BASE ZERO

A SCI-FI ALIEN INVASION ROMANCE

A.G. WILDE

Base Zero

Base Zero © A.G. Wilde 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, businesses, or locales is coincidental and is not intended by the author.

CONTENTS

Disclaimer

Base Zero

Chapter 1

SAM

Chapter 2

GA’VAR

Chapter 3

SAM

Chapter 4

SAM

Chapter 5

GA’VAR

SAM

Chapter 6

GA’VAR

Chapter 7

SAM

GA’VAR

Chapter 8

SAM

Chapter 9

GA’VAR

SAM

Chapter 10

SAM

GA’VAR

Chapter 11

SAM

Chapter 12

SAM

GA’VAR

Chapter 13

SAM

Chapter 14

GA’VAR

SAM

Chapter 15

GA’VAR

SAM

Chapter 16

GA’VAR

SAM

Chapter 17

GA’VAR

SAM

Chapter 18

SAM

Chapter 19

GA’VAR

Chapter 20

SAM

Chapter 21

GA’VAR

SAM

Chapter 22

GA’VAR

Chapter 23

SAM

Chapter 24

SAM

Chapter 25

SAM

GA’VAR

Chapter 26

SAM

Chapter 27

GA’VAR

Chapter 28

SAM

Chapter 29

SAM

Chapter 30

GA’VAR

SAM

Chapter 31

SAM

Chapter 32

GA’VAR

Chapter 33

SAM

Chapter 34

GA’VAR

Chapter 35

SAM

Chapter 36

SAM

Epilogue

Next in the Series

Other books by A.G.

Acknowledgments

Keep In Touch

If you enjoyed this book…

About the Author

For Mom

I’m still here.

I’m fighting too…because I know you would expect nothing less.

DISCLAIMER

This work of fiction is intended for mature audiences only.

All sexually active characters portrayed in this book are eighteen years of age or older.

BASE ZERO

SAM

When the monsters came, I lost all hope.

None of us expected we would get help.

That we would be saved…

And that help would come from a most unlikely source.

The Vullan are huge. Scary.

They look like demons…yet, they saved us.

They saved me.

But the fight isn’t over yet. We’re still being invaded.

Destroyed.

I have to focus on surviving and helping the Vullan save my planet…my race.

There is no space for any other thoughts.

So why do the eyes of a certain demon catch my gaze?

And why doesn’t his attention make me want to flee?

GA’VAR

The little female is tenacious but that does not erase that fact that she is…little.

Smaller than the others.

Too small for bonding. That alone should dissuade me.

Yet, she draws my attention.

And when she sticks out that tiny pink tongue of hers right at me, I know I cannot stop the wheels she set in motion.

Whether she likes it or not, I want her even if I must not have her.

When the scourge that has invaded her planet come to get her, my decision is easy.

They will not take what is mine.

CHAPTER ONE

SAM

Base Zero.

Our new home.

It’s dark in the caves…but work has begun.

Beneath the rock that’s above our heads…around us…a huge alien ship hides…and even lower…they mine.

A species I never knew existed.

But that was before.

Before our world was captured. Destroyed.

In a matter of weeks, two separate alien entities have visited Earth.

The first came with one mission. To kill us all.

Life changed in an instant.

There’d been no omen in the skies to tell us this was the beginning of the end.

I don’t think anyone expected an end like this…

When they first appeared, I remember the sudden silence. As if the Earth itself refused to breathe, and then…chaos.

They painted cities red.

Even now, staring down at my hands, the dim light in the caves doesn’t hide the blood that I feel somehow lingers there.

I can almost see the red tint.

I can almost feel my heart struggling to escape my chest as I remember the death all around me.

I’d thought I was going to die.

Known it for sure the moment an orb, one of the giant machines, deposited me into its belly.

I don’t know how long I waited there.

Waited for my death.

But the moment I accepted, finally, that no help was coming, that humanity had lost this war, I saw an omen in the sky.

The one we’d been waiting for.

A huge black bird. Metal, or some form of it.

Alien.

Somehow, we were saved.

The darkness shifts near to me and my breath hitches as I’m brought back to the present. To reality.

Even as I try to focus on the task before me, the meal I’m supposed to be preparing, I know that some of them are watching.

They melt into the darkness of the caves.

They are the darkness.

Covered in black with eyes that either swallow you into that darkness or consume you like fire.

They call themselves the Vullan.

And the Vullan are our only hope of surviving the apocalypse.

I crouch as I work. My fingers shaking underneath the blade in my hand. The food I should be preparing laid out in front of me.

It is something to take my mind off things, yet, though I try to focus, I think I hear a distant thump and then the rock walls around us tremble.

I don’t know if it is one of the huge metal legs of the machines walking outside, or if it’s the sound of the Vullan drilling beneath us.

All I know is that the sound makes the muscles in my back tighten and that I can’t help but hold my breath.

My fingers tremble again, and I almost cut myself instead of the fish in my hand.

“Shit.”

“You ok?” The voice shakes me out of another daze. “I can gut them for you. I’ve watched you enough to know how it’s done.”

I glance at the woman beside me and offer her a smile that barely stretches my lips. I’d forgotten she was there.

Thoughts are louder than the people around me.

Lori’s cheeks lift, her smile encouraging.

I never knew her before all this happened.

I knew none of the other humans living underneath these rocks.

There are no old friends or family here.

We are all strangers.

Friends and family are no more.

Lori’s straight blonde hair is a complete contrast to my dark curls that hang heavily around my head.

I lower my head more, hiding behind my hair…hoping she hasn’t seen the ghosts behind my eyes…the same ghosts I sometimes see reflected in hers.

“It’s ok. I’m fine.” I force a smile, but I’m not sure she can even see it. “I can do it.”

I have to do it.

Because I need something to focus on lest anxiety gets the best of me.

Outside of this cave, the world is ending and even though I can no longer see it, every fiber in my being can imagine it.

My nightmares make up for what does not come to my eyes.

“Okay.” Lori eyes me a bit and I keep my gaze on the fish.

If I meet her gaze, I might shatter, and I don’t need her to see that.

We all have to be strong.

For each other.

“I’ll go down and get some water then, okay?”

I nod as she moves away.

The cave system is large, and I wonder if it had been some famous site.

There is railing in some parts. Signs, too, naming the bigger caverns.

One tunnel leads to a spring and a bathing pool—the source of everything we need to clean ourselves, our food, and keep us hydrated.

We were lucky it was here.

Or maybe it wasn’t luck at all.

They knew it was here.

The Vullan.

That’s why they brought us here.

So we can lie low.

Prepare.

So we can get our planet back.

As Lori heads deeper into the cave, I turn to watch her go.

The shadows shift as she moves, and I know the Vullan are moving around there.

Working between their massive ship and the ore they’re drilling.

Day in, day out, they work.

I don’t know what they’re creating.

I only know that we need it.

Because they are the only ones who know how to kill our enemy.

Their technology is beyond anything I’ve ever seen. Even the lights dotting the cave wall around me are not what they seem to be.

I stare at one as I think about it. It’s right above me, not far from the top of my head.

It moves as I look at it. A slight wave in the air like the petals of a flower twisting in the breeze.

Little plants.

Strange ones.

Alien and bioluminescent.

Their faint green glow could be almost comforting…if I allowed it to be.

If I could pretend.

The shadows shift again, and awareness fills my spine.

One or more of the Vullan is still there in the shadows.

I just know it.

I can feel his eyes on me even without seeing him.

It’s not the first time one has stared at me…watched me from the shadows…and I know it won’t be the last.

In the very first moments of meeting them, it had been clear the impoliteness of staring wasn’t a thing in their culture.

They always watch us.

Even more so now that one of us…has mated with one of them.

Adira created a bond with their leader, Fer’ro. And ever since, the other Vullan have been looking at the rest of us as if we’re fresh meat—and I’m not so sure they won’t eat us.

They’re humanoid, but I’ve seen their fangs.

Sharp, like those of wolves or maybe great predatory cats.

Add to that is their size. The Vullan are big.

Every single one of them seems to be sculpted from rock like the one they’re drilling into.

I’ve seen them fight.

Seen the blades that appear through their dark suits.

I’ve seen them try to tear each other apart.

They look scary. And they are.

At least, they can be.

They keep their distance from us—despite that most of the other humans go out of their way to not interact with them.

But that doesn’t stop them from staring.

And one of them seems to stare more than the others.

I glance toward the shadows, squinting as I look.

I wonder if it is him, but I’m too far away to make out anything or anyone.

As Lori disappears into the darkness, I’m left alone in the dim cavern and I finally allow my shoulders to hang.

My family is probably dead.

My friends…

My dog…

The last time I was outside, the world looked like humans had left a long time ago.

I don’t even know what the surface looks like anymore.

For I haven’t seen the outside of this cave in…weeks.

Has it been that long?

I’m not sure.

Time moves differently now.

And each day I wake with one singular fear. That the machines walking on the outside will find us.

That they will destroy us before we can fight back.

Gulping, I turn my attention back to the fish on the slab of rock in front of me.

It’s small.

Smaller than usual.

We’re running out of food.

Soon we will have to venture out there to get some more.

The thought makes me shudder.

I glance in the direction of the cave’s entrance and my heart picks up pace, thumping against my chest.

I know not one of us humans wants to go out there.

But I’m pretty sure we will have to.

And soon.

There’s a sound behind me, almost imperceptible, and I turn instinctively, my fist tightening around the sharp blade in my hand.

A group of three Vullan approaches.

Big. Looming.

Deep burgundy eyes meet mine and a shiver runs down my spine that should be fear…but not.

Him.

The one whose gaze feels like it’s engulfing me from the inside out.

I can’t explain it.

What scares me more is why the hell he’s looking at me like that.

Of all the Vullan, his gaze sends a strange feeling right through me.

They walk past me as they head into the central chamber where they stop and crouch together.

I notice they usually crouch like that when discussing things and when their clicks reach my ear, I know I’m right.

Pulling my gaze away, I slide the blade into the fish I’m holding, barely missing my fingers.

Shit.

I need to focus before I slice my hand off.

So I block everything out.

I push away my meddling thoughts and focus on the task I set out to do. In the background, the aliens’ clicks as they speak are almost comforting.

I can pretend I’m listening to birds as I work and soon I’m gutting the fish, removing its entrails, then its scales, and grabbing another to do it all over again.

This fish is small too.

I will have to ask Adira about it.

If we are running out of food, then the faster we get on the ball to restock, the better our chances of finding something we can eat in this wilderness.

I don’t know why I look up from what I’m doing to glance at the aliens talking near me.

I can’t understand their language but as soon as I look up, I regret it immediately.

Burgundy eyes meet mine.

Ga’Var his name is.

And as usual, he’s watching me.

I stare at him for a few moments, my brows furrowing before I pull my gaze away.

Creep.

But I can’t help glancing up at him again.

He’s still watching me.

I don’t even think he’s taking part in the conversation with the others.

He seems completely focused on me.

My problems, my troubling thoughts, they all melt away as I look into those strange, slitted eyes.

What do you want? I think, frowning at him.

That strange black suit he is wearing moves like fluid.

He retracts it from his face, and I pull my gaze away when I find myself staring.

But his face is already burned into my mind.

Those ridges he has running down his forehead and over the bridge of his flattened nose…

More ridges running along his sculpted cheekbones, his jaw, and his firm chin.

The way his pointed ears settle at the sides of his head and twitch the moment I looked up at him.

His charcoal skin is almost as dark as the suit he wears and he blends into the darkness still.

My gaze darts his way again, taking in the thick locs on top of his head that are pulled back away from his face. Darker than his skin, his hairstyle is like a shadow that makes you focus on his strange features.

I force my gaze back to the fish before me, but I have the urge to look in the alien’s direction again, and I oblige myself. But when I do, I find he is not looking at me this time.

Some kind of feeling forms in the pit of my stomach and I kill it immediately.

Hunger.

It’s just hunger.

Shaking myself a little, I go back to working on gutting the fish.

I force the alien away from my thoughts as I push my thumb through the thing, removing the entrails.

When I hear a click of disapproval coming from the alien’s direction, a small smile creeps across my lips.

Good.

Be disgusted.

I continue working and Lori’s almost-quiet approach makes me turn. She sets the stone receptacle down with the water in it, wiping her damp hands on her skirt.

Carved by the Vullan themselves, the bowl is big and can carry a lot of water, but what Lori brings back is probably about a liter.

A lot, considering we’re all skinny and weak.

“Got enough to clean the fish. Give them a good wash,” she says, her gaze moving over to the aliens near to us.

Her voice lowers immediately. “Staring as usual,” she whispers.

Her shoulders visibly shudder.

She does not trust them still.

And I understand.

It’s hard to believe another race came here to help us out of pure goodwill.

That after those metal orbs fell to Earth and began destroying us all, that help would also come from the stars.

I follow her gaze to find burgundy eyes on me still, and despite the curious jerk in my chest, my brows shoot toward my nose.

I stick my tongue out at him.

It’s a childish act.

One I regret immediately.

The alien before me turns fully in my direction.

His ears perk off his head even more.

Shit.

The darkness that looms around him, the darkness that is him, seems to dissipate as his gaze bores into mine.

For the first time, it’s like I can see him clearly.

I’m not staring at some strange alien creature, but a male. A warrior. A being who is looking right back at me with thoughts about me in his head.

Staring into those burgundy pools, I can see myself.

And I know, I knowww, I just did something I’m going to regret.

CHAPTER TWO

GA’VAR

I’m startled as the hyu’man beckons to me with her tongue.

Even in the dim light, I had no problem seeing what she did clearly.

She met my gaze, and she pointed the little pink organ at me.

I no longer hear what my brethren are saying.

The discussion of our next tactical move becomes background conversation as I turn my full attention to the little female.

Little.

They all are, but this female is even smaller than the one beside her. Her features rounder. Her hair the color of my symbiotes, my ba’clan, that stretch over my entire body.

The strange thin gown she wears is several shades darker than her pale skin, but the contrast is enough to draw the eye.

She is the complete opposite of me.

Her eyes are wide now and she breaks my gaze, staring hard at the sea creature she is dismembering.

Does she want to taste me?

I sniff, pulling in air from her direction, but I smell no inviting scents.

Hyu’mans pretend to eat their mates, licking and sucking on their mate’s lips and tongue.

They do this for pleasure, as a show of affection.

A strange hyu’man ritual…one my womb mate appears to like—and one I’ve grown curious about.

I sniff again.

Still no inviting scents.

What I smell is fear from the female she crouches beside…and from her…sadness.

Both are emotions I understand.

So, I remain where I am, and choose instead to study the small hyu’man before me.

I cannot tell if her blatant display was an invitation that she wants to…perform her mouth-eating ritual with me.

Because…I am not her mate.

Only one of us has mated with a hyu’man.

My lucky womb mate.

Someone who had cared little for female affection back on Edooria.

While I have always…yearned for it.

A mate. Offspring. A nest.

I have wanted it all.

The arrival of the Gryken had been the end of that dream. Until now.

I spot my womb mate and his hyu’man as they exit the ship and head toward the carts, hauling the ore back for processing.

The jealousy that crawled through me when I realized he’d become mated is no longer there.

What’s replaced it is…longing.

I look back at the small female near me. Sa’am is her designation.

“It’s taking too long!” San’ten clicks beside me. His exclamation pulls me away from my musing. “We need to extract the ore faster.”

“Patience my brother,” Fi’rox says. “It is delicate and far below the surface. If we rush, we might collapse the tunnels and seal off the exact thing that we need.”

San’ten growls, annoyance wafting from him in waves.

“So we move slowly and allow that infestation to walk the surface out there? We are hiding like cowards!”

“Yes, we hide, but this is not Edooria.” Fi’rox glances my way for support. “We cannot make the same mistakes our people did. We cannot allow this world to fall to the same fate as ours.”

San’ten growls.

I can almost feel his ba’clan reacting against mine.

“What say you?” he asks, but I do not realize he is speaking to me until he calls my name.

“Ga’Var…”

“What?” I glance at him sideways, annoyed he has interrupted my thoughts. “Fi’rox is right.”

Fi’rox’s ears twitch a little as he tries to hide his pleasure in my agreeing with him.

He is young. The youngest of us all.

Every piece of recognition lifts his spirits.

San’ten growls again and stands suddenly.

He need not say more.

His ba’clan already tell me he is displeased and on edge.

He turns away from us and heads off into one of the more heavily shadowed sections of the tunnels.

I watch him go. He is behaving as if he is the only one who holds hatred for the Gryken.

We all do.

They destroyed our planet and countless others.

We will not let them destroy this one.

That is our pledge.

But that does not mean we should attack before we are ready.

Patience is not a Vullan trait, but we must exercise it now.

The hyu’man scent of fear wafts strongly around us and I realize San’ten’s behavior might have set the females off.

But when I turn my attention back to the two females, Sa’am seems unconcerned as she prepares another sea creature.

No fear scent comes from her. It is coming from the female beside her.

I glance at the female and she winces as if I have struck her, so I pull my gaze away.

Sa’am thrusts her blade deep into the sea creature’s flesh and extracts its bowels in the most barbaric of acts.

Only a vicious hunter kills its prey, then slices it down the middle, removes its entrails, and even scrapes off its skin.

I am both shocked and wary as I watch her work, and I am dimly aware that Fi’rox has moved off to somewhere else in the tunnels, too.

I am now crouching here alone, and the other female’s fear scent does not abate.

I should leave the hyu’mans be…but my muscles refuse to move.

Despite that my brother’s mate has told us to keep our distance from the hyu’mans, I do not want to go away.

Frightened, she’d said they were.

As I watch Sa’am rip another of the sea creatures in two, I wonder if I am the one that should be frightened.

A trill blooms in my throat, and I note Sa’am stiffens a little.

She is aware of me.

She is listening to me.

Even though she appears completely focused on her task, it is all a lie.

She is just as focused on me as I am on her.

The thought makes me sit up a little straighter, another trill starting in my throat.

This time, I promptly kill the sound.

She might not know what it means, but my brethren will hear and I feel I should keep this bit of pleasure, this little triumph, to myself.

I watch Sa’am’s mouth move as she speaks to the other female, and I wonder if she will turn to me and show me her tongue again.

I will not be as slow to respond to her invitation a second time.

I rise, intending to go closer to her when the earth shakes on the surface outside.

My ba’clan bristle, my hackles halfway rising.

My world shifts and the dark reality around us engulfs me once more.

How could I forget?

Despite these brief moments of calm…I cannot forget where we are…or what we came here for.

I glance behind me into the shadows and my gaze meets San’ten’s.

Even in the darkness, I can see that he is snarling, his fangs visible, his hackles rising too.

He looks toward the entrance to the tunnels—snarls at it.

The thin veil that masks the entrance vibrates like the web of a great-legged creature.

It thrums, and I feel it as if it is my own ba’clan on my skin.

It thrums again and I know it is doing the job it was developed to do.

To hide our location and the energy signatures of every life-form hiding with us here, because wherever the Gryken walk, they scan.

We are safe here.

Yet, my ba’clan rise even farther as the ground outside shakes again.

Out there, the tunnel entrance looks like rock. The Gryken cannot see inside, but we can see out.

We are safe, I remind myself. But my ba’clan do not calm.

I know the veil will not break.

It was developed by He’rox. The same medic that’s working on the weapons we need to defeat the enemy.

Time is all we need.

Outside, the ground shakes once more, and I hear a sharp intake of air close by me.

Sa’am.

My focus turns to her.

She and the other beside her have frozen mid-motion, listening. The blade in her hand is held tight, her knuckles losing color with the extent of her grip.

The scent of fear wafts from both of them in waves, so much so that my hackles rise even farther before I’m able to stop them.

My lips pull back and I snarl as I close my nostrils to the offending scent.

Sa’am’s terrified gaze meets mine and I see her eyes widen at the sight of me.

My hackles.

The snarl on my lips.

The brazenness and strength that had been in her gaze only moments before are now gone.

She is terrified of the scum walking outside…and…she is terrified…of me.

But I cannot control my reactions, so I do the only thing I can at the moment.

I turn and I walk away.

Back to work. Back to mining the ore we need for weapons.

It is not wise for me to be around the hyu’mans.

I have to remind myself of this.

Fer’ro mating with a hyu’man is an anomaly. I still do not understand how they make it work.

How the ba’clan adapted…

And Sa’am is even smaller than Adee’ra.

She wouldn’t consider a mating between any Vullan and herself.

To entertain any thoughts would be…stupid—regardless if she pointed her little pink tongue at me or not.

I roll my shoulders, choosing to focus on the distant thumps as the enemy walks by on the outside, unaware of our presence.

For they are all I came to this planet for.

They are all I need to focus on.

CHAPTER THREE

SAM

Adira rushes toward me as the sounds of the big, metal legs of the enemy fade into the distance.

It’s gone.

It passed us.

I let out the breath I was holding.

It’s only the second machine that has passed close enough for us to hear it, but just as when the first one passed, I imagine the worst.

That the rocky cave roof will collapse on top of us as the machine attacks.

That it will pull us out, all broken and bloody, and deposit us into its belly till it is ready to force its spawn into our unwilling wombs.

That it will kill each and every Vullan and our hope, our chances of saving Earth, will die in that very moment.

“Sam?” Somebody is calling my name. “Sam!”

Adira’s face appears way too close to mine, and I blink as she comes into focus.

“Sam,” she takes my hand, “you’re cutting yourself.”

I glance down as if in a daze, my gaze finding my hand.

Sure enough, there’s dark fluid all over my palm.

I’d been gripping the blade too tightly.

She takes the weapon from me with gentle fingers, her gaze flashing to Lori for a few seconds.

Lori takes a step back, away from us, and I understand why.

She doesn’t truly trust Adira, and I can’t blame her.

Six humans have been rescued so far, and out of all of us, Adira is the only one wearing the same type of dark suit the Vullan wear…maybe because she is mated to one.

It’s skin-tight and looks more like a thin layer of oil more than anything else.

Every single line and curve of her body is visible.

It’s almost as if she’s wearing body paint instead of a suit and…well…she’s been sort of different ever since she started wearing it.

Less…human.

She walks differently. Her limbs move in a way that’s…fluid, as if she’s underwater and there is no air around her.

And her reaction to our surroundings is different, too.

She doesn’t squint in the dim light like we do. Her eyes are wide open.

She can see the Vullan moving in the shadows when we have to focus to even make out their shadows.

It is hard to explain.

Sometimes, I wonder if I am imagining it.

Adira’s staring at my palm and I hear when she pulls some air in through her teeth.

“You’re going to need to go to He’rox for this. You’ve cut yourself pretty deep.”

I begin shaking my head immediately. “It’s just a surface wound. I’ll just bandage it with some—”

“Nonsense.” Adira’s stern gaze cuts off the words in my mouth. “You know…” She lowers her voice. “You can enter the ship whenever you want to. The Vullan don’t mind.”

“That’s because they like you, Adira.”

You’re practically one of them.

I don’t say the last few words because I don’t want to hurt her feelings or sound bitter. And, well, I’m happy she’s the one that’s so close to the aliens around us.

They’re putting their lives on the line to save a planet that’s not theirs. Adira is like a bridge between that gap.

It’s a role that carries a lot of weight, but she is performing it beautifully.

Making sure that both groups are understood.

She was the one that argued on our behalf when the rest of us moved out of the ship and into the cave itself.

Sure, the ship is comfortable, but the alienness of it all…

It takes some getting used to.

Off in one of the offshoot tunnels, they carved out a sleeping area for us. Made the uneven rock face smooth enough to lie on.

To be honest, it feels more like camping than anything else, and when it’s quiet, when the terrifying sounds of the enemy walking on the outside don’t filter within the cave, I can pretend that’s just what we’re doing.

Camping.

And that the world on the outside is carrying on as usual.

But instances like this wake me up.

My gaze falls to the blade now in Adira’s hand and to the sheen of my blood on it.

Not even the blade is human. It’s a Vullan blade.

Curved at the end, with strange markings running along its length.

I can’t ignore that things are different now.

“Sam?” Adira calls my name again and I nod and offer her a slight smile.

“Yea, okay. I’ll go to He’rox.” The medic creeps me out, but she’s right. I’ll probably need a proper bandage.

“I’ll finish the dinner,” Lori says, hurrying as if she believes we’ll tell her to tag along.

She’s even more hesitant to enter the ship than I am.

She takes the blade from Adira and clears her throat.

“Should I…should I do an extra fish for Fer’ro?”

I’m surprised she’s even asking, and Adira’s suddenly widened gaze reflects the same.

“I don’t think he enjoys our food very much.” Lori glances at me as she speaks, as if she doesn’t want to meet Adira’s gaze. “But he’s your boyfriend now. Might be rude not to offer since you eat with us most days.”

Adira’s face splits into a smile. “He’d like that. You’re right though. He and the others don’t enjoy fish. He’d eat it because you offered, but I don’t think that’s wise considering…”

She leaves the rest unsaid, but I know exactly what she stopped herself from saying.

It’s the same thing that came to my mind earlier.

We’re running out of fish.

Lori nods and turns to the fish I was gutting.

“And um, Lori?” Adira says as we rise. “You probably shouldn’t offer food to any of the other Vullan either.”

Lori looks up, confusion on her face.

“Unless you like them.” Adira continues. “As in…enough to have them in your bed.”

Lori’s eyes bug out and she visibly shudders.

Adira chuckles, completely unoffended. “Come on, Sam. Let’s get you stitched up.”

Adira’s mood is light, even though what we just heard outside has visibly sent fear through all of us.

As we walk away, I turn her words over in my head. Anything but to focus on the fear still going through me.

I had no idea offering food to the Vullan was like some sort of Vullan pickup line.

What else don’t I know?

I’m thinking about this as we head toward the ship when my thoughts suddenly falter, my mind snagging on a feeling around me.

It’s like something brushes against my skin. Something that makes the hairs on my arms tingle a little.

I glance at Adira, but she’s not close enough for it to have been her.

I don’t know what makes me turn to peer through the dim green light toward where the mining carts are, only to find eyes so dark they might as well have no color looking my way.

Him.

Burgundy Eyes.

I snatch my gaze away.

Shit.

Everything that’s happened since we encountered the Vullan goes through my mind.

Have I done something that makes this one pay me so much attention?

I’m not sure.

I don’t remember ever offering him food.

And then I have to hold back a groan. Memory of how alert he became when I stuck my tongue out at him comes rushing back.

Stupid Sam.

I want to ask Adira if what I did means anything in Vullan culture, but I sort of think I already know that it does.

Her confirming it will only make me more aware of the huge male and although he stares, he still hasn’t come close enough to bother me.

That’s good enough, right?

Has to be.

Because serious things are happening outside of this cave, our civilization is experiencing an extinction event, and I have to focus on building our little camp within the base.

I don’t have time to think about alien men or their peens.

I feel my cheeks blaze at the thought, and I glance at Adira again.

She doesn’t seem to notice, and I take the moment to allow my gaze to travel over the side of her face.

Maybe I should ask her about her…experiences.

I’m just not so sure I’m ready to hear—or why I want to hear about them in the first place.

CHAPTER FOUR

SAM

The medic’s gaze flicks to mine before settling back on Adira’s.

“Will that be a problem?” she asks him. “If I use some of your tools, that is. The cut is deep but nothing I can’t handle by myself.”

The medic’s gaze flicks back to mine, his ice-blue gaze somewhat chilling.

Of all the Vullan, he is the only one with a white suit and light eyes, but his differences don’t make any him less frightening.

His mandibles curl a little as his gaze falls to my bloody hand and I close my palm so he’s not looking at the wound.

He sniffs and his mandibles curl a little more.

That’s another difference about him. He’s the only one with mandibles.

“There is a strange scent to hyu’man blood…” is all he says, and I stiffen.

The way his words come out.

Slow. Measured.

It’s exactly the way I expect a vampire to speak.

I have to give myself a mental shake.

This is why I need to ask Adira about her experiences with Fer’ro.

Does he bite?

Is he gentle with her?

What does he use those fangs for?

“I know,” Adira says. “Fer’ro mentioned the same.” She gestures toward the wall in front of us. “Look, you have Mina to tend to…and that other thing. I think Sam trusts me enough to let me take care of her hand. Right, Sam?”

They both turn to look at me and my eyebrows shoot upward at the sudden attention.

“Y-yea. Of course.” I know Adira can do it.

She was a vet before all this.

My skills though…I did horticulture.

I’m not sure how those skills are going to be useful since we live in a cave now.

The medic eyes me for a second before making a sound in his throat.

“Fine.” He turns and heads toward the wall and a door materializes in front of him, creating an opening that he steps through.

Adira smiles at me and beckons me to follow as she heads in the same direction.

It’s well-lit in there and I’m not surprised when I step in and see the female floating above the table in the center of the room.

Mina.

Along with Adira, we’d been the last three survivors in the machine’s belly…just waiting for our turn when the machine would take us…breed us.

That would have been our fate if the Vullan hadn’t arrived.

They got us out, but not before Mina had been impregnated.

She’s still healing from the fact even now.

I step toward her, forgetting the two other people around me for a minute as my gaze runs over her form.

She looks peaceful. Asleep.

There is a gentle hum that is coming from near her and when I reach my hand out to touch her, light shimmers over my skin.

“The light keeps her body in a steady state of balance,” the medic says.

When I glance at him, those blue eyes are searching my soul.

“It keeps her floating,” he says.

I nod. “Kind of like a tractor beam?”

His mandibles twitch and he tilts his head at me a little, but he doesn’t respond verbally.

My cheeks burn, and the hair on my skin stands up.

The Vullan make me feel uneasy, but this one and the burgundy-eyed one? They make me feel like prey.

At the thought of Ga’Var, I scowl at myself.

“He’rox, you say this has shown good results?” Adira holds up some transparent jelly on her finger.

“It seems to have the best healing effect when applied to the previously infested female.”

Adira narrows her gaze at him. “Mina. Her name is Mina. If she’s your patient, you have to start saying her name like she means something to you. Otherwise, I and the other women are going to think you’re not taking good care of her.”

I could swear the medic’s suit turns a shade of gray.

“I would do no such thing. A Vullan would never harm a female.”

Adira smiles at him. “I know.”

My gaze moves from one to the other.

I don’t get how Adira can joke at a time like this. When the world outside these walls is ending.

She’s been…confidently peaceful, for the most part.

A string of jealousy shoots through me and my eyes widen as I lower my gaze, searching my thoughts for the source.

I mean, I envy the fact that Adira has found some happiness in all this. I’m happy for her, but I guess I wish I had something to be happy about, too.

All I feel is growing sadness inside.

I keep thinking about my family…

I had a little sister.

She was to graduate high school this year.

She’d been so excited…

“Sam?” Adira is looking at me with a question in her eyes and I know she’s asked me something that I did not hear.

“If you’re worried about the meal, I’m sure Lori can take care of it.”

I smile a little and nod. “I know, I’m just…”

Just what?

Falling into a pit of depression?

“Probably, she needs sustenance.” The white Vullan’s voice pulls me from my thoughts.

“What?”

“From the outside.” He looks across at the wall as if he can see right out of the ship, right out of the cave. “Your food stores are almost diminished. You worry about sustenance.”

I shoot a glance at Adira and find she’s frowning at him.

“He’rox, there’s no need to worry Sam about that. I’ll handle it.”

I glance from one to the other and they seem to be having some sort of staring match I’m not a part of.

“He’s right though…” My words make them both turn their gazes on me. “We have to go out there soon. Try to forage. Unlike the Vullan, who I assume have food stored on this ship, we have to restock.”

“Our sustenance stores should last us for a while,” He’rox confirms.

As I thought. And we can’t expect them to catch and store fish for us like they have done before.

I glance at Adira and raise my eyebrows.

She shoots him a glare, then turns and smiles at me. “Nothing to worry about, Sam. I’m planning on going out there soon, anyway.”

Her admission makes me jerk awake, as if I’d been falling into some daze.

“What? When?”

She glances at He’rox. “Today. Later? I’m not sure. It all depends on when He’rox finishes. He’s been working on something that can mask our energy signature similarly to how they can mask themselves.”

“Ah.” The word comes out calmly, but my heart is suddenly beating hard.

Venturing to the outside.

It’s both a terrifying and exciting prospect.

“I want to come with you.”

Adira is shaking her head immediately.

“No. I don’t want to risk anyone dying. It’s too dangerous.”

“But not too dangerous for you?”

Adira’s mouth tightens a little. “It’s not the same. You don’t,” she closes her eyes for a moment, “you don’t understand.”

“Maybe if you explained, she would.” The medic is observing us and, for once, I’m not uneasy around his gaze.

If anything, he seems completely enthralled by our exchange.

“You know I can’t do that.” Adira’s words are tight. Controlled.

She’s holding herself rigidly, and for the first time, it’s like I can see just how much pressure is on her shoulders.

I reach out with my good hand and touch her arm. “It’s okay, Adira. You’re not alone in this, you know.”

Adira nods before darting an angry look in He’rox’s direction.

“Do you want to sit down over here?” She gestures to the empty table beside her and I realize she’s changing the subject. “Or do you want to go to another room since Mina is…”

Right. It is weird being in here with Mina.

She’s essentially in a coma and we don’t know how much she’s aware of, but I don’t mind.

I shake my head. “It’s fine, we can do it here.”

As I move over to the table and hoist myself up with Adira’s help, I barely see the medic slipping from the room.

We’re practically alone now.

My gaze flicks over Adira as she takes my hand and begins to clean it.

“You cut yourself really deep here,” she says. “You’ve been having a few accidents like this lately.”

She glances up at me and I look away.

She’s right, of course. The other day I had a blackout, fell, and scraped my knees pretty badly. I was just lucky one of the Vullan caught me before I hit my head.

“He’rox is right. You’re right. We need better food.” Adira sets the gauze down and takes another to continue cleaning the wound. “And some form of sunlight. Lack of Vitamin D and most vitamins and minerals we need isn’t helping.”

“Well…you’re right, of course. I assume that’s the whole reason you’re planning a trip out there. Food we might find…but sunlight…we can’t carry that back.”

“I know…I’ll think of something.”

A moment of silence passes between us as I watch her work.

If she thinks she’s going to venture out there alone, she has another thing coming.

I mean, just a few minutes ago, we heard one of the terrible machines passing.

We can’t go out until we can fight back somehow.

She’s been the first person I can call a friend through all this. I’m not about to lose her too.

“You don’t have to work so hard.”

“I know.” She gives me a stern look. “But neither do you.”

I shrug. “Well…I have to do it. I have to help somehow.”

“Exactly how I feel.”

The note of resolution in her voice has me silent.

I’ve been so focused on myself, my own mounting sadness and guilt, that I didn’t think the other women were feeling the same.

“Look…I don’t know how soon we can launch an offense,” Adira continues. “It might be a while.” She sighs again and changes the gauze she’s using. “It’s all experimental. The ore they’re drilling doesn’t have the exact properties they need. So He’rox is sort of engineering it to make it work.” She pauses. “It’s going to take some time.”

I avert my gaze to stare at the wall.

