by Zoey Draven
He growled when he realized he’d been gripping her thigh too hard, pricking her with his sharpened claws, and loosened his grip.
“Just let me down,” she urged. “I won’t run. Where am I going to go?”
He wouldn’t believe anything she said. When was the last time someone had told him a truth?
Well, the Mevirax, perhaps. For all their faults, at least they weren’t liars.
“We are almost there,” he grated out instead. It hurt to talk. He’d talked more that span—in a strange, new language no less, a gift from the Mevirax for his ‘mission’—than he had in the past rotation alone.
“And then where will we go?” she asked. “What do you plan to do with me, exactly?”
“Cease speaking,” he growled, reaching the limit of his patience.
His priority was getting the both of them out of the forest and then back to his home. Discomfort and unease coiled in his belly, knowing that he’d just betrayed the Mevirax’s trust and the agreement made between them. Luckily, Jaxor had never told them the exact location of his base, but a few among them knew that he’d settled close to the Pass of Kokillix.
Jaxor was confident his little sanctuary was hidden enough, but he would take extra precautions in the coming lunar cycles.
No one had ever seen his home. And now he would bring a female to it.
My female, the strange beast inside him purred.
Jaxor shook his head and felt her arm brush against his straightened horn. He almost closed his eyes at the sensation of it.
Nix.
The edge of the forest came into view and just beyond it was his sandcraft. Glancing around in the darkness, he didn’t see any sign of the Mevirax’s sandcrafts. They must have entered through the south.
Jaxor slid the female off his shoulder once he jumped onboard, but kept her tucked against him, pressing her into the console just as he’d done on their journey across the Black Desert. A primal, stubborn part of him needed her to be close, enclosed, protected by him. He didn’t understand it. He didn’t want to understand it.
I should have given her over to the Mevirax, he thought. At least one female would’ve been better than none. Perhaps they still would’ve given him the opportunity to—
Enough.
What was done was done.
He started the sandcraft before a thought occurred to him—another opportunity he might not be able to pass up.
With a huff, he turned the sandcraft around and raced south, towards where the Mevirax may have entered the forest…but also where Cruxan would’ve entered as well.
It was a risk. He didn’t have much time. The Mevirax could’ve already begun to circle back and the possibility that they’d heard him start up his sandcraft was high, the piece of utter shit that it was. The night was still and quiet and the engine was loud.
A dark grin stole across his features when he finally spotted what he sought. Cruxan’s hovercraft. In perfect condition, straight from the command center itself. He would never have another opportunity to steal one like this again.
If only mother and sire could see you now…how proud they would be, his mind whispered, wiping the grin off his face entirely. With an anguished growl, he hit his temple hard, as if it could help erase the stray thought. He hit it again when the first time failed.
“Stop,” the female cried out, frowning, reaching up to grip his forearm. “Why are you doing that to yourself?”
Jaxor snarled at her, pulling his arm away.
Halting his sandcraft next to Cruxan’s much-improved model, Jaxor gathered the few belongings he had onboard and, with his temple throbbing, grated down to the female, “Come.”
Her eyes went to the hovercraft. She was intelligent, he would give her that.
“No,” she murmured. “Crystal needs that to get back.”
“I am leaving this here for Cruxan,” Jaxor told her. “They will still make it back to the Golden City safely.”
His fingers dipped underneath the console when she eyed the hovercraft warily and plucked the starter pod from its place. He crushed it in his palm before he replaced it. He wouldn’t take the chance that Cruxan would pursue him, especially if Vaxa’an had tasked it to him, but she didn’t need to know that.
“It was not a request,” he informed her, taking her by the arm and pulling her off more roughly than he intended. His stomach squeezed when she stumbled in the sand, but the withering glare she threw at him helped ease his concern.
“You’re a real asshole, you know that?” she seethed, pushing her hair out of her eyes with her bound hands.
He figured it was an insult in her language, not to be taken literally, and he bared his teeth at her in reply. He threw his travel sack into the back of Cruxan’s hovercraft—Jaxor’s hovercraft now—and lifted her up by her small waist, his grip lingering.
She shook him off, her displeasure evident, and she plopped down close to the side of the hovercraft. Jaxor wanted her close to him but knew that once they got into the air, there would be nowhere for her to go.
Something uncomfortable, something he didn’t recognize, tightened his chest when he saw her looking down at her bound hands. He’d tied the knots tight earlier that morning, so he knew they were irritating her delicate flesh.
Still, he didn’t release her.
Walking past her to the console, he started up the hovercraft with minimal effort. It was new technology to him, but he’d tinkered with wreckage he’d come across often enough to be able to navigate it easily.
In another moment, the quiet engine kicked up and they shot off from the ground, hurtling above the forest, and into the quiet night sky. The wind rushed loudly around his ears as adrenaline pulsed through him. He hadn’t been this high off the ground since warrior training.
Jaxor shook his head and looked over his shoulder to distract himself. The female was still there, curled close to his travel sack, her face turned from him. Unease prowled in his chest as the newfound sensation inside him gave warning. It warned him not to push her too much…or else he might lose her forever.
