently placing the pad of one of his huge fingers against my clit.

“Do not move,” Kor said, sounding strained. “My claws…”

“I trust you,” I breathed, my words falling away to a moan as Kor’s rough fingertip began to move. He moved slowly, experimentally, circling then pressing. Then his finger moved carefully lower, further back.

“So wet,” he gritted out, and I arched against him at the feeling of his finger at my entrance. Everything in me screamed to rock my hips onto that finger, let it enter me, but I knew that with his claws, that would be a terrible idea. So I remained impossibly still, my muscles trembling, as Kor slicked through my folds. He moved back up to my clit, and I cried out at the pressure he exerted there. I felt that pressure everywhere – deep inside me, all the way up my spine and down to my toes. My whole body was alight with him.

“When I was trapped in the dark cave,” Kor rasped, his finger’s movement becoming more urgent, “the only thing that got me through was thinking of your face. And your body…”

“Oh, God, Dieu,” I breathed, my head lolling back against his chest. Hearing the way he was so lovesick, and so filled with lust for me at the same time, was turning me on beyond belief.

“You are my dream. My shrine. The only star I will ever follow, ever worship.”

His words echoed in my body, pulsing between my legs as waves of pleasure brought me higher and higher.

“I’m ready,” I said needily, pushing his fingers away from my wet skin. I was so fucking close. And I wanted to come with him inside me.

Kor choked down a thick growl, and once again nudged his fat tip against my entrance. I pressed my hips back involuntarily, going crazy with need. My wetness mingled with his, easing the way. I let out a long breath and Kor pressed inside, so fucking slowly, one centimetre after another of hot, thick desire. He drew back, and my mouth fell open in a silent moan when he urged back in, slightly deeper than before.

His hands moved from my front to grip my hips, and with a groan, I fell forward, planting my palms against the boulder. Shifting and bending like this was creating the most incredible angle for his cock. As he pulled back and pulsed back in, his fingers hard on my hips, I mewled. His pelvis rocking, he began a tentative rhythm.

It was too much. And yet not too much at all. It was exactly what I needed. To be filled with him. Overwhelmed by him in every possible way.

“Touch yourself,” he growled, and his command was an unexpected hot spear right to my clit. “I would do it myself, but I do not think I could control my claws, now…” Only Kor could turn a phrase as filthy as commanding me to touch myself into something considerate and frankly kind of sweet. I did as he told me, unable to stop myself, amazed by the buildup of pleasure created by his cock spearing in and out alongside my fingers working myself.

Kor’s movements grew harder, faster, and deeper. My breath escaped my chest in a sharp huff as I felt the firm spikes of flesh around the base of his cock rub along my sensitive skin. That extra hiss of sensation against my flesh sent me tumbling. I threw my head back and moaned, clenching harder than I would have thought possible against his cock.

“Yes,” Kor hissed, and even without seeing him, I could tell the word was coming from between clenched fangs. My legs turned to rubber as he kept pounding into my pulsing core, and he wrapped his arms around my front once more, dragging me back, holding me upright as his hips snapped against my ass.

“Zoey,” Kor choked out, his voice sounding broken. It seemed to be the only word he could say in that moment as pleasure overtook him, sending spurt after spurt of seed deep into my centre. Everything was heat and wetness, his cock thick and pulsing, continuing to drive into me even as he exploded. There was a desperation in his movements – a desperation I understood. We’d both thought we might never see the other again. So this joining, this love, was fierce, almost manic, as we rocked against each other.

Finally, with one more long, groaning thrust, Kor finished, totally spent. His chest dragged against my back as he panted, his harsh breaths matching my own. I cracked open my eyes to see that the sun was rising higher, now, pale morning sun flooding the plains.

Kor angled his hips back, slipping out of me, creating a hot agony of emptiness inside me. An emptiness that it seemed only he could fill. He steadied me carefully on the ground. I moved to pull up my pants, but he stopped me, falling to his knees in front of me.

“Let me do this, mate,” he murmured, carefully pulling the garment back up my body. My underwear was going to be soaked the second it touched my skin, I realised, but I guessed there was no helping that, now. And, bless his freaking cuteness, he even tried to do up the zipper and tiny button on my pants’ fly. His brow ridges lowered into a concentrated frown as his claws slipped over the fasteners, so absurdly small against his wide fingers.

Laughing, I reached down to help him.

“It’s OK. We should be getting back.”

I didn’t want to be getting back. I didn’t want to get back to reality – back to danger and hiding from enemies and war on the horizon. I wanted to just stay here with Kor, drowning in his love.