We don’t have time.

We’ll starve before they’re finished.

“They shot the machine we were in…took it down…” I murmur.

“Yes. But the weapon they used was kind of like a one-shot thing. They’d hoped to get here before the Gryken, to warn us of what’s coming, so we could prepare. It didn’t turn out that way. So we have to wait.” She sighs again. “I know it’s difficult. Trust me. I know they keep their distance from you guys, so you don’t really know much, but they’re working hard for us. Extracting the ore and bringing it up is a very delicate job.”

My gaze slides back to her as she applies the jelly to my hand.

It stings a little, but I don’t pull my hand away.

Adira’s words repeat in my mind.

I want to ask her about her relationship with Fer’ro, but now that we’re alone, I realize I’m a coward.

I watch as she tends to my hand, smearing the jelly over the wound. It quickly turns into a sort of flesh-like plaster after a few seconds, pulling my broken skin together.

“I can’t get over how amazing this thing is,” she says.

I open my mouth to finally ask her about her relationship when movement catches my eye.

The medic suddenly walks in.

“Oh, come back to tend to Mina, have you He’rox?” Adira doesn’t even turn. I don’t know how she knows he’s entered the room.

The Vullan move so quietly. So stealthily. Fluidly. Half of the time, you don’t know they’re there till you’re face-to-face with one of them.

The large male makes a sound in his throat like a grunt. “No. I brought you these.”

He stretches his hand out toward us. At first, I don’t see what he’s holding out to us until Adira takes them from his hand.

Two transparent disks.

They’re about the size of pennies, and Adira turns them over between her fingers.

“What are these?”

For a few seconds, neither answers me, and then Adira turns and looks at me.

“You sure about wanting to come outside with us?”

“Yes, of course.” I’m not about to change my mind.

“Well, I guess I can’t say no now.” She pauses. “He’rox seems to have completed the cloaking devices.”

CHAPTER FIVE

GA’VAR

San’ten faces me, a snarl on his face that pulls his lips back so much I can see his fangs.

“What makes you think I’m unsuitable for going on the outside?”

“Is that really a question?” I make to move past him, but he steps in my way.

Off near the entrance of the tunnels, Fer’ro, his female, and Sa’am are standing, getting ready to leave.

Minutes before, several of my other brethren went out first.

Sentries.

They will let us know if it is safe to go on this mission.

But San’ten is being difficult.

I do not have time to get into a conversation about who or who may not go outside on the surface.

“I can control myself more than you think,” San’ten says, as if reading my mind.

“Right.” I brush past him and he dares to grab my arm.

My ba’clan writhe against me immediately.

If he wants to fight…

But I control myself.

Sa’am’s face appears in my mind. How fear had risen from her when she’d seen my reaction upon hearing the Scrit walking on the outside.

I did not like the way she looked at me.

I don’t know why it matters to me so much.

So, I meet San’ten’s dark gaze with a glare of my own. “It’s not a question of whether you can control yourself, brother. We need someone here to manage the base while we are gone.”

His gaze darts away from me then, and he releases me. Regardless, I can tell that he is not satisfied.

“So be it,” he says, before he brushes past Fi’rox and two hyu’man females that are standing nearby.

Their wide eyes follow him as he disappears deeper into the cave and their unease wafts from them.

Even when we are not being overly aggressive, the females fear us.

“I’ll take care of him,” Fi’rox clicks and heads after San’ten.

I watch them go, my nostrils twitching.

San’ten is bound to do something stupid one of these days.

All he wants to do is slaughter the Gryken. We all do. But his approach will only get us killed.

He needs to remember…he is not the only one who has lost everything.

At least my womb mate has found something new.

Once more, my gaze lands on the small group waiting at the cave entrance, and I head in their direction.

Fer’ro’s mate is by his side, her hand resting protectively on his arm as if she cannot bear the thought of not touching him.

It is…unnerving looking at them.

Strange.

Vullan females rarely wish to feel a male’s touch unless they are in heat, but hyu’man females seem to be different.

My gaze falls on the little one.

Sa’am.

I wonder if she is the same.

Her eyes are dark like San’ten’s and they meet mine as I approach, as if she can sense me. But I know that is impossible.

Sa’am has no ba’clan.

Adee’ra was the only female to attract any symbiotes, and it turns out it was because she is my brother’s mate.

I wish I understood why…or how.

But the ba’clan have always been able to evolve quickly, much quicker than us, and they have taken to this world much sooner than we have.

So far, none of the other hyu’mans have even slightly attracted any other ba’clan.

I have been watching for signs that my ba’clan may have found me a mate too…we all have been.

Every day, watching Fer’ro and Adee’ra makes the need grow.

But even if one of these other females is one of our mates, the chance of the ba’clan finding such a union is slim.

We live together in the tunnels, but we are hardly ever together.

The females fear us.

We can smell their fear scent stinking up the tunnels each day.

So we keep our distance, with most of us heading down farther into the tunnels, so the scent of the hyu’man’s fear will not appeal to our baser instincts.

For when we smell them, we want to hunt.

And the only thing to hunt nearby…is them.

So I understand San’ten’s impatience.

Tensions are high.

It’s a genuine effort to calm the writhing of my ba’clan that San’ten’s microaggression caused, and as I approach the group, Sa’am’s strange white and black eyes move from my feet straight up to my face.

My steps falter a little.

The act is so characteristic of a Vullan female that I want to stand taller and let her see that I would be a worthy mate if she chooses.

But deep down, I know that is not why Sa’am is staring at me.

When hyu’mans look at Vullan, they do not see mates.

They see demons.

I have heard them whispering this among themselves, unaware that we can hear them as clearly as if they were speaking right next to us.

“You’re coming too?” Sa’am’s voice is just like Adee’ra’s. Like the music of a small flying creature.

I am surprised she is addressing me. I don’t think we have ever exchanged words.

“Does that bother you?”

She pins me with her gaze before she turns toward the tunnel entrance, her shoulders moving up and down.

“Why would it bother me?”

I stare at the little thing and wonder if being inside the cave’s darkness has been affecting her mental state.

Hyu’mans are not like us.

They like the light.

That is why their star is so bright.

They crave its warmth and light.

Maybe Sa’am is ill.

Maybe that’s why she pointed her tongue at me.

Adee’ra’s brow knits a little as her gaze darts from me to Sa’am.

“Sam, you can still change your mind, you know.”

Sa’am shakes her head. “No. I’m coming.”

Adira jerks her chin downward and turns toward the entrance as well. “Guess I won’t change your mind.”

“No. You won’t.” Sam lifts her chin. “Plus, I have this thing the medic gave us.”

She lifts her wrist and there is a transparent little circle on it. “If it works, those aliens won’t detect me if I’m out there, right? I have the same advantage you have now.”

There is silence among us.

No, she does not.

And it is clear she has no idea just what the ba’clan are or that Adee’ra has much more of an advantage than she does.

But no matter.

If something should go wrong out there, Sa’am will not be alone.

We are here.

I am here.

“Okay,” Adee’ra says. “Let’s go.”

She and Sa’am step forward, leaving me and Fer’ro behind, and when I move to follow them, I feel my brother’s hand on my arm.

His bloody gaze burns into mine.

“I trust you can control yourself,” he murmurs. “Adee’ra…”

I growl at him before I can stop myself.

He’s referring to before. When he and Adee’ra had just been starting their bond… The jealousy that had coursed through me…

But those thoughts died the moment she pledged herself to him.

Now, someone else has caught my attention.

My gaze slides to the cave entrance just as Sa’am and Adee’ra slip through the barrier.

I grip Fer’ro’s hand, removing it from my arm.

“You don’t have to worry about that, Brother.”

SAM

The brightness of the outside hits me so hard, I squint.

Fresh air fills my nostrils and I take a deep breath in.

For a moment, I’m not aware of Adira or the two aliens with us.

I am outside.

The air feels fresh. The touch of the sun against my skin makes me tingle, and my lips twitch into a smile.

A genuine one.

The world looks so untouched here, as if somewhere far from here, in the cities and the towns, life goes on as usual.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Adira whispers.

I nod.

Beside us, there is a click, and I glance up to see burgundy eyes looking through the trees.

He clicks again and I almost miss it, but there’s a response that comes through the air. Another click.

“All clear,” he says, his gaze landing on me. “There are no Scrits nearby.”

“Good,” Adira says. She pulls out what looks like a thin sheet of plastic that suddenly lights up and shows an image.

I don’t have to look hard before I realize it’s an overhead view of where we are.

Adira zooms in.

“Ok. We have to figure out which direction will most likely have food,” she whispers as her gaze skips over the image. “I don’t know much about foraging, to be honest.”

“I can help with that.”

Adira’s eyebrows shoot up, her eyes flipping from the image to me.

“I did horticulture at uni.” It’s not something I usually talk about but I’m suddenly happy that’s the field of study I chose. “I know a bit about weeds and stuff. Foraging. Wild plants. What’s safe to ingest.” I stretch toward the screen. “Here, let me take a look.”

Adira hands me the screen and I try to get it to work. Instead of touching it like a touch screen, the image moves depending on how I move my hand over it.

For a few seconds, I’m trying to figure out how to get it to work and I glance up, only to find Ga’Var staring down at me.

I don’t know how I almost forgot he’s right there.

He is imposing, even in his silence.

His suit is all over his head now, covering every inch of his charcoal skin, and I know it’s shielding his energy signature.

I glance at the little disc on my wrist.

It looks so small, I can only hope it’s doing the same thing for me.

I finally get the machine to work and I move my hand over the image.

“Hmm,” I mutter, “Can’t see anything from this high up. I think we’ll have to go in and search around. Maybe separately.”

Adira’s shaking her head immediately. “Too dangerous. If we split up…”

I meet her gaze. She’s right, but we don’t have a choice.

“We don’t have a lot of time out here. We should make the most of it.”

Adira’s mouth tightens. She knows I’m right.

“Fine,” she mutters. “But Ga’Var goes with you.”

I stiffen at that.

I hadn’t expected to go off on my own. Of course, I’d have company.

It’s just that…

I glance at the imposing alien.

“Fine, with me. As long as he doesn’t have a problem with it.”

Ga’Var’s suit…moves.

I’m sure of it.

In the light, I see it clearly, and my mouth parts a little in shock.

It was such a discreet shiver; I wonder if it was even there.

“Why would I have a problem with it?” His deep, low voice makes me blink and I realize I was staring. Again.

“I don’t know. Those big muscles of yours won’t get much work out here picking berries with me. I just thought you’d prefer being in the mines or something…”

A curious sound comes from Ga’Var’s throat. Like a deep purr. Off to the side, Fer’ro growls at him and I’m left glancing from Adira to Fer’ro to Ga’Var.

The reality of the compliment I just gave Ga’Var hits me, and my cheeks blaze.

I’m just making great impressions with this one, aren’t I?

“I will gladly carry your berries or whatever else you want me to carry.”

His English, spoken with that strange, gravelly accent of the Vullan, makes the words sound completely different from what he intends, and I look away from him.

“Good.” Adira saves the day and slaps a flat hexagon against his chest. “’Cos hopefully, you’ll be bringing back a lot of things.” She gestures to the hexagon. “He’rox gave me these. He said they’re supposed to be carts or something?”

Through the corner of my eyes, I see the alien jerk his chin, but I know he’s focused on me. “Yes. I know how to use them.”

“Great!” Adira says, much too enthusiastically. Her hand rests on my shoulder. “Good luck out there,” she lowers her voice. “Keep safe.”

I nod and take a deep breath. “You too.”

CHAPTER SIX

GA’VAR

Sa’am walks ahead of me, her steps cautious, unsure.

I can sense the fear riding on her bones. Smell it.

It is so strong, I wonder how she gathered the strength to leave the base and its safety.

It takes someone brave to leave comfort and safety to hunt for others, even though their instincts tell them to do the opposite, and I can’t help but study her as she walks.

We have been traveling for maybe one whole Earth hour.

Time ticks, but Sa’am has found nothing.

Nothing except evidence her planet is under new control.

The first clearing we come upon has her stopping dead in her tracks and her fear scent spikes so hard that even with my nostrils closed, I can still smell it.

It takes great effort to keep my ba’clan in check. To not snarl.

To not capture the very thing that is afraid.

She is so small before me. I tower over her.

But even as my ba’clan spikes around me, I do not move…and I pray to the stars that she does not turn around to look at me.

But Sa’am isn’t focused on me. It’s as if she’s forgotten I am here.

Her hand trembles on the stick she is carrying as she looks out over the clearing.

I can still smell the sap from the trees that have been flattened. This is what the most recent Scrit has left behind.

Sa’am’s head tilts to the sky, looking around before she glances behind her, and her gaze lands on me.

She jerks a little, her eyes widening on me.

I have to fight to pull my ba’clan back. To flatten it against my skin with such force is like tying my veins with a cord.

“Do not be afraid,” I grunt, and stretch a hand toward her.

Her throat moves and her shoulders stiffen, but I know it is not my words that help.

I’ve felt the same fear she is feeling now.

Felt my blood organ clench and squeeze when the Gryken destroyed Edooria.

This fear is not something she can control.

Yet, her chin lifts as she meets my gaze and I suddenly forget everything around me.

“I’m not afraid.”

Lies.

I want to tell her I can smell just how afraid she is, but I don’t.

Let her keep her pride.

“We should keep going,” Sa’am says. “I’m thinking I can find some mushrooms, at least. Something.”

She gives me a wary look before she turns and begins walking again.

It’s less than a minute before she stops dead in her tracks once more time.

A strangled gasp leaves her lips before she suddenly turns and tries to race past me.

Instinct has me stretching out and I catch her.

“Let me go!” She struggles against me, but I cannot hear her words.

Her fear scent is off the charts, but as I extend my senses around us, I cannot pick up anything that would have scared her.

There are no creatures nearby.

“What is it? What has scared you so much?”

“Let me go! Please! Just let me go!”

I want to do as she pleads, but I fear that if I do, she will run blindly into danger.

That’s when I see it.

Ahead.

Lodged between two fallen trees.

The body of a hyu’man.

Or…what’s left of it.

It is shrunken down to its skeleton, its skin pale and so thin, I can see the bones underneath.

It looks like something that has been dead for a long, long time, but I know better.

This is the work of the Gryken.

Suddenly, it’s clear why Sa’am has been spooked.

She’d been in the belly of a Scrit once. She would have seen first-hand that the huge machines have two compartments.

One for the females the Gryken infest.

The second holding males the Gryken drain of their lifeblood.

This corpse ahead of us is a result of the latter.

I do not let her go.

Instead, I turn away from the offending corpse and shield her gaze from it.

Her body is soft against mine, even though she struggles to be free of me, but when I pull her against me, she calms a little.

I am suddenly caught unprepared.

I’ve always yearned for a female of my own but…

I do not know how to comfort one.

Rek.

I am a foolish Vullan.

Maybe this is why the gods blessed my womb mate and not me with a union.

I gulp and feel my symbiotes writhe against me, impatient.

The female’s distress is affecting them.

I need to comfort her.

Young Vullan like their heads pat when they are scared, so I raise my hand and rest it lightly on Sa’am’s head.

Her hair is buoyant and pushes back a little as my hand settles against it.

When she doesn’t protest, I pat her head again, and again.

I am not sure what to say, but as her body jerks with sobs, I continue patting her head, and, as if by some miracle, she relaxes against me.

Something rises inside me and I bite back a thrum.

Sa’am sniffs. “I’m sorry,” she murmurs.

“Sorry for what?”

She eases off me a little and I reluctantly release her, but her head is down. The buoyant black curls block my view of her face.

“I didn’t mean to overreact. I’ve seen what it does to men…lived through it while I was locked inside it. I just…”

“Neither experience negates the other. You would have to be dead inside to not react and at that point…”

“At that point what?”

“There would be no point in fighting at all.”

She studies me a little with eyes that are now red. I try not to show my shock. It looks as if her eyes are bleeding from the inside.

But as alarm goes through me, something akin to a smile moves her lips before her shoulders rise and fall.

“Let’s go this way.”

Sa’am turns and continues moving across the clearing. I watch her go, waiting for her to show signs she is losing her vision.

But as she makes her way, nothing seems amiss.

I follow, observing her.

We make a wide arc around the corpse and when we finally reach the other side, I can see when the tension leaves her shoulders.

She glances back at me before she scans the surrounding trees.

“There’s not much out here.” There’s defeat in her tone and I half expect her to turn around and head back the way we came.

Instead, her chin lifts and she takes a deep breath.

“But there must be something.”

I’m not sure if she’s talking to me or to herself, for she starts walking again, her gaze on the ground.

I watch her, careful to keep my senses open for any danger around us.

While she searches for sustenance for her tribe, my job is to keep her safe and though it is quiet here, we both know the Gryken could appear at any moment.

Even the thought of them makes me bristle, and I cast my gaze to the sky.

I don’t know for how long we walk.

Sa’am picks along the earth, using the stick she found as a walking aid and an extension of her arm.

Now and then, she stops to pick fistfuls of flowers by the stalk.

“Clover flowers.” She smiles when she catches my eye. “We can make tea with them.”

I grunt as she turns and picks some more.

I did not know hyu’mans needed blooms so they could tee (urinate).

“Oh, there’s some more!” She smiles again, but there is no mirth.

Instead, sadness lingers.

This is not what she wants or expects.

She is little. All the hyu’mans are. But I doubt they can survive on withering blooms.

We walk some more with Sa’am picking her way through the bushes when she pauses.

“Oh my God,” she whispers, and I wonder why she is praying.

Perhaps she calls to the gods to give her a greater hunt.

There is no sign before her pace picks up as she hurries toward whatever she sees.

I look ahead. All I can see is…forest.

No game.

None of these things the hyu’mans refer to as berry bushes.

No food.

But Sa’am is hurrying toward a dead tree with an infestation on it.

As I approach, the sprouting orange disease makes my lips curl, but Sa’am has the opposite response.

A laugh bubbles from her throat.

“There’s so much nothing around us,” she says, “then you find a gold mine like this.”

Gold mine?

Clearly, my translation of her words is wrong.

There are no minerals in front of us.

But when she falls to her knees, her trembling fingers hovering over the orange fungus, I realize she is referring to it.

I wait for her to explain.

“I can’t believe it. I was almost giving up hope.” She glances back at me and the utter glee in her face makes something soften inside me.

She is excited about fungus.

I wonder what she intends to do with it.

We came here seeking food.

Certainly, this is not—

“I can’t wait to cook this. I mean, we don’t have spices and such, but I’m sure we can think of something.”

My belly churns, and not in a good way.

“Hyu’mans eat that?”

She glances up at me again, baring her teeth at me this time.

I stand still.

She is not being aggressive, I remind myself as my ba’clan rise on my shoulders.

It is another hyu’man eccentricity that will take some getting used to.

“Ga’Var…”

I blink at her. She’s said my name.

“Ga’Var, this is chicken of the woods. I mean, it’s no KFC, but it’s food.”

“Chee-ken…” I pause, “Sa’am?”

I want her to say my name again.

“Yeah,” she answers, but my name doesn’t come from her lips.

Her back is turned to me now, as her hands hover over the fungus. “A bird. A fowl we grow primarily for food.”

She plucks the fungus, bringing some to her nose to sniff, and a moan leaves her throat.

I stare at her, my ears cocked.

This is worse than I thought.

I cannot believe what I am seeing, and when she glances back at me, her smile dies a little. “What?”

“That is the remains of a feathered creature that died in these woods?”

She stares at me for a second before she muffles a laugh. “No! That’s just the name of the mushroom.”

Her eyes roll in her head and for the first time, I see the person Sa’am was before the Gryken took her world.

A happy female, running about her planet, picking blooms so she can tee and gathering fungi to smell.

“Come on, open that cart thing. I’m taking as much as we can carry.”

I activate the hexagon in my hand and drop it to the ground. It quickly reconstructs into a cart about the height of a young Vullan.

“Oh, that’s bigger than I thought it would be. Maybe we can actually carry part of this log back and start our own culture of these mushrooms.”

She begins lifting the log when I lean down and lift it the rest of the way for her.

Our bodies brush against each other, and even though I had just been holding her against my chest, Sa’am jerks and her cheeks grow crimson.

Log deposited into the cart and more mushrooms picked, Sa’am brushes off her hands, a genuine smile on her face as she scans the forest.

“I reckon we can find more food. This is good, but it’s not nearly enough.”

My innards hate the idea of hyu’man food but I refrain from commenting. The hyu’mans eat separately anyway.

But so far, I have not been impressed by what they ingest.

Essora worms are much more delicious.

I’m watching her as she starts walking once more when movement high in the trees catches my attention.

My hand on her shoulder stops her immediately and that smile that was on her face freezes.

“What?” she whispers. “What is it?”

I scan the trees, my gaze landing on the brown, full-furred creature.

It stares at us with pitch-black eyes and I move to stand before Sa’am.

Creatures with eyes like that are one of two things.

Young of a vicious predator. Or a fully-grown vicious predator.

I bare my teeth a little as the animal continues to watch me.

“Its gaze is unmoving…”

I sense when Sa’am peeks around me, her gaze searching the tall wiry trees.

“That’s…that’s a squirrel, Ga’Var.”

My name…

Nobody calls my name so delicately.

“Food or menace?”

Sa’am shrugs.

“Both, sometimes?”

I’m off before she can stop me and all I hear is a gasp leaving her lips as I launch myself on the tree.

The little critter scampers higher.

It’s fast, but not fast enough, and I have it in my claw in a matter of seconds.

A trill goes through me, my symbiotes writhing with pleasure at the little hunt.

How long has it been?

How long has it been since I hunted in the Edoorian wild?

Far too long.

And…I will never do it again.

My gaze finds Sa’am and the wide pools of her eyes are upon me while both of her hands are slapped over her mouth.

“What are you doing?!” she hisses, and my ears twitch.

I did not know hyu’mans could make such a sound.

The little creature struggles in my grasp at the sound of her voice, as if it has suddenly recovered from the shock of being caught and Sa’am’s squeaks have energized it.

“You have to let it go!” She hisses again while her shoulders jerk with the energy she puts behind every word. I get the sense she is trying to contain her emotions and keep our location hidden.

Sa’am has not forgotten where we are or the threat of being out here.

“Why should I release a creature that is both sustenance and a menace?”

Sa’am blinks at me.

Several times she does this.

“Because…”

I wait for her to continue, but she doesn’t.

Finally, she squeezes her eyes shut and those strangely supple lips of hers grow thin.

“It’s a squirrel.”

“And it is sustenance when your people have none.”

She gulps at this, but I see when her shoulders sag.

As I slide down the tree, I keep my eyes on her.

She does not meet my gaze, or possibly, she is trying not to look at the sqoo-wrel in my hand.

I do not understand why she is so sad about killing it, but as I snap its neck, she winces.

She may not like it now, but starvation is a painful thing.

I know.

I have experienced it before.

“Come,” I say to her and she jerks her chin toward her chest, finally rising her sullen gaze as I deposit the sqoo-wrel into the hover cart. “We should not linger here for too long.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

SAM

I’m in my mid-twenties.

I’ve seen death before.

Lots of it.

I’ve been seeing even more since the end of the world began.

Still, hearing the bones of the squirrel crack made me feel a deep sadness inside.

It’s a survivor like I am.

Why am I worthy to take its life?

Technically, I didn’t kill it, but I didn’t stop Ga’Var either.

I wonder if he would have changed his mind had I asked him to.

But…we need the food.

This isn’t like before when I could watch squirrels playing in my neighborhood and not think of them as food.

Nothing’s the same anymore.

And Ga’Var…

The way he scaled that tree like he was a superhuman or something…

A breath shudders through me as we pick our way through the brambles.

It reminded me that he’s different. Somehow, in the short time that we’ve been together, I forgot that.

He’s much easier to be around than I thought. His presence comforting instead of another source of anxiety.

In a time like this, he’s made me laugh. That counts for something.

My knees buckle as I walk, heading to higher ground.

If Base Zero was some kind of tourist attraction, then there’s bound to be a visitor center somewhere, and if I find that, maybe I can find food in there.

Proper food, like beans and cans of tinned soup.

I push the dead squirrel from my mind and focus on that.

Ga’Var hasn’t spoken since, but I can feel his steady gaze at my back.

He’s always behind me, silently watching me.

I don’t know if he knows how unnerving it is. Every time I glance back, he’s looking at me as if he’ll pounce on me at any moment.

Yet…I am not afraid?

Not of him, at least.

It doesn’t make sense.

We’re far away from the base now, probably farther than we should be. But we’ve come this far. It would be stupid to not try to scope our surroundings before heading back.

Plus, I have the mushrooms.

I can only hope Adira found something better.

As we trudge up the mountainside, the extent of the climb is slowly getting to me.

My steps falter a little. My breathing coming harder.

I’m sweating and each step feels like I’m using that stair stepper machine at the gym.

But Ga’Var is a steady untiring presence and I keep going.

I wonder if he thinks I am weak, and that leads me to wonder what he thinks about helping us hyu’mans.

Even trying to move faster isn’t helping me now. My efforts are negated in the presence of gravity.

I keep thinking of how Ga’Var scaled that tree and realize that really and truly, the Vullan have been purposefully slowing down their movements while around us.

It’s frickin’ jarring seeing how fast they move when in their element.

Taking a deep breath, I continue making my way when I feel something like a pulse against my wrist.

I don’t realize what it is until I feel the pulse again.

Looking down at my hand, my brows furrow as my gaze finds the transparent disc the medic gave me.

It pulses again as I look at it, changing to a dim blue before reverting to its transparent color, and I freeze.

It wasn’t doing that before.

My heart picks up the pace even before I turn to look at Ga’Var.

He’s stopped several meters behind me and I didn’t even notice.

What I see makes me blanch.

His spikes are all rising around him, his lips pulling back into a snarl.

It feels like my heart does an enormous thump, and time slows down for me.

I don’t know where it is.

I don’t even see it, but I know what it is even before I hear something heavy hitting the ground.

The ground shakes.

“Get down!” Ga’Var is rushing toward me even as I head back his way. My foot hits a rock and I stumble, but I’m on my hands and knees, scrambling toward him in an instant.

Fear spikes through me. My heartbeat thumps in my ears.

Terror fills my veins.

It’s coming.

We have to find cover.

But we’re not fast enough.

Terror shoots through me as something large and metal blocks out the sun and I only hear Ga’Var’s roar as the earth shakes around us.

I’m almost by his side when the earth itself shifts.

I don’t know where to look. My body doesn’t know what to do.

I’m falling, tumbling, trying to find my balance even as the earth shakes around us and everything inside me wants to scream.

Somehow, I remain quiet, biting down hard on my lips as I tumble.

But I’m moving too fast, aided by something else that is not gravity.

Dimly, I’m aware that the earth is moving like water, and at the same time, something hard hits my leg.

My ankle twists as my body spins.

I don’t know what terrifies me more.

That I probably just broke my leg or the sight that greets me as I turn.

Behind me, the whole mountainside is collapsing.

A landslide.

And behind that, overhead, the huge underside of an orb passes.

I bite down on another scream just as I feel powerful arms encircle me.

But we’re moving downhill fast.

I’m not sure Ga’Var can stop us. I’m not sure he can even save himself.

Dirt covers us and I cannot see, even as I try to aid him, to aid myself, by grasping for something, anything, to stop our descent.

But we’re moving with the weight of the earth itself pushing us and, for a second, I wonder if this is how I’m going to die.

Time slows down in a moment where my mind goes into a daze, but as soon and as suddenly as it started, we suddenly stop moving.

Horror fills me when I realize one thing.

I still can’t see.

My eyes are closed, and I cannot open them. There is a weight on me, all around me, that feels all too familiar and terrifying at the same time.

And…I can’t breathe.

Soil.

We’re underneath it. Tons of it.

I’ve seen my death lots of times in the last few weeks.

But the last thing I’d thought would happen was that I would be buried alive.

GA’VAR

My ba’clan is still on edge except for where I have Sa’am against my chest.

When we finally stop moving, I take a moment to breathe.

We are alive.

But not for long.

I can feel Sa’am struggling against me as she tries to free herself from the weight above us. But the earth is soft and heavy.

The more she moves, the deeper we sink.

Her chest is heaving and I try to tell her I will get us out of this, but I am not sure she can hear me.

Of course, she cannot.

She cannot hear through the density of this soil and even though I am holding her, her body is much lower than mine.

She cannot hear…and she cannot breathe!

For the first time since being on this planet, a different kind of fear shoots through me. One not tied to myself, but tied to someone else.

I have to get her to the surface of this loose earth, but I am not sure how quickly my efforts will free us.

She might suffocate before I can pull us through.

I cannot allow that.

I can breathe. I can even see.

My ba’clan have enough energy within them to go without air for several hours.

They are protecting my entire body from this troublesome soil, but Sa’am…Sa’am’s hyu’man clothes offer no protection.

She is vulnerable.

A rumble starts in my throat.

I will not let a female die under my watch.

Sa’am is struggling against me, still trying to reach the surface of our prison, and I have to wriggle until my free hand covers her face.

She’s not going to like what I am about to do, but I have no choice.

Either I do this, or I allow her to die.

I’ve already decided, even before my hand covers her face, but the feel of my hand over her eyes, nose, and mouth sets off more struggling.

I have to ignore her silent pleas as I focus, concentrating on my symbiotes, sending them to her.

The ba’clan ripple as they move against my skin, through my body, as some of them migrate to her.

I feel the moment they leave my fingertips to cover Sa’am’s face, pushing through the soil till they make a barrier between her skin and the soil itself.

She stills against me, and I wonder if she feels them, too.

I have gotten so used to them, I no longer consciously feel them against my being unless I concentrate and focus on them solely.

They have been my constant companions since my birth until now, and as much a part of me as each one of my limbs.

There is a beat of silence where Sa’am doesn’t move and then suddenly, her body jerks against mine as she takes her first breath.

Relief floods through me.

It worked.

My ba’clan will pull the air through the soil, allowing her to breathe…allowing her to see.

The symbiotes I sent to her leave my arm up to my elbow bare, and the sensation takes a few moments to get used to.

I can feel them communicating with me…learning about Sa’am.

The others writhe against me.

They like this female.

The thought makes me pause, almost forgetting where I am, but when Sa’am jerks against me again, her arms moving outward as she tries to dig upward, I am brought back to reality.

That is a thought for another time.

I will think about it more when I am alone.

CHAPTER EIGHT

SAM

My arms and legs grow tired quickly, but I try to dig, to pull myself out of the mess that we’re in when a thought hits me.

I don’t know which direction I’m digging in.

What if I’m digging the wrong way? Digging myself deeper underground instead of upward where I want to go?

That’s when the alien behind me moves.

Ga’Var shifts so powerfully, the entire loose dirt around us moves.

He’s going to get us out.

I just have to trust him.

I do trust him.

The strange mask he somehow put over my face allows me to breathe.

I can even open my eyes, though I cannot see a thing underneath this dirt.

But although my heart is slamming into my chest, I am not as afraid anymore.

I can breathe now, which means death isn’t looming right above me.

…which means I can still get out of this shit alive.

As my heart thumps against my chest, the world around me is dim. Not because of the lack of light or the fact my body is weighed down, but my senses…I can’t use all of them.

It feels like I am in an isolation tank. I can only focus on the one sense that works right now, my sense of touch, and all I can feel is the weight of the dirt…and him.

Behind me, there is a deep vibration.

Through all my panic, I never felt it till this moment, and it makes me freeze.

My heart hammers against my chest so hard, it is difficult to breathe, but I manage to, focusing on the vibration behind me.

“Ga’Var,” I whisper.

His chest is against my back, and one of his arms still encircles me.

All through this, from the first moment he caught me, he has been holding me.

Throughout all of it, and I didn’t notice, too focused on getting above ground.

The deep vibration, it’s coming from him, and once I sense it, it’s all I can focus on.

It draws me in, dimming the problem around us. Dimming the terror going through my veins.

It seems he was waiting on this calm, because Ga’Var suddenly moves once more.

I don’t know how he does it, push himself upward with such force when there’s nothing to brace against, but the action of his movement takes me with him.

I can only clutch onto the arm that’s draped across me as he moves, praying he knows what he’s doing, praying he can get us out of this.

When my head breaks through and fresh air hits my face, there’s a moment where a wave of tension releases from me and if I was standing, I would have collapsed.

“Oh my god.” My chest is heaving, my entire body is shaking.

I pull in deep breaths, still not believing that we’re not underground anymore.

“We made it!”

Disbelief threads through me.

“Of course we did, little one.”

Ga’Var’s deep voice sounds distant as he pulls my upper body through the soil and my hands are finally free.

I struggle to pull myself out of the dirt as he helps me the rest of the way, and when our bodies are finally freed, we stumble away from the hole we made to collapse on top of what’s left of the mountainside.

My ankle is a throbbing ball of nerves, and I don’t even want to look down at it.

I know it’s sprained, or worse, broken.

“Fuck…” I breathe, looking up at the sky above us. It’s already turning gray.

Night is coming.

“Fuck!”

I can’t take in enough breaths, as if air is suddenly scarce, and it takes a few long moments before my lungs calm down.

There is an almost transparent veil over my eyes, marring my view, and I raise my hand, brushing it over my eyes, my nose, my mouth.

It feels like the mask moves, in much the same way I felt it move over my skin when he first put it on me—as if I’m brushing my hand through a fluid slightly thicker than water.

Ga’Var is suddenly above me, his blazing eyes searching mine.

“How do you feel?”

Like shit, I want to say, but all things considered, things could have gone much worse.

“I’m going to live for another day.” I’d have smiled after saying those words, but my mouth won’t cooperate.

Breaths still shudder from me, my heart is still tempting itself into cardiac arrest, and the shock of it all still hasn’t worn off.

“You are wounded,” the alien says and his hand brushes over my ankle.

Pain shoots through me even with that slight touch and I wince.

Ga’Var clicks something in his language.

“We have to find shelter,” he mutters. “Quickly.”

I rise on my elbows before pushing myself into a sitting position.

My ankle looks like it can’t decide which color it wants to be. It is slowly turning into a mashup of red and purple.

Shit.

It looks even more painful than it is.

“I’m not sure how fast I can go, to be honest.” Coupled with the pain in my leg, I’m covered in scratches and bruises.

This body of mine has been through a lot.

I’m surprised I’m even conscious.

“Well, little one, we have to move.”

For the first time since coming to the surface of the dirt prison, I sense something in Ga’Var’s tone, and the hairs at the back of my neck rise.

When my gaze meets his, there’s a beat where I just know he’s about to relay bad news.

“We are not alone.”

The alien’s words send a bolt of ice down my spine and I stiffen. My lungs stop working.

I don’t dare to breathe, as I’m suddenly aware of everything around me.

But we’re underneath the trees. The landslide took us almost to the bottom of the mountain, and the remaining trees here that stopped the flow of dirt block most of what I can see.

I gulp as my gaze turns back to the alien.

“What do you mean?” I whisper.

So caught up in actually coming out of this alive, I didn’t even notice the blades still pointing outward all along his arms and back.