With a huff, he turned. It couldn’t be helped. Not right then. Jaxor didn’t know what he intended to do with the female…whether he would hand her over to the Mevirax after all, or if he would take her back to the Golden City.
Or if he would keep her all to himself.
His claws dug into the brushed metal of the console, already marking his newest possession.
Jaxor’s eyes returned to the female again.
He wondered how much longer it would be before she, too, was marked by him.
Chapter Three
When Erin woke, it was to stillness, warmth, and a lack of rushing wind.
Her breath hitched and her eyes immediately flashed to Jaxor’an, who was—
“What are you doing?” she asked in alarm, though her voice remained steady.
A fur blanket had been draped over her in sleep and she struggled to push it off with her still-bound hands.
Why had he covered her?
Jaxor’an’s eyes met hers as she pushed to a sitting position. He was on his back, underneath the hovercraft console, pulling strands of metal and wires.
When Erin looked around, they were landed in yet another forest clearing, but the trees were much larger and the air was much crisper. She shivered, craning her neck to spy the tops of the trees…and couldn’t. They were massive.
A pang went through her. She’d once taken Jake and Ellora to see the giant sequoia and redwood trees in California. Ellora had declared she’d never seen anything more beautiful.
“Why did we stop here?” she asked, unease threading in her belly. It was dawn. Clear, filtered blue light cast the clearing in an almost ethereal glow.
All she got was a grunt and Erin had to call on every ounce of patience she possessed.
He went back to pulling more wires out from the console, obviously looking for something. It was then that Erin realized, lying in that position, that Jaxo
r’an’s fur loincloth was…well, askew.
Erin froze, catching sight of the side of his—
Holy mother of God, she thought in disbelief, eyes widening.
Then she forced herself to turn her head away, but the image of his cock—all thickness and knobs and heat—was forever burned into her brain and suddenly she needed to move around.
Erin scooted to the edge of the back of the hovercraft before jumping down. Her feet met soft moss and it tickled between her toes.
A moment later, she heard his muttered, almost annoyed curse, and then his arm was snaking around her waist.
“I have to use the bathroom,” she protested, pushing at his chest, her skin feeling too tight with him that close. When she looked up, his bright blue eyes were fixed on her in distrust. “I have to pee,” she amended.
His eyes only narrowed.
“Where am I going to go?” she asked, shaking her head. She raised her bound hands. “I’m not stupid.”
Erin knew next to nothing about this planet. She didn’t know where they were, how far away from the Golden City they were, which direction they were heading. And while she didn’t trust Jaxor’an as far as she could throw him, she realized that if she wanted to stay safe and alive…her best bet was to stick close. At least until she could convince him to take her back.
Which she thought she might be able to do.
If what had happened between them was what Erin suspected it was—a fated pairing—knowing what she’d learned from the other women, she might be able to sway him.
Then again, he’d told her he wasn’t like the other Luxirian males. The way he’d treated her already—the kidnapping, tying her up, threatening her, biting her—told her as much. He was dangerous and, perhaps, a little mad.
But if Erin played nice, maybe she could appeal to him. Maybe she could use the unwanted bond that had formed between them to her advantage.
It was her only option, after all.
“I’ll stay where you can see me,” she told him, their eyes connected. “I promise.”
Erin shivered again but she didn’t think it had anything to do with the cold dawn air. Her head felt like it was swimming the longer she looked at him.
She felt his arm tighten around her waist and for a moment, Erin thought he wouldn’t let her go. But then he released her.
He hadn’t spoken a single word to her that morning, but he jerked his chin towards the line of trees, as if daring her to run.
Erin realized he would watch. His wide arms crossed over his broad chest—those strange blue markings that went from his wrists to his shoulders flashing in the low light. Tattoos, she realized. She wondered what they said.
Steeling her spine, she walked to the nearest tree and scurried around it for privacy. The trunk was wide enough to shield her entire body and she quickly did her business, wrinkling her nose in distaste when she used moss to wipe off. Belatedly, she hoped it wasn’t of the alien poison oak variety. As she was standing, she almost lost her balance because of her bound hands.
When she reemerged, Jaxor’an had ventured closer, his horns straightened, his shoulders bunched.
Erin wondered if he realized his muscles loosened at the sight of her—relief?—but he masked whatever he felt with a scowl and another jerk of his head back towards the hovercraft, telling her bathroom time was over.
“Any chance you’ll take this off now?” she asked him, holding up her bound hands. Her wrists felt raw.
His eyes narrowed. Jeez, he was suspicious of everything that came out of her mouth. She wondered what had happened to him to make him so wary, so untrusting.
Finally, he said, “It stays.”
Erin’s shoulders sagged ever so slightly, frustration fueling that anger in her belly. However, she kept her features even.
“Where are we going?” she asked instead.
“To my home.”
“Where’s that?”
His expression was stony and unreadable. He didn’t reply.
“Who were those males last night? The ones in the forest looking for you.”