But no matter what, at least we were together now. As Kor rose to his feet towering over me, I tilted my head back to look at him.

“I love you,” I said, smiling softly. I took his hand. “Now let’s go.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Kor

We did not make it back to the grove of trees where our party slept. Because as we walked back towards it, four dark, hulking figures rose from the waves, driving powerfully through the shallows on thick, scaled legs.

Immediately, I shoved Zoey behind me, my eyes swinging back and forth, running over scenarios. I could take her in my arms and run her back to the relative safety of the grove. But if they gave chase, they would catch me. I could not fight four if I needed to. And I did not yet know if they came in peace or not.

The sun was behind them, blinding me, making it hard to distinguish their characteristics as they approached the shore. But Gigga’s voice cried out over the air, and I let out a small breath.

“Kor, I have returned with my father.” Then, to her father, the Hakah beside her, I heard her say, “See, father, what he said was true. You saw the female he pressed behind him, did you not? The strange one? That is his mate.”

“I can see this with my own eyes, Gigga. Do not press me, as I still have not forgiven your betrayal.”

That betrayal had to be her helping me to escape. I was sorry to have caused any problems for her, but something told me she could handle herself around anyone, even her glowering father.

“What’s happening?” Zoey asked from behind me.

“Stay still, mate. I will handle this.” I kept my hand firm on her form behind me as the four people of the Bitter Sea emerged from the water. As they got closer, the sun no longer hindered my view of them. Gigga and the Hakah were in the centre of the small group, and flanking them were two more warriors I did not remember seeing up close before. The one on the left had scales the colour of sand, his spikes a deep burnished brown. The other, on the right, glinted green as a brazelbird, his scales almost shockingly verdurous under the rising sun. The group grew level with us and stopped.

“Tell me now if you mean my mate or me any harm,” I growled, a dark warning. The Hakah growled in return, but ultimately backed down.

“After my daughter’s tales of this place and its people, I had to come to confirm it all with my own eyes. If I am satisfied, we can speak further about this threat you told her of. This war you believe is coming.”

I accepted his words with caution, still remembering the way he’d called me a weakling and a liar when we’d last met. The way he’d ordered my imprisonment. But Gigga had said that normally he was a wise and careful leader. And so far, I had no reason not to trust her words and judgments.

“What are you guys saying?” Zoey whispered against my hide.

“I am making sure they have come here in peace,” I told her. Still holding tight to her, I eased her out from behind my back. It went against every instinct inside me – I wanted to spirit her away, howling, into the distance, away from them. But they would see her eventually. And we would have to bring them back to the others, too.

The three men hissed and jerked at the sight of Zoey. Gigga remained still, watching.

“You spoke true, daughter. She is strange. A new race of people on this world.” The Hakah’s blue eyes fell on me.

“You said your mother was strange, too. My brother’s mate. Was she like this female?”

“No. My mother is of the Sea Sands. There are two Sea Sand men in our camp. They are willing to meet you, if you continue to move in peace.”

The Hakah gave a reluctant grunt, and slowly, everyone watching each other, we began to move together back to the grove of babkit trees.

As we got closer, I called out a warning so that no one would be surprised.

“Gahn Taliok! Galok! Gahnala Chapman! I return with my father’s people.” I did not say any more than that. I did not tell them it was safe, because I was not yet convinced that it was. I was heartened, though, by Gigga’s presence, But even so, I kept Zoey pressed hard against me, on the opposite side of me to the others.

I sensed a flurry of movement in the trees, and the three of them emerged. They froze at the sight of the others – four huge creatures from beyond the water. Galok and Gahn Taliok reached for weapons, but did not draw.

Once again, the Bitter Sea men hissed with surprise at the sight of these new people.

“This is Galok. That one there, with the scars, is Taliok. He is a Gahn, a leader, like a Hakah. The new woman is the mate of another Gahn. She is the Gahnala Chapman,” I said to the group.

The Hakah breathed out heavily. His huge head swung towards me.

“Even as you speak, you remind me of my brother.”

I interpreted the Hakah’s next words as he directed them at our friends.

“I have seen enough to confirm this man, Kor’s, words. I believe now that he is the son of my brother, the lost warrior Kon. And I have come in peace, so long as we are met with peace, to discuss the threat you think faces all of us.”

Chapman, Gahn Taliok, and Galok all looked at each other. Finally, Gahn Taliok spoke.

“We, too meet you in peace. Let us move into the trees, where we have made our camp. Not all the men of the Sea Sands will welcome our party on these plains.”

I translated quickly, and noticed all four of the Bitter Sea people tense, their eyes shifting over the landscape.