Underneath the shield of his suit, his eyes flash.

His teeth are bared and his muscles tense.

If I wasn’t aware of what had just passed over us, I would have thought he is about to attack me.

“They are among us.”

His words chill me even more.

I don’t have to ask.

I know exactly who is he referring to.

What he is referring to.

My gaze darts to the surrounding area, trying to spot the aliens, our enemy in the growing shadows.

I only saw one alive once.

The thing that controls the machines that walk across our world, draining our lakes, destroying civilization…taking us prisoner.

I remember when the medic had opened Mina’s stomach. When the alien had crawled out.

Long-limbed. Fleshy gray head. A cross between an octopus and a spider.

I shudder at the thought that one is somewhere in the forest with us.

“Where?” I don’t know how I say the word so calmly when everything inside me is screaming.

“Above,” he says.

I raise my gaze to the heavens, searching through the leaves above, my heart hammering a rhythm that is too fast for it to uphold.

It takes me a while to spot it, but when I do, my breath stops in my nose.

There.

Off in the distance, through the trees, I see the light reflect on it like a bad omen.

An orb.

Standing still.

“What is it doing?”

“Nothing good,” Ga’Var growls the words, and I realize that even though he looks like he could tear something apart right now, he’s exercising restraint, probably for my benefit.

I try to rise but promptly collapse.

Pain shoots through my ankle.

My leg isn’t going to work.

My ankle is shot.

I bite my bottom lip through the pain, my eyes watering.

Pain can’t stop me, though. It won’t stop me.

I can hop.

That’s good enough.

Somehow, I will make it back to the base.

As if Ga’Var reads my mind, he says words I do not want to hear.

“We can’t go back to the base.”

No.

“The Scrit is in the way and we have a much bigger problem.”

I want to ask him what problem could be bigger than that—literally—when he looks at me. At my wrist.

The little transparent patch that’s on my hand is flipping between a blue light and a red one.

“Your energy signature is no longer cloaked.”

No.

I open my mouth to speak, but no words come out.

I can’t even stare at him as the reality of the situation falls on me.

“What?” I don’t even hear my whisper. It’s as if all I can hear are the gongs of doom.

Ga’Var’s words each ring in my ears, echoing.

“The Scrit is too far away from you to sense you right now. But as soon as we go closer…”

As soon as we go closer…it will sense me.

I glance down at the thing on my hand and pat it lightly…press it into my skin…shake my arm.

I need it to work!

But the lights don’t stop alternating.

“There must be something I can do.” I glance up at the alien before me. “I have to get the food back to the base.”

Vullan faces are expressionless, but Ga’Var’s slitted pupils narrow.

“That is what concerns you?”

I know. It’s like the silliest thing. But it’s probably one of those instances where your mind is so over-processed that you say or focus on the most random of things.

But even so, I realize one thing.

The cart carrying the food is nowhere to be seen.

The food.

It must be buried somewhere under all this loose dirt.

I glance down at myself.

Over my heaving chest are the threads of what’s left of my dress.

It’s ripped in so many places, it’s hardly recognizable.

Grabbing a bit, I rip a long strip and begin binding my ankle, my gaze flashing through the trees at the machine that’s far too close for comfort.

Ga’Var watches me.

“We have to find the food,” I pant. “And we have to get out of here.”

I wince as I pull the cloth tighter, binding the last bits around my ankle.

“I won’t slow you down. You don’t have to worry about me.”

I dart a glance at him, but I don’t allow him to say a word. “I’ll keep up.”

Because…if Ga’Var wants to leave me right here, right now, and sneak past that machine, he can.

I’m the reason he can’t head back to base.

I’m the liability.

He doesn’t say a word, worsening my fears, and a lump forms in my throat.

I can’t let him leave me here. So, I try to rise.

Pain shoots through my leg immediately and my knees buckle.

“It’s not as bad as it looks.” I shoot an unconvincing smile his way and try to stand again.

I almost fall one more time, but Ga’Var grabs me.

“Don’t protest,” is all he says as he lifts me over his shoulder in a sort of fireman hold.

Even if I wanted to yell, I couldn’t.

My entire body feels stiff with shock…and fear.

Ga’Var begins walking in the opposite direction of where we should be going, and I know he’s heading away from Base Zero.

Away from the Scrit.

Away from what we know and toward…what?

I have no idea.

But I’m wounded and my very existence is like waving a red flag at a raging bull.

We can’t head toward safety…so we have to go into the unknown?

It feels like the mask over my face pulses and I move my hand upward to touch it.

I swear it moves against my fingers.

There’s no longer a need for it and I try to find where it joins to my skin.

I’m swaying as Ga’Var carries me, but that isn’t the reason I’m finding it difficult to find the delineation between my skin and the mask itself.

For minutes, maybe an hour, he walks, and each step away from the huge machine is a step away from the safety of the base.

I stare in its direction and now and then, I glimpse the reflecting metal.

It’s not for a long while till I can’t see it anymore, but there’s still a lump in my throat.

With the visual gone, I begin to worry about other things, and I have to force myself to focus on something else—like the mask on my face.

I’m still trying to remove it, but it’s not budging.

I’m about to ask Ga’Var to take it off when he suddenly stops walking.

My heart thumps against my chest.

If he’s spotted another enemy.

But no.

Ga’Var is simply putting me down at the base of a large tree.

“Wait here,” is all he says, and I don’t get the chance to say a word before he disappears.

CHAPTER NINE

GA’VAR

The Scrit is standing tall in the middle of the clearing it has created.

Even as I head back toward where Sa’am and I fell within the earth, my ba’clan writhe uneasily.

I am on edge.

Everything within me wants to head toward the huge machine and take it down.

But I have no energy bombs.

And the weapons we work to create…the ore we mine…none of that is ready either.

Even if it was, I am without even a prototype.

The only thing I can do…is hide…and wait.

What’s worse, Sa’am is terrified.

I could scent her fear even as I moved away from her.

I had to leave her for that reason.

To head back to where we fell.

To find that crate with the food she worked so hard to gather.

I still have the tracker for it. Finding it is not my worry. What concerns me is the way my ba’clan are reacting.

Even now, my hackles are rising as I move and I have to inhale deeply to clear my head.

It’s the scent of Sa’am’s fear, not only the presence of the danger in our midst.

Her fear scent makes me want to hunt.

To rip something apart.

It makes me want to…claim.

I bite back a growl.

I have to calm myself before I return to her.

And so I run, moving through the trees as if they are not standing in my way.

I reach the spot where the earth collapsed on us in no time, my gaze moving through the branches above me to spot the Scrit.

It is still there.

I do not think I have ever seen one stand still, and I wonder if it is scanning.

Why would a Gryken pause in its unrelenting quest to harvest all the water and sentient life on this planet?

My lips pull back as I snarl.

I am sure the sentries must see it.

I can only hope that my womb mate and his female are also safe, because the enemy stands between us.

I cannot go to them, and they cannot come to me.

Focusing on the soft earth, it doesn’t take me long to locate the cart buried underneath.

It is heavy, filled with soil, and it takes some time to lift itself out.

When it finally appears, I dig out as much of the soil as I can and head back to Sa’am.

I don’t even get close to her before I smell her fear.

There is a writhing against me too, my ba’clan getting even more on edge, and I stop in my tracks.

My ba’clan pull against me in a way they’ve never done before and I’m unable to move as my thoughts gather.

I was mistaken.

They’re not on edge because of the danger only. Not on edge because of Sa’am’s fear scent.

There is a panic that shoots through them as they stretch in her direction before snapping back against my skin.

A wave of surprise runs through me.

They have never done anything like that before.

They writhe once more, pulse, then stretch in Sa’am’s direction before snapping back to me, as if they are trying to get to Sa’am but can’t leave me behind.

That sends a sliver of fear through me.

Is she in danger?

I extend my senses. But I cannot hear anything.

I do not sense any other creatures in the surrounding forest.

Still, I hurry back to where I left the little female.

“Sa’am?”

Her chest is heaving so hard, for a moment, I think her life organ is experiencing some kind of arrest.

“Ga’Var?!” Underneath the veil of the ba’clan that I lent to her, her big white eyes look back at me. “I can’t get it off.”

Her fear scent is so strong, I seal my nostrils and slap my hand over my nose for good measure.

But even if I can’t smell it, I can still see it in her eyes as I approach.

She wants the ba’clan off.

No problem. I will simply call them back to me. They have done their job of helping her to breathe.

Now it is time for them to return.

But when I touch my hand upon her skin, when I give them the mental command to return to me…nothing happens.

I blink as I watch them.

I can feel them, connect to them. They are still an extension of me, but they are not obeying.

They are still.

Of their own volition, they refuse to return.

Something in my gaze must have alerted Sa’am that something is amiss because her eyes widen even more.

“Ga’Var?” she whispers. “What’s wrong?”

I don’t answer.

I’m not sure what’s wrong.

This is new for even me.

“Tell me.”

I meet the hyu’man’s gaze, searching it as if I am going to find some confirmation there that she is stable enough to hear what I am about to say.

But a shudder goes through her as she gulps. “You can’t take it off…can you.”

A statement. Not a question. And I wonder how much she knows about the ba’clan.

“No.”

Sa’am gulps again.

“Ga’Var…this isn’t a regular alien suit, is it.” Her gaze moves down me. Down the hackles still extended around me.

“Is it?”

I don’t know how to answer that.

It doesn’t sound like a question even though it’s formulated as one.

“…no,” I finally say.

She gulps again, her breaths coming deep and long as she averts her gaze.

“It’s stuck on me?”

Vullan do not lie…but I do not know how to answer her.

“Maybe if I wait a little, it will come off on its own?”

Hopeful wide eyes search mine, but I cannot provide the little hyu’man with the answer she seeks because the truth is…

I do not know.

SAM

Everything is swarming in my mind and as I rock gently back and forth across Ga’Var’s shoulder, all I can do is think.

It feels like the world is slowly closing in around me again.

As if hope is a burning candle that is going dim.

And all I can do is stare behind us, in the direction of the orb, a part of me expecting the worst.

That the machine will start moving again.

That it will turn around and head this way.

That it will crush us.

Or worse, that it will kill Ga’Var and capture me once more.

Fear has me rigid.

But Ga’Var moves quickly.

He is keeping to the trees, avoiding the flattened areas, and keeping out of sight.

I don’t know where he is going or how far away from the thing he intends to go, but I don’t stop him.

As far away from that thing as possible.

I don’t object.

I’m so focused on what’s behind us, I don’t even notice the cart floating by Ga’Var’s side until far too late.

I blink at it, something shuddering through me.

That’s what he’d gone off for?

How did he travel so far both ways so quickly?

I hadn’t been waiting by the tree for that long.

And…he went back for the food, even though he didn’t have to?

The Vullan have stores of food on their ship.

He did this for us.

For me.

I choke on the emotion swelling in my throat and when I open my mouth to thank the large alien carrying me, all that comes out is a strangled sob.

I feel ill-prepared and, once again, I think of my little sister.

She’d have been so much better at this surviving thing than I am.

A part of me hopes she’s still alive out there.

Somewhere.

I try to push thoughts of her away. Thoughts of family.

Thoughts of the old life.

They are intrusive and they make me weak.

For all I feel when I think about Before, is that…

I lost everything.

The “mask” over my face pulses and I gulp.

Something’s wrong with it.

Ga’Var’s silence tells me as much and I don’t know if I should be concerned or happy that he doesn’t seem to be able to take it off.

It helped me when I almost suffocated. I was almost buried alive.

I brush my fingers over it and I feel it…interacting with me.

It is slight, the movement, but I swear it stretches toward my fingers before snapping back onto my face.

My breath picks up and I try to calm myself.

It’s not stopping my breathing.

I repeat that thought to calm myself because if it was malfunctioning, it could kill me right now, and it isn’t.

Maybe the medic can remove it when I go back to base.

It is the same strange material that covers Ga’Var and I can only assume it is some kind of high-tech AI.

Suddenly, the fact that Adira is always wearing the suit comes to my mind.

I’ve never seen her without it since that first day she began wearing it.

Probably she can’t take it off either.

I gulp as I think about her.

She’s out there somewhere too. Or maybe she and Fer’ro made it back to the base on time.

I can only hope it is the latter.

My hand moves through the thin layer over my skin again, and it pulses.

That, and the thin shield that is over my vision, are the only two things that tell me something is over my face.

I stop moving my hand over my face when Ga’Var suddenly stills.

I can’t see the reason he stops, but the blades along his spine or arms aren’t rising.

“Shelter,” he says, and hope spikes within me.

Maybe he’s found the visitor center?

But as he heads towards whatever he sees, he’s not picking up the pace and I get the sense it isn’t far away from our current location.

We’re still among the trees, nowhere near what could be a main road or anything of the sort, and hope that we’ve found the visitor center slowly dies within me.

Night is approaching now.

Visibility is low and when Ga’Var stops and starts lowering me from his shoulders, I finally get the chance to look around.

He rests me at the base of a large rock as he sniffs the air.

“Wait here.”

I wasn’t planning on running off, trust me.

But as the huge alien moves toward what’s caught his attention, I finally see the shelter he’s found.

My heart thumps hard in my chest.

It’s an old Volkswagen Camper.

A camper.

Other humans.

My eyes widen as I watch Ga’Var approach the camper slowly.

If there are other humans in there, he’d smell them, right?

He sniffs again, the blades rising on his shoulders a little, and the farther away from me he walks, the more he looks otherworldly, slowly blending into the darkness that is encroaching upon us.

He stops suddenly and tilts his head as he regards the camper.

My heart continues to thud.

I hold my breath, hoping to hear if the owners of the vehicle are still about.

Nothing.

And when Ga’Var moves again, I realize at the same time that the camper is abandoned.

I shouldn’t have expected more.

Before all this, I was in the belly of the machine. Before Ga’Var and his people rescued us.

In all that time, I never once saw any humans on the ground below. All I saw was how small we are. How easily crushed we could be.

The camper is a pale yellow, one that looks almost white in the dying light.

Hand-painted flowers decorate its side.

One of the front lights is broken, and its two front tires are flat.

Not that I was thinking we could drive it out of here, but…it just tells me that this thing has been sitting here for a long time.

There’s a slight sound that echoes through the darkness. A creak as Ga’Var forces open the door.

Either he pulled it off its hinges or the door wasn’t locked in the first place, but it gives way to his demands and swings open.

I can’t see his eyes as he glances in my direction.

He is just a shade of pitch-black as he moves, stepping into the camper and disappearing from view.

I hold my breath as I wait for him to return, and when his dark head pops back out, I find my shoulder sagging.

He heads back toward me, his steps measured and sure until he is crouching before me.

“It is shelter. But…it is…small.”

His gaze flicks over me.

“You will fit.”

Ga’Var reaches for me and I allow his arm to snake around my waist as I put all the pressure on my good leg.

I try to hop a few steps with his assistance, but he sends a sharp click my way before swinging me into his arms and heading toward the camper.

The dim light is enough to let me see the inside as we step in.

A light layer of dust is on everything, but the inside is much better than I could have ever hoped for.

“Wow.” I really can’t believe our luck. “I’m surprised you found something like this.”

A disapproving click leaves his throat, but Ga’Var places me down on what I assume is the table and looks around.

“It is hardly suitable, but it is the best I can do for now.”

I turn to him, offering him a smile.

He’s doing more for me than he needs to and gratitude swells within.

“It’s perfect.”

He looks down at me, his gaze boring into mine with an intensity that has me speechless.

There’s something he isn’t telling me.

I can sense it, and my smile slowly fades.

I know we’re in a sticky situation, but I open my mouth to ask him what it is that’s bothering him, anyway.

Ga’Var speaks first.

“Sa’am,” he says. “We might be here for a while.”

CHAPTER TEN

SAM

Ga’Var disappears shortly after and I’m left alone as the sun goes down on us.

I don’t know if he’s gone outside the camper or if he’s…gone gone.

The thought that I might be alone in this wilderness sends a spike of fear through me, but I suck it down.

If that’s the case, I can survive.

Nothing is going to stop me from surviving.

My leg throbs as if to say it is a very big thorn in that plan of mine, but I fight to ignore the pain as I glance around me.

The windows to the camper were closed, so not much got inside, it seemed.

Easing down off the table, I put weight on my good leg as I hold on to the walls of the van and head toward the back.

There’s a little sink, a table, and a stool. At the back, there’s even a large enough open space.

There’s a folded contraption against the side of the van and my breath hitches as my gaze lands on it.

If it’s what I think it is…

I hobble forward, lean on my good foot, and pull on the lever for the thing.

It doesn’t budge.

Biting back my frustration, I try again.

And again.

And again, until there is a creak and the whole thing suddenly comes down.

A bed that’s as wide as the van itself springs open, almost hitting me as it settles in place.

The effect is a loud crash and I freeze, my ears perked for any sound on the outside.

For a few moments, I stand, unmoving, just listening, but when I hear nothing after a few moments, I let out the breath I’d been holding.

Something clenches in my chest.

Maybe Ga’Var has left me.

Surely, he’d have investigated the sound.

There’s a dust cloud that’s billowing around me, but I cannot feel it, and with the “mask” over my face, it doesn’t bother me at all.

Still, I wait for the dust to settle before I pat the mattress a few more times.

The natural light from the outside is dim, but the mattress looks clean enough.

It’s not like I have much of a choice, anyway.

I’m not in a situation to have any demands.

My gaze flicks back to the camper’s open door and another lump forms in my throat.

I hobble back that way and pop my head out.

All I can see is darkness, and with the trees all around, it’s an ominous darkness that sets me on edge.

Reaching forward, I pull the door toward me. But it no longer closes fully.

I bite my bottom lip, my gaze still searching the outside.

I don’t see any sign of Ga’Var and a part of me feels stupid for even looking.

He doesn’t owe me anything.

None of the Vullan do.

Hobbling back toward the bed, I pull myself up on it and draw my ankle towards me.

The pain is so bad, it makes my eyes water.

I don’t need a blinding light to see that it’s swollen.

I can feel it right under my hand. Swollen and hot.

As I stretch my leg out and lay on my back, staring up into the camper’s roof, I know there is a very good chance that I may not make it back to base alive.

A thought like that should make me afraid.

But…

It doesn’t.

GA’VAR

I finish scouting the area much later than I would have liked and when I return to the strange shelter, I hear no sound inside.

For a moment, something inside me clenches and I creep up toward it, my senses on edge.

Pulling in some air into my nose, I scent the female, but I do not see her where I left her in the shelter.

If she went off on her own, she couldn’t have gone far. Not with her injury.

Stalking toward the shelter, I throw the door open, my gaze searching the interior when a sharp gasp reaches my ear.

My gaze finds Sa’am immediately.

She’s lying low on a slightly raised surface.

Strange bedding, it seems.

“Ga’Var?” There’s a tremble in her voice and I realize she cannot see me well.

“It is me.”

A breath rushes through her that makes her body sag and she eases up on her elbows to squint at me.

“I thought you…” She trails off and her gaze lowers. “Where did you go?”

There’s a note of something in her voice and I file it away for later.

“To scout. The area is clear. Safe.” For now. But I don’t add that part.

I don’t need her to fear right now. She needs rest. Food.

She needs to heal.

She squints at me, her eyes narrowing so much I wonder if she is able to see.

When she tries to sit up on her haunches, she winces at the effort, and I move toward her.

Sa’am jerks a little, her eyes widening as her gaze searches the darkness of the shelter.

I know hyu’man’s eyes are bad, judging from how cautiously they move within the tunnels, but I never realized just how bad.

“You can’t see me, can you?”

Her gaze lands on where I stand in the darkness, and she shakes her head from side to side.

I do not know what that means, but I can guess, judging from the vulnerability in her gaze.

“Would it make you more at ease if you could?”

She gulps and moves her head up and down. “Yea, it would.”

A slight shiver goes through me.

“I can remove my ba’clan.”

I wait for her to answer. For her to give me permission to bare myself to her, but Sa’am does not respond.

It was stupid to even suggest it.

Sa’am is not my mate.

Sa’am does not want to mate, and Sa’am, like the other hyu’mans except Adee’ra, wants nothing to do with my kind.

“Have you removed it? I still can’t see you.”

Her words make that shiver go through me again.

“You want me to remove it?”

Sa’am’s tongue darts over her lips. That same tongue she’d pointed at me in what feels like the distant past right now.

“Yes. If…if it doesn’t bother you, that is.”

“It doesn’t bother me to remove my ba’clan for you.”

As a matter of fact, it is creating a trill deep inside me that shouldn’t be there.

The setting is all wrong.

The circumstances.

“You should probably close the door first, though,” she whispers.

I blink at her.

“You wish for me to share this space with you?”

I see the confusion flick across her expressive face.

“That was the plan, wasn’t it?”

Humor makes my lips twitch over my fangs. I think the little female has overestimated this. It is barely enough space for her alone, but I would rather be cramped inside this little shelter with her than to be out there on my own.

So I turn toward the door and pull it closed with a firm tug before walking toward Sa’am.

My ba’clan ripple before sinking beneath my skin and Sa’am’s eyes widen as her head tilts back.

“I can still hardly see you but…wow. I didn’t know you could do that.”

Her gaze moves over my body with such awe that I stop moving right when I’m standing in front of her.

No female has ever looked at me the way Sa’am is looking at me right now.

No female has ever cared enough to, and Sa’am’s attentions make something flutter deep inside me that I have never felt before.

“Fuck me…you’re big.”

I blink at her, my entire frame stiffening.

Did she just…

Rek.

I should have asked Fer’ro more about his mating with Adee’ra.

How it went and how it began.

Pulling some air into my nostrils, my confusion mounts.

I know the hyu’man mating scent. I’ve smelled it many times. It shoots from Adee’ra every time she sees my brother.

There is nothing in the air here. I do not smell Sa’am’s arousal.

Plus, she is wounded.

But…she just communicated she wished for me to mate with her.

“Fuh’k you?”

“Yea, I mean…look at you.” And then her eyes widen. “Oh fuck. Shit. I mean—” She raises a hand in my direction. “I’m not propositioning you or anything. That word sometimes means, um, sometimes it just communicates surprise.”

I am both disappointed and relieved.

I am not sure how I could honor her wishes when I am three times her size.

For that reason alone, I know we are not compatible, but I still hope Sa’am will not turn me away as a friend.

An ally.

“Scoot back.”

She glances behind her and does what I say. But when my hand brushes over her now swollen foot, she winces and stiffens.

The little bandage she made isn’t helping.

I’m not sure it will do any good.

I could help her with my ba’clan, but I have a feeling she won’t like any more of my symbiotes on her being.

I still do not know how to remove the ones from her face and they seem to have settled there.

So I will have to go with the next best option.

“Lie back. I will soothe your wound.”

Sa’am is watching me from her position, leaned up on her elbows.

“Soothe it? You have ointments?”

A little bolt of pleasure runs through me before I can kill it.

“No…I have something even better than that.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

SAM

When Ga’Var’s tongue flicks out of his mouth, I don’t get any warning before it hits my skin.

My first reaction is to jerk my leg away, but the pain throbbing from my ankle radiates upward and any sharp movements will hurt me more than anything.

All I can do is hiss at him. “What the hell are you doing?!”

He pauses only for a second to answer me before his warm tongue moves over my ankle again.

“Soothing you.”

My mouth falls open as I watch him.

I don’t even know when he discarded the makeshift bandage that I’d made, and in the growing moonlight, I see remnants of it below my leg.

He’d ripped it?

With his claw?

His tongue moves against my skin and I bite my lip hard.

It shouldn’t feel this good.

Below the throbbing pain of my ankle, Ga’Var’s tongue is like a hot, heavy, undulating compress, and when he wraps the entirety of it around my ankle, I jerk so hard I almost piss myself.

“Too rough?” his deep voice sends a vibration up my leg and I shake my head.

I don’t trust myself to answer him, so I stare at him, wondering what the hell he’s doing.

“My saliva has enough enzymes to heal most minor wounds.” Ga’Var gives my ankle one long lick before he mumbles something else.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m focused on the movement of his tongue or the fact that he’s mumbling why I don’t hear a word he says.

“R—repeat that.” My voice comes out much breathier than I wish and I gulp down the shiver that suddenly runs down my spine.

He doesn’t know how erotic this sort of thing is, Sam. He’s an alien. Not human. Not a man.

Alien.

An alien male.

I gulp down another ball of air at that thought just as Ga’Var swipes his tongue around my ankle one more time.

His tongue is thicker than a human’s. Heavier. Coarser.

Longer.

I can hardly see it in the dim light, but Lord, can I feel it.

My fingers grip into the mattress as I force myself to keep still.

This isn’t sexual.

Nothing about this is sexual.

He wants nothing from me.

He’s simply trying to help me.

I repeat those words in my head. Saying them over and over and over again and they help me focus on everything except the alien tongue rubbing against my skin.

Still…there’s a flutter in my belly that I cannot control.

When Ga’Var finally lifts his head, I think he had finished and a huge breath shudders through my chest, but he only moves higher, his tongue coming in contact with my leg.

I inhale sharply.

Even with his suit no longer over his skin, I can hardly see him

“A few more wounds,” he murmurs.

Thank the gods he doesn’t linger. Two swipes of his tongue and he is finished.

I get the sense that he lifts his head and is looking at me.

“More minor wounds, all over your body.” His voice is low and in the silence of the camper, it feels like his words travel through the air, stroking against my skin. “Your skin is very…fragile.”

I don’t move.

If he’s thinking about putting his tongue anywhere else on me…

“I could lick those for you too.”

I’m shaking my head as I sense movement. “No. That’s okay. You’ve helped me already.”

And that’s the truth.

Now, instead of the throbbing pain, it feels like I added aloe and tea tree oil over my skin, cooling it.

He’s leaning over me.

As my eyes adjust to the tone of his skin, I can see him more clearly, and a gasp lodges in my throat.

Ga’Var is…

The Vullan never walk around without their suits covering every inch of their bodies. Sometimes, Fer’ro removes the suit from his face and head, but that’s about it. The others don’t.

But Ga’Var…

The edges of his ridges are a slightly lighter color than the rest of his skin and, like chevrons, they create patterns across his body.

I find myself lingering on the ones that run down his cheekbones to follow the sharp line of his jaw.

Ridges. Ridges everywhere.

I wonder what they feel like. Whether they’re as hard as they look or more like leather.

I certainly didn’t feel them when I was on his shoulder, even though they run in lines across his entire body.

I don’t know how long I stay there looking up in wonder at the alien before me but it suddenly hits me that he is not moving.

I can’t really see his eyes, but I know he is focused on me and I squirm a little underneath his gaze.

“Better?”

I jerk my chin toward my chest. “Yes… Thank you.”

Another beat passes and my cheeks grow warm, but Ga’Var doesn’t move.

Still hovering above me, I wonder what he sees when he looks down at me.

There’s a sharp intake of air as he inhales and there’s a soft sound that escapes his chest before it is suddenly cut off.

It sounds like the trill of a pine warbler…but different.

Deeper.

The mattress suddenly shakes as Ga’Var eases off it and moves away.

“Rest now.” His voice moves through the dark as if he is everywhere in the little camper at once. “I will stand guard.”

I don’t know how he expects me to sleep after everything that’s happened today, but I nod anyway and scoot back on the bunk.

Resting my head on my arm, I stare into the darkness in his general direction.

“Sa’am…”

“Yes?”

“I have shown you myself bare but I will not try to mate with you.”

His words leave me speechless.

I’d never suggested that we—oh God…

Maybe he’s still hung up on that misunderstanding about the word “fuck.”

“That’s not—”

“You are far too small. I do not think the experience would be a good one.”

My mouth falls open as my eyes widen and I stare in his direction.

What…

The…

I slam my mouth shut.

I don’t know what to say, so I don’t say anything.

Shame fills me from where my thoughts had been heading earlier.

“So there is no need for you to worry—”

“Ok! Got you.” I speak so hurriedly I almost bite my tongue. “I’m glad that’s settled then. Now we can focus on getting the hell out of here and back to Base Zero.”

Ga’Var doesn’t respond and I don’t know if he does one of those clicks in his language or if he’s just suddenly gone silent on me.

Maybe that’s for the best.

But now I have a problem.

As the silence settles around us, all I can think about is the fact that he’d been considering mating with me…

I can’t stop thinking about that and the feel of his tongue against my skin.

CHAPTER TWELVE

SAM

My eyes flutter open slowly and then I’m fully awake, breath thundering from my chest as initial panic sets in.

But I’m okay.

I’m alive.

I’m…safe.

Still in the camper.

Still in the spot where I fell asleep on the cot.

As my breathing evens out, I rise my sleepy gaze toward the front, fully expecting to see the large alien looming there.

But I’m only greeted with the dim interior of the camper.

Ga’Var is not here.

I rise a little more, rubbing my hands over my eyes to get rid of the sleep.

It’s morning. Daylight comes into the camper in little streaks of morning sun, lighting up the dust particles that swim in front of me.

I’m moving off the cot before I remember my swollen leg and I end up putting some weight on it as I lift myself.

An automatic hiss and wince leaves my lips before I freeze.

The pain…it didn’t come.

Looking down, a sliver of shock, or maybe fear, runs through me.

My ankle…no…my entire leg.

It’s…covered.

My hand moves up to my face. I’d gotten so used to not feeling the “mask” there that it hadn’t been the first thing I’d thought to check once I woke up.

But now that my fingers are moving over my skin, I can feel that my face is clear.

Had Ga’Var moved it while I was asleep?

Gulping, I look down at my leg once more.

It’s covered in the same black ink that coats Ga’Var’s entire body.

I move my leg, testing it.

It doesn’t feel heavy and I can’t tell the ink is even there.

Just to be sure, though, I take a tentative step toward the storage box set against the side of the camper.

In the darkness, I’d thought it was a table, but I assume whoever owned this before used it for both.

My steps are cautious, awkward, as I try not to put any weight on my bad leg, but what’s surprising is that my leg isn’t hurting half as bad as it’s supposed to.

It feels sort of…numb.

I reach the storage box and pry it open with both hands.

The scent of dust and old life waft upward and I turn my head away a little, stopping my breath as the scent passes.

Inside are a few things.

Blankets. A kettle.

Books.

Books!

I reach for one without even thinking and as soon as I grasp the spine and turn the cover to face me, my cheeks grow warm.

It’s a…romance novel…I think.

Two beings are entwined on the cover only…the female is human and the male is… I can only describe him as a monster.

Not human.

Something different.

I stare at it for a few moments.

I’m definitely reading this…but maybe not so any of the other women can see…or any Vullan.

I don’t want them getting any ideas.

Not that it matters anyway.

Ga’Var doesn’t talk much, but he certainly said a lot last night.

I’m not the Vullan’s type.

Not that I wanted to be.

I set the book down and my eyes narrow as I stare at the rest of the contents of the storage box, annoyance riding at the back of my neck.

How dare he, anyway?

I never said I wanted to fuck him or anything.

My frown deepens as I move a huge blanket out of the way and continue digging.

There’s a utility knife in here and another book. This one less interesting. It looks like a biology textbook and I push it out of the way.

But the thing that catches my attention is the little Polaroid that slips out of it and falls to the bottom of the storage box.

My fingers tremble as I lift the picture.

The happy faces of a couple stare back at me. Grins on their faces as they stand in front of this very camper.

Something clutches inside me and tears threaten to leave my eyes when I spot, at their feet, a small cradle.

They dated the picture.

Just three months before they came.

They’d left for camping just three months before the world ended.

And now…

I have to pull my gaze away and gulp back my emotions.

Sliding to the floor, it takes me a few moments to allow my tears not to fall.

I don’t want to think about what happened to that family…or to that poor innocent baby.

I pray that if they were unlucky and got caught, that the machines gave them an easy death.

But I know that’s just wishful thinking.

Those who got instant death were only those who died in those first few moments.

Everybody else…

They’ve tortured everyone else.

Letting out a deep breath, I reach down to tuck the picture into my dress pocket when I realize my dress is so torn, it is hanging off me in rags.

I have no pockets.

The waist of my panties will just have to do.

I tuck the picture away and rise, dipping my hand into the storage box again.

There’s a mirror in there and I grab it, wiping my still wet eyes as I bring it up to look at my face.

My reflection stares back at me like a stranger.

My cheeks are sunken, my eyes wide with dark circles around them.

My curls hang in a tangled, dirty mess around my head, and my lips are chapped and dry.

I run my tongue over them as I look at myself, my free hand moving to touch my skin.

Well…at least the mask isn’t there anymore.

It’s like it was never there.

That prompts me to look at my leg again.

I’m just stretching my hand toward it when the camper door suddenly opens.

GA’VAR

Sa’am is awake, and she has moved from her resting spot.

I sensed the moment she rose from her slumber, but waited for her to exit the shelter on her own.

Only, she didn’t.

As I swing the door open, ready to enter the small space and find her, my gaze falls upon her.

She is sitting on the floor, right in front of me.

“Sa’am?”

There is fluid coating her eyes, but she looks less in pain than she was the night before.

Sa’am glances up at me, her hand pausing mid-motion and that causes my gaze to fall at what she was stretching toward.

I cannot move as I notice my symbiotes covering her leg.

I did not order them to heal her there.

Since trying to get them to return to me, I have not communicated with them.

This is independent of me.

It shouldn’t be possible.

“Ga’Var. You’re here.” Her hand pauses, and she doesn’t touch her leg.

I am thankful for that.

I don’t want to scare her, but I do not know what to expect.

My symbiotes have never acted on their own before.

We are one unit.

“Looks like I slept all night. Wasn’t my intention at all,” Sa’am continues, and she makes to rise.

I reach out to her, but she’s already doing it on her own.

I can’t help but fasten my gaze on her leg.

It had been swollen the night before. Now, the swelling is noticeably less.

My ba’clan are…healing her.

“Thanks for doing this too.” She gestures at her leg. “It feels like a cast. It doesn’t hurt so much anymore.”

I meet Sa’am’s gaze, glad that she is not yet aware of how to read Vullan mannerisms.

“As long as you are getting better.”

Which is the truth. The only problem is, I have no part in it.

This isn’t my doing.

My ears flick as my ba’clan pulse against me.

A comforting tone, but unlike before, I can hardly feel the section of myself that is on Sa’am.

There is still a connection, but it is not nearly as strong as it should be.

I suddenly wish my womb mate was nearby.

I could ask him questions.

Adee’ra could tell me what to expect, too.

For, my ba’clan are doing something impossible.

The same thing they did for my womb mate and Adee’ra.

Sa’am is becoming a host for a new colony…which makes her…my mate.

Only…she can’t be my mate.

The ba’clan are supposed to join you with a female that will be most suited to you.

Sa’am doesn’t even reach my shoulder.

How is she supposed to take me, much less bear my young?

Each thought sends bolts of fear through me and my ba’clan bristle in agitation.

Sa’am’s eyes become even bigger as her gaze lands on me.

“What is it?” she whispers, her gaze darting outside the shelter, around the forest, and finally up above us.