“I think they were looking for you, rixella,” he mocked, his lips twisting in a cold smirk.
“Why are you so hateful?” she snapped back, already reaching the limits of her patience with him. “What have I even done to you?”
He grew angry and took a step towards her, though she stood her ground.
“You have ruined everything! That is what you have done to me.”
Shock swarmed her at the malice she heard in his voice. With a muttered curse, he turned from her, jumped back up onto the hovercraft, and stalked over to the console.
Erin’s gaze darted to the edge of the forest, but she knew it was foolish. She’d tried to escape him twice already when she’d been with Crystal—once as they crossed the black sand desert, though admittedly that had been desperate and ill-advised, and the second time when the Luxirian Ambassador had appeared in the forest.
Both times, they shouldn’t have tried to escape. The Luxirian Ambassador had probably been sent to find them. If Erin and Crystal hadn’t run, they wouldn’t have been separated. Perhaps they both would’ve been on their way back to the Golden City by now.
As if reading her mind, Jaxor’an growled, “Run and I will find you, female. You will not like it when I do.”
Another one of his threats. The small bite mark on her neck throbbed a bit as a reminder.
Erin had half a mind to test him. A part of her believed that he wouldn’t truly harm her. The other part cautioned her to be wary.
Erin was trying to decide what to do when Jaxor’an finally wrenched something out from underneath the console. It was small and square, no bigger than the size of her palm.
He crunched it in his fist and then tossed it over the side of the hovercraft. It landed in the moss on the other side of the clearing.
When she turned back to look at him, Erin had such a strange feeling. For a moment, she felt crushing disappointment.
Erin could admit to herself that a small part of her had been envious of the relationships her friends had found themselves in. Kate with Vaxa’an. Beks with Lihvan. Cecelia with Rixavox. Taylor with Vikan. And now Lainey with Kirov, more recently.
What they all had in common was that they were all fated pairings, pushed and sewn together by the Luxirian deities, the Fates.
Erin didn’t completely understand it. She’d listened to each of her friends describe their experiences with their mates, taking silent and diligent notes, but a logical part of her mind always possessed doubts.
What she didn’t doubt was the feeling she’d had when she’d seen Jaxor’an for the first time. Like lightning in her chest, jolting and exhilarating. It had made her hands tremble. For a brief moment, she’d felt relief.
Relief that, maybe, it was her turn to have a true partner in life, one that would love her and protect her, as all of her friends’ mates did.
Her relief was short-lived, however. She’d soon realized that Jaxor’an was not her knight in shining armor. Instead, he was a half-crazed, angry brute in a loincloth.
So yeah, for a moment, Erin was disappointed.
Then she pushed that feeling aside with a decided shove and, with as much dignity as she could muster with her hands tied together, she shuffled back onto the hovercraft, trying to keep the hem of her dirty, ripped tunic down.
Whatever Jaxor’an had thrown over the edge, she assumed it was a tracker of some sort. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of asking and having him ignore her question. Nothing else made sense as to why he would want to dispose of it so quickly.
Which meant no one would know where she was. Not anymore.
The grim severity of her situation made her shoulders sag. She truly was at the mercy of her would-be mate and he didn’t seem to know whether he wanted to stare at her all day or throttle her because she’d apparently ‘ruined everything’ for him, whatever that meant.
For once in her life,
Erin didn’t know what to do.
Jaxor watched the subtle emotions play out on the female’s delicate features.
His chest ached, his mind in turmoil again.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, the wild beast inside warned him. Yet, that wild beast seemed more sane than he was.
Vrax, she was lovely and Jaxor didn’t think that word had ever tumbled its way into his mind before now.
Through his glare, he studied her wide eyes. They were deep brown in color, expressive and dizzying, but only if he looked too long. She was small, too small next to him. His eyes flickered to her smooth skin, which didn’t shift in the light like his. Her lips were reddened and looked impossibly soft.
Then he spied the bite mark he’d given her the previous night. It had begun to bruise and the sight tore him in two. All at once, he felt a rush of arousal further thickening his cock, a primal satisfaction at knowing she wore his mark coursing through his body.
The sight also filled him with fury and disgust. Not at her. No respectable Luxirian male would ever willingly mark a female in that way, much less their own female. Not like he had.
When the female shifted back, Jaxor realized he’d taken a step towards her.
He heard rather than saw her thick swallow.
She’s frightened of me, he thought, his claws digging into his palm.
He didn’t want that…and yet he did. He needed her to be afraid.
Why?
Because I still might betray her.
With a growl, he turned to the dismantled console of the hovercraft. It would still run and he would reassemble the wiring panel once he returned to his home. They were landed too near the Kroratax outpost for Jaxor to feel comfortable.
They were a full day’s travel from his base and Jaxor was eager to reach it quickly.
Chapter Four
Except to give her a handful of dried meats and a skin of water, Jaxor’an hadn’t so much as acknowledged her presence for the rest of the day and evening. He stood at the console, his shoulders stiff, legs spread shoulder-width apart, braced.