“Come,” I urged. “The Gahn speaks true. There are many rivalries upon these sands, and we have travelled into enemy territory to find you.”

Quickly, the whole group of us moved back into the shadows of the trees. No one sat, and we all faced each other: Zoey, Chapman, Galok, and Taliok on one side, my father’s people on the other. I stood between them, ready to make my body into a shield for Zoey if things went wrong.

With me translating, the story of the new women’s arrival was told anew for the Hakah and his men, including the fact that we thought they were coming back with weapons.

“They mean to kill the Kell,” the Hakah hissed, sounding disgusted. I could not blame him. Such a thought was blasphemy.

“This is what the new women believe, yes. That their people may be coming back to harm the Kell, and the Kell of the Sea Sands, who they call the Lavrika.”

“No such thing could happen. We would not allow it!” the Hakah snarled.

The two male warriors cried out and pounded their brow ridges, making my friends jump and look to me in confusion. I explained the words and gestures before any hasty moves were made.

“This is why we have come to you,” I said. “We hoped to gather every possible ally in this fight. To protect the world, for all of us.”

My uncle gave me a long, piercing look.

“If what you say will happen comes to pass, then we will rise to fight it, you can be sure of that. But when will it happen? What is the plan?”

“We don’t know, yet,” Chapman responded after I translated. “Right now, we have three of the Sea Sand tribes allied together in a central location in the desert. We were hoping you would join us.”

“Relocate to the desert?” The Hakah’s eyes bulged. “I will not uproot my people so easily. No, this is what I will do. I will send Gigga back to our people to tell her of what has come to pass here. She is eloquent and will do the message justice. Won’t you?” His hard gaze moved to his daughter, who met it head-on.

“I will,” she confirmed.

“Good. Gigga will return, and my two men and I will journey back with you. I wish to meet with other members of these tribes. I wish to see these cliffs for myself, and learn more of you and your people before I make any formal decisions.”

Chapman and the others spoke in low tones. Finally, the Gahnala nodded her head and said, “We agree to the terms. As long as you agree to come with us without violence, we will bring you back with us as allies and show you our settlement.”

I looked between the two parties as I translated, keeping a firm hand on Zoey but letting myself relax, just a little. It seemed an uneasy trust was unfolding. Perhaps this would all work out after all…

But that illusion was shattered when the sound of approaching footsteps made everyone jump and tense.

“What is this, a trap?” my uncle snapped, his spikes unfurling. In an instant, Taliok and Galok had drawn blades. I yanked Zoey into my side, backing away from the group, keeping her safe my only priority. But it was Zoey’s voice that made me stop.

“Wait!” my mate cried. “It’s Jara!”

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Zoey

Jara entered the grove of trees then froze. I could see each emotion as it moved over her face – surprise at seeing any people here at all, relief and broken joy at seeing Kor safe at my side. And then she saw the others. Her gaze fell on the biggest one, Kor’s uncle, and her whole face went slack, her sight stars spinning into a fine mist across her dark eyes. She looked like she’d seen a ghost.

Kor spoke quickly in the language of the Bitter Seas, no doubt telling the people present that this was his mother, no enemy and no threat. Then everyone put their spikes and blades away, but tension remained among the group.

“Kor, who is this?” Jara asked, her voice tight and squeaking.

“Mother, this is the leader of the people of the Bitter Sea. He is my uncle, my father’s brother, Gog.”

“He looks just like…” Her words trailed off as she stared at the huge lizard warrior. Finally, she managed to choke out, “Your father.”

Kor drew Jara in against his side, opposite from me. Around Kor’s back. I reached for her, grasping at her hand. She jerked at the contact, then squeezed my fingers.

Kor spoke quickly to his father’s people, then translated for us.

“I am telling them that you were Kon’s mate. The Hakah has acknowledged that you were the last one to see his brother alive.”

“Yes,” Jara said, a little steadier now. “He was my mate. My son’s father. He came from the waves to claim me, and we built a life together before his death. He died from a wound gone bad.” She said her words directly to the Hakah, her gaze growing stronger as Kor translated. Gog’s nostrils flared as he digested this information. Then he spoke.

“My uncle says that he is glad to finally know what became of his brother, though the story is one he never thought he’d hear. He barely believes it, but us all being here is proof enough to force him into belief.”

“He should believe it,” Jara muttered, sounding angry. “It’s the truth. That was his brother’s life. A life with me. Our fates were one. No one can come here and deny that.”

I felt immensely for Jara in that moment, and looped my fingers between her long ones. After a long moment, she sighed, pulling away from our little huddle.