Her fear scent begins to build, as the flicking of her gaze becomes more and more frantic.

“Do we need to run?”

I reach toward her and grip her shoulder, steadying her.

“No.”

That one word seems to calm her a bit and the heaving of her chest slows down a little.

“Then what is it? Your blades look like they’re rising. That only happens when you’re about to fight.”

My ears flatten against the side of my head, and I pull my gaze away from hers.

I have never once smelled Sa’am’s arousal, even though I am sure she is a fully grown female, albeit a small one.

That could simply be because she is not attracted to me—or any of the other Vullan.

Which is understandable. Her mating instincts could be gone in times like this.

“What is it Ga’Var?”

I cannot meet her gaze.

I want to…but how…

How do I tell a female whose world is being torn apart that I am here to turn it upside down even more?

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

SAM

Ga’Var has gone silent again and I sense there is something he wants to tell me but…can’t?

I don’t push it. He will tell me when he is ready to. Though, I have a bad feeling about it.

He leads me out of the camper to the outside and I notice he’s pulled a log in front.

There’s also a Dakota fire hole that he made. One where the fire is put into a hole in the dirt.

I don’t ask how he’s managed to make one. I don’t have the slightest clue how to make a fire from nothing, but what catches my attention is the thing roasting on top of it.

I almost choke on air as my gaze lands on what can only be the squirrel Ga’Var caught the day before.

“Good?” he asks. I glance his way.

He’s wearing his suit again, over his entire body and I wish he’d take it down so I can see his face at least.

We’ve been through enough together now, I don’t mind seeing him.

But I don’t know if he’s wearing the full-body covering to hide his energy signature or not.

That prompts me to look at the transparent circle on my wrist.

Still blinking red and blue.

I clear my throat, looking at the roasting squirrel.

“I did it the way I saw you do the sea creature.”

I don’t get what he means until he continues.

“You slice it open and take out its innards. Then you scrape off its skin.”

The way he says the words has me caught in between being horrified to almost laughing at how disgusted he sounds.

“You did it like I do the fish.” I almost smile at the ingenuity of it. “I didn’t realize you’d been watching me so intently.”

“I have always been watching you, Sa’am.”

I blink at him, the laughter dying in my throat as he moves around the fire.

“Is it done now? I think it has gone through a proper second death.”

He pokes at the squirrel and glances up at me.

I have to blink several times to clear my mind.

“Y—yea, I think so.”

Despite that I don’t want to eat the little creature, the scent of the meat is making my mouth water.

Ga’Var takes it from the fire and stretches it toward me.

But I can’t take it.

It is far too hot.

“One sec,” I say to him as I hurry back toward the camper.

I’m sure they had plates or something of the sort in there. What I wouldn’t do for a fork too.

I hobble a little as I walk but with this cast of sorts, my ankle doesn’t protest too much.

By the time I find an old ceramic bowl and a fork though, the squirrel meat isn’t as hot as before.

Ga’Var places it in my bowl anyway, eyeing the utensils as if they are some weird alien weapons.

“It’s called a fork,” I say to him as I stab it into the meat, hating myself for anticipating how good it will taste.

Hating myself for eating the poor thing.

The first morsel I put into my mouth melts against my tongue and I have to pause a little.

Ga’Var looks at me expectantly. “Was its second death worth it?”

I almost choke on a laugh. “Why do you keep calling it that?”

“You hyu’mans kill your food twice. It is a barbaric act.” His gaze slips over me. “Even though you are no barbarian.”

“Well, we have to cook it or we’ll get sick. We might not be even able to chew it if it’s not cooked.”

The morning sun is out fully now. A slight wind rustles the trees. And in the moment of silence between us, I look up and stare at the clear blue sky.

In this second, my world is at peace. I don’t want to spoil it.

And if I think about anything else except this moment, I will.

I pat the log beside me.

“Why don’t you sit with me?”

Ga’Var’s suit bristles a little and I think I may have offended him, but he moves and sits beside me, anyway.

My heart gives one big thump against my ribs.

I underestimate his size whenever I’m not standing directly beside him.

Suddenly, what he said the night before comes back to me.

I push my annoyance into the fork and stab the meat again.

“And now you try to kill it three times,” Ga’Var mutters.

This time, a laugh bursts from my throat and I stick my tongue out at him before I even realize what I’m doing.

He stiffens beside me, the slits of his eyes narrowing a little, and he sniffs.

Maybe he wants some.

It’s only fair.

I know they don’t like our food, but he’s the one that caught it.

He deserves a piece.

So I dig the fork in and pull off a sizable chunk.

“Here,” I push the fork in his direction and this time, his pointed ears perk off the side of his head, making him look like some sort of dark elf.

Ga’Var hesitates, his gaze searching mine and for a moment, I think he is not going to take the morsel.

“Are you sure?”

The way he asks it…the way he pronounces the words as if they have a much deeper meaning, makes me pause.

“Yes. I’m sure.” Aren’t I? “You were the one who caught it after all.”

His ears lower a little and he studies me some more.

He pays no attention to the fork stretched out to him.

“So…you’re offering because I caught the animal. Hunted it.”

There’s a note of something in his voice. Something that goes far past his strange gravelly accent.

And then I remember.

I remember what Adira said to Lori just the day before.

Offering a Vullan food is like inviting him to take your panties off.

My cheeks flame immediately and I make to pull my arm back but Ga’Var suddenly swoops his head and takes the fork into this mouth.

He freezes as soon as his lips close around it and for a moment, we’re just staring at each other.

Me wondering what the fuck am I doing and him just…looking at me.

I want to ask him how it tastes when his nostrils suddenly flare.

But he’s looking at me, the tinted fire of eyes burning into mine, and I can’t look away.

It’s far too intimate, when it shouldn’t be, and as Ga’Var slowly pulls back, the fork slipping slowly from between his lips, I almost gawk at him.

His throat moves as he swallows.

“Good,” he growls and I choke on a laugh.

“Liar.”

“If I spoke the truth it would offend you.”

“Hey!” I poke the fork in his direction. “I saw those worms that you guys eat. You can keep your forbidden spaghetti, and we will keep our ‘offensive’ human food.”

Ga’Var’s lips twitch.

I do not think I have ever seen a Vullan smile.

“Fair enough.”

As silence descends upon us, I glance in his direction now and then.

Each time, those deep eyes are on me.

“Do you think we can head back soon?”

“No.”

I nod, but I’d been hoping we could.

“The Scrit is still out there. I do not know why or what it is doing. The Gryken do not usually stop in their big machines.”

My ears perk at that. “So…this is different? They’re behaving differently?”

“Affirmative.”

I don’t like the sound of that. If anything, I want them to behave exactly as they did on the Vullan planet.

That way, we have a better chance of beating them.

The fact that they’re doing something different…

“Do not be afraid.”

My head snaps to Ga’Var.

“I’m not afraid.”

He sniffs loudly. “I can smell it.”

My eyes bug out. “Wait, what?”

“Now it is fading away…”

I blink at him several times and rest the fork down in the now-empty bowl.

“You can smell my fear?”

I don’t know how that is even possible.

“Not just yours. Yours and every other lifeform on this planet.”

Oh?

Oh.

Oh!

Now it all makes sense.

The way they sniff and hurry away when they come near us in the caves.

Most of us had thought we just stink.

It makes me wonder what else I don’t know about them.

“What else can you smell?”

His gaze promptly drops to my lap and I frown, not understanding what he is meaning.

When his gaze meets mine once more, there is an undeniable twinkle in his eyes that wasn’t there before.

“Other things.”

I slam my legs shut at the thought that is slowly intruding.

No way.

I can’t help but stare at him now.

Each time I get a bit comfortable around him, I’m reminded of just how alien he is.

I don’t understand how a species so much more advanced lost its entire planet to the scourge that is now crawling on mine.

“How did you lose the war?”

As soon as I ask the question, I wish I didn’t.

Ga’Var suddenly sits up and I realize he’d been slumping his shoulders all along so he looked smaller.

His ears fall back against his head, the twinkle that had been in his eyes disappears, and his lips pull back a little, showing his teeth.

“We lost because we were unprepared… Weak.”

I continue staring at him, his words starting more questions in my mind.

If he calls himself weak, what the hell does he see me as?

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

GA’VAR

Sa’am is looking at me with an expression on her face, in her eyes, that I cannot read.

It seems she wants me to continue.

To tell her how we failed our people. Our planet.

Our females.

Our species.

I do not want to tell her of the horrible battles with the Gryken.

How we fought and lost.

How we bled.

How, it was but a young child who, by the fates, unlocked the very energy cloaking ability that we all now have.

I don’t want to tell her that if that hadn’t happened, my species would have been wiped out.

I don’t want to tell her that the scourge upon this land is a much greater enemy than it seems.

But those huge dark and white eyes are upon me.

I can’t deny the little flower.

So I open my mouth and I begin.

I tell her of the first day the Scrits fell upon Edooria, much like they fell on Er’th.

How they began attacking at once. Leveling buildings. Homes. Markets.

I tell her how we fought, taking the machines down and Sa’am’s eyes shine with interest.

I can see the hope in her innocence but now that I’ve started, I have to continue.

So I go on.

I tell her we thought victory would be ours. That it seemed like it.

“I don’t understand.” Sa’am’s gaze searches mine. “What made you lose?”

I let out a breath, my shoulders shuddering with the weight of it all.

We don’t speak about it anymore.

None of us do.

The pain is too great.

But Sa’am is looking at me for an answer and I find I cannot deny her.

“We lost…because none of us expected what would come next.”

She blanches.

I did not know she could get paler than she already is.

“What do you mean?” Almost inaudible, her whisper.

“The Gryken didn’t need their huge machines to take us down.”

Sa’am blinks at me, her eyes growing even wider.

“We took down the Scrits thinking we were winning the war.” I have to turn from her and focus ahead into the green of the forest. The leaves swaying remind me there is still life on this planet. That what I am saying to Sa’am right now won’t happen again here. I refuse to let history repeat itself. “The Gryken are even more formidable than their huge machines.

Silence falls upon us as Sa’am turns and stares ahead as well.

I do not like her in this mood. Somber.

Just moments before I saw her express joy. Her laughter is a fluttery twi-twitting that makes something rise inside me.

I want to hear her laugh again.

I need to.

“I’ve seen them, though. So how? How can…” Her gaze lands on me, worry filling her eyes. “How can they even stand up to you? You’re bigger. Stronger. Faster. How?”

“Because they do not need to fight us on their own.”

Her brow furrows, the skin curling up in a way that makes her so alien. “What do you mean they don’t need to fight you on their own?”

Because, my dear Sa’am…

“They make us fight ourselves.”

SAM

Ga’Var spells it out for me, and I still don’t believe it.

Mind control.

The Gryken can access and possess the minds of those around them.

All this time I’d thought that we simply had to destroy those huge machines…

But that was only the start of it.

No wonder they’re waiting.

No wonder the Vullan haven’t simply charged in, guns blazing.

Because, if they make any mistakes, the Gryken could escape the machine before they get to kill it and all hell would break loose.

My thoughts go haywire, imagining them possessing humans. Controlling us more than they already are.

To imagine myself being forced to breed with it. To carry its young, my body used while I am not even aware it is happening to me.

I do not know which is a greater horror.

“Does Adira know?” I whisper.

Ga’Var doesn’t answer.

He doesn’t need to.

Of course, she knows.

She just hasn’t told the rest of us.

We’re already panicking without knowing all the details.

“Shit,” I mutter.

Ga’Var stands so suddenly, the log we’re sitting on shakes a little and I have to outstretch my arms to regain my balance.

He reaches down and steadies me with one big hand.

“You should rest inside. I will scout the perimeter again.” He glances at my empty bowl. “And I will hunt.” My heart clenches at the thought of having to eat another cute little squirrel, but I nod at him anyway.

It’s not like I can eat the mushrooms without cooking them and he doesn’t need to eat food every day.

While he’s gone, I can take the time to scope out the rest of the camper, see what else I can find to take back with us.

As he heads off, I hobble back to the camper.

Each step is easier than the next, and I glance down at my leg.

Still not one hundred percent—I never expected it to be—but it feels a lot better than it should.

Maybe Ga’Var’s miracle tongue worked more magic than I thought.

Memory of that only makes my cheeks warm and my heart thumps an uncomfortable beat.

He doesn’t want me.

He said it quite clearly.

And I don’t want him.

I don’t.

I clear my throat and slip into the camper, pushing my upper body in between the two front seats.

There are documents stacked in the front, a map, and not much else, but beside me is a sink that I didn’t really think about until I turned around.

If there’s a sink, maybe there’s water?

I pop open the cupboard underneath, not even holding my breath, when I’m greeted with a five-gallon bottle that’s still halfway full.

Shock makes my mouth drop open and I pull the bottle out, open it, and sniff.

“Doesn’t smell like it’s gone off to me.”

I can’t believe my luck.

Lifting it, I take a few sips and quench my thirst before my gaze wanders back to the sink.

I’m still dirty, filthy actually, from our fall down the mountain.

Ga’Var doesn’t complain, but then again, he probably wouldn’t.

I could probably do a quick sponge bath.

There’s certainly no hope of cleaning my hair till we get back so that will have to wait.

Mind made up, I tear another piece of my dress and stuff it into the sink, blocking the hole as best as I can.

Then I add some of the water to it, enough for me to wash with.

Now to get to work.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

GA’VAR

Pink skin and the curve of Sa’am’s spine.

That’s all I see as I approach where she waits, but it is enough for me to stop in my tracks.

I almost drop my kill on accident.

What is she doing?

As her hands move over her skin, that question is quickly answered, but I cannot pull my gaze away from her.

I know hyu’mans prefer to be discreet while they wash.

They never go to the bathing pool while we are in the upper levels of the tunnels, and when they do, they go in groups.

So not only is it surprising to see Sa’am doing it here…the unexpectedness of it….

As I approach, more of her pink skin is revealed to me and a thrum begins deep in my chest.

I have to stop it before I let it vibrate through me, but that does not stop my sazi from throbbing within my pouch.

My gaze moves down her small but perfect body and I can’t pull my eyes away.

The way her back arches into the curve of her round, supple buttocks to the way her hips flare.

She turns, facing my direction and I automatically camouflage.

Words…thoughts…everything leaves my mind.

Round little mounds sit on her chest, the buds gathered and taut.

They look like little pockets of goodness I want to wrap my tongue around, and my sazi throbs again…hard.

Down, lower, my gaze falls and I’m suddenly looking at a thick nest of curls the same color as the filaments that fall from her head.

I don’t need a map to tell me what that is.

Sa’am’s body is so different from a Vullan female’s…

Soft…maybe everywhere.

Rek.

My sazi throbs insistently, urging me to engage.

It throbs so hard, I lose my camouflage for a moment and I’m suddenly staring right into Sa’am’s eyes.

She gasps, her eyes going wide, and for a moment, she freezes. But the moment passes, and she grabs her chest, hiding her beautiful mounds away from me.

“Ga’Var,” she breathes.

I do not know what to say.

Yes, it is me?

Here I am, throbbing and yearning for what I cannot have?

Nothing seems appropriate, but Sa’am saves the day.

“I didn’t see you there.” She ducks and there’s a scramble.

When she stands again, she’s covered herself, shoulder to foot, with a large piece of cloth I rather she didn’t have.

“Sorry, this is your space, too. I’ll be mindful next time.”

I want to ask her ‘mindful of what?’ but the only thing working is my sazi, and it is still tempted to extrude.

“You caught something.” Her gaze falls to my hand and I remember, dimly, that I was carrying my kill back to her.

“Is that… Is that a snake?”

I glance down at the thing. Long. Fleshy.

It was annoying as rek to catch but it looks like it has a lot of meat, which will be good for my Sa’am.

My Sa’am?

Sa’am makes a sound as if she is trying to expel her stomach contents but manages to cover her mouth before that happens.

My ears fall back against the sides of my head immediately.

“I can find you something else.”

She shakes her head. “No. No. It’ll be fine. I can eat it.”

She almost vomits again.

“I don’t think you can.” Her body is obviously rejecting even the thought of it.

She shakes her head some more. “I can. I won’t starve for some silly reason, plus you went through the trouble to catch it for me.” Her stomach heaves one more time. “There’s a first time for everything.”

Yes…

There is.

I eye her, not sure if I should let my thoughts go down the road they want to go.

But there is an insistence there. A need that is beginning to burn.

“It’s dead, right?” She eyes the creature hanging from my hand.

No, Sa’am. I think what’s happening here is something that’s just coming to life.

SAM

The day goes by quickly.

Ga’Var leaves every hour or so to scout the perimeter and check on the Scrit that still doesn’t seem to be moving. While he’s gone, I stay around the camper.

My leg’s not good enough for me to explore yet and I don’t want to head into the forest only to get into trouble out there, especially while Ga’Var is gone.

So I hang around, I plan, and I monitor my general surroundings.

At some point, I lie down on the cot and take up that romance novel I found—the one with the monster on the cover. I assume it’s going to be something like a Beauty and the Beast love story.

Something sweet to take my mind off things.

So, I start reading.

Now and then, there is a sound in the forest that sends a bolt of fear right through me, but when I pause, my ears perked, it all returns to silence.

It is like a constant reminder that I am not really safe, no matter how it may seem right now.

So I focus on the book.

With each word I ingest, heat travels all across my being.

This isn’t just some fairy tale, or if it is, they’ve changed a lot since I was a kid.

The book is wild and hot, telling of a romance, love, between two very different beings.

I become engrossed in the pages, allowing myself a moment to be free again.

The first sex scene lights a fire inside me and I’m so caught up in it, I don’t hear when Ga’Var returns. I only know he is there when a shadow appears at the window beside me, stopping my heart in the process.

The next thing I do is chuck the book away so fast, I know he must think something is amiss.

But there’s a throbbing between my legs that I don’t want him aware of—one that began from the very moment I turned around and found him staring at me while I was bathing myself—and that throbbing is growing insistent the more I read and the more I am around him.

“Is everything okay?” His gaze falls to where the book landed.

“Uh-huh.”

He eyes me, and there is an intelligence behind his gaze that I do not like at this point.

“You found archives.”

I clear my throat. “If you want to call it that.”

“On what subject?”

I glance away from him. I was never the best liar and even now, at the end of the world, it might come to bite me on my ass.

“Biology.”

Wellll…it isn’t entirely a lie.

It isn’t the truth either, though.

Ga’Var’s ears twitch a little.

“Hyu’man archives on biology,” he murmurs, his gaze flicking down my body and he shifts a little, turning so I cannot see the front of him.

A frown mars my brow, and it is my turn to eye him this time.

Ga’Var has been disappearing increasingly during the day to scout.

Now I’m wondering if he’s been leaving for another reason.

“The darkness comes,” he says. “We should prepare your meal and settle in.”

He’s right, of course.

I can already see the shadows creeping in.

Rising from the cot, I drape the blanket around me like a Roman official in times before Christ, and head out of the camper.

I’ve been dreading skinning the snake and I eye it, standing off the ground on the stick Ga’Var had poked down its throat.

But food is food.

With Ga’Var’s help, I skin the snake—something that is much easier than it should be.

He chops the head off, and the tail, then hands me the meat.

Gulping, I take it, using the utility knife I found in the camper to slice it into smaller pieces.

When I’m done, it doesn’t look so much like a snake anymore.

Now it just looks like a meaty sausage.

As I sit by the fire to roast the chunks, Ga’Var sits beside me.

He is busy watching what I am doing, but now and then, his gaze slips to the unroasted bits.

“You can have some you know.”

His gaze darts to mine.

Once again, his ears lift from the side of his head.

My dark elf has returned.

“You are offering,” he says, and his words make me squeeze my eyes shut.

I’m bad at this.

Very bad at this.

Twice now, I’ve done the one thing that suggests I want him in my bed.

And maybe it’s the influence of that darned book…but my center throbs.

When Ga’Var sniffs suddenly, I almost fall into the fire and die.

But if he smells anything. He doesn’t comment on it.

Maybe he can smell my embarrassment, too.

With one finger, he pokes a claw into the raw meat and brings it to his nose.

He sniffs again and eyes it dubiously.

“Not enough lifeblood. This flesh is dry.” He glances at me. “Did I leave it out too long?”

At first, I don’t understand what he means, but then I remember that those worms the Vullan eat literally pop as the veins burst in their mouths.

“No, this is just how it is.”

He growls a little and pops the thing in his mouth.

With one movement, his throat moves as he swallows.

“You’re supposed to…” my eyes widen as his tongue emerges, flicking over his lips, “…chew.”

I look away immediately, choosing to focus on roasting the rest of the meat.

By the time I’m finished, I’ve avoided not looking his way for so long that when I finally do, I jump.

At some point, he’d turned on the log to face me fully. His “mask” is down and I can see his face.

His sculpted jawline, high cheekbones, firm chin, and those ridges that highlight every beautiful feature.

In the dying light around us, I can only stare, for Ga’Var is the most handsome male I have ever seen.

And that realization makes me dread something inside.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

GA’VAR

My sazi throbs as I watch Sa’am pull her lip into her mouth.

It is so supple…so soft.

Every rekking thing about her is starting to drive me insane.

I know now that the fates had it out for me all along. Being around Sa’am is the recipe for my end.

It is the first time I have spent so long in her presence alone…

Now I’m wondering how I will manage when we eventually reach back to the base.

She will return to the hyu’man sleeping nest with the other females while I will head back to the lower levels to dig. To mine.

She is clever. Tenacious. Easy to be around.

I dislike that things will go back to normal.

But I should. Shouldn’t I?

Her throat moves and she glances away from me, picking up her burned morsels and stacking them in a strange hollowed-out carrying pot.

“I should put this away for later. I’ll wrap it good so I don’t attract any predators in the night.” She glances around us. “Even though I’m not so sure anything lives in the forest around here with that thing less than a few miles away.”

I watch her stand, the strange covering swaying as she moves, and I squeeze my eyes shut.

I smelled her arousal.

I smelled it.

I’m pretty sure I’m right about that scent because the moment it touched my nostrils, my entire being lit up from the inside.

It’s not like Adee’ra’s at all.

Sa’am’s is sweet. So sweet, it makes me want to taste her.

Even now, my ba’clan pulse at the thought.

Unintentionally, I growl her name. “Sa’am.”

“Yes?” she answers me from what sounds like the entrance to the camper. And my sazi throbs at the sound of her voice.

I do not turn to look, for if I do, I will certainly go after her.

All day I have been sneaking away to release the tension that keeps on building.

It makes me want to run and howl. It makes me want to hunt.

To claim.

It makes me want to take the little flower that’s in my midst.

But doing so would surely break her in two.

The last thing I want to do is hurt her.

…I have to fight this.

At least, until I return her to safety.

Back at Base Zero, I can take out my frustrations on San’ten. He’s been wanting a fight for long enough.

“Aren’t you coming in?”

I know her invitation is innocent, but my thoughts go the other way.

If she was a Vullan female inviting me into her nest, offering me food twice, I would have pinned her over the log and claimed her already.

But Sa’am is hyu’man.

She knows not of these things.

I have to remind myself of that at each instance.

My mind knows, but my sazi does not.

Even now, it throbs insistently.

SAM

Ga’Var takes a while to enter the camper and I raise my eyebrows at him. In the dying light, I can hardly see him again, but he removes his suit like magic. It just disappears and then he’s walking toward me.

I gulp as I watch him approach.

The muscles in his chest are only more defined by his ridges.

My gaze slips down and down, further and further.

He is naked.

I guess I should have expected that with a skintight suit and all, but my cheeks warm as I can’t pull my gaze away from him.

Curiosity has my gaze falling even lower and then…

I don’t know what I expected to see between his legs. A cock, maybe?

But there isn’t one.

Instead, there’s an obvious bulge underneath his skin, and the way his ridges come together there, like two plates meeting against each other, gives me the impression that he has some kind of hidden cock.

And I am still staring.

He leans against the wall near the cot and looks down at me.

“Rest,” he says. “You need to heal.”

Right.

My leg has been the least of my concern. I can hardly feel any pain in it unless I try to put all my weight on it.

“Aren’t you going to sleep?”

Ga’Var’s ears twitch. “I don’t need to.”

That makes my eyebrows rise. “You mean like at all or just not right now?”

“Now, I must keep watch for night creatures.”

Right.

I nod, my gaze still finding it hard to leave him.

I gulp, knowing what I’m about to say and trying to discourage myself before the words leave my mouth.

They do anyway.

“You can lie down though.” I scoot into the corner. “I don’t like the idea of you just standing there all night.”

He eyes the space before his gaze flicks back to me.

“Sa’am.”

Fuck.

The way he says my name, pulls it out like that, it makes it sound erotic in that deep voice. It really isn’t helping right now.

“Yes?” And that wispy little voice isn’t mine. What the fuck is wrong with me?

“We are? Simply…allies?”

His question is a strange one that has me frowning, trying to get at his meaning behind it.

“I…wouldn’t say so. Not simply.” I study him, brows still furrowed. “I would like to think of you as my friend.”

“Friend.” It’s obvious he turns this title over in his mind and I’m suddenly nervous he’s going to piss on it and tell me he doesn’t want to fuck me, definitely, and he doesn’t want to be friends with me either.

“Do friends lay together in the same nest?”

“Um…” I still don’t understand what he’s getting at. “Yes? Yes, they do. Well, they can.”

He studies me for a moment before he leans off the wall and over the cot.

He’s suddenly larger than life and I can only stare up at him.

“This is a small nest.”

“And you’re a big guy.”

I wonder if this could be classed as flirting.

I’m certainly not trying to.

“You won’t be able to move.”

“I know. It will make me feel safer feeling you beside me. We humans like…touch.”

I swear his ears twitch and he leans back.

I take that as a signal he’s not going to join me when he suddenly eases down on the cot, climbing on all fours before turning to plop on his back.

The little cot creaks with the weight but holds.

And yes, I’m suddenly pressed against the camper’s leather interior, but I can feel Ga’Var’s warmth on my other side…and it makes me smile.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

GA’VAR

It takes forever for Sa’am’s breaths to even out, and I finally let some of the tension ease from me.

This was a bad idea.

I can smell her sweet scent and the softness of her body beside me. It is not something I can ignore and my sazi…my sazi is certainly not ignoring it.

I need to relieve myself again, but I am sure that if I move, Sa’am will wake, for somehow, she has wrapped herself around my arm.

I do not dare to move.

I do not want to.

My sazi throbs again. Hard.

When we return to the base, if any of my brethren so much as look Sa’am’s way…

I have seen them watching the humans, hoping a female will favor them as Adee’ra has favored Fer’ro.

I cannot lie…

I have been wishing the same.

But Sa’am…the thought of one of them claiming her…it makes anger rise within me.

I want to claim her myself.

My sazi extrudes, as if rejoicing in the thought that has finally landed in my head.

A ball of spend glistens on the tip.

Rek.

I glance down at Sa’am. She is still sleeping.

I will do this quickly and hope she does not wake.

As my hand comes in contact with my sazi, a breath hisses in my throat.

Sa’am…

Her wide eyes…the little pink tongue she likes to point in my direction.

I imagine what it must feel like, having her tongue on my skin and I groan, unable to help myself.

My sazi throbs underneath my claw.

Sa’am…and the way she smiles when she is happy, the little trilling sound of her laughter…the determination in her eyes even when they are close to leaking.

I pump my hand at each thought running through my head, just before the image of her cleansing herself takes center stage in my mind.

Unlike me, Sa’am is so, so soft all over.

Supple.

Perfect.

My sazi jerks, sending spill over my fingers and I bite down hard, trying not to roar the way I really want to.

The spasms go through me and my hand stills.

Now…now I can rest.

Right at that moment, Sa’am moves in her sleep.

Her mouth opens, and she lets out a soft moan that sends my senses into overdrive.

My sazi throbs again and I groan.

Rek.

I want to hear her scream my name.

SAM

I don’t know what wakes me up, but something does.

I groan and snuggle closer to the warmth that’s around me before my eyes fly open and I freeze.

I don’t know when I did it, but somehow I snuggled right up to Ga’Var’s side.

His muscular chest is against my face, and I’ve draped my leg across his.

Shame fills me immediately and I almost pull away, thinking I can slink away while he sleeps when the rest of my consciousness comes online.

The chest against my cheek shudders and something moves in the darkness.

I squint and the moonlight hits it at just the right moment.

Everything within me vacates, and I forget I need to breathe as I watch Ga’Var’s hand move.

I blink, caught between shock and…more shock because I can’t believe what I’m seeing.

But as his hands move, there’s no hiding what he is doing.

There’s a deliciously erotic squelching sound as his hand moves over his cock and my mouth opens a little.

I didn’t know he did…I didn’t know aliens masturba—

But of course, they do!

I knew he had a cock too, but…

Fuck.

Seeing it.

I’m thankful for the shadows, for the fact I can’t see it very well, because I don’t know how to react.

I’m gawking, sleep forgotten.

I shouldn’t be here.

I shouldn’t be staring the way I am.

What he’s doing is normal…

Yet, I’m staring for a whole other reason.

My thighs clench and I inhale sharply.

Ga’Var’s hand pauses and I squeeze my eyes shut.

Shit.

He doesn’t say a word. Actually, he doesn’t even move.

Fuck.

There’s no pretending I’m still asleep. He clearly knows I’m not, and I’m left feeling like the creep I am watching him pleasure himself.

But just as I am about to open my mouth and apologize, his hand starts moving again and my thighs clench all on their own.

I move a little, pulling away so I can look up at him, but Ga’Var’s arm tightens around me.

“Ga’Var?”

There’s a vibration in his chest and a rumbling purr as he opens his mouth.

My own breaths are coming fast as I listen to him fist himself, and once again, I clench.

“Sa’am…”

The way he says my name, pulls each syllable, then grunts as his cock jerks…

My whole body is tingling, as if each breath he takes is flowing over my skin.

I never knew watching a man masturbate could be like this.

But Ga’Var isn’t a man… And it’s clear he’s not just masturbating to the thought of anyone…

“Sa’am…”

He’s thinking about me.

Confusion, nervousness, and heat run through me all at once and I tilt my head enough so I can look up at him.

The dim fire of his eyes is lit by moonlight, creating a burning flame.

“Sa’am,” he says again, and my pussy throbs as if in response.

“Sa’am.” His hand moves faster with each call of my name.

“Ga’Var?” His name leaves my lips and Ga’Var groans, his chin tilting up as he presses his head back.

A deep rumble leaves him as his body jerks.

Holy fuck.

I’ve never seen anything like it.

I’m transfixed as I watch him spasm, dimly aware that his spend is coating his fingers.

When he finally calms down, his body relaxes, and he looks down at me again.

My mouth is still partially open as I look into his eyes.

I don’t know what to say.

I don’t know if I should say anything.

“Sa’am,” he says, his voice more normal than before.

I lick my lips. “Yes?”

“You weren’t supposed to see that.”

“I know,” I whisper.

I sense he wants to say something more, but isn’t sure how to go about it, so I rest my face against his side once more.

“We don’t have to talk about it.”

I don’t know if I want to either.

It’s already raising so many questions within me. My mind is fully awake and wants answers I’m not sure I want to face.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

SAM

As dawn breaks, I sense when Ga’Var shifts and rises. I do not open my eyes, and when the cot creaks as he leaves, my heart skips a few beats.

The door to the camper opens and closes and I wait a few moments more.

When I’m sure he’s probably walked off, I pop one eye open and release a breath.

Shit.

What the hell is happening to me?

My skin is hot and there is a burning need between my thighs that I tried to ignore all night.

I keep hearing his voice, the way Ga’Var moaned my name, the fire that was in his eyes as he touched himself.

Fuck!

There’s sweet honey burning between my folds, begging me to touch myself, too.

I flip on the cot, my gaze focused on the roof of the camper.

This is bad, but I know from experience that ignoring it will only make it worse.

So I open the blanket that’s still secured around me and I release another breath as I brush my hand over my thigh.

Another breath shudders through me as my eyes flutter closed.

I see Ga’Var’s face.

I see the need in his eyes as he touched himself and my clit throbs as I brush my finger over it.

It’s the first bit of physical pleasure I’ve had since the end of the world, and it makes my body jerk.

I have to bite down hard to prevent myself from whimpering.

Flattening my palm, I cup myself as I reach down to my center.

If I’m going to do this, I have to hurry.

There’s no telling how far he’s gone and, unlike him, I don’t think I could live if he walked in on me with my fingers deep inside my cunt.

For a reason I don’t understand, the thought makes me throb and I swallow hard.

I keep my eyes closed, reliving what happened last night.

His scent, the feel of his body spasming beside mine…

What would it feel like with someone like him?

I’m disappointed now that I didn’t have the guts to ask Adira about her relationship with Fer’ro.

But I can imagine it.

I can imagine it with Ga’Var.

Ga’Var’s groans lit a fire in me.

I imagine the rumble in his chest, that deep thrum vibrating through his entire body as he thrusts deep in me, and the thought makes me bite back another whimper.

The image is so vivid, I can almost hear him right beside me. That same deep purr as he looks into my eyes, driving me wild as he pierces me deep.

“Sa’am…”

And his voice, his voice in my ears as he—

My eyes fly open.

I didn’t just imagine that, and I know I’m not alone as soon as my eyes open on the figure towering within the camper.

My breath hitches, my hand freezes, my entire body flushes as I stare back at Ga’Var.

Shit!

When did he come back?

My cheeks burn with embarrassment that could last me a thousand years as I stutter, trying to find something to say.

Ga’Var takes a step forward.

He’s in his suit, but it disappears from over his head and those slitted eyes of his meet mine.

“Sa’am?”

This time, it’s a question, but I’m not sure what he is asking or what I need to say.

So I clamp my thighs shut with my hand still between them and use the other hand to pull the blanket across me.

Ga’Var takes another step toward me. Then another.

Three steps and he’s right in front of the cot.

“You are beautiful… Why do you hide?”

His words have me at a loss. Even if I could speak, my throat feels like there’s a lump in it and I’m sure my words will come out garbled and nonsensical.

His gaze slips down what he can see of my body, and it grows heated with every inch.

“I—”

“Show me.”

I…what?

I don’t think I heard him correctly.

“Show me,” he repeats.

“Show you what?” My voice is almost inaudible. A mere squeak.

“I want to see you pleasure yourself.” His gaze meets mine. “It is only fair.”

I can feel my cheeks heat, but he’s not backing down.

“You watched me last night.” The slits of his eyes narrow and a rumble vibrates through him as if the memory is giving him great pleasure.

“I did.” I lick my lips. It’s fresh in my mind too…and even fresher now that I’d been touching myself while thinking of that exact thing.

The only problem is, he’d been doing it under the cover of darkness.

There’s no way I can rub my clit and look at him in broad daylight as if I’m doing something as simple as the laundry.

I shake my head.

“I can’t.”

Ga’Var’s ears twitch and flatten against the sides of his head. A breath shudders through him and as I pull the hand I’d imprisoned from between my legs, his gaze follows my movement.

“I should get up,” I say as I rise.

Ga’Var reaches out and steadies me. Soon I am standing beside him, my gaze averted to the outside of the camper as I search for something, anything, to discuss except the tension created by what I was just doing.

“My leg feels a lot better.” I look down at it. I can put a helluva lot more pressure on it today and I know this…technology that’s coated my leg is helping me heal. “We could try to get back to base.”

I glance at my wrist where the patch is, but it’s still blinking a dim red and blue.

“That is…if that machine isn’t still parked out there somewhere.” Thought of it sends a shiver through me, dispelling whatever other feelings were occurring.

How could I forget? How could I allow myself to…feel alive?

I don’t know which is right.

I just know that a part of me feels guilty for the little safety I’ve felt while another part feels…grateful.

I wish every day was like the last day.

I can see how a future like that would work…but not a future like this. The one belonging to the reality in which I now stand.

“Do you think it’s still out there?” I turn my gaze to Ga’Var and my breath stops in my throat.

He is so close. Closer than I realized and his suit…

My eyes widen as I watch the fibers stretch toward me. Pulling away from him so hard that I can see his natural skin underneath.

“Ga’Var?” My breath leaves my body as I stare.

It’s like blobs of thick ink attracted by a magnetic field—and I’m the magnet.

Ga’Var steps forward and I step back, my back meeting the wall as my head tilts so I can meet his gaze.

He’s bent when he stands upright in the camper, but I realize that he’s bending toward me.

His gaze is pure burgundy. I can’t even see the slits of his pupils anymore, and his suit, it’s still stretching toward me.

“Sa’am,” he says.

I don’t know what the hell is happening.

I’ve seen none of the other Vullan do anything like this before.

My eyes widen some more as I reach up and press my hands against his chest—partly to hold him back and partly because he’s so close now, I need some support so I can look up at him.

His suit envelopes my hands like a warm embrace and the effect should scare me. Heck, it should make me scream.

Instead, it renders me speechless.

I feel a pulse against my leg and the part of the suit that’s covered my hands also pulses at the same time.

Maybe he has finally figured out how to call it back, but that logical explanation doesn’t seem right.

“What’s happening?” I whisper, and Ga’Var comes even closer.

We’re so close now I can feel his heat.

That same heat that kept me warm last night.

“Your scent,” he rumbles. “I can smell your scent…”

His head dips, his ridged forehead brushing against mine, and I can only stare into his eyes, his words not registering until much too late.

My scent.

My scent.

He means my—

Realization dawns at the same time that he growls and it shouldn’t, it really shouldn’t, but the sound makes me clench.

I don’t know what the fuck is happening between me and him.

I don’t know when it started.

I don’t know how the hell it’s going to end.

And that…scares me a little.

“Go,” he growls. “Go, Sa’am. Now. Move away from me.” He pauses and his voice turns into a deep growl that sounds more like an animal than a man. “Do it slowly.”

My widened gaze flicks across his face, my chest heaving with every breath.

“Why?”

I watch in awe that should be horror as Ga’Var’s lips pull back enough for me to see his fangs.

And they drip.

“Because I can smell you. I can smell your arousal. And I can smell your fear.”

His words have me unable to move.

His claws extend and dig into the camper’s side, causing my breath to stop in my throat.

“Go.” His voice is so deep now, the word is barely recognizable. “Because if I move…”

My gaze darts over his face. In my peripheral vision, he’s hunched his shoulders as he leans over me, every muscle taut and ready.

“You’re afraid you will rip me apart?”

Ga’Var growls and this time, I shiver.

“No.” There’s a pause. A moment where time stands still. “I’m afraid I will turn you around and claim you right here, right now.”

I gulp. Hard.

His words should make me run.

He’s giving me a way to get out of this.

To turn away and walk out of the camper till it is safe to return.

So why the fuck won’t my legs move?!

CHAPTER NINETEEN

GA’VAR

Those wide, dark and white eyes look up at me, searching my gaze as if wanting answers, but I dare not even move.

I can smell her, and she is so, so sweet.

I can barely control my urges.

The one thing keeping me grounded is the scent of her fear that’s mingled in.

Sa’am is scared right now. I have to remain in control.

But her fear…it’s also creating another response. Another instinct I’d rather not have to battle with right now.

I draw my nostrils closed, yet I can still scent her.

Sweet, sweet Sa’am.

“Go, Sa’am. Slowly.” For if she darts out of the shelter right now, I will chase her.

I will hunt her.

And I will catch her.

The scent of her fear heightens, growing with the scent of her arousal.

She does not want this.

I am giving her the chance to get away from me.

Yet, she does not move.

My hands clench in the wall behind her, ripping into it a little more and she, her throat moving, but she doesn’t turn to see what I have done.

She’s focused her gaze on mine.

And then it drops.

Going over the ridges along my cheekbones, my jaw, to land on my mouth.

I know my fangs are bared. I can feel saliva gathering at their tips.

I run my tongue across them, wiping it away, and Sa’am’s breath hitches.

Her chest heaves as her breathing picks up, and I wonder if she is simply frozen in fear.

Some prey animals do that.

They stop dead in the sight of danger.

Her throat moves again as she meets my gaze and I am dimly aware that her hands move as well, sliding up my chest in a slow ascent.

The sensation of her soft hand sends ripples through me and my muscles contract in my arms, ripping into the wall behind her even more.

She doesn’t flinch.

Instead, her fear scent dips and her arousal heightens.

“Run, Sa’am.”

She pauses and looks away as if contemplating what she’s about to do or say before her gaze falls on me again.

That little pink tongue of hers runs over her lips and my sazi throbs, aching to extrude.

“And what if I don’t run?”

What is she doesn’t?

Great Gods of Missus…

Does this hyu’man not realize what she has stirred within me?

My symbiotes are no longer on my being. They are slowly extending over her. I have lost control of them and I am so close to losing contr—

Sa’am rises suddenly, tipping on her toes, and presses her lips against mine.

The world around us disappears and I thrum so hard, it vibrates between us as it barrels through me.

I feel the wetness of her tongue, a tentative flick as it touches my mouth and I groan.

Her arms rise, circling my neck, and another breath shudders through me as I remain rigid.

I don’t know what she’s doing. I still don’t dare to move. But when her tongue flicks against me again, I can’t remain still.

In one movement, I release the wall and grip her to me.

Sa’am lets out a whimper against my lips, but her fear scent is nowhere to be found. All I can smell is the scent of her growing arousal.

Sweet and spicy, just like the female in my arms.

I spin, still gripping her to me as I lower us onto the sleeping pad.

Sa’am’s mouth breaks from mine and her chest heaves with huge breaths, but not for long.

I don’t want the space.

I want to feel her lips against me again.

So I push my mouth unto hers, careful not to bare my fangs on her soft skin, and another growl barrels from me.

She is so soft. She melts against me as she groans, her arms tightening around my neck as she opens her mouth and sucks on my lip.

All the stars…

Such a simple act that feels so incredible.

“Ga’Var,” Sa’am whispers, “open your mouth. I want to kiss you.”

Kiss me?

So that is what hyu’mans call this mouth-eating?

I open my mouth just a little and Sa’am smiles against my lips.

Happiness.

This is giving her pleasure.

Rek.

It makes me want her even more, and I almost forget that I’m trying to remain in control. To take this slow. To let her lead. To let her give me whatever amount of herself that she wants to give.

My sazi is throbbing so hard, the singular need of wanting to pierce her with my length beats at the forefront of my mind.

But when Sa’am’s tongue flicks against my own, all that is forgotten.

All I can think of is the sound of her pleasure. The slight whimper that leaves her lips. How she trembles beneath me at the taste of my tongue.

I open my mouth a little farther, allowing her access as I reach my tongue forward, brushing against hers.

Sa’am…

I’m in a trance as I get my first taste of her. I’ve never wanted another female as much as I want this hyu’man right now, right here.

Sa’am whimpers as I mimic her strokes and soon she is moving her arms from around my neck. She grasps the sides of my face, her hands cupping my jaw as our tongues move, and I cannot take it anymore.

My sazi extrudes, pre-spend dripping between us.

Every stoke of my tongue against hers sends a throb right through my shaft until I dip my tongue into Sa’am’s mouth.

She groans, her body jerking beneath mine.

With one claw, I balance above her as the other grips her head in much the same way that she is holding mine. When her eyes flutter open, I am transfixed.

“You can still run…”

I say the words, hoping she will not heed them now.

But Sa’am meets my gaze, a fire starting in those deep eyes of hers.

“Why are you so afraid?” she whispers, and her words have me frozen.

Me? Afraid?

No being could ever accuse me of such a thing…yet…

Sa’am is right.

I am terrified.

“What I want to do to you right now… I don’t want to hurt you.”

I’m seeing the folly of all this. I was stupid for letting it get this far.

“Nothing I can’t han…” She looks down and I know what she sees. “…dle.”

Her eyes widen and, at the attention of her gaze, my sazi throbs, jerking toward her.

“Fuck,” she murmurs.

I expect to scent fear…

I expect her to scramble away from me now.

A joining between us is biologically impossible.

But fear is not what I smell.

What I smell is desire.

“You’re big.” She flicks her tongue over her lips again, her gaze not rising. “And…different.”

My sazi throbs again, jerking between us.

“If you’re worried about how you’ll fit…” Her brows furrow in a way I’ve never seen them do before. “Shit…I’m worried too, but women have ten-pound babies. Vagina’s stretch. We just have to go slow…okay?”

Her gaze meets mine once more and again I sense no fear.

It startles me.

Is she really…she’s considering this.

The thought makes another surge go through me.

Sa’am opens her legs some more, draping them around me, and her arms fold around my neck once more.

My ba’clan has settled all around her, coating her, but I don’t think she has realized.

This time, when I call them back, they react and obey, moving from her to me and settling under my skin.

Sa’am’s eyes are wide as she watches, but she doesn’t move. She doesn’t say a word, and she doesn’t pull away.

She shifts a little, her body going tense as she meets my gaze, waiting.

“Not yet.” The growl is deep, disturbing the air between us, and Sa’am blinks.

“Not yet?” Her arms around my neck slacken a little. “Not now?”

Oh, definitely now. There’s no way I want to turn back now. But…

“I want to taste you first.”

Sa’am blinks at me again, her gaze falling as she turns my words over in her head.

Then she does something I don’t expect. She bares her neck to me.

“Hmm, I guess that’s okay, as long as you don’t bite hard.”

I almost laugh.

“Not there, little flower,” I growl as I shift from underneath her arms and move lower.

A gasp is all I hear, breath hissing through her teeth as her legs clamp shut around my head.

But I’m too fast. My tongue is already between that little mat of curls.

A thrum erupts from me as her taste bursts across my tongue.

By the Gods…

This is it.

I think I have found the center of the universe.

CHAPTER TWENTY

SAM

I don’t expect what he does next, but the large alien surprises me.

I only have a moment of realization before he dips, his tongue flicking out of his mouth to dive right through my folds.

My clit throbs the moment his thick tongue runs over it and my legs slam closed.

Ga’Var reaches up and grabs them. He presses my thighs tighter, keeping his head imprisoned between my thighs, and I have to muffle a scream of pleasure as his tongue dives again.

Oh fuck…

My hips jerk and I feel like I’m going to orgasm already.

His tongue is wet and wide. Thick enough to feel like a weapon on its own. The tapered end flicks over my clit as if the fucker has realized that’s what making my hips buck and when I shudder again, I feel him rumble.

He runs his tongue over my clit, licking, flicking, vibrating like a motorized pleasure-her dildo and my thighs tremble.

But Ga’Var isn’t letting me go.

He keeps my thighs closed against the sides of his head and, for once, I allow myself to feel.

I don’t worry about suffocating him. He doesn’t seem to care.

He rumbles again, as if he’s feeling the pleasure I’m feeling, and it hits me that…maybe he is.

Maybe he is enjoying it.

The thought makes me shudder as a fresh wave of want rushes through me.

With each buck of my hips, Ga’Var groans louder until I am shaking like a pile of leaves.

I don’t think I can take it anymore.

It feels like I am about to lose control of my body…and then Ga’Var stops.

He groans as he gives me one final long, slow lick straight through my folds, and I cry out his name.

“Ga’Var,” I pant.

I think he’s done, but then he simply adjusts himself.

Something hard presses into my clit.

I can hardly see through my blurred vision, but I look down.

His nose. The ridges on it rub against me and I whimper at the unfamiliar sensation, as another bolt of pleasure runs through me.

I feel the peak rising within me, about to burst through me like a geyser when Ga’Var’s tongue pierces me.

So thick, and hot, and wet—my vision goes white.

The orgasm hits me hard, my hips bucking, causing my clit to rub along his nose as his tongue pulls back and enters me again and again and again.

“Ga’Var!”

“Haa…”

He mumbles against me even as my hips continue to buck.

It’s almost as if I can feel my orgasm seeping over his tongue, and he growls deep as the tremors fade from my body.

I’m panting as Ga’Var finally loosens his hold on my thighs and my legs fall open.

He looks up at me and my cheeks blaze as I feel his tongue still moving within me.

But he doesn’t look away.

The brazenness in his gaze is like watching a lion staring at you, knowing you are its next meal.

I would never survive in the Serengeti on my own…because that look doesn’t make me want to run.

I reach down, my hand brushing over the locs on top of his head.

They are thick, like his tongue…like his cock…and another surge goes through me at the dirty thoughts.

Ga’Var groans, his gaze still locked with mine as he pushes his tongue deeper inside me.

My hips buck again just as his tongue slides out of my channel.

Fuck…

This is really hot.

He is really hot.

He flicks his tongue over my folds again, over my clit, and I swear I see the corners of his lips twitch when I whimper.

Shit.

How am I still horny?

I’ve never been horny after coming before.

That feeling usually dies.

But looking at Ga’Var…there’s nothing I want more than to feel him inside me right now.

Who knows…

This might be the last time we’re ever alone together.

This might be the last time we ever do this.

Ga’Var rises over me, his gaze searching mine.

He runs his tongue over his lips, licking away my juices.

“Beautiful Sa’am…”

The way he is looking at me…

No one…no one has ever looked at me like this before.

As if they’ve never seen anything better. As if I’m a star in the sky they could gaze on every day and every night.

My legs part some more as he comes between them, and soon we are face to face.

Ga’Var’s head dips and he inhales the skin at my neck.

“You offered me your neck earlier…”

“Mmhm…” My voice is a whisper I do not recognize. “Your fangs. I thought you wanted to taste my blood.”

Ga’Var groans so loud that I feel it in his chest.

“Sa’am…you will be the death of me.”

He lifts his head and I meet his gaze once more. My clit is throbbing again, as if I was not just sated.

I’ve never had this level of attraction to anyone before.

“Is that a good or bad thing?”

Ga’Var growls. “Good,” he says. “Very good. If I have to die, I wish for the last thing I remember to be this time I spend with you.”

His words surprise me even as his hand grasps my hips.

The Vullan didn’t seem like the romantic sort.

I was wrong.

Ga’Var’s gaze moves down my now naked body, the blanket long gone, and he grasps one of my breasts, his clawed fingertip brushing lightly over the nipple.

My breath hitches and he glances my way.

“So many areas to enjoy…” he murmurs, then meets my gaze again. “I am sorry. We Vullan only have one thing to give you pleasure. My sazi is the only pleasure point I can give you.”

Um…clearly, he does not know what he just did to me with his tongue.

“Sah-zi?”

He eases off me somewhat and my gaze falls.

Big, reddish with a dark line of veins on the underside, his huge cock bobs in the air, fully hard and dripping pre-cum.

The sight of it makes my heart skip a beat.

He’s large, much larger than I realized in the darkness of the night.

He’s tapered toward his tip, but with a girth like that…

Ga’Var shifts again and settles back on his legs, looking down at me.

His cock bobs upright and I see a literal throb go through it.

He’s just as horny as I am, if not more.

I don’t understand why he’s not fumbling to get inside me as quickly as he can.

Most men I’ve been with…

But that’s just it.

Ga’Var isn’t a man.

I can’t compare him to them.

He’s something completely different.

The control he’s exercising right now, even after making me come so hard while he’s still pining for release, makes my respect for him rise a notch.

His gaze moves over me and somehow I don’t squirm.

The way he looks at me isn’t leery or uncomfortable.

He looks at me as if I’m his…as if I’ve always been his.

That look only stops and becomes a heated blazing fire as his gaze lands on the thick mat of curls between my thighs.

I can sense why he’s waiting, unsure.

I can see the power in those muscles. I’m aware of what he could do to me if he wanted to. But the fact that he isn’t…the fact he’s holding back…it gives me confidence he won’t hurt me.

Somewhere, I find the bravery to sit upright and move toward him.

Ga’Var’s eye slits widen and contract as I near and a thrum rumbles through him when I wrap my arms around his neck.

He grasps my ass, pulling me up onto his lap, and I instinctively wrap my legs around him before he manages to make me settle.

“Sa’am. What are you doing?” His cock throbs between us.

“Shh. Don’t speak.” Because I’m this close to rethinking this and running away.

I grasp his cock and Ga’Var stills, his chest rising as he holds his breath.

His eye slits disappear and all I see is burgundy as I fist him, or try to…

But the movement of my hand down his shaft sends a shudder of pleasure through him and he bares his fangs a little.

He grips my hips tighter, so tight, I can hardly lift myself to position him beneath me, but at the first brush of his tip against my folds, he freezes again.

I freeze, as a shock of pleasure I wasn’t prepared for goes straight through me.

His cock throbs, brushing hard against my clit as I move him down toward my center, the tip slipping in just a little in a movement that has us both gasping.

“No,” he groans, and his muscles tense against me. “Injuring you is not my goal.”

I can hardly think around the feeling of his tip inside me. Formulating thoughts puts a strain on my brain. But I manage to moan something unidentifiable.

“Sa’am,” Ga’Var groans.

“Deeper,” I try again, and I feel him react this time.

His chest expands as he takes a deep breath.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

There’s a rumble in his throat. “Just a little then,” he whispers. “Just a taste.”

Ga’Var growls and my eyes roll back into my head and he takes over, pulling me down farther on him.

He’s everything I imagined and more, the feel of his thickness stretching me from within, creating an exquisite ache I’ve never felt before.

Just a little?

I don’t think a little will satisfy either of us.

Ga’Var growls again as he lifts me just enough without breaking our contact. When he lowers me again, the tapered tip of his cock sinks deeper, the thick part of his shaft stretching my entrance.

I grip on to his shoulders and try to relax as he repeats the movement.

But with each throb of his cock, I grow wetter still, and soon, that tight stretching isn’t a hindrance anymore.

With each slow thrust, Ga’Var works himself inside me and I’m lost, floating on a cloud far above us until I lift my head to look up at him.

The utter torment on his face has me speechless.

His teeth are clenched, his fangs bared, the muscles in his jaw and shoulders taut and stretched.

He’s holding back.

Scared he’ll hurt me.

Something inside me clenches at the thought and I grip him tighter, plastering my lips against his.

He rumbles something I do not understand as he thrusts, working himself deep inside me until we’re flush against each other.

The pressure is almost too much, as if I’m going to split in two, but the ultimate feel of it all…

“Ga’Var,” I whimper and he pulls me against his chest as he thrusts upward.

I’m so tight against him, not even a hair could pass between us.

There are ridges where his cock stems from, and those ridges connect with my clit, sending new shockwaves through me.

“Ga’Var!” I pant his name just before another orgasm overtakes me and I stiffen, my body heaving with the extent of the pull.

There’s a grunt and I’m suddenly on my back as Ga’Var gives one final, hard thrust that pushes me back into the cot.

A growl rumbles in his throat before he tilts his head back and roars.

And when he looks at me…

When those fiery eyes land on mine…

I know this can’t be the last time.

Because I don’t want this to end.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

GA’VAR

I’m caught in the land of my birth.

I see the starships sailing in the sky. I see myself running through the rocky plains chasing kuurga.

That was the last time I was happy.

But that memory is being replaced with what I am experiencing now.

Sa’am is limp in my arms as she looks up at me through glazed eyes.

And I wonder…

How did I not see it before?

Sa’am…is mine.

My ba’clan thrum from within me as if to say they have been trying to tell me this all along.

But the thought is…alien.

Is this how Fer’ro felt?

Is this what my brother went through when he realized Adee’ra was his?

My gaze moves over my female’s natural form.

Small. Pink. Perfect.

But oh so vulnerable.

And a wave of emotions I never expected swarms into my head.

The need to protect her with my life surges like a fire within me.

My sazi throbs in agreement. Still nestled deep in her suu’ci, her walls contract around me, and a thrum goes through me that I don’t withhold.

“You…didn’t come?” Her eyes are wide as she looks up at me. “I thought you did…”

Come…

The way she is looking at me, with wonder and disappointment on her expressive face, makes me pause.

She wonders why my sazi is still ready for her. Why I am still extruded?

“You didn’t enjoy it?” She searches my gaze. “I—”

I dip my head to hers, cutting her off.

How could she think she did not please me?

“I will always be ready for you, my flower.”

“But you’re still…hard and…” Her cheeks grow warm as my sazi throbs again.

“It is always hard. Even when my spend is released.”

“Oh.” She doesn’t meet my gaze this time, and I put a finger under her chin and force her to look at me.

Sa’am is…exactly what I never knew I needed.

I’m lost staring at her when I hear a growl.

It sounds like a small animal, and my ba’clan crawls over my skin in a split second as I slide out of Sa’am, blocking her with my body as I glance around the shelter.

My sazi slips back into its pouch as I rise in a crouch, but I do not see any small animals that might have crept in.

Annoyance rises within me.

How could I have let my guard down when my mate, as vulnerable as she is, rests here?

There’s the sound again, this time behind me, and I spin to see Sam gripping her stomach.

I sniff, the scent of our mating filling my nostrils as she sits upright.

“I’m hungry,” she says and my ears twitch.

The sound came from her?

She growls again and I blink, my nictitating membrane sliding over my eyes just once.

Shame fills me, driving away the annoyance.

I should have fed her before I pierced her with my shaft.

“I will hunt for you.” I hop off the sleeping pad in one movement, but the feel of Sa’am’s touch stops me in my tracks.

“Wait.” She slides her legs off the edge of the sleeping pad. “I have food, remember. The snake.”

She rises and walks in strange jerks as she heads to where she’d hid the food from the day before.

I can smell it.

It doesn’t smell edible, but she takes it out, sniffs, and smiles.

“Still good.”

I do not know how she ingests food that is not freshly killed.

She walks with those strange jerks back to the sleeping pad and my gaze falls to her swollen leg.

As soon as she sits, I crouch and take the leg into my hand, examining it.

“Oh, it feels a lot better now. I can’t believe it but your suit…whatever it’s doing, it’s helping.”

My ears twitch a little as I watch her sink her teeth into the meat.

“If that is so, why are you walking as if you are experiencing discomfort?”

She stops chewing and her cheeks grow warm.

I am beginning to understand what that change in color means.

She is embarrassed by something.

But what…?

“It’s not my leg.” There’s a smile that plays at her lips before she continues eating and it takes me more than a few moments to realize just where the discomfort is.

My ears perk off my head as my gaze drops to her center, just as Sa’am squirms.

“I’m fine. Just a little sore. It will go away.”

I do not believe her.

I have done what no Vullan should do.

I have hurt my female.

“Lie back. I will heal it for you.”

Her eyebrows shoot up, causing wrinkles on her otherwise smooth forehead.

“Heal it? With your suit?”

I shake my head.

“No. With my tongue.”

SAM

I drop the food, a nervous giggle erupting from me as I scoot backward.

There’s no way I can take another onslaught of Ga’Var’s tongue without putting myself in a coma.

“It’s okay. It’s just my body documenting what just happened between us.”

He studies me for a moment.

“I could soothe you still.” At his words, his tongue flicks out of his mouth, running over his lips as if he can already taste me there.

I gulp and force my gaze away, my pussy clenching like the whore that she is.

“No, really, it’s fine.” My cheeks are so warm, it feels like I’m starting a furnace.

Ga’Var studies me for a bit.

As I pick up the food I spilled, I sense when he eases up and when my gaze finally meets his, I see that he’s put on his suit even over his head again.

“I did not check the perimeter. I will do that now.”

I stare as he turns to head out of the camper. “And the Scrit? Will you check on it too?”

In my peripheral vision, I can see that the little thing on my wrist is still blinking red-blue.

There’s no hope of us returning to base if either of these situations don’t change.

And the food I’d collected…I need to take the mushrooms back and anything else I can find.

Maybe some wild animals that have survived, like a few more snakes and squirrels, too.

Ga’Var is so good at hunting, we might as well make use of his skills.

“If I check on the enemy…I will be gone for a while…much longer than I would like.”

His back is turned to me, but he looks over his shoulder with a backwards glance that tells me it isn’t something he wants to do.

I don’t want him to go either.

In a perfect world, I’d want him to stay with me in this camper.

We could live in the wild, just me and him forever.

But fairy tales like that don’t exist.

We have to go back to reality sooner or later.

“It’s best if you go.” I lower the piece of meat I’m holding between my fingers, my gaze drifting off to look at nothing. “We have to check if it’s still there.”

And if it is, we have to make a plan to get back to base.

I’m no longer injured enough to warrant remaining out here.

But I don’t say that.

I don’t have to.

I know the big alien before me already knows.

The way he looks at me tells me so.

Before he leaves, Ga’Var turns.

“Stay in the shelter,” he says, and I nod.

He opens his mouth to say something else and he takes a step toward me before stopping himself.

“I will be quick.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

GA’VAR

I slip from the shelter with one final glance at Sa’am before I head into the bushes.

My ba’clan back in place, they pulse against me as I leave.

I have to go, I tell them, and they pulse again, almost pulling against my skin to go in Sa’am’s direction.

They have bonded with her.

I have bonded with her.

The moment my sazi slipped inside her, I felt it with a certainty I have never felt before.

Sa’am is mine…and there is no denying it.

I do not know how to break this to her, though.

She has no ba’clan of her own.

She cannot feel a constant pull toward me that would tell her she is my mate.

And the ba’clan that have migrated to her leg, they are not her own.

She has not mentioned them, as if they do not communicate with her.

That can only mean they will return to me after she is healed.

But my mate cannot go without ba’clan. I will not allow it.

She is already vulnerable as it is.

I glance behind me, back at the shelter in which she hides, and I take a deep breath.

I can still smell her on my lips…taste her on my tongue.

My sazi throbs insistently at the thought, wanting more.

If Sa’am wasn’t completely spent, I would have continued to take her until she begged me to stop.

But she is weak from all that she has been through.

Even more reason why I need to protect her.

Every instinct in me is screaming to turn around and return to the shelter.

To pull her into my arms and keep her there.

But I must check the perimeter.

I move through the strange green foliage, my ears perked for the slightest sound.

It is quiet in this forest.

Far too quiet, and I wonder if the small creatures have sensed my approach or if it is the greater threat off in the distance that they hide from.

My ba’clan bristle at the thought of the Scrit.

But Sa’am is right.

I have to check if it is still there.

And if it is…

That is a problem all on its own.

I circle the wide invisible perimeter that I’ve marked out with ease.

The earth on this planet is soft and full of small fallen branches and dead leaves.

It sinks under my feet with every step, and even though my mind is on Sa’am, I do not miss a thing around me.

I stop suddenly as a scent passes through my nostrils, my hackles rising.

I turn, scanning through the trees for the slightest movement, even as I listen.

But there is no sound.

There is the scent, though. Faint, but there.

Hyu’man…but…different.

I sniff again.

It is not the scent of my Sa’am or any of the other hyu’mans back at the base, I am sure.

I sniff again, pulling a deep stream of air into my lungs.

The scent is gone.

I turn slightly, my gaze skimming the bushes.

I am sure I am not mistaken.

Just in case, I head back to where I left Sa’am, cutting through the trees as quietly as the soft wind itself.

I spot Sa’am’s shelter shortly after, and I sniff again.

Nothing. Only Sa’am.

From the elevated point where I stand, I see her sitting up on the sleeping pad.

There’s a smile on her face, one that had never been there while in the tunnels, and I wonder if I am the reason…if what we just shared is the reason for her happiness.

I crouch as I watch her for a few moments.

The scent I smelled…is gone.

But I am not usually wrong about such things.

And for that reason, my gaze travels over the forest.

I will check the perimeter again.

I make three trips around the perimeter.

The scent is gone.

If I’m not mistaken…if there was a hyu’man close by, they have long gone.

Still so close to where Sa’am waits, my ba’clan pull against me again, trying to get me to go to her.

But I still have to investigate the reason we are stuck here.

The Scrit that has stopped walking.

Knowing what I know about our enemy, I cannot imagine that it has stopped for any good reason.

The Gryken do not do things for the good of others.

So I head toward the huge machine, careful to keep to the trees.

The wind picks up against me as I run, caused by my speed, and it is not long before I see the huge metal legs rising from the ground.

I stop far enough away from the machine that I can see it in its entirety.

It looks the same it did when it first stopped.

Giant.

Spotless.

The metal of the orb glistening in the star’s light.

My ba’clan bristle, my hackles threatening to rise at the sight of the thing, but I know they are protecting me still, hiding my energy signature.

If there is a Gryken in there, he cannot sense me, even if he is scanning right now.

I stare at the thing for a while, questions rising in my mind.

Why has it stopped?

A little spike of hope goes through me that it may have stopped because its pilot is no longer in it.

Dead…maybe.

But I know that is wishful thinking.

The Gryken don’t die so easily.

No…it has stopped for some other reason.

I am about to turn away and head back to Sa’am when my whole being shivers, or rather, my ba’clan reacts to something I am not yet aware of.

But then I see it.

High on the Scrit, in the orb itself, a hatch opens.

Fear shoots right through me when I see a long, multi-jointed leg point out of the opening.

My blood organ seizes…

A Gryken.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen one do what this Gryken is doing right now…exiting its machine.

It’s a conscious effort to control my ba’clan as they pulse against me, telling me to flee.

But I can’t go yet.

I cannot leave until I find out what the Gryken is doing…

Because this is not normal and whatever it is doing will most definitely impact the war we are about to fight.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

SAM

Ga’Var has been gone for a while.

Outside is quiet.

I find myself just curled on the cot, staring at the wall with a silly smile on my face.

I can’t believe we just had sex.

There’s a tingling feeling in my stomach as the butterflies flit and flutter and I keep peeking through the windows of the camper, hoping to see the streak of black coming through the bushes as he returns.

So far, nothing.

I wish I had a clock or something. A watch maybe.

Anything to help me know how much time has passed, because it feels like far too long since he left.

When I look out the window one last time, the sun looks like it’s moved across the sky.

It’s not just nerves and the newness of what we just shared.

I’m not just eager to have him return. He has been gone for a while.

I try to remember if the other times he’s gone out have been this long, but it’s a hard thing to judge.

So I try to focus on something else.

My gaze lands on my leg, the one covered in black, and I brush a finger over it.

It pulses underneath my touch and I smile.

It’s like a reminder that I haven’t imagined all this.

I put some pressure on my leg, pressing it down into the cot, but I don’t feel any pain.

For it to have healed already…

That’s impossible.

Yet, I’m looking right at it.

“Really cool…” I whisper, and the dark ink pulses again, almost as if reacting to my words.

“Really cool?” I repeat, and there’s another pulse.

My brow furrows as I look down at my leg.

It is reacting to my words. I’m sure. It can’t just be a coincidence.

The thought that it can react to words I say…

I’m about to open my mouth to say something else to try and elicit a reaction when I’m sure I hear voices outside.

A chill goes through me that makes me freeze.

“You sure nobody’s in there?” The voice hits me as clear as day.

Low enough to be a few meters away from the camper, but clear enough for me to hear.

It’s a male voice.

Human.

For a moment, my heart skips a beat. What I am hearing is another human that has survived somehow.

But following right on to that is fear that shoots right through me.

I don’t know why.

“Pretty sure. Can’t see anyone. Maybe it’s abandoned.” Another voice. Also male. With a drawl that makes me think they’re from somewhere South.

“Well,” the speaker sucks his tongue over his teeth, “might as well check it out.”

That fear I was feeling…it shoots right through me again and my leg pulses hard.

I’m alone.

I’m half-naked.

And I’m female.

I have nothing to protect myself except that utility knife, but it’s at the front of the camper.

I gulp as I hear silence, then the undeniable sound of boots crunching dead leaves as they near.

I don’t think. I just move.

There’s only one place for me to go, underneath the cot, and for once in my life, I am happy for my size.

Yes, I could try trusting them.

After all, there are few of us humans left. Logic says we should work together.

But if I’ve realized anything since the world ended, I’ve realized one thing: things don’t always work out the way you wish.

I don’t know if these guys are dangerous.

They’re strangers after all.

Maybe after I get some time to think…

The door to the camper creaks as it is pulled open, just in time for me to pull my leg under the cot.

I can hardly see anything, just the thick set of boots that enter.

Definitely male.

A large one.

“Looks like someone found this thing before we did, Bob.”

Fuck.

I squeeze my eyes shut, thinking they’ve found me. But as the male walks closer, he pauses near the cot.

Somebody else steps in, Bob, I suppose, judging from the other pair of boots.

“Doesn’t look like there’s much in here anyway.”

I hear the twist of the tap.

“No water either.”

“Fuck.”

“They must’a took it all when they left.”

There’s a pause and I sense they’re probably looking around the place.

I fight my instincts and the sudden pulsing on my leg.

“Find anything?” This time, it’s a woman’s voice and my eyes widen a little as I strain my ears.

It sounds far away, as if she’s somewhere outside. Just how many of them are there?

“Nothing.” The man closest to me turns, his boots thumping on the floor. “Why don’t you go back to the other women? We’ll handle this.”

Other women?

Okay.

So this is a group.

I swallow hard as the thoughts fire in my head.

If they’re traveling with women, maybe they’re not so bad.

Maybe I could disclose my location. Tell them there’s a safe place for humans and that all they had to do was wait till Ga’Var returned.

Shit…Ga’Var.

They wouldn’t know about him or that he’s on our side.

Goddamnit.

I take a deep breath and squeeze my eyes shut for one more moment.

I can do this.

I’m just about to crawl from under the cot when the butt of a rifle slips into my field of view.

My heart does a lurch, and it almost feels like my injured leg is vibrating.

Ok. But that’s usual, isn’t it? That’s normal. They gotta have a way to protect themselves.

That doesn’t mean…

The man holding the gun moves again, leaning over the cot and I hear when he uses the gun to touch something.

My bowl and fork jingle on top of the cot and something dies inside me.

Shit.

I don’t get any time to react.

One minute I’m hoping they just brush off the fact there are utensils on the bed and the next the cot is being flipped.

A scream leaves my lips as rough hands grasp me, pulling me up.

“I knew there was somebody in here.” Cold blue eyes set into a scruffy face meet my gaze.

He’s squeezing my arms so hard, holding me like I weigh nothing, and it’s frickin’ painful.

“Ouch! You’re hurting me. Let me go!”

“Shut up, bitch!”

The other male comes closer.

Same scruffy brown beard like his friend.

Same cold eyes.