“I should return. I was not expecting to find anyone here at all. I knew you all meant to leave yesterday, whether Kor returned or not.”

She looked at her son, my mate, her smile somehow both happy and sad.

“I am so glad to have you back, my son. Knowing you are safe makes the goodbye much easier.

“But why does there have to be a goodbye?” I blurted. “Why don’t you come back with us?”

Everyone looked at me while Kor translated.

“Come make your place with us. You’ve already said your tribe hasn’t welcomed you back. But you’d be welcomed at the Cliffs of Uruzai. Trust me. It’s the weirdest combination of people you’ve ever seen. You’ll fit right in,” I urged. It felt wrong to leave Jara behind, now.

“As Gahn of one tribe, I offer you the invitation to come with us,” Gahn Taliok said.

“As Ghanala, so do I,” Chapman added. I smiled at her, mouthing, “Thank you,” my chest tight.

“I speak for Gahn Buroudei here, and I, too, invite you, Jara, to return with us,” added Galok.

Kor’s chest heaved, and I pressed my cheek upon it as he translated the final words. Not long ago, both he and his mother had been alone in the desert, outcasts from both their peoples. Now, they both had a place, a home, with us.

Jara looked around the group, then finally at Kor and me.

“I agree. I will return with you and make my home at the cliffs. Being near to my son and new daughter is the only thing I wish for, now.”

My smile practically split my face in half as I hugged her. Kor moved in behind me, drawing both of us into his long arms. I hiccuped, half laughing, half crying.

This wasn’t ever the family I would have imagined for myself. But it was mine now.

And now, together, we were all going home.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR reading Alien Exile! I loved writing this story, and I hope you enjoyed it. Book 6, Gahn Baldor’s story, is now LIVE in KU! Read Alien Hunter here. If you’d like to be alerted to new releases and receive exclusive content, please sign up for my newsletter at www.ursadaxwriting.com/contact to stay in the loop!

ALIEN HUNTER

“Now that I have found her, I refuse to lose her…”

THERESA

One by one, I’ve seen my friends fall in love with the alien warriors on this planet. I’m so happy for them, but I can’t help but feel jealous. More than any other single girl on this planet, I want what they have – a mate. After a childhood in foster care and an adulthood littered with crappy boyfriends, I just want to find my place. My home. Love. I want it more than anything, and I’m ready for it.

What I’m not ready for? An enemy Gahn from beyond the mountains attacking our settlement in the dead of night. And even more than that? This bleeding Gahn with glinting silver eyes and brutal blades claims that I’m his mate.

Baldor seeks to claim me. I’d waited for this moment. Craved it. But now that it’s here, I’m not so sure I’m ready anymore.

Baldor is hardened, fierce, and stubborn. Beneath his tough exterior, a dark pain looms inside him.

And even as my feelings for this enemy Gahn grow, I’m not sure that I’m strong enough to let in the light.

BALDOR

I never thought I’d be granted a second mate after losing my first. I do not even know if I deserve another chance at happiness. But deserving or not, I will find her. I will fight for her. And I will claim her.

But my attack against the other tribes to claim my mate does not go as planned. The other Gahns have new allies and are stronger than ever before. Having my blades forced down is bad enough. What’s even worse is the fact that my mate, the lovely, sun-haired Thereeza, does not seem to want me.

She is the light in a world gone dark. A future I’d never hoped to earn. I will not, will not, lose her.

To win her love, I will have to go further than I’ve ever gone before.

And I’ll have to sacrifice more than I’d ever thought possible.

Want more? Read Alien Hunter here…

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…”

Table of Contents

NOTICES

ALIEN EXILE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

TRIGGER WARNING

CHAPTER ONE | Zoey

CHAPTER TWO | Kor

CHAPTER THREE | Zoey

CHAPTER FOUR | Kor

CHAPTER FIVE | Zoey

CHAPTER SIX | Kor

CHAPTER SEVEN | Zoey

CHAPTER EIGHT | Kor

CHAPTER NINE | Zoey

CHAPTER TEN | Kor

CHAPTER ELEVEN | Zoey

CHAPTER TWELVE | Kor

CHAPTER THIRTEEN | Zoey

CHAPTER FOURTEEN | Kor

CHAPTER FIFTEEN | Zoey

CHAPTER SIXTEEN | Kor

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN | Zoey

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN | Kor

CHAPTER NINETEEN | Zoey

CHAPTER TWENTY | Kor

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE | Zoey

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO | Kor

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE | Zoey

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR | Kor

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE | Zoey

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX | Kor

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN | Zoey

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT | Kor

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE | Zoey