I would be surprised if they aren’t brothers.

“Looks like we got a new addition to our group, huh, Jim?”

Jim and Bob.

Fuck me.

I meet Jim’s gaze.

“Put me down. You’re hurting me.”

He grunts and releases me enough that my feet touch the floor and when I jerk enough to release one of my shoulders from his grasp, his nostrils twitch as he glares at me.

“A little too much fire in this one,” Jim says.

Bad guys.

Definitely bad guys.

Bob moves closer, peering at me, and I feel the urge to pull the blanket even tighter around me.

It’s not secured with anything, just draped around me like a towel, but it’s already coming loose.

The last thing I want to do is bring their attention to it.

But I realize immediately that any hope of that is already gone as I watch their eyes move down me with an intensity that makes my skin crawl—and my leg throbs so hard it almost burns.

But I don’t have time to look at my leg or what may be happening to it now.

“Are you alone out here, bitch?” Bob asks. He wipes the back of his hand across his face as he peers around the camper and my heart begins to slam against my ribs.

I can’t tell them about Ga’Var.

“Yes.”

They glance at each other.

“Think she’s telling the truth?”

“Well, if she’s got a man out here with her, he ain’t gonna be able to do nothing to us two together. And Billy’s outside guarding the women. That makes three of us and one of him.”

Bob makes a sound of annoyance in his throat. “Forget about Billy. Boy couldn’t fire a gun if one of them cats came straight at him.”

So three males…maybe more.

Shit.

This group is bigger than I thought.

“Well, we found Deja alone.”

Jim glances at me. “Yea, but she was almost half-dead when we found her. Close to starving.” His gaze slides down me. “This bitch looks taken care of.”

He releases my other arm and I glare at him, rubbing the spot he’s no doubt bruised.

“Take it off.”

His words make me freeze and for a moment, I forget the anger I’ve been directing straight at him.

“What?”

“Take. It. Off.”

He grasps his gun and gestures to the blanket draped around me.

Oh no.

Oh no no no no.

“No.” I’m happy my voice doesn’t tremble because right now, I feel anything but confident.

They glance at each other and a leer develops on Jim’s face.

“See. Fire in this one.” His gaze darkens. “I like that.”

Fuck.

I’m in deep trouble.

My gaze darts to the storage box with the utility knife.

Even if I could get to it and somehow get out of the camper without getting shot, there’s more of them outside. And I don’t know how many of them either.

“Stubborn too,” Bob mutters. “We’ll have to fix that.”

He reaches forward before I can duck and grabs my hair, wrenching my head back so hard that the muscle in my neck spasms and pain shoots down my spine.

He’s about to forcefully do the same thing to the blanket when I grip it to me, spinning into him, my face hitting his chest.

The thick musk of male sweat wafts into my nose, almost making me gag, but I only have a split second to act.

Before he can do anything, I bite.

I bite down as hard as I can.

Taking his thick, nasty skin between my teeth, right through the flannel shirt that he’s wearing.

“Ow!” He howls, throwing me away from him, but I don’t pause.

I don’t hesitate.

My heart’s beating so hard in my ears, I can’t hear when Bob shouts to his companion to catch me.

Somehow I dodge between them, the exit of the camper right ahead of me when my neck yanks back, pain shooting through my spine once again.

Jim’s caught me by my hair again and as I fall backward, my gaze finds his.

All I see is pure, raw malice.

And I know, if I somehow don’t find a way out of this…life’s about to get much, much worse.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

SAM

Jim pulls me by the hair to my feet, ignoring my grunts of pain as I reach back, trying to release his hold on me.

“Fucking bitch,” Bob curses from somewhere behind us.

I stumble a little and almost fall as Jim pushes me from the camper, but I don’t hit the ground with his hold on me.

Instead, my leg connects with the side of the camper, and I grasp at the sides to steady myself.

The sun hits me with its morning glow and I squint, trying to make sense of my surroundings.

Several feet away from us, near where Ga’Var had made the fire for me, is a group of three women and a young man.

Two of the women look like they’re in their mid-twenties and the other looks to be in her late forties or early fifties.

Two sets of startling gray eyes hit me and I get the sense that at least two of them are related.

Shit.

Is this some sort of family thing?

Am I going to become prey to a family of thugs?

But my gaze lands on the young man.

He’s watching us, a frown on his face as he comforts the dark-skinned woman. I reckon he’s around eighteen.

Never too young to become a criminal, I guess.

Though, from the way he’s looking my way, withheld anger in his gaze, maybe there’s hope for me yet.

Something hard lands in my back and I stagger forward.

I only turn in time to see Jim’s boot hit the floor of the camper.

“Where’s the food, bitch?”

“Food?”

He grips his rifle and lifts it a little higher on his chest.

He’s holding it all wrong.

Awkwardly, as if he never used to handle guns before all this.

“Don’t play smart with me. I see the fork and the bowl. I smell the meat.”

He takes a step forward, landing on the ground. Two more steps and then he’s standing right in front of me, so close I can smell his breath.

“Where’s…the food?”

I meet his gaze. Not even blinking.

If he thinks he’s going to scare me by being an alpha-hole, he’s got another thing coming.

I’ve seen too much to be scared by the likes of weak men.

And I’ve seen real strength. Real restraint.

Compared to the Vullan…compared to Ga’Var…these men are nothing.

My gaze flicks to the bushes, hoping now that Ga’Var doesn’t suddenly appear.

I don’t know what he will do to these people and at least one of them might not be all bad.

“Strip her,” Bob says. “She won’t talk, we make her talk.”

Jim grabs the blanket, tugs on it, and my body jerks. But I hold on to the fabric, not letting them win.

“Listen, fucker. I don’t know what you want or who you think you are, but if you haven’t noticed, outside of this little camp, humanity is being destroyed. I know you think you don’t have options, but you do.”

I glance behind me, my gaze meeting the women and the young man. “We all do.”

“Oh, shut the fuck up.” Jim tugs on the blanket again, forcing me to face him. “We don’t give a shit about what’s going on out there. It’s every man for himself and me and my brother here, we’re making a clan.” He steps even closer. “And you’re gonna be a part of it.” He tugs on the blanket again. “As my bitch.”

His words send a bolt of fear through me that is multiplied when his brother adds in, “I found her. She’s mine.”

Jim growls and shoots a glare over his shoulder.

“Fine,” he says, before he sends a leery grin my way. “We can share. Wouldn’t be the first time.”

He sends a meaningful look behind me and I hear one of the women whimper.

Okay…so maybe the only two assholes in this group are the two in front of me.

That increases my chances of getting out of this by, well, a lot.

“Now tell me, sweet thing.” He reaches forward, brushing a finger over my cheek, and I turn my face away from him. He grunts—the sound a mixture of pleasure and mockery. “Where’s the food?”

I blink a few times, trying to calm my nerves because my thoughts are suddenly a tangled mess.

Logic says I can’t let them know much, if anything.

These guys are dangerous, and there’s no hiding what they plan to do to me, regardless of whether I cooperate.

“I caught a snake that was living in the camper. That’s the meat that you smell. There’s no food here.”

Jim stops smiling and his eyes grow even colder.

He studies me for a few minutes.

“Hear that, Bob? The bitch says there’s no more food.”

“Sounds hard to believe. Ask her if there’s water.”

Jim’s eyes seem to light up at that.

“Water,” he says, his gaze boring into mine. “Doesn’t seem like the sort of place to have water…but you never know. Maybe she traded her pussy for some.”

Traded?

I don’t get what he means.

“You got any water hidden away somewhere?”

I shake my head without even hesitating. “No. We’re in the middle of fucking nowhere. Where the hell would I find water here?”

His fist comes out of nowhere, connecting with my cheek and sending my head snapping in the other direction.

The pain pounds through my cheek and I taste blood.

“First lesson, bitch.” Jim looms over me. “Never, and I mean never, use that tone with me.”

He spits so close to me that his saliva almost hits me.

“You’re part of the Crichton Brother’s clan now. You will learn to obey.”

“Maybe we should show her what we do to bitches that don’t listen.” Bob’s voice is close and it startles me. In between dealing with his brother, I hadn’t realized he’d walked out of the camper.

He raises his gun and points it at my chest. The pain echoing through my cheek all but disappears as I stare at the long barrel of the rifle.

Bob pokes the muzzle between the barrier of the blanket and my skin.

“Maybe show her how much it can hurt if she talks back.”

Jim reaches forward and grabs my breast and even with the cover of the blanket, it’s like I can feel his bare skin against mine.

I jerk away from him, but his hand closes painfully around my breast.

“You go first,” Bob says, “but don’t touch her ass. That part is all mine.”

His words send icicles running down my spine as he moves the gun away from my chest, his eyes so heated now I can see his intent as clear as day.

“No!” Someone behind me shouts. The young man.

Jim growls, not moving his gaze from mine. “What’s it now, Billy? You finally decide you want a piece of cake?”

“N-no,” Billy says. He’s moved closer and his gaze is on me. “But can’t that wait till later. We don’t know if she was alone. If she’s with a group and they come back, the women will be in trouble.”

Bob growls and rolls his eyes, but Jim releases my breast.

A breath hisses through my teeth as I rub the spot.

“Kid’s got a point,” Jim says.

He gestures to the log near the dead fire. “Have them wait there. Me and Bob will scout the area.”

Billy nods, casting a sideways glance at the men, and grasps my arm.

His touch isn’t even a fraction as hard as Jim’s or Bob’s.

It’s…gentle.

As they turn away, Billy leads me toward the log. “Come. Don’t fight, please, or they’ll think I can’t handle you. That will be bad.”

I glance up at him. There’s torment in his eyes, but I’m not ready to trust him just yet.

He’s working with men like Jim and Bob, after all.

I’m not out of the clear yet.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

SAM

I sit for a few minutes, watching the group of people around me, the forest surrounding us, and listening for signs of Jim and Bob’s return.

Now and then, the wind rustles through the trees and I think I smell Ga’Var.

My heart lurches, but he does not appear.

I have no idea what’s happened to him and I’m starting to fear the worst.

The three women and Billy don’t speak and as the minutes continue to tick by, I’m beginning to find it strange.

“Have you been traveling together for long?”

At the sound of my voice, they all look at me, but none of them answer.

The women all look drained, their eyes dead, and soon they pull their gazes away from me once more.

But Billy studies me a little before glancing at the forest behind me.

“Not for long,” he says. “Maybe three weeks.” He shrugs. “I don’t know about the days anymore. They come and go real fast.”

His gaze darts to the forest then back at me again before falling to my cheek.

It still aches and no doubt there’s a bruise forming there.

“Don’t…don’t fight back so much. They’ll leave you alone if you don’t make them notice you.”

I’m only now realizing that one of his eyes has slightly darker skin around it than the other, as if they punched him there.

My gaze flicks over the other women and the oldest one meets my gaze finally.

“He’s right. Otherwise, they will force you.” She glances at the woman that looks like a younger version of her. “I give myself as much as I can, to keep them satisfied so they don’t…”

She trails off, but the horror of what she was about to say isn’t lost on me.

“Why are they doing this?”

They all look at me now as if I’m from another planet.

“How long have you been out here on your own?” the older lady asks.

I blink, trying to come up with a suitable response. “A while.”

The woman frowns. “And this is the first time you’re encountering a clan?”

My brows furrow a little. “I didn’t know clans were a thing.”

They glance at each other again. “You must be great at surviving in the wild and managing to somehow keep out of the radar of those metal…things.”

A few of them look up into the sky at that, visibly shivering.

“Or do you have a stash of drinkable water somewhere…hiding?”

Her question makes little sense to me.

“Water?”

What’s this about water again?

“Yes, water,” Billy adds. “You know. For trading.”

“What?”

The older woman raises her eyebrows. “Wow. I don’t know how you’ve managed all this time on your own. It sounds impossible.”

I blink at them, not understanding.

“You trade water?”

The woman shrugs. “It’s not like money is worth anything now. But fresh, drinkable water is.”

My eyes widen some more as what they’re saying suddenly makes sense.

“Water is currency?”

The woman nods. “Some people will trade you fresh clothes and even boots for a good cup.”

I blink at her, her words slowly registering.

So much has been happening out there that I don’t know about—that none of us at the base knows about—but even though pockets of humanity seems to be surviving, it’s still clear that it’s a dangerous, harsh world out there.

I glance behind me, searching the forest for any sign of the brothers.

“Listen.” I turn back to the group. “Those two seem like they’re controlling you all. I don’t know the intricacies of it, but what if I tell you that you don’t have to hang around them or endure their abuse anymore? That I can offer you protection?”

The dark-skinned young woman’s head snaps in my direction, her gaze piercing mine. “We’re not falling for that. That’s what Jim said. Turns out he and his brother were the protection he was talking about and he didn’t mention it included forcing themselves onto us either.”

I look from her, my gaze traveling to the others.

There’s a sense of defeat floating around all of them.

“Why don’t you fight back?”

“Because those who try to get hurt badly.” The mature woman looks directly at Billy and he shifts so I can’t see the part of his face with the fading black eye. “And there are worse clans out there. At least we only have to deal with two douchebags. We just have to keep them…satisfied.” She meets my gaze, hidden meaning in her eyes. “My name’s Jillian, by the way.”

She gestures to the other gray-eyed woman. “Lily.” And then to the dark-skinned woman. “Deja.”

The boy jerks his chin at me. “Billy.”

I nod. “Sam.”

Jillian’s throat moves and her gaze pierces mine. “If you decide to run right now. I don’t blame you. But those two brothers are skilled trackers. They will find you if they want you enough and Billy here will probably get beat up for losing you.”

I glance at Billy again, but he doesn’t meet my gaze.

“Now,” Jillian says. “Tell me about this protection you’re talking about.”

“She’s talking about her friend,” Billy says, and this time when I turn, his gaze is on me.

“What friend?” Jillian whispers, her gaze darting to the camper.

Billy’s gaze pierces into mine and my throat gets a little dry.

“The soldier dressed in black.”

GA’VAR

The Gryken floats down to the forest floor and my hackles rise completely as I watch it.

No.

It can’t be coming down to the surface.

I’ve never seen any Gryken do that before, but even as I watch, the transparent transport the beast sits in floats to the ground.

There are two of them.

One floating right above the other, the large heads and lengthy limbs of the Gryken in clear view as they fan out behind the body.

A former and a predecessor.

One smaller than the other.

My blades form on my arms, ready for me to shoot forward and cut them down.

But I cannot move. Because it’s not that easy.

Many Vullan died in those first few moons of battle, thinking that charging at the Gryken’s huge machines could take them down.

That facing the beasts head-on could win the war.

They were wrong.

I cannot risk going close.

I cannot risk them seeing me.

For as soon as the Gryken spot me, I will put the lives of all Vullan and hyu’mans on this planet in jeopardy.

And Sa’am…

Sa’am is out there all alone, waiting for me.

If I do not return, she will perish.

There is no way for her to get back to the base on her own. And even if she tries, with the Gryken coming to the forest below, they will sense her.

Fear shoots through me at the thought, and I watch as the Grykens float to the ground below.

They land, coated in goo that probably protects them from the light of this planet’s star.

They pause, looking around.

One reaches toward a green leaf swaying in the wind and touches it, turning to the other, as if communicating.

The Gryken pause and move slowly, looking at the foliage, touching the trees.

They look out of place on this planet, as they did on the dark sands of Edooria.

They are not meant to be here; yet, here they are.

One looks in my direction, but I am already cloaked, my ba’clan always moving one step ahead of me.

He cannot see me and I doubt he can sense me either.

I am still too far away for their natural sensing ability to work.

But that doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way, for they’re moving in my direction.

Coming closer and, in essence, also moving closer to Sa’am.

I have to get her out of here.

Take her farther into the forest, maybe.

Anything except let them catch her.

I know all too well what the Gryken are capable of.

I saw it all happen with my own eyes.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

SAM

“I saw him.” Billy’s eyes pierce into mine, hope like a thin string in his tone.

“A soldier?” Deja asks.

“Shh, keep your voice down.” Jillian’s gaze darts around us before her eyes settle on me again. “What type of soldier? Where’s he gone? Is he coming back for you?”

My gaze flicks across every single one of them and the growing hope in their eyes.

“Is he a good guy?” Lily whispers.

“Yes.” I nod. “He’s a very good…guy.”

No use in me hiding that I’m not alone. Ga’Var will appear eventually and it’s clear these people need my help.

“So you’ve been living in this camper with him all this time?” Jillian asks, before lowering her voice some more. “Does he have a gun?”

“He has a…weapon…yes.”

Jillian lets out a breath of relief and I can almost see the wheels turning in her head.

But there’s more I need to know before I let them follow us back to the base.

“Tell me more about trading water. Are there many clans out there? People are surviving?”

Billy snorts. “Hardly. Just a few people we’ve come into contact with. Some over the radio.”

“Radio?”

He nods. “Shortwave. Jim has it in his pack.”

“Yes. We stockpile whatever we find. Trade it to other people we can meet up with. But…it’s dangerous.” Her gaze flicks above. “Those things. Those machines. It’s like they can sense us. You have to hide, get underground, whenever you see one.” Her gaze finds me again. “I’m surprised you’ve survived this long out here in the open. Even right now it’s dangerous, us being here. One could show up at any moment.”

They all look above again, a shiver running through them like a collective.

“What do you trade?” I ask. “Food and water?”

Jillian shakes her head. “Those are just the rarest things. Water especially. If you have even a cup, it’s worth a helluva lot out here. People also trade weapons.” Her gaze slips over my blanket. “Bedding. Shelter.”

“Sex,” the dark-skinned girl says and my eyes widen a fraction.

“Is that what…is that the situation with Bob and Jim?”

“No.” Jillian shakes her head.

“We aren’t trading with those pieces of shit.” Lily’s eyes flare before her gaze lowers. “It’s not trading.”

Jillian grabs her hand and squeezes it. “We just don’t have a choice. We can’t leave. They threaten to shoot us or force us to go to bed with them. They’re just beginning to trust Billy here, to leave him in charge. We’ve been trying…trying to get them to think of him as their equal, then maybe we can find a way to get away from them.”

A frown furrows my brow. I don’t understand. “Why don’t you just run away…like right now?”

Deja kisses her teeth. “Those fuckers will hunt you. The last girl that did that, she’s hanging from some tree in the middle of nowhere with a bullet in her head and her body defiled.” She snarls, anger emanating from her very being as she turns her gaze in the direction Jim and Bob went. “Plus, there’s worse than them out there.”

I’m left staring at her in the silence that ensues.

None of the others deny what she’s just said.

My throat feels dry as I try to say the next words. “And in the night, when it’s dark?”

Jillian meets my gaze. “They tie us.” She glances at the boy. “Even Billy here.”

My eyes widen at her words. I don’t know how to respond.

“But you’re here now,” Jillian says. “I doubt you can leave without your friend. But maybe that’s for the best.”

“Why?”

She averts her gaze from mine, choosing to look behind me. “Because when they return, they’re going to strip any valuables from that camper, and if your friend turns up, I’m pretty sure they’re going to kill him. If he’s a soldier like you say he is…no way are they going to risk him turning against them.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that…” I whisper. But I don’t get to explain because of the voices of the two males coming through the trees. They’re returning.

Making a run for it hadn’t been an option before, not with Ga’Var gone and not with the Scrit parked somewhere in the forest out there.

I doubt they even know it’s there.

I have to stay put for now.

As my gaze falls on the males as they appear through the trees, the dislike I feel burns like the ache in my jaw.

I have to keep these idiots put until Ga’Var returns.

We sit in silence as the two brothers do exactly what Jillian said they were going to do. They completely ransack the little camper and my heart clenches as I watch them.

The little family’s home, left so perfectly untouched before we arrived, is now destroyed.

The brothers work hard, ripping the leather from the sides of the camper, tearing even the walls apart.

“What the hell are they looking for?”

“Money. Drugs.” Jillian shrugs. “Money isn’t worth anything anymore, but that doesn’t stop them from stashing it just in case we all survive this and the world goes back to normal.”

I glare at the brothers.

Fuck them.

I watch them work, a growing hatred rising within me when one of them approaches the little cupboard underneath the sink.

He throws it open and I see the moment his shoulders stiffen.

“Hey, Bob! Look at this!”

“What?” His brother answers from somewhere in the back of the camper.

“The bitch lied to us.”

A shiver goes through me because I know exactly what he just found.

“What the fuck do you mean?”

“Water, Bob.”

“What?” Shuffling that was happening in the back of the camper stops as Bob rises and hurries to the front.

His eyes widen and he throws his head back.

“Water!” He grabs the bottle from his brother, tipping the thing to his head as he takes several big gulps.

Jim grabs the bottle back. “Don’t finish it, you idiot! This is like a million dollars you’re wasting!”

“C’mon, man. I didn’t drink that much.”

Jim glares at him as he tightens the cork on the bottle and turns my way, his gaze finding me like an arrow shooting at a target.

A sliver of awareness goes down my spine and my leg pulses.

I haven’t even gotten the chance to look at my leg since they’ve arrived. Even without consciously thinking about it, I realize I’ve kept it hidden underneath my blanket.

“You,” he says, taking a step forward till his feet hit the ground.

He sets the bottle of water down and drapes his gun by the strap across his back as he closes the distance between us.

As he stoops so he can meet my gaze, his arm stretches out to grasp my chin. I turn my head away and he grips my chin anyway, forcing me to face him, his fingers digging into my skin so hard it feels like he cuts me with the roughness of his grasp.

“Next time, you tell us if you find food or water.” He jerks my chin in his tight grasp, making it hurt even more, but my gaze doesn’t falter from his. There is nothing I want more than to raise my leg and kick him in the balls right now.

At the thought, the bit of Ga’Var’s suit on my leg pulses as if agreeing, and I almost do it.

“You hear me, bitch?” Jim jerks my chin again. “From now on, you tell me when you find something.” He glares at me. “From now on, you are mine.”

The thought is such a horrid one, I’m unable to stop myself before the words tumble from between my clenched teeth.

“In your wildest dreams, motherfucker.”

For a moment, surprise alights in his eyes before his hand suddenly slips down, grasping my throat.

He pulls me upright as he stands, his other hand fumbling with the button holding his jeans up.

“Maybe I have to teach you a lesson after all.”

I grip the hand holding my neck as I kick at him. My foot connects with his jeans and something jingles.

“Ah yes,” Jim says, reaching into his pocket.

My eyes widen in horror as I see the dog collar.

I’m struggling now, my teeth grit as I try to free myself when the bastard raises his leg. In the corner of my eye, I see his knee coming toward me, but I can’t do a thing before it connects with my midsection.

The pain makes me choke, my spine curving as I pull my stomach inward to stop the pain.

I don’t even have time to recover before I am suddenly being thrown backward as the bastard brings me to the ground.

“That’ll teach you,” he all but snarls.

Pain echoes from within me, spreading through my being as I feel the cold metal of the collar close around my neck.

“No!”

I don’t know how I fight through the pain, but I put all the energy I have left in my legs, kicking as hard as I can to prevent him from collaring me.

It’s too late though. The collar snaps in place just as one of my kicks land right in Jim’s groin.

I recoil as I feel the hardness there, like the imprint of a snake underneath my foot. Bile rises in my throat as horror floods through me.

The fact that he is getting turned on by this makes me dry-heave.

A breath hisses in his throat as he lets me go, the pain of the contact of my foot causing him to release me.

He falls back, his hands covering his groin as a pained groan leaves his lips.

My throat burns from the friction that was there, but I’m on all fours, scrambling toward him anyway.

The gun.

I have to get the gun.

But in the corner of my eye, Bob hops out of the camper, his weapon already in his hands. Only, he’s not pointing it at me.

It’s pointed at someone behind me and I can only glance that way for a second to see it’s Billy and Deja.

They are frozen midway between coming toward me and the gun pointed at their chests.

“Don’t you fucking dare move, you pieces of shit. This ain’t no normal rifle. This here is a shotgun. One pull of this trigger and I’ll blow holes straight through both of ya.”

Billy and Deja freeze, as do I.

“You’ve seen me do it too,” Bob continues, and the horror of his words takes effect. “Don’t make me have to do it again.”

He glances at his brother. “You all right, Jim?”

His brother is still on the ground, writhing, but he’s feeling well enough to shoot a glare in my direction.

With one hand, he eases himself upright, while the other hand releases his pelvis and he tugs on the long chain now leading from my neck.

The force brings me forward.

“Little bitch,” he growls. “You’re going to pay for that.”

He stands above me, his trousers becoming undone, and I see his cock bob, unrestrained, in front of me.

No.

Still on all fours, I move backward, trying to get away from him.

No.

But the leery grin on his face is one that I can’t escape.

He’s focused on me as he takes a step forward. One hand pulling the chain taut, the other massaging his curved dick.

It looks like everything I don’t want near me and I choke at the thought, struggling against the pull of the chain as I continue to move backward.

Jim grins. “Yesss, bitch, choke.” He grips himself. “Let’s see you choke on this.”

But his smile doesn’t last long.

One moment, all I can see is his horrible, leery grin.

The next, all I can see is black.

My heart thumps.

Time stills.

…

My darkness has come…

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

GA’VAR

I smell the stench of the males even before I reach Sa’am’s location.

I scent them…the forest reeks with their stink…and a fire ignites in my being.

Sa’am…is in danger.

I had not been mistaken. The male I had scented. He is nearby, and he is not alone.

I’m moving through the trees, heading in Sa’am’s direction, when I hear her scream.

Undoubtedly, it is her.

I’ve spent the last few cycles listening to that voice. Learning it.

Etching it into my mind.

Sa’am is screaming in terror, pain…fear.

I push myself even harder and the surroundings become a blur.

The trees become streaks of brown and green, and I focus on the scents, allowing them to guide me until they are almost too much to bear.

Three males.

Three females.

And then I see them.

Sa’am…on the ground but surrounded by her kind…

Her fear scent spiked so high I can taste it on my tongue.

Rage fills me as my gaze finds the source of her terror.

The male in front of her.

The sight of his bareness makes the air split around me.

I do not breathe.

I do not feel.

The world becomes a haze around me.

I move through the space as if nothing hinders me.

I can almost feel the molecules in the air react to my presence.

Charged, they crack.

One minute, I am cutting through the trees.

The next, I am upon the male who dares to threaten my Sa’am.

A roar tears from my throat as I take him through the air with me, carried by the momentum going through my being, my bones.

A scream echoes behind me. I’m not sure if it is Sa’am or one of the others as I slam the male’s body into the shelter.

There’s a sickening crack as the bones in his spine give way, but I am not done with him yet.

I know my ba’clan are extended, my hackles have risen all around me.

“What the fuck?!”

The other male to my left rises some sort of crude weapon and fires.

It feels like pebbles hit my head and I turn slightly to glare at him.

“Wait…your turn.”

Eyes still on him, I extend the blade in my forearm and bury it in the skull of his comrade.

It goes right through as I drive him back, piercing the metal of the shelter behind him. Again I hear a scream. It echoes as the male in front of me sags, his eyes unfocused as his lifeblood drips down my blade.

It all happens in a split second, but the male to my left goes pale, his fingers shaking as he lifts his weapon and fires one more time.

He’s backing away even as I remove my blade from his comrade’s skull.

The body is limp as it falls to the ground. A dull thump as I hear another scream.

If it is Sa’am that screams…I am sorry.

She has seen my hackles rise before…but never like this.

But these vermin have touched what is mine.

I have never felt rage like this in all my moons.

I want to make them suffer for touching my Sa’am, but there is no time.

The Gryken are heading this way.

They will arrive here soon.

I have to—

The male now in front of me is backing away and falls.

He’s scrambling on his haunches and elbows now, his hands no longer holding his crude weapon.

Terror widens his eyes into big white saucers as he looks up at me.

Small.

Puny.

Weak.

And they dare touch my Sa’am?!

The snarl that leaves my throat as I approach him only makes him tremble more.

I can see my reflection in his eyes.

See what I look like.

Not human.

Not like him.

I am darkness…and I will be his death.

Somehow, he staggers upright and runs.

I almost take off after him, but my ba’clan pull the other way, pulsing against me.

Sa’am.

They want me to find my mate.

I turn to her and for a moment, I forget the rage that is writhing within me.

The look on her face is indescribable.

Shock.

Triumph.

And…fear.

Fear of me.

But even with the retreating male, the sight of the crude restraint around my Sa’am’s neck…

I forget the other humans around us. I can almost taste lifeblood in my mouth.

The urge to kill…

Rage makes my ba’clan rise even higher and Sa’am’s eyes widen.

My nostrils flare and the scent of another male brings my senses back.

The scent is familiar, the one I scented first before I left Sa’am alone.

My lips pull back some more, my teeth bared as I turn my gaze toward the scent.

A cowering, thin male.

He trembles as my gaze lands on him and I roar.

He led them here.

I move in his direction, my blade extended as I launch myself into the air, aiming to plunge my blade deep into his skull.

“No!” A scream…

Sa’am.

There is but a moment of pause as I move through the air, a sliver of confusion making its way through the rage that fills me.

A light streak of pink skin wrapped in the covering Sa’am wears appears in front of me. But it is too late to stop. My blade sinks into it, pinning it into the earth below.

There is a split second where my vision clears…and everything dies within me.

My world cracks and splits as reality shifts into a nightmare I never imagined.

My blade pierces Sa’am’s covering.

How did she…?

She was behind me.

Horror fills me as my ba’clan flatten, all my blades disappearing back against me except for the one still piercing the fabric.

Because…this cannot be.

Sa’am should not be at the edge of my blade.

My Sa’am…

My life organ constricts as my pupils widen, disbelieving, and I can’t move.

No.

Sa’am.

“Fuck!”

Her voice reaches my ears and my reality splits again.

By the gods.

I didn’t…

I didn’t kill her.

The fabric rustles as she lifts her head from it, her gaze meeting mine.

Her chest heaves as she lifts herself a little more, and then I see the male beneath her.

Rage fills me again and my ba’clan begin to rise once more.

A soft touch on my arm is the singular thing I feel.

Sa’am’s hand.

“Don’t hurt him.” Her hand moves up to cup my cheek as her gaze pleads with mine.

Below her, the young male is frozen, his eyes wide as he stares at me.

My lips pull back as I regard him, and he flinches as I snarl at him.

Sa’am jumped in front of my blade, risked her life, to save this male?

It’s incomprehensible.

I cannot wrap my mind around it.

“Ga’Var, look at me.” Sa’am forces me to look her way, the pressure of her hand insistent on my cheek. “He’s good. He isn’t like the other two.”

I growl at her, but unlike the spineless males, she doesn’t flinch.

Sa’am studies me. “Don’t hurt him. Please.”

I can’t think straight.

I still taste the need for blood.

Rage still courses through my veins.

“Don’t hurt him,” Sa’am repeats, her head moving below mine as she searches my gaze, pleads with me.

My ba’clan react, pulsing at the feel of her skin, and the sound of her voice.

How can I deny her?

Even though every cell in me wants to get rid of the males, I grunt, my ba’clan settling as my gaze falls to her neck.

The offending restraint makes another surge of anger go through me, and I tuck a claw under the collar and rip it in two.

It falls from her skin to reveal a reddish bruise that makes me growl again.

“It’s ok.” Sa’am smiles. She still has her hands against my jaw, forcing me to focus on her and not the male beneath her. “I’m ok. It’s fine.”

Lies.

There’s a whimper and I turn to glance behind us.

The three females are there, barely hiding behind a fallen tree.

“You can come out,” Sa’am calls, rising.

Her covering rips under my blade, which is still piercing it.

I rise with her, my gaze flicking from the females still hiding behind the tree to the male on the ground beneath us.

He lifts his hands in the air, his wide eyes still on me as his gaze moves down my form.

But he doesn’t speak.

None of them do.

“Sa’am.” I take a moment to regard her. There’s a huge bruise on her cheek that makes my nostrils flare, my hackles rising again, and she dips her head so I cannot see it.

“I’m fine.” She bares her teeth at me, her eyes scrunching a little and I get the sense she is trying to appear jovial when she does not feel like it. “Just a bruise.”

“Do not lie to me.” I tip a claw under her chin and force her to face me.

The sight of the bruise on her cheek almost sends me into a spiral.

Sa’am speaks quickly, touching my hand on her chin. “It doesn’t hurt as much as it probably looks.” She searches my gaze, her eyes flicking through mine quickly. “Believe me,” she says, “you arrived just in time.”

Not soon enough.

I can’t hold back the growl that escapes my lips and in the corner of my eye, I see when the male at our feet shuffles away a little.

But Sa’am is insistent.

“Trust me, I’m okay.”

She turns away from me and all I want to do is pull her into my arms and lick her wounds.

“Guys,” Sa’am says, “you can come out. He won’t harm you.”

I turn to look at the male.

I made no such promise.

He seems to understand this because he stops moving the moment my gaze pierces his.

One female lifts her head and regards us, her gaze flicking to the lifeless body near the shelter and widening some more before she visibly gulps and rises on her shaky legs.

“Jillian,” Sa’am says, moving to stand in front of me as if that will make the hyu’mans less afraid.

Rage is still flooding through me.

I do not even attempt to make myself look smaller.

“This is my…friend.” Sa’am glances up at me and my ears twitch.

Friend?

I am more than that.

She’s still looking at me, her cheeks becoming rosy.

“The soldier?” Jil-eeyan asks.

Sa’am jerks her head down a few times.

“His name is Ga’Var.” She glances at me again. “And he’s here to help us.”

They don’t look convinced but I am too rekked off to care.

There’s no time to pander to them or explain things.

“We must leave here,” I say, and they all freeze.

All except Sa’am.

She turns to me, her gaze searching mine once more.

“Get whatever you need. We have little time.”

She gulps, reading between my words in an instant.

Gripping the covering she’s wrapped around herself, she turns to the others.

“C’mon. We gotta take the water and whatever’s left of the food and we have to go.”

“Why?” one female asks, her eyes on me.

My nostrils flare and she retreats behind one of the others.

They do not know the danger that approaches.

No idea of the horror—

There’s a scream that echoes in the forest, and my hackles rise again.

I know who it is without having to give it much thought.

The male that ran off.

I can hear him returning.

Hear his footfalls against the fallen branches and leaves.

Another scream echoes from his throat and I can just about pinpoint how far away he is.

A cold gust of air passes through the clearing and even the star hides behind a cloud.

My ba’clan bristle, sensing the danger that is heading our way even before I can open my mouth.

The Gryken.

They must have heard the commotion and now they are near.

There is no time left.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

SAM

One moment, my head is snapped in the direction of the scream, the next, I’m moving.

Ga’Var plasters me against his chest as he lifts me with ease and heads up the nearest tree.

He moves so fast, I don’t know what’s happening.

“Ga’Var, what’s—”

But the utter focus in his eyes cuts off the words in his mouth.

I hear shouts of confusion beneath us and only when Ga’Var settles high up in the branches do I get the chance to look down.

Clinging to him, I lean so I can see the ground below.

They are all looking in our direction—Jillian, Billy, and the other two women—shock and fear on their faces.

If they didn’t realize Ga’Var wasn’t human before, they certainly do now.

No one can climb a tree or move as fast as he did.

No one except me…

My heart thumps as I try to focus, wading through the many questions in my head and the persistent, heavy thumping of my heart.

When I went after Billy, pushing him out of the way of Ga’Var’s blade…it had just been a thought.

I hadn’t intended to actually do it.

There was no way I could get there quickly enough to save him…but…I did.

Ga’Var clutches me and clicks low, seeming to forget I cannot understand his language.

There is another scream in the forest below and my gaze flicks to the forest floor as Ga’Var leans to my ear.

“Do not make a sound,” he says.

There is no warning before his suit covers us like a balloon.

No…a cocoon.

I’ve seen the Vullan do this before and only when…

My eyes widen.

The suit is black, yet, somehow, I can see through it, like looking through a light haze.

Bob appears at the edge of the clearing, terror on his face and Lily screams.

Billy is on his feet now, his gaze on whatever is behind Bob, and for a moment, I don’t want to look.

My gaze is on the running man.

For the first time since meeting the brothers, I see utter terror on his face.

Even when Ga’Var had killed his brother, he didn’t look like that.

No.

This is something different.

And when another scream echoes in the clearing, I finally lift my eyes.

Ga’Var stiffens beside me at the same time that I see it.

Long, stiff legs step into the clearing. The gray balloon-like head…the dark eyes surveying the little group.

My breath hitches as the thing stops moving suddenly and another appears behind it.

Two of them.

Two Gryken.

My whimper is stifled only by the lump that forms in my throat.

The people on the ground, Jillian and the others, their eyes widen.

One of them screams…and then…chaos.

The things move forward so quickly, it is impossible.

They don’t look like they’re meant to walk on the surface as they are doing right now.

The limbs are too long. Too wiry.

Too elongated.

Like a monstrous spider, the first one shoots across the space, catching the still fleeing Bob as if it had just let him run all along.

As if it allowed the man to lead them right to us.

Ga’Var pulls me tighter toward him and it hits me then that he knew they were coming.

That’s why he climbed the tree.

That’s why he’s cloaked us.

We’re hidden, protected, but the others…

Another scream pierces the air, Deja, just as one of the Gryken approaches them. It towers over them as they scramble backward while off in the distance, another scream echoes.

I turn just in time to see it happen.

The Gryken chasing Bob…

It…

It pierces him with one of its legs.

It goes right through, as if the man’s body is just a flesh sack. Coming out the other end of his chest and stained in Bob’s blood.

Bob’s mouth gapes open as the creature lifts him into the air, his chest heaving as he chokes on his own blood.

I have to plaster my hand across my mouth as a scream of my own barrels forth.

The Gryken rears back its head, a million sharp teeth glinting in the sun’s light, before it swings toward Bob, taking the man’s head into its mouth.

There’s a sickening crunch and my bowels turn over, realization dawning even as I watch in horror.

As the Gryken lifts its head, Bob’s now headless body jerks, blood squirting.

Something drops and rolls away, a trail of blood following it, as the Gryken dips its head again, closing its mouth over the open neck.

Fear has the life draining from me and behind me, Ga’Var sniffs. A muffled growl leaves him and his suit writhes around us.

There’s another scream, a series of screams, and my gaze flicks back to the group still on the ground.

One of the women is gone, but Jillian is still on the ground, scrambling toward Jim’s lifeless body. She reaches it and wrestles to remove the gun still draped around it.

The screaming continues as the smaller Gryken lifts the remaining woman, one of its long limbs wrapped around her waist.

She must have been in a daze because she is suddenly struggling, beating against the alien to no avail.

It’s all so terrifying, it doesn’t seem real.

It’s like watching a horror movie.

Billy rushes toward Jillian and manages to remove the gun.

He aims.

Fires.

But all that does is cause the Gryken to let out a deafening screech that stills the air.

It turns to focus on Billy and drops the woman, its dark eyes soulless.

It’s going to kill them.

It’s going to kill them all.

I jerk against Ga’Var, but he holds me still.

The shock’s wearing off.

This isn’t a movie.

It’s happening right in front of me.

We have to do something.

But as if Ga’Var has read my mind, he holds me tighter.

“You will not risk your life for that male again.”

There’s a note of something there that I cannot pinpoint, but I turn my wide eyes on him.

“We have to do something. They’re going to die if we don’t.”

Ga’Var’s jaw moves and I sense he is clenching his teeth.

There’s something in his eyes. Regret maybe.

“Ga’Var,” I press. “We have to do something.”

How can I live knowing I watched them all die right in front of my eyes?

Ga’Var’s jaw twitches again and his burgundy gaze bores into mine.

“If I leave you here, you will have no protection.”

I gulp.

He’s right.

Without his suit, I’ll be left in the open.

My energy signature will be visible to these unearthly beings.

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take.” A stupid one, I know.

I can tell he thinks as much, even as his gaze moves over the still-alive people on the ground.

Billy fires again, but the gun does nothing.

The bullets aren’t working against this thing.

“Please,” I turn to Ga’Var and I see that he is considering it. “Can you take them both?”

His jaw twitches again. “No,” he says. “I can take only one.”

He looks down at the one approaching Billy and his eyes become fiery.

“That one,” he says. “If it comes closer.”

I let out a breath. “One down is better than none down. Then maybe we can take down the other.”

Ga’Var isn’t looking at me. “Only if it is still preoccupied.” He pauses. “Drinking.”

The word sends a shiver through me and I fight the urge to look at what the creature is doing to Bob’s body.

“And if it isn’t?” I whisper.

He looks at me then.

“If it isn’t…you do not leave this tree.” His gaze bores into mine. “If there is a Gryken still standing and I am alive, you do not come near me. You do not call my name. You forget about me. You forget. And you stay here.” His ears flatten against his head. “My womb mate will find you. You will live.”

His words shake me.

This sounds like goodbye.

“I will no longer be myself if this goes badly.”

His words are low but the meaning isn’t lost on me.

He’s talking about the exact reason his people lost the war.

If one of these creatures controls him…

Jillian’s scream breaks through the clearing as the Gryken charges toward Billy.

We’re out of time.

It’s now or never.

Ga’Var gives me one last look and in that moment, I see everything in his eyes.

The promise of a future and of all the feelings that have grown within me since embarking on this trip.

I want to change my mind. To hold his hand and stay here where it is safe.

But we both know we can’t do that.

I see it in his eyes…

And then…he is gone.

Falling from the tree without the usual dark suit around him.

All that’s on his wrist is a singular blade, pointing downward as he falls through the air.

And around me…the cloak of his suit remains.

He left me covered…protected.

The thought rings like a bell in my mind as I watch him fall and I want to scream.

He can’t fight them without his suit.

But as Ga’Var falls, his blade connects with the charging Gryken.

It pierces through the center of its skull and sinks deep.

Time stills.

He did it.

Triumph goes through me like a shock wave that is shattered as the creature screeches.

It’s a high-pitched call that alerts the other one, causing it to turn, and Bob’s pale body falls to the ground.

The second Gryken lets out a matching screech as it focuses on the group and terror fills my soul.

I am safe…but I am not sure anyone else is.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

SAM

Billy goes pale as Ga’Var lands, the force of his fall knocking the Gryken off course as the creature rears back, emitting another screech.

The roar that leaves Ga’Var’s throat vibrates the air itself as he twists his blade, and even without his suit, he is a sight to behold.

He hangs on to the thing, even as it tries to throw him off, until finally, it manages to.

Dust rises as Ga’Var skids away and the Gryken falls.

My breath hitches. Not a cell in me moves as I watch with bated breath, my eyes glued on the long-limbed alien.

And when its legs twitch, when it struggles to rise but falls one more time, the terror settling at the base of my spine rises.

It’s not dead.

It’s not dead!

There’s a scream, no, a shout, as Billy rushes forward, his gun aimed at the hole in the creature’s head.

Once he fires.

Twice.

Three times.

Straight into the wound.

Ga’Var fell a few feet away and my gaze flicks to him as he rises, staggers, his hand holding his head.

He looks up directly at me and even though he probably can’t see me beneath the cover of the cocoon, I can see the fear in his eyes.

He staggers some more, his gaze locked with mine.

“Stay.”

I don’t know how I hear his words…over Billy’s firing…over Jillian’s screams…over the pounding of my blood in my ears.

“Stay.”

It’s the last thing I hear before Ga’Var stiffens, his eyes blazing red as his gaze lands on something else.

One Gryken is unmoving on the ground, its head split open, but the other…

Ga’Var’s gaze is on the other one.

It doesn’t charge forward.

It doesn’t screech.

Its gaze is on its dead comrade and the air stills.

Billy’s eyes widen as he catches sight of it and he raises his gun to fire, but the trigger simply clicks.

Out of bullets.

And Ga’Var.

Not far away from Billy, Ga’Var rises to his full height.

My spine stiffens as if someone has thrown cold water right down it.

There is something different about him.

Something in the way he stands…the way his body moves.

And I know…

I just know.

Our greatest fear…his greatest fear, has come to pass.

Ga’Var isn’t the Ga’Var I know anymore.

Even as I’m praying, hoping it isn’t true, it’s like a switch clicks and Ga’Var looks every bit the alien he is.

Not the male I have spent all this time with.

Not the male I’m falling in love with.

The thought pierces me the same time the blade rises on his arm.

He’s not focused on the Gryken.

His eyes are on Billy and Jillian. And as they catch sight of him…it’s like I can smell their fear.

They’re about to die.

They know it.

I know it.

I can already see the ground stained red.

Ga’Var straightens, a snarl leaving his lips as he tries to fight the Gryken’s control and I realize there’s still a bit of him left in there.

My pulse sounds like a war drum in my ears.

Never have I felt so helpless.

The Gryken moves forward slowly, stepping over Jillian, her eyes wide as she looks up into its underbelly.

Whatever she sees makes her quake some more.

My head snaps back to Ga’Var. There is pressure on his face, in his whole being, as he fights the mental attack.

The beast is going to make him kill them and then…it will make him kill himself.

I’m sure of it.

Positive.

My teeth hurt as I bite down hard.

I can’t let that happen.

The thought of losing him sends a jolt through me and I feel the cocoon and my leg pulse.

I can’t lose him.

He’s the one good thing to come out of all this.

He’s standing so still, even as his muscles strain, and it makes me shiver to think this creature can have so much control over another.

Billy scrambles back as the thing approaches, finally throwing down the gun as he rushes toward Jillian. But the Gryken doesn’t stop moving till it’s directly beneath me and right in front of Ga’Var.

It raises one leg, its dark eyes boring into Ga’Var as the leg connects with Ga’Var’s bare skin.

Without his suit, he is bare and when dark fluid rises from where the Gryken’s leg touches his skin, my heart drops.

The leg pierces Ga’Var with slow intent, right over his heart, and my heart thunders in my chest.

I was wrong.

I was wrong!!

It will not make him kill the others.

No.

It doesn’t need Ga’Var to do that job.

Instead…it’s killing him first.

Painfully.

Slowly.

The horror of it, the utter callousness of this species, has rage rocketing through me.

This can’t happen.

I can’t…I can’t lose him!

My heart clenches as his blood spills and my rage burns like a burning flame.

No!

I refuse to let it go down like this.

As if the thought cements something deep within me, I feel a pulse over my entire being.

Ready.

It’s a thought that forms in my head, though I don’t know where it comes from.

There’s another pulse over my entire being, and I lift my hand in front of my face.

Black.

I’m covered in all black.

Ga’Var’s suit.

It pulses again as if telling me to do something and a blade forms from my hand.

I don’t know how I do it.

It’s just…there.

As Ga’Var chokes, his body hunching over as the Gryken’s limb pierces him deeper, I know what I have to do.

My gaze bores into the creature’s head as I look down at it, hatred filling my gaze.

Bye-bye, bitch.

With my teeth clenched, I leap from the tree, the blade on my arm extended downward in the same way that Ga’Var attacked the first beast.

I’m falling fast, no time to reconsider.

Not that anything could change my mind now.

I have to do this.

I have to try.

But in the split second before I make contact, the Gryken looks up.

My gaze meets its own, and there’s a split second of doubt.

The dark soulless eyes bore right through me and I stare back, even as it tilts its head, baring its sharp rows of teeth at me.

There’s no time to stop now.

If this is how I die, at least it was while trying to do something good.

Pain ricochets through me as I make contact and I’m dimly aware of my body colliding with the horrible alien.

Sharp teeth are around me, and I can’t see my hand with the blade.

I have no idea if I’ve made contact, if I injured it somehow.

All I feel is pain.

But I welcome it.

Pain means I’m still alive.

And I’m not giving up until my last breath.

CHAPTER THIRTY

GA’VAR

It’s like a dark fog clearing…my mind becoming present again.

The ache in my head dulls as my vision clears.

Sa’am.

Sa’am is in front of me…collapsed on top of an unmoving Gryken.

A figure dressed in all black.

Wearing ba’clan, but not Vullan.

I don’t know how I know it is her. I just do.

I rush to her with a start.

“Sa’am!”

What is she doing down here?

She was to be in the tree. Safe.

Away from this danger.

As I near her, I don’t hear the startled cries of the other hyu’mans around us.

I don’t glance their way as they step closer.

All I can see is my Sa’am.

Her hand is lodged deep within the Gryken’s mouth, so deep the beast’s teeth reach up to her shoulders.

“Sa’am!”

A groan leaves her lips as I grip her, using one hand to ease her arm from within the body of the creature.

The blade that pierced it, killing it, disappears from its exit point at the top of the Gryken’s head.

She’d managed to pierce it all the way through.

“Sa’am,” I groan her name, not believing what I’m seeing.

Not believing we’ve managed to survive this.

“Ga’Var?”

She falls on her back and the ba’clan slip from over her eyes as she looks up at me.

“Are you my Ga’Var?”

Her words make something clench within me.

I want to be everything for her, but I know what she is asking.

“Yes,” I say as I pull her into my arms. “I am no longer…under the evil’s control.” I grip her tighter.

It was a nightmare feeling the fog cloud my mind, knowing I’d left Sa’am with only my ba’clan above.

“I am sorry. I tried to fight it.”

“I know.”

She relaxes against me and her body lurches, wetness leaking from her eyes to run down the ridges on my chest.

The other hyu’mans step closer, their approach tentative.

I can feel their eyes on me, moving over my body, the differences between them and me now even more clear, but I have no ba’clan to cover myself.

Sa’am needs mine and I will let her have them.

I don’t know if the other hyu’mans know it, but Sa’am just did something miraculous.

She has saved us all.

“Is she all right?” one of the hyu’mans ask and I notice they have moved closer but still far away enough from the dead Gryken that they feel safe.

“No,” I answer.

Sa’am is not okay.

She hurt herself in the fall. That much I can tell, and I move my hand over the ba’clan that covers her to determine just where she is hurt.

My ears twitch as I move my hands, trying to communicate with my ba’clan.

No response.

I try for a few seconds to no avail.

It is almost as if they have forgotten my biological imprint on them.

The little part of them that are still with me pulses, also unable to connect.

My gaze moves over Sa’am.

She still has her head against my chest, her shoulders still heaving with emotion. I do not want to alarm her more than she already is.

But this is…

Impossible.

My ba’clan cannot imprint with another being.

They are mine. From my birth till my death.

They can’t—

I glance up at the tree I’d hid Sa’am in and my entire being pauses.

There, on the branch I’d left her cocooned on, is the empty cocoon.

My ba’clan.

I call them back to me and they obey, moving through the air right to me till they cover every inch of my being.

I’m staring at Sa’am now, for she is still covered.

Her ba’clan suddenly pulses against mine and reality dawns.

She’s not wearing my ba’clan…

She’s wearing her own.

SAM

Ga’Var goes still suddenly and I lift my head so I can look up at him.

My entire body pulses with the suit that’s around me and when my gaze meets Ga’Var’s, I’m surprised to see he’s wearing his full suit too.

I blink at him for a few moments.

I had no idea his suit could cover both of us completely.

Then why didn’t he do that from that start?

A frown begins on my brow as I ponder this.

“…shit, I have no idea which direction she ran.” Jillian’s voice cuts through my thoughts, and I turn to glance her way.

“Who?”

A ball forms in my throat as my gaze lands on them.

Billy looks like he tousled with a lion, Jillian’s t-shirt is ripped down the middle, and her daughter—or sister, I realize I didn’t ask—has her arms wrapped around herself as she trembles like a leaf, her gaze on the dead Gryken on the ground near us.

But the other woman…

“Deja ran when those things first came upon us.” Jillian’s worried gaze flicks over the forest. It’s so still out there, it’s almost ominous. “She can’t be out there alone. If another clan finds her…”

Jillian wraps her arms around herself and paces a little. “It’s a dangerous world with strange…things.”

Her gaze slips to Ga’Var at that and then back to me before she moves to the other woman, pulling her into her arms.

Billy is staring at the dead Gryken when my gaze moves to him, and he uses the tip of his sneakers to prod it.

“Fuck…” he mutters. “What the hell are these things?”

“Our enemy,” Ga’Var finally speaks, rising with his arms still locked around me. “We must leave this place now. It is not safe here.”

All of the others look at him.

“You mean more of these things are around here?” Jillian’s eyes grow wide as her brain catches up with what she’s just asked.

“No,” Ga’Var says. “But they know I am here.” His gaze falls to me with meaning. “They know we are here.”

Not me and him.

The Vullan.

The Gryken know the Vullan are on Earth.

A sliver of anxiety goes through me.

The war we’re planning…we’re not ready for an all-out attack.

We have plans to make.

Heck, we humans still don’t know a lot about the enemy we’re fighting yet.

We’re not ready.

But if the Gryken now know the Vullan are here…I fear we have no choice.

“We need to move,” Ga’Var repeats but without the others even saying it, I can sense their hesitation.

“Go where?” Billy speaks up, as he takes a step backward, away from me and Ga’Var.

I struggle against Ga’Var and thankfully, he gets the hint that I want to be on my feet.

I stagger a little once he puts me down and the suit stuck to my skin pulses as if to support me.

“Remember that safe place I told you about earlier? It’s our best bet at beating these things.”

They glance at each other, before looking back at me.

I can sense their trust in me waning, despite the fight that just happened mere minutes ago.

I try to push back the frustration that builds within me.

They have a right to be afraid…suspicious…

I would be too.

I’m standing in front of them clad from head to toe in a black suit that makes me look just like the alien standing guard behind me.

Even at the thought of him, the suit pulses, and I feel Ga’Var’s warm presence at my back.

I want nothing more than to turn to him, wrap my arms around his neck, and plant my lips on his.

But rejoicing in the fact we are still alive will have to wait. I need to convince these people to come home with me.

Home.

I don’t know when I started thinking of the base as that.

“These things,” I continue, using my boot to kick the dead Gryken at my feet.

The body jiggles a little and makes a sickening sound as fluid leaks from it, causing my stomach to turn.

“These things are what drive those huge machines.”

Billy’s eyes widen as he glances from me to Jillian. “What?”

“The machines aren’t some super AI sent here to destroy us. They’re controlled by these…aliens called the Gryken.”

Jillian is studying me and I wonder if she’s trying to figure out if I’m telling the truth or not.

“I knew it…” Billy mutters. “I knew someone was driving those things.” He pales a little. “Just never expected it to be…those.”

“And you know all this because…” Jillian’s gaze flicks behind me and I know she’s looking directly at Ga’Var. “…of him.”

I nod. “Yes.”

I reach back and grasp Ga’Var’s hand, pulling him closer to me.

His breath hitches a little and I know he’s still in pain.

There’s a wound in his chest as big as a fist and my whole right side is aching.

We’re all beaten up.

“I was in one of those machines…” The memory sends another bolt of anxiety through me. “He and his brothers rescued us.”

There’s a knowing in Jillian’s eyes now as she regards us.

“There’s more of them…” she whispers, but I note she isn’t asking me a question.

They become so silent, just staring at us, that I itch for them to speak.

When Jillian finally opens her mouth, it’s words I don’t expect.

“I knew it was strange…you surviving out here all on your own,” she says and pauses again. “You speak of a safe place…and God knows, I want to believe you. Not only for myself, but for my daughter, for Lily, too.” She glances at the other woman who’s still shivering, her eyes still locked on the dead Gryken. “But…” Jillian pauses again, her eyes boring into mine. “I don’t know if I can trust you when your friend is also obviously…”

She pauses and looks away, running her hands through her hair.

“Obviously what?” Ga’Var asks. There’s a slight warning on his tone and I feel his suit bristle against me.

“Obviously not of this world.” Jillian meets his gaze, her grey eyes devoid of fear. “This is all much more complicated than we ever thought.”

She glances at me before turning her gaze on Ga’Var again.

“Who are you? And why have you come here?”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

SAM

Ga’Var shifts, stepping in front of me.

He towers over me, over us, and I have to tilt my head to look back at him.

A slight breeze brushes past us, but not a thing on him moves except for the suit slowly slipping from over his head.

Billy stares in awe, his gaze watching the suit descend to Ga’Var’s neck, his eyes wide.

“I am Ga’Var from the line Vel’kin. Second in command of Edooria’s final sleekt.”

Jillian glances at me, her eyes a little wide—the only thing that tells me she is more than shocked.

“So you really are an alien.”

“Vullan,” Ga’Var says. “I am Vullan.”

“Come,” I say to them. “Let’s talk somewhere else.” I glance toward the log not far away. “Let’s talk over there.”

They eye me but start moving, glancing at each other and then at me and Ga’Var as they move.

Nobody takes a seat, but as Jillian starts talking again, I turn my attention to Ga’Var.

His wound…

I cannot see it.

And the pain all along my body is numbed, like the suit’s wrapped in a tight bandage around me.

“So…what are you doing here?” Jillian’s attention is completely on Ga’Var. “Did you come here to invade us, too?”

Ga’Var bristles as if the accusation is an insult.

“Vullan do not invade. We had no reason to come to your world until the Gryken appeared in our skies.” He pauses, glancing over at the dead Gryken.

The sunlight sweeps over the dead body, but even in the little time that we’ve been standing here, the thing is already withering.

“When they came,” he continues, “we fought.”

He focuses back on Jillian and her gaze becomes riveted as she waits for him to continue.

“Many sleekts lost. Many Vullan dead. Many males…many females…many young.”

Ga’Var’s voice gets so low, his words are almost unintelligible.

For the first time, I see the war’s effect on him.

We humans are not the only ones suffering because of this scourge.

Ga’Var lost his world just as I am losing mine.

“Many sleekts?” Jillian asks.

“Ships,” Ga’Var says.

Jillian blinks. “But you said you were second in command of the final sleekt. The final ship?”

Ga’Var doesn’t respond, and Jillian’s eyes grow wide as she covers her mouth with one hand.

“Oh my God…”

“They destroyed your planet…” Billy whispers, his eyes wide, too. “And they came here to destroy ours.”

I can sense their rising panic and I step forward to stand beside Ga’Var.

“Ga’Var and his brothers came here on their last working ship. They could have stayed behind on their planet. Rebuild what they could. But they came here instead. Followed their enemy through the cosmos just so they could prevent the exact thing that happened to them from happening to us.”

They blink at me, their eyes still wide as they look back at Ga’Var.

Billy turns away and runs a hand through his hair as his shoulders shake with the release of a pent-up breath.

“If they couldn’t save their planet, what makes you think they can save ours?” For the first time, Lily speaks. She’s glaring in my direction, pain and anger in her eyes.

I open my mouth to answer her, but Ga’Var beats me to it.

“Because now we know how to kill them.”

Lily stares at him for a few moments before her gaze falls back to the dead Gryken’s withering body.

For a moment, no one speaks and then…

“Do you…” Lily sniffs and uses the back of her hand to wipe across her face. “Do you honestly think we have a chance at beating these things?”

When she rises her gaze again, gone is the anger, all that’s left is pain.

I see myself in her eyes, all the death, all the heartache of everything I’ve experienced since that first day the Grykens arrived.

I stand beside Ga’Var, take his hand in mine, and I meet her gaze.

“No,” I reply. “I don’t think we have a chance.” There’s a collective breath before I continue and Ga’Var twitches beside me. I can sense when he turns his head to look down on me and can imagine the look of pain in his eyes.

He thinks I don’t believe in him.

“I don’t think we have a chance,” I repeat. “I know we do.”

I feel when he relaxes, like a wave going through him that’s transferred to me. A warm embrace of sorts without being pulled into his arms.

“From the very first day they came, they’ve been working non-stop to develop weapons we can use to fight. It’s all hard to explain. They’ve been working hard, and they’re almost ready.”

I meet each of their gazes. “The question now is: do you want to be a part of the fight or do you want us to leave you here?” They blink at me before glancing at each other. “I can’t promise any of us will live through this, but I’d rather die trying to kill these things than be caught in one of their machines ever again.”

Jillian straightens, a small smile playing at the corner of her lips.

“I knew there was something about you ever since that asshole kicked you out of that camper.”

“Kicked?” Ga’Var growls.

I have to hide the warmth that bubbles inside me at his tone.

“I’m ready to fight. Whatever it takes,” Jillian says.

“Mom,” Lily whispers, her eyes wide. “Don’t you see that thing?” Her wide eyes point back at the dead Gryken and I just know she will see its image in her dreams for many, many nights.

“I’ve lived a full life.” Jillian keeps her gaze on me. “I’m not afraid to go out with a bang.”

“Stay out here, I’ll probably die. Go with you, I’ll probably die. Heck, whatever, I’m in.” Billy turns back to us, a shadow of a smile on his face and growing awe in his eyes as he regards Ga’Var.

Ga’Var growls, and Billy’s smile falters.

“You all speak of death as if it is nothing. My brothers and I will not have the death of females on our hands. That is dishonor.” He looks down at me, eyes piercing into mine. “You will not fight.” He glances at Jillian and Lily. “None of you will.”

His gaze pierces mine again. “Today was an anomaly.”

Oh, I’m going to fight. That’s just something we have to discuss later.

“Um, so,” Billy fidgets, “what about the death of males?”

Ga’Var growls again and Billy’s eyes widen a little.

“We protect females,” is all he says.

Billy does finger guns and a tight smile. “Gotcha. Noted.”

I release a breath as I study the three of them. Lily is finally standing upright, her shoulders stiffening as she now glares at the dead Gryken.

“I’m in,” she says and I smile.

“Now,” Jillian pipes up, “where’s this safe place you told us about?”

“Oh, home.” I smile.

“Home?”

“Yes,” Ga’Var adds. “We call it…”

“Base Zero,” we say together, and I grip his hand tighter.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

GA’VAR

Sa’am moves toward the three hyu’mans as I step closer to the dead Gryken, inspecting it.

Her blade went all the way. Straight through the feeding orifice and right through the center of the creature’s nervous system.

It might have been pure luck, but deep down, I know it was more than that.

She had her ba’clan…

My gaze slips to her, clad from neck to feet in her own symbiotes.

Her wild curly hair whips in the wind as she tells the others more about Base Zero.

I wonder if she realizes yet.

That the “suit” isn’t a suit at all…

That I have no control over the ba’clan that has now bonded with her…

That they are her own, her very own colony, and that they are my ba’clan’s mate…that she is my mate.

How she instructed the ba’clan to make a blade to kill the Gryken in the first place…

Even that is extraordinary.

But now, it’s all making sense.

The fact I couldn’t call them back to me when they were melded to her leg.

The way she moved so quickly from one spot to another while trying to save the young male hyu’man…

The change had begun a long time ago.

I should feel…joy…happiness…

Instead, there’s growing anxiety within me.

Sa’am did not choose me.

Even though I shared in her warmth, she does not see me as a mate.

What will she do when she realizes we are stuck together now?

Just days ago, she was frowning and sticking her tongue out at me.

Memory of the little pink thing almost makes me groan.

“Ga’Var?”

My head snaps up to find her standing above me.

There’s a little smile on her lips and I want to think it is because of me.

“You killed this.” I search her gaze and her shoulders rise and fall.

“To be honest, I don’t know how.” Her brows furrow in that strange elastic way that they do. “One moment I saw that thing trying to kill you and I went mad. I don’t remember much, just that…”

I cannot breathe. So I don’t. “What?”

“Just that…” She meets my gaze. “I couldn’t lose you.”

Finally, my lungs work again. She didn’t want to lose me.

I want to ask her if she cares about me, but the other hyu’mans are near us. It is something I have to leave for another time.

The redness growing in Sa’am’s cheeks tells me that decision is right, and my ba’clan pulse with warmth for her.

“We have to find Dey-jah,” she says.

“Yea, we can’t leave her,” Jil-eeyan adds.

I study the group.

I can find their hyu’man. Hunt her down. But there is no way I am leaving Sa’am on her own again.

Bad things happen when I do.

“We will have to head back to base first. Send a party to come find her.” I stand as I say this, noting the surprised gazes as I rise.

“What? No, we can’t leave…” Jil-eeyan trails off. “Can’t we go look for her now?”

I glance at the forest. “We can. But we don’t know what we might encounter.”

And I am not at my best performance state.

I leave that part unsaid, but I know Sa’am understands, because her face sets, her mouth forming a thin line as she turns to face the other female.

“It’s not wise. If we let Ga’Var leave us to go find her, we’re vulnerable. Another Scrit could appear and without his guidance, I’m pretty sure we’d get caught. Worse, another set of Gryken could come strolling through the forest. We’re weak, tired, and injured. We should go back to the base first, get a rescue party, and head back out.”

Jil-eeyan’s throat moves a little before she nods. “I guess you’re right.”

Sa’am nods too. “Come on, I have a tray around here somewhere. We should pack up and head out. We’ve delayed too long as it is.”

The group walks behind me as I lead the way, Sa’am at my back.

Now and then, her palm braces against me as I walk, and it makes my lips twitch with pleasure.

I like her little touches…

Hyu’man females yearn for contact, much more than Vullan females do.

It is a difference I relish.

Yet, I cannot help the anxiety building within me.

We are heading back to base and I wonder if everything will return to normal.

Will Sa’am go back to sleeping in the tunnel with the other females, avoiding us…avoiding me…or will she join me in my quarters on the ship?

Will she forget the intense mating we shared?

A groan rumbles in my throat at the memory.

I will rekking not.

But I cannot force her to be mine.

The gods doom such matings.

Sa’am will have to want me…as much as I have grown to want her.

Someone’s breath hitches, pulling me from my musing and I glance behind me.

This is another thing about hyu’mans.

They are so very loud even without meaning to…noisy even.

I pause, and the entire group stops at the same time the cart halts by my side.

My gaze lands on the female with the eyes like Jil-eeyan.

Li-lee her name is.

Her eyes grow wide as the seconds tick by, her hand flying up to plaster over her mouth as she shakes her head.

The others lift their gazes to look at what has caught her attention and I almost feel the air change as their fear scents rise.

I do not turn.

I already know what they see.

But there is no escaping it.

Sa’am gulps and I see the reflection of the Scrit in her eyes.

It is still standing there.

Its pilots are dead. There is nowhere for it to go.

Sa’am meets my eyes and jerks her chin almost imperceptibly before she steels her gaze and turns to the group.

“It’s fine. There’s nothing to worry about. We just have to go past it.”

I’m not sure if they hear her. Their eyes are all plastered on the shiny, metallic bits of the machine that catch the light through the trees.

“It’s empty,” Sa’am continues, then glances back at me just to make sure.

She turns back to her fellow hyu’mans, but not before I catch the sliver of fear that runs through her eyes.

Still, she is being brave, putting her trust in me…for them.

“There is none inside.” I say it with as much surety as I can.

If Gryken were inside, my ba’clan wouldn’t be this calm.

They are on edge, bristling at the sight of the Scrit itself, but my hackles are not rising.

Sa’am rolls her shoulders in a strange way, as if her own ba’clan are bristling, and she frowns a little at the sensation.

I need to speak to her about this…soon.

“Let’s go.” Ji-leeyan grabs Li-lee’s hand. “I trust you guys.”

Sa’am nods and smiles up at me.

Again, her trust in me warms something deep. Something only she has touched.

I turn and continue walking and though I do not glance behind me again, I am aware of every single member of our group.

How Li’lee has to pull her legs as if they are stiff and every fiber of her being is telling her to turn back. How Bi’lee glances behind him every few feet, as if he expects the Gryken to rise from the dead and appear behind us at any moment. And how Ji-leeyan’s heart is racing despite the bravado she displays.

Hyu’mans are curious, strange creatures, but the most curious of all is my Sa’am.

Her aura is calm.

As she walks behind me, any fear I picked up slowly dissipates from her.

She braces her hand against my back to steady herself, and I feel her ba’clan greet mine.

They pulse against each other and I feel Sa’am’s warmth.

It is welcoming.

There is surety in her steps.

Confidence…

And when we step into the clearing, below the huge machine, only then does this confidence wane.

“Oh my God,” Sa’am whispers.

It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen before.

Red veins spread from the Scrit’s legs outward, networking over the ground, strangling the plants beneath.

“What…what is this?” someone asks.

I stare at it, trying to understand. “I am not sure.”

This is something different. It’s why the Scrit stopped.

Whatever is happening here. This is the reason.

I step forward and a hand grabs my arm.

Sa’am steps with me, then stops. “I don’t think you should get too close.”

Her concern for me has warmth growing in my belly that I have to ignore.

I have to focus…but nothing around me causes alarm, even though what I am seeing before me is a strange phenomenon.

Taking another step forward, I crouch in front of one of the veins.

A faint pulse goes through it as I stare at it.

Lifeblood.

As I stand, my gaze rising up the Scrit, I follow the network of veins crawling up its legs.

This wasn’t here earlier.

These veins are a recent occurrence.

“What is it?” Sa’am whispers.

“Lifeblood.”

“What?” someone asks. “Did he say blood?”

“Oh my God,” someone else says.

Sa’am freezes, and I take a few more steps before I realize all the hyu’mans have just…stopped.

They stand by the edge of the clearing, looking up as if transfixed.

Sa’am’s chest heaves and for a moment, I lose contact with her.

That invisible string that is between us…it breaks.

Her eyes glaze over as she looks up, and I can see the terrors playing behind her gaze.

Horrors from before.

From before I arrived.

Sa’am…

I’m beside her in an instant, her face between my hands as I search her gaze.

“I am here.” My voice comes out much deeper than I intended, choking on emotion that I have swimming deep. “Come back to me,” I whisper. “I am here.”

Sa’am shivers and blinks.

“You’re safe now.”

Her shoulders rise and fall in quick succession as her gaze finally focuses on mine.

“Ga’Var…” Her eyes grow wet.

I cannot bear to see her like this. Frozen in fear because of that vermin. That scourge.

“We can turn back. Find another way.”

She is already shaking her head. “No.” She gulps. “No. We have to go this way. It’s the fastest way back. If we deviate, we may get lost, or worse.”

She swallows hard again and sets her shoulders.

Tilting her head into my hands, she wipes the water from her eyes.

“I’m fine.”

Even I know that is a lie.

“I’m fine. Let’s go.”

My nostrils flare a little and when I do not move, she tilts her head up to smile at me.

Her mouth moves, but her eyes are still terrified and sad.

“Really,” her smile grows wider, “I am.” And then she turns to the others. “Guys, let’s go.”

They nod and glance at each other, but it is clear to me it wasn’t Sa’am’s fear that had them halting at the edge of the clearing, either.

It was their own.

Sa’am slips out of my grasp and begins walking toward the Scrit.

Her steps are cautious, careful, as she makes her way through the network of veins.

As she moves away, it hits me how incredibly small she is.

Against the backdrop of the enemy, she is so…vulnerable.

Something builds inside me as the other hyu’mans brush past me and follow Sa’am’s path.

I can never leave her alone.

And…I do not want to lose her.

Sa’am is mine and when we return to camp, I have to let her know one thing as a fact.

Wherever she goes, I follow.

I am never letting her go.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

SAM

We walk underneath the towering machine, the hairs at the back of my neck standing on end, the dark suit covering me bristling against my skin as if it can sense the danger around us.

I try not to look at it…but not looking is hard when the enemy is so monstrous.

One leg planted in the earth is like a huge cell tower and as I pass it, another wave of terror runs through me.

These veins are thick. A hue of red so deep it’s almost black.

Blood, Ga’Var said.

I gulp as I step over them, my mind going in circles, trying to understand why they are here.

To think that once, I was stuck in one of these things…waiting.

Waiting for the day it would pull me even farther inside itself and implant its young in my womb.

Those days, I did not know what the Gryken were.

I’d accepted my fate.

Death had been coming. It had been right at the doorstep. And I’d been ready for it.

That was…until Ga’Var.

I glance back at him, trying not to let the fear behind my eyes shine through, and I’m startled when his burgundy eyes meet mine.

He’s been watching me the whole time, walking silently behind us all, but with his gaze on me and me only.

I can see his suit bristle the same as mine does as he nears the huge, still structure, but he pays the sensation no mind.

His eyes are only on me, and I realize at this moment that we are leading a revolution.

I’m in front, him behind the group now, and between us are the people we have to save.

My shoulders set as I trudge on.

I keep my gaze forward, not looking up, not looking to the side, just forward.

Toward home.

I don’t know when we pass the thing completely, just that when the forest envelopes us again, my shoulders sag with relief.

I can hear my fellow humans release their breaths, too.

I wasn’t the only one scared to death.

“Wait,” Ga’Var says, and we halt.

He brushes past Billy and heads toward me. “I’ll go in front.”

I nod, grateful because I have no idea where the hell we are going.

Ga’Var seems to, though. Even though this isn’t even his planet, he seems to know exactly where he is.

“This way,” he says, confirming my assumption, and he turns slightly to the left.

We walk in silence, stepping over brambles and fallen trees, focusing on keeping upright and not stumbling while Ga’Var traverses the terrain as if there are no obstacles in the way.

He’s not looking at me now, completely focused on what’s around us, but even as I stare at his back, I know he’s aware of my presence.

And, at one point, when his hand shoots out behind him before I almost stumble, awe similar to Billy’s shoots through me.

“I can carry you,” he says, and my cheeks heat.

I can already tell Jillian knows something is up between us.

I see her covert looks whenever I glance behind me. I don’t need more gossip even before I know what the hell is happening between me and him.

So I shake my head. “It’s okay.” I glance around us. “Any idea how far we are now?”

We’ve been walking for at least three hours, but my sense of time and distance are skewed.

“Not far.”

As soon as he says this, Ga’Var’s suit slips over his head, and the same happens to mine.

The feeling is startling, especially because I didn’t expect it.

There’s a sharp intake of breath from one of the others and Ga’Var tenses, raising his hand in what can only be a signal for them to be quiet.

The bushes in front of us rustle and for a moment, terror shoots through all of us.

The last thing we want to see is a Gryken, but—

Ga’Var relaxes, slowly lowering his hand as the bushes part and a sleek figure in all-black steps from the cover of the foliage.

Female, undoubtedly from the shape, and wearing the same suit that we are.

Relief and joy I never expected burst through me as I rush forward.

“Adira!”

Her suit slips from over her face as her eyes swell with tears and she rushes toward me.

“Oh my God, Sam!” She grips me to her and I embrace her just as tightly.

The bushes rustle again and Fer’ro appears, his fiery eyes piercing us all.

Billy mutters something akin to “oh shit” and takes a step backward, but I’m too caught up with the suddenly overflowing emotions to look his way.

“You’re safe!” Adira pushes me away enough to look down at me and as her gaze moves over me, over the suit I am wearing, another look passes over her face as her eyes widen.

“I told you…Ga’Var may be a self-centered quu’mion, but he would never let the female die.”

Ga’Var growls, but not loud enough, because I hear Adira’s whisper.

“You’ve mated.”

Her words have me blinking a thousand times as the warmth in my cheeks grows.

I know the Vullan have super senses, but Adira isn’t Vullan.

Granted, she’s been acting differently since she began wearing the suit and having sex with Fer’ro, but…

Shit…

My mind races as I wonder if there’s some kind of sign on me that lets others know I had sex with a Vullan.

My gaze snaps to Ga’Var’s, and it’s clear he heard what Adira said, even if it was just a whisper.

He’s looking at her strangely, a look I’ve never seen in his eyes before.

Unease…anxiety…fear.

“And you found…humans.” Adira’s eyes widen some more. “How did you…?”

I glance back at the others. They look just as surprised as she does as their gazes flick across the Vullan and back.

The bushes rustle again and I realize there are more people behind the leaves.

The one called Fi’rox pushes his head through the leaves and I don’t know how I recognize him with the suit all over his face.

“Can we do the greetings at another time? That Scrit is making me go crazy.” Even as he speaks, his suit bristles.

“Fi’rox is right,” Ga’Var says, that strange look still in his eyes. “The base isn’t far from here now.”

Adira nods to the others, taking them all in and offering them a reassuring smile before she takes my hand.

“The guys are right. It’s not safe out here. Let’s keep moving.”

She grips my hand tighter, and I have no choice but to walk beside her as we move through the bushes.

“Oh my God,” she whispers again, her eyes shining awe as her gaze goes down me.

There’s excitement building inside her—clear from the way she grips me and squeezes my hand. I get the sense that she wants to squeal.

I guess she’s happy, no, surprised, about finding other humans—free and alive.

God knows I was.

But as we walk a little ahead of the others, Adira’s gaze darts behind us as if checking the distance between us.

When I look back, Ga’Var’s gaze is boring into hers, that strange look still in his eyes, but if Adira notices, she doesn’t react.

“I can’t believe it’s happened again so soon,” she whispers, only loud enough for me to hear.

“What? Finding more humans?”

Her brows furrow a bit and she shakes her head, a smile playing at her lips.

“No, silly.” She lowers her voice even more. “A soul bond.”

Her words make no sense to me. Yet, even as she says them, the suit covering me pulses.

Adira smiles, as if she feels the pulse, too.

“You don’t have to hide it from me. God knows I’m happy someone else has finally found a mate.” Her gaze darts behind us. “Not gonna lie, it’s been kinda lonely keeping this secret.”

The entrance to the cave looms in front of us.

It looks like pure rock and I hear the others murmur behind us.

“Is there some kind of bunker close by?” Jillian asks.

“No,” I glance back at her, “the base is right ahead.”

Her brows furrow as she looks up at the mountain of rock before us and I see uncertainty flick across her features.

She and Lily stop as they watch Fi’rox walk up the short incline and through what looks like pure rock. Only then does the uncertainty get replaced on her face.

Her eyes widen and Billy exclaims a “What the fuck?”

“It’s a barrier. Don’t worry,” I say, turning and following the others. “Think of it as a mirage.”

“You mean like Bat Man’s cave lair?” Billy’s eyes are wide. “This is so frickin’ cool…”

Lily rolls her eyes at him and I can’t help but blow a laugh through my nose as we move toward the entrance.

The other Vullan and Adira walk ahead of us and my gaze fastens on her.

Her words repeat in my head like the echoes of a beaten gong.

I’m happy someone else has finally found a mate.

As we enter through the barrier, our arrival draws shouts of joy and happiness that echo through the chambers.

But I can’t focus on any of that.

All I can stare at is Adira, and when she looks at me, her smile falters a little.

Her eyes widen slowly as something dawns on her mind.

She steps toward me, her mouth falling open a little.

“What are you talking about, Adira?” I whisper, but I don’t need to. The shouts all around us make it impossible for anyone else to hear me.

“I—” she says, her gaze searching the crowd until it lands on something or someone. Her hand flies over her mouth, her eyes widening some more. “You don’t know…do you?”

“Don’t know what?” I turn to see what or where she is looking and my eyes land on Ga’Var.

Even in the greetings happening around us, he is standing as still as I am, his eyes on me, fear that I’ve never seen before in those depths.

“Ga’Var?” I whisper.

He’s in front of me in an instant, so fast that it interrupts the joy around us, and in the back of my mind, I’m aware of everyone slowly looking our way.

“I’m sorry, my Sa’am.”

Sorry for what?!

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

GA’VAR

There’s a growl behind me. One I know well.

My womb mate. Fer’ro.

“You took her by force?!” His words echo through the tunnels at the same time that Adira’s eyes grow larger.

She opens her mouth to say something, but San’ten’s figure suddenly looms near.

His hackles are rising, his fangs baring and the growls I hear around me have my hackles rising as well.

Every Vullan close by is going into attack mode, ready to tear me apart for the transgression they believe I have committed.

“Ga’Var.” Sa’am touches my arm and my ba’clan pulse, needing her closer. “What’s wrong? What’s happening? What are they talking about?”

“He didn’t even explain to the female what he has done,” San’ten growls, his dark eyes growing even darker, like pits where stars go to die.

I need to take Sa’am away. I need to speak to her.

I need to make her understand before they can intervene.

There’s a growl behind me, but I’m already moving, lifting Sa’am from the ground as if she weighs nothing and heading toward the ship.

“Stop him!” San’ten shouts, but another voice replies.

“No! Wait!” Adee’ra. The female who took the life-organ of my womb mate within her grasp.

The one that put her life on the line for all the Vullan here.

We all respect her. She has authority.

And that authority is clear now.

“He’s done the unthinkable,” San’ten says, but his voice has lost its power in the presence of Adee’ra’s command.

“Let them go.” I’m almost at the ship when I look back and find them all looking my way. “You can beat him up later if he tries any funny business,” she says. “But I don’t think he will.”

Sa’am’s eyes are a mixture of confusion and fear as I step into my quarters.

It is pitch black in here, the way I like it, and I have to adjust the controls so that she can see.

“Ga’Var?” She calls my name as I set her down and crouch at her feet. “What are you doing?”

I bow my head, my forehead touching the ground in the ultimate display of subservience to the one before us.

“What’s going on?”

I do not lift my gaze. I do not move. And when I feel a hand on my cheek, tilting my head upward, I realize she has set herself on the floor beside me.

Emotions I never knew I had well inside my throat.

“There is something I haven’t told you.” I search her gaze, waiting for the anger to form, the disdain…the rejection…but I have said nothing yet.

All my life, I have wished for a mate.

Now I have one and I cannot even face her.

What kind of mate am I?

Perhaps I was not ready.

And the way she is looking at me…as if I am a star in her strange blue skies…

I am not good enough for Sa’am.

“Adee’ra said something about…mating…being mates?” She searches my gaze.

“What does that mean?”

I gulp and my ba’clan shiver a little as if they too are steeling themselves for the potential rejection.

I know that if Sa’am doesn’t want to pursue this with me…if she doesn’t want me for more than the one night we shared…I will not be able to go on…

“The ba’clan…” I begin.

“You mean the suit?”

I shake my head. “It isn’t a suit.”

Sa’am blinks at me and looks down at herself.

“It is more than that.”

She blinks again. “Like some super AI alien tech shit…” She giggles and the look on my face causes her smile to fade. “Right?”

“No.”

I can almost feel her heart thumping as her anxiety rises and her ba’clan pulse against her.

I can feel them as if they are also connected to me.

They were connected to me. Her colony is derived from my own.

“It’s moving against me,” she whispers. “Pulsing.” She blinks a few times. “It’s done this before…but not like this.”

“They’re reacting to the beat of your heart. Trying to calm you.”

“They?”

“Yes.” I take a deep breath. I might as well just tell her everything. Delaying the pain won’t make it hurt less. “They’re not a suit. They’re not artificial intelligence. They are alive. Like you and I. They live. They breathe. They feed. They die.”

Sa’am does the most curious thing. Instead of her eyes widening in shock like they usually do, the only thing she does is raise a singular eyebrow.

I’m staring at it when Sa’am suddenly laughs.

The sound knocks me out of my musing.

“You mean like a parasite?”

I see when her ba’clan bristle, moving over her skin like a wave. “Oh, they didn’t like that.” She blinks and finally, her eyes widen. “Wait, they’re sentient? They can hear me? Understand me?”

I jerk my chin in the way I see she usually does to indicate the affirmative. “They are the reason we can speak your language. They encoded it through Fer’ro first and shared it with all our ba’clan.”

Sa’am stands slowly, turning her hands over as she stares at the ba’clan.

“So this thing…these things…they can communicate with each other?”

I jerk my chin again, watching her, waiting for the rejection. “They always are.”

“And I can communicate with them?”

I open my mouth to answer but I don’t.

I don’t know where she is going with this and her voice has developed a tone I’ve never heard before.

My own ba’clan bristle, caught in the middle of wanting to go to her and wanting to protect me at the same time.

If Sa’am decides to draw her blade on me, I will have to allow her to attack.

“Yes…” I say, hesitation lacing the word.

“How?”

This time, my ears twitch. I’ve never…thought about how I communicate with them. I just do.

“Whatever you think…they will do it. They are connected to you now. They are yours.” Forever…I want to add. Just like I am yours now forever. But I’m not sure she’s ready to hear those words yet.

Sa’am stretches her hand away from her and extends her fingers.

She thrums the air as if playing with invisible thread and I watch in awe as strings of her ba’clan move forward like a web.

She pauses, both brows rising before she slowly continues to move her fingers.

I watch her in silence.

She isn’t creating a blade.

She’s creating…

The petals form slowly as whatever picture she has in her mind takes form on her palm and when the strands stop moving, she turns to me.

A flower.

She made a flower.

Sa’am chokes on a laugh as she stares at it.

“This is amazing,” she whispers and I jerk my chin toward my chest.

I don’t think she understands what I was trying to say.

I don’t think she understands what Adira was saying either.

She hasn’t put them together yet. But, for the life of me, I cannot bear to continue.

Not when she is looking at her creation with such awe.

She takes a few steps away, inadvertently heading toward the cleaning station, and when she steps over the glowing circle on the floor, the station activates.

“Oh!” She looks down at it, finally pulling her gaze from the dark petals on her palm.

“Cleansing station,” I say. “I suppose you should have a bath, now that you are home.”

Sa’am murmurs something that sounds like a yes but then her brows furrow as she looks down at herself.

Without my intervention, the ba’clan slip from over her body, revealing her tantalizing pink skin.

My sazi throbs immediately.

Now is not the time.

Sa’am settles the ba’clan along her spine, much the same way that Adee’ra does, and proceeds to allow the cleansing station to do its job.

I stand watching her, unable to move when she looks at me.

“Aren’t you going to come bathe too?”

My sazi throbs again.

I want nothing more.

But every moment I touch her without her realizing just how deep this bond between us is growing, the more I set things up for failure.

I cannot go near her again—especially when her skin is on full display, her scent calling to me—until she knows everything.

“Sa’am…the ba’clan…it means…”

“That we are mates now?”

Her words send alarm through me and it feels like every ridge on my body stiffens in response.

“The more I think about it, the more it makes sense.” She meets my gaze. “Even without the strange suit latching on to me since I hurt my leg—” Her ba’clan must have bristled because she shivers a little and chuckles. “Fine, not a suit. But ever since it fastened to my leg and later, it’s been pulsing on me. And whenever you’re close, I feel…”

She looks away, her brows furrowing a little as the light of the cleansing station moves over her.

“I want you,” she finally says. “Even if the ba’clan didn’t push me toward you, I’d want you still. I’ve wanted you before they started pulsing insistently on my leg.” Her cheeks grow rosy as her gaze slides down me. “I wanted you out there.” She bites her lip. “And I want you now.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

SAM

Ga’Var’s growl is so loud, I swear it shakes the air around us.

One moment he’s standing stiffly, staring at me as if I’m about to tell him the worst news of his life, and the next, he’s right in front of me.

His ba’clan disappears beneath his skin as he joins me within the cleansing station and his lips find mine.

With a groan of my own, my insides flutter as his tongue dives into my mouth.

Fuck.

My core is already pulsing, and Ga’Var groans as his fingers find me there.

“Ga’Var,” I pant.

His passion is like a burning fire that I want to consume me and my hands find their way into his hair, cradling his head as his tongue thrusts into my mouth, hot and wet and thick, rubbing against my own.

“Ga’Var,” I pant again.

He pulls me into his lap as he kneels and I feel when he extrudes suddenly, his thick length sweeping across my folds.

Fuck.

I clench.

It feels like I’ve been waiting an entire lifetime for this.

I’ve never wanted anyone so badly.

Ga’Var breaks the kiss, panting close to my ear. “I like this mouth-eating thing.”

I chuckle. “Kissing, Ga’Var. It’s called kissing.”

“Mouth kees’ing,” he says. “And I want to kees your suu’ci too. Suu’ci kees’ing.”

I blush, but my clit throbs. “That’s called eating.”

His ears twitch and I almost laugh.

Ga’Var smiles, a twisting of his mouth that makes him the most handsome male I’ve ever laid eyes on.

He dips his head toward my breast and I have to grab him hard to force his head back.

There’s hurt in his eyes as he meets my gaze again, but there’s something I need to know before we continue.

“This mating thing…” I say. “It’s not…it’s monogamous, right? You won’t be mating with other women on the base.”

Ga’Var bristles so much that his ba’clan threatens to rise to the surface of his skin.

His nostrils flare as his eyes bore into mine

“The moment you became mine, every other female resembles a rock to me. You are my all.”

That’s extreme. I mean, if another girl is sexy, even I will look, but I grin anyway.

I like the thought of having this hunk of an alien all to myself.

“You are baring your teeth at me with joy,” he says. “Does that mean I can eat your suu’ci now?”

“I—”

I don’t get a chance to respond. I’m suddenly on my back, my hips being lifted high till my legs are around Ga’Var’s neck.

He growls and inhales deep the moment his nose comes into contact with the mat of curls between my thighs.

I’m upside down and maybe it’s the blood rushing to my head, but that first swipe of his tongue…it feels like I transcend.

Ga’Var runs his tongue right through me.

The thick, wet organ slides right through the center of my lips, running over my clit and returning to do it again as Ga’Var groans.

“So sweet,” he says as he runs his tongue through me again.

My whole being shivers and all I can do is reach for his knees, gripping them with both hands as his tongue goes for another dive.

He thrums, a vibration that goes through him, and I feel it on the tip of my clit just before he pierces me with his tongue.

The scream that leaves my throat has him pausing for a bit.

“Sa’am?”

“Don’t stop.”

A rumble goes through him as he pierces me one more time, pushing his tongue deep, stretching my channel.

My hips buck and I can’t help myself. I grind against his lips.

Fuck, I’ve never done this with any guy before.

Always too afraid of what I taste like…of what I smell like…too afraid of what the guy might think… too afraid of suffocating him…

But Ga’Var…

Ga’Var pulls me even tighter against him, groaning as he laps up my juices, his tongue deep inside me, thrusting persistently as his ridged nose rubs against my sensitive bud.

I’m at the peak far too soon.

Fuck me, I want this to last longer. But when Ga’Var growls again, clicking something in his language right against my cunt, I—

The scream echoes against the walls as an orgasm tears through me. I thrash against him, shrieking some more and sputtering words from my mouth, begging him to stop.

I want it, but I can’t take any more.

Ga’Var pulls his tongue slowly from me, pausing to lick his lips, and my eyes glaze over with another aftershock.

I’m panting when the door suddenly disappears from the wall to reveal a band of Vullan in attack mode, blades all rising.

Fer’ro stands at the front with San’ten and Fi’rox at his back.

Adira stands there too, her back turned to us as she presses both hands against the chest of her unmoving mate.

She turns to look at us just as the door disappears and her eyes widen, her cheeks flaming.

“See! I told you. Some of us are just louder than others. There’s nothing wrong here! They’re just having fun.”

The reality of what’s happening hits me too late and I’m only lucky Ga’Var moves before I do, flipping me behind him as his ba’clan rise to the surface, his blades extending.

Fer’ro’s gaze darts away, and so do the others, except San’ten.

His dark eyes seem to find me even from where I am hiding behind Ga’Var.

It is the most difficult thing, trying to appear composed when one’s clit is still throbbing, the cunt still clenching for something that’s no longer there.

“Female,” Fer’ro speaks. “Has my womb mate coerced you? Has he—”

“No!” I speak up and quickly, because my ba’clan are writhing now, filling with rage.

It’s not till my gaze focuses on Ga’Var that I realize something.

The rage isn’t mine.

It’s his.

“Ga’Var didn’t force me. It’s all a big misunderstanding. I want this. I want him.”

San’ten doesn’t seem convinced. Those dark eyes bore into my soul, reading my past, present, and future.

“He could have told her to say that.”

“Oh, rekking quu’mion.” Ga’Var begins to rise and only stalls when I grip him and pull him back down.

I’m naked after all.

Adira’s gaze is averted as she pushes against her mate one more time. “Don’t worry about San’ten, Ga’Var. He’s just jealous.”

San’ten growls and sends a scathing look her way, but when he glances back in my direction, he can’t meet my gaze anymore.

“Leave us.” Ga’Var’s words sound like Hades speaking at hell’s gate and the others quail.

The door materializes back into place, but even with them gone, he doesn’t calm.

I drape my arms around his neck, fearlessly planting my breasts into his back as I brush the fingers of one hand over his throat.

“It’s ok,” I whisper. “They’re gone now. And I’m not going with them.”

Ga’Var relaxes a little, but not nearly as much as he was before.

Slowly, I move around to face him.

There’s still murder in his eyes, but that fades a little when his gaze lands on me.

Maybe I’m still on an orgasm high or something, but I move forward with bravery I’ve never had in the bedroom before, one hand cupping that raised plate between his thighs.

I can feel something jerk behind it that sends heat down to my core.

Ga’Var stiffens, his nostrils flaring. But his eyes are soft as he looks at me, his ears perking off his head like a curious little cat.

I know just what to do to make him feel better.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

SAM

I rub my palm against Ga’Var’s bulge.

There’s warmth there. An inviting warmth that his cock throbs beneath.

This close, with my hand resting over it, my fingers brush over his skin.

There’s a fold, like a thick line that’s supposed to part open, and I run my index finger down that.

Ga’Var doesn’t move.

He’s holding himself so rigidly, like glass, as if he will break.

My confidence wanes a little.

Am I doing this right?

But when I brush my finger again and he sucks in a breath, the entire plate throbs, and a thrill goes through me.

“Let me see it,” I coax and Ga’Var’s jaw moves like he’s clenching his teeth.

But he doesn’t do as I ask. Instead, he moves away from my hand a little, breaking the contact between us.

Disappointment fills me. Maybe I read this wrong.

“Oh, you don’t want us to?”

Ga’Var grunts, an almost sad smile forming on his lips. “More than anything,” he says. “But I am too close to losing control. I do not want to hurt you, my flower.”

I bite my bottom lip, studying him.

He’s deathly serious.

All emotion is wiped clean from his face.

“Ga’Var.” I move closer to him and a thrum starts in his chest. It’s a low rumble, like a deep purr and I let it envelop me, tickling the hairs on my skin. “We’ve done it before. I admit, you’re big…but I’m not going to break.”

Oh my God, I’m really begging for cock. But despite that I just orgasmed, there’s a burning need inside me again.

“I want you to fuck me.”

Ga’Var moves so fast, I don’t see.

He’s just a charcoal blur as he’s suddenly above me, leaning down so much that I fall back on the floor, braced up by my elbows.

“Do you know what you ask? Human?”

I gulp as I stare up at him.

He’s always been so soft with me; this side of him has me speechless.

“I want to take you right here, on the floor. Spread your legs and feast on your suu’ci once more. I want to taste you as you squirm and scream on my tongue, and then when I’m done, I want to spin you around, hold those sweet soft mounds on your chest as I mount you, filling you with me…” He leans down so close, his lips brush against mine. “…filling you with my seed.”

Fuck me.

Shit.

I wish he would.

My lips open and my breath brushes against his.

He’s panting as he stares down at me, fighting to hold control.

His pupils have contracted so much all I see is burgundy as he stares down at me. And as his lips pull back, his fangs baring, I wet my lips.

Maybe I’m mad.

But I want this.

So bad.

Not heeding his warnings, I reach down between us and cup him.

That’s all it takes.

I feel as he extrudes, his long thick cock forcing itself into my hand, its heat and moisture wetting my fingers.

“Fuck,” I breathe.

“Saaaaaaaaaa’aaaaaaaaam.” His groan is the only thing I hear before Ga’Var suddenly flips me. I don’t even get to revel in the feel of him in my hand.

My body moves in his arms like I’m a doll and I’m on my hands and knees, my legs being forced apart.

Surprise shoots through me that he is going to take me like this—he did warn me—and fear makes me panic a little as I brace myself.

But instead of the thick head of his cock breaching my entrance, I feel his hot, wet tongue instead.

A moan barrels from my chest and as Ga’Var reaches forward to take my breasts in his hands, my eyes roll over.

He licks me in a way no one has before. Not like he’s only trying to pleasure me… No…he’s eating me without actually consuming me.

My eyelids flutter as his lips, his tongue, move over and through me.

My clit throbs and he takes it into his mouth sucking on it a little before he moves down and pierces me again with his tongue.

“My nipples,” I pant, and he groans against my pussy.

Somehow, I manage to brace on one hand although my legs are weak, and I move his fingers over my nipples.

He catches the drift immediately, taking both nipples between two fingers and rubbing them.

I know I’m at the edge but I don’t get a chance to say it.

Ga’Var moaning into my pussy has me peaking and I shudder, collapsing on my face, my ass in the air as he continues to lick me.

I’m panting as he slows down and shifts a little, my eyes half-closed, the world around me dim, and when I feel the velvety tip of his cock brush against me, all I can do is moan.

I’m ready for him.

Despite that, he checks, sliding a finger around my opening, before dipping to pierce me with his tongue again.

My hips buck and I’m glad I’m on my face because I can’t brace myself up.

Ga’Var grips my hips and brushes the tip of his cock against me again.

He groans and thrums, both sounds making me clench as I bite my bottom lip, waiting on him to enter me.

“Sa’am…”

Fucking hell.

“Just fuck me, Ga’Var.”

A loud growl leaves him as he surges forward, enough for his tapered head to pop in.

My eyes roll over again and I’m lost in the feeling.

“Sa’am,” he groans as he rocks back and pushes deeper inside me.

My mouth hangs open but I can’t answer him. It’s an open O as I gasp.

I’m full.

So full.

He rocks back again before surging forward, going deeper this time.

He repeats the process again and again until I feel that ridged spot above his fold brush against my ass.

It feels like he’s splitting me in two and when I manage to look back, the sight of his bared, gritted teeth greet me.

He’s still holding back. For me.

But I want it all.

I want all of him.

As he pulls back, starting a rhythm, I rock back against him.

Ga’Var reaches forward, gripping my shoulders, and when I finally slam my ass back hard, he lets out a roar that no doubt echoes in the corridor.

But I don’t care if anyone out there hears, because this is life.

This is living.

Ga’Var grabs my hips, lifting them toward him as he slams into me and I can no longer see anything in the space around me.

All I can do is feel.

Another orgasm hits me out of nowhere, so hard I feel myself clenching around him.

He roars again and slams into me hard, burying his full length deep inside me.

I can feel it jerking as he comes and he pauses for a little, panting as he lowers me to the floor.

But I know he’s not done.

Heck, I’m not done.

“Don’t stop,” I whisper.

With a roar, my alien grips my hips again.

EPILOGUE

SAM

Days pass as Base Zero gets organized.

Everything has suddenly gotten so busy, it’s clear the threat to us is real. Realer than it was before.

Food isn’t the main thing we’re worried about now. Even with more mouths to feed, the fish we have left has been divided and rationed several times over.

We’re eating, even though the portions are small, and that’s enough for now.

No one wants to go out there and hunt and the Vullan are too busy mining deep in the cave.

Whatever ore they’re extracting seems to be helping though.

Many nights I pass the lab where Mina rests and see the medic, He’rox, his head bent over whatever weapon he’s developing.

Nobody says it, but we all know.

We don’t have much time left.

As I slip from the ship, my knees buck a little, and my ba’clan pulse against me in a comforting gesture.

Someone clears their throat close by and I jump. Jillian smiles at me, a container with water in her hands, and my cheeks grow warm immediately.

“Bad leg?” she asks, a knowing look in her eyes.

“No, just a muscle spasm.” In my crotch, but I’ll never be brave enough to say that out loud.

“Uh-huh…” Jillian smiles at me. “Tell him to slow down a little next time.”

My cheeks catch afire as Jillian chuckles. “I wasn’t born yesterday, Sam.”

I can’t speak.

Little does she know, Ga’Var hasn’t been the insatiable one.

I’ve been the one pouncing on him as soon as we’re alone.

At the thought of him, my gaze darts around the dark cave.

The strange lights they’ve put up don’t seem so strange anymore and even though I’d thought the caves were dark before. Now, I can see every single shape and form.

The Vullan don’t blend into the darkness like they used to.

It’s like my eyes have…adjusted.

That’s not the only change I’ve noticed either.

I’m faster, if I want to be.

Stronger.

It’s not something I’ve discussed with anyone. Not even Ga’Var.

Every day that passes, I feel different.

More.

As if I’m changing from the inside out.

A change that doesn’t scare me.

One that…thrills me.

For the first time since the apocalypse began, I feel like I can fight back against these things.

I have only one man…one alien…to thank for that.

“He’s down in the lower levels.” Jillian reads my gaze.

I smile at her and nod.

“Any word about Deja?”

Jillian’s smile falls and a resigned sort of sadness rests over her features.

She shakes her head.

“We’re not sure they’ll find her.”

“They’ll find her,” I say, maybe as encouragement to myself more than to her.

“I hope so.” Jillian nods. She looks off into the darkness to where the food is prepared. “They’re waiting for this water.” She turns to leave then pauses and looks back at me.

“Sam?”

“Yes?”

“I never did say thank you.”

I want to ask her for what…

“You didn’t need to bring us here.” She swallows hard. “Out there…what’s left of humanity…it’s every man for himself…but you told us about this place. Trusted us enough to bring us here.” She meets my gaze and I see the unshed tears in her eyes. “We owe our lives to you. Thank you.”

Before I can open my mouth, she turns and hurries away and I’m left looking at her back as she retreats.

My ba’clan pulses, trying to reduce my distress and I wrap my arms around myself, rubbing them a little. They tickle my fingers.

“It’s okay,” I whisper to them. “I’m all right.”

They pulse again and I smile before turning the opposite direction to Jillian and heading down, deeper into the caves.

I’ve taken to talking to my ba’clan and the way they pulse is comforting.

It’s like having a constant companion. One that has your back at all times.

The way down the caves is treacherous at parts, but I make my way carefully until I hear clicks echoing against the walls.

When the Vullan speak, it sounds like a rare species of bird I’ll never get tired of listening to.

There’s a dim light ahead and as soon as I step into it, I see them.

Ga’Var and Fer’ro stand together, with Fi’rox off to the side.

Beside him, He’rox the medic stands, something in his hand.

I’m a bit surprised to see him. I didn’t know he’d left the ship.

He hardly ever does. Hardly ever leaves Mina’s side either.

“Hey,” I say and none of them look surprised to see me there.

It’s a constant reminder that their senses are so much more heightened than ours.

Ga’Var turns toward me and pulls me into his arms immediately dipping his head to my neck. He growls as he inhales my skin and over his shoulder, I see the medic and Fi’rox staring at us.

My gaze falls to the thing in He’rox’s hand.

It looks like a…what the hell is it?

A gun? A strangely shaped one. Dark metal, with a singular blue strip of light on the underside. It looks more like a sharp semicircle than anything else.

“What’s that?”

Ga’Var pulls away from me and his eyes gleam in the darkness.

“An answer to this war.”

My heart thumps.

“You mean…”

He’rox steps forward, his mandibles twitching as he approaches.

He hands the thing to me and I take it almost hesitantly, my eyes widening as it falls in my hand.

Lighter than it looks but even I can feel the power in this thing.

It vibrates in my palm, the dark metal morphing around the back of my hand.

Even if I wanted to drop it, there’s no way I could now.

My wide eyes flick around the aliens around me.

All of them are looking at me expectantly.

“What is this thing?”

He’rox’s mandibles twitch again.

“Point,” he says. “Aim.”

Fire.

It is a gun.

I raise my hand toward an empty bit of rock, my finger moving to where the trigger would be, and the dark metal shifts again under my fingers.

With a breath held in my throat, I pull the trigger.

A blast of blue and white light shoots forward, crackling the air so much that the hairs on my head rise.

He’rox’s eyes grow alight with delight and Fi’rox’s ears twitch uncontrollably.

I turn my wide eyes to Ga’Var as the gun deconstructs from around my hand.

“Made so a human can wield it but with enough power to destabilize a Scrit,” He’rox says.

My eyes widen some more and Ga’Var smiles at me.

“We’ve done it, flower.”

I open my mouth to speak but can’t.

A weapon that can take down those terrible monsters…

It’s hard to believe such a small thing will be able to do just that, but if I don’t trust the words of anyone, I trust whatever the Vullan say.

They’ve only been good to us…good to me.

Ga’Var pulls me against him, looking deep into my eyes.

“The war…” he says, “is about to begin.”

Tears well in my eyes, obstructing my gaze.

The beginning of the war that will free our captured Earth…

As I look up at him, I blink and lean into him.

The world’s ending and being reborn. I can’t think of a better person to be by my side.

NEXT IN THE SERIES

CATACLYSM

The war begins

Find it on Amazon

OTHER BOOKS BY A.G.

Captured by Aliens

Xul

Crex

Yce

Kyris

Kyro

Riv’s Sanctuary

Riv’s Sanctuary

Sohut’s Protection

Ka’Cit’s Haven

The Restitution

Ajos

Captured Earth

Arrival

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This goes out to all the readers of my books and to everyone who has loved them.

Thank you!

I would not be able to do this without you and I am truly grateful I get to share the worlds in my head with you all.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A. G. Wilde is an avid reader, a gamer, a lover of all things space, alien, and sci-fi.

She is addicted to intense romance, irresistible heroes, and deliciously naughty things.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

Dedication

Disclaimer

Base Zero

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Epilogue

Next in the Series

Other books by A.G.

Acknowledgments

Keep In Touch

If you enjoyed this book…

About the Author