by Zoey Draven
Erin studied him at her leisure that day from the safety of her spot at the back of the hovercraft, the fur blanket he’d draped over her in her sleep curled protectively around her shoulders. The blanket puzzled her most of all. It was a kindness she wouldn’t have expected from someone like him.
Night had fallen. There were thick black clouds obscuring her view of the darkened sky, but every now and then, she caught a glimmer of starlight piercing through the covering. It was difficult to process that they were hurtling at high speeds on nothing more than a hunk of metal, suspended miles and miles above the ground. If Erin didn’t think about it too much, she could handle it. She was afraid of heights, after all. She just refused to look down, keeping her eyes on the dark sky above, or on the back of the Luxirian that had threatened her, kept her captive, and was now taking her to God only knew where.
Erin lurched when the hovercraft suddenly came to a halt. Except for the gentle humming and pulsing of what she assumed was the engine, the world was momentarily silent. With a steady gaze, she eyed Jaxor’an’s turned back and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear as she questioned, “Why did we stop?”
As predicted, he didn’t answer her, didn’t look at her. Like she didn’t exist.
My new superpower? Invisibility, she thought wryly, wondering why she’d even bothered to ask.
Pushing up to her knees, she braced herself as she dared to peek over the edge of the hovercraft. Below was a wide mountain range. At least that was what it looked like at first. Thick fog rolled between softened peaks, unlike the jagged edges of the mountains she’d spied in the Golden City. Without the light of the moon, however, she could discern nothing else. It was just a darkened landscape below her, like a wide, gaping mouth, intent on swallowing them both.
With an audible gulp, she pushed away from the edge…
And just then, Jaxor’an shifted something on the console—and they went hurtling down towards the blackness. It was so fast and so unexpected that Erin had an intense panicked feeling that she would fly right off the hovercraft. Scrambling to grab onto something, she felt a scream lodge itself in her throat. Her hand gripped onto Jaxor’an’s travel sack, the only thing she found in her panic—
Then it was over.
Just as quickly as it had begun, Jaxor’an pulled the hovercraft to a halt, lowering it down onto something solid before powering it down. Erin still had the travel sack in a death grip. She was frozen, eyes squeezed shut. The air had changed. It was cooler. Once she was certain they were landed on solid ground, she warily opened her eyes.
Walls, she thought, not processing what she was seeing. Not yet. Her hands were still shaking.
She heard him approach her. It was then that her anger snapped and she pushed his shoulders when he crouched down in front of her. He seemed surprised by her sudden movements, but he didn’t so much as rock back on his heels.
She pushed again and hissed, “Don’t ever do that again!”
Erin was surprised by the severity of the emotions pulsing inside her. She’d dealt with a lot of shit in her life—her mother, the twins, the courts—and never had she felt this thing building inside her, growing with every passing moment.
But one thing was clear. She was fucking tired of being a second thought, of having others control her life, take away her choices until she had no choice but to fight back.
To her mortification, tears sprang into her eyes and she closed them immediately. Even the twins had never seen her cry and she didn’t want to give Jaxor’an the satisfaction of knowing that he’d gotten to her.
She felt his clawed hand on her face, tilting it back, and she shook him off, dislodging his strangely gentle grip.
“Stop,” she whispered when his hand returned.
Both hands now, cupping her face. She refused to look at him.
Suddenly, an echoing cry bounced off the walls, reverberating all around them. Erin stilled, her wet eyes flying open, chills running down her arms.
“What...what was that?” she whispered, her voice ragged and scratchy.
More sounds came. Sounds of creatures, she realized. Alien creatures. She hadn’t seen any sign of a single one that day, even in the dark forest. But they weren’t in the forest anymore. Where were they?
Sounds of scratching and clamoring came next, growing closer and closer. Little feet. Little clawed feet, it sounded like. Dozens of them. More cries followed, loud and growling, funneling towards them. Their cries sounded like a cross between a bird call and a gorilla roar, something unfathomable and impossible.
Her body moved of its own accord, her hand wrapping around Jaxor’an’s wide wrist, instinctively seeking protection from a male who’d made it clear he wanted nothing to do with her. Jaxor’an murmured something under his breath, standing immediately, dislodging her grip.
“Wait,” she pleaded when he moved away quickly. It was dark wherever they were. When she looked up, she saw a twinkle of a star before it was covered again by the thick fog. They were in a cave of some sort. A mountain? There was an opening at the top where he’d navigated the hovercraft down, only big enough to fit the width of it and not an inch more.
They were surrounded by cavernous mountain walls and there were alien creatures down there with them.
Jaxor’an moved out of sight, jumping down from the hovercraft, his feet making contact with stone. She heard him pad away, swallowed by darkness. For a brief, dizzying moment, she wondered if he would leave her there.
Her heartbeat was thrumming loudly in her ears as the sounds of the creatures drew closer and closer. Now, she realized they must be scurrying down a tunnel in the mountain. One that led right to them. That accounted for the way the sounds echoed.
Closer and closer—
A scraping sound came and then bright light burst in her vision, making her eyes water as she quickly turned her face away. Blinking against the sudden, blinding assault, she saw Jaxor’an standing a handful of yards away. His hand—the one she’d bitten the night before—was wrapped around a torch flickering brightly with orange flame. He lit two sconces made of metal, which were embedded at shoulder height into both sides of a long, dark tunnel before him.
Suddenly, those cries changed, turned into surprised hisses and screeches. As her eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, Erin saw a flash of slimy black flesh in the illuminated tunnel. It was a creature with pure white eyes, scrambling on six legs, scurrying back the way it’d come, back into the darkness. It was the size of a dog, of a fully-grown retriever or a German shepherd…large next to her own barely five-foot frame, but small next to Jaxor’an’s.
She caught sight of at least five more creatures, shrinking away from the light. The sounds echoing around the tunnel made her think there were many, many more.
Erin’s heart felt like it was clogged in her throat. Her pity party from just a few moments before was forgotten as fear pulsed through her body.
When the sounds retreated far enough away, Jaxor’an turned back to look at her, half of his strong profile cast in darkness from the torch light.
“What…” Erin cleared her throat when it cracked. “What were those things?”
There was a metal barrel underneath one of the sconces. Erin watched as Jaxor’an took the cup dangling from its edge, scooped it into the barrel, and dug out something that resembled wax, yellow in color and shimmering with iridescent oil. He fed it to the flames in both sconces before he dropped the waxy cup back into the barrel.
Then he turned to her, leaving the twin fires burning, though he snuffed out the torch against the tunnel wall. Her tears were dried streaks on her face and he pulled her—surprisingly gently—from the hovercraft, grabbing her around the waist as he lowered her down onto the stone floor.
“Kekevir,” he replied. “The fires should always be lit after nightfall.”
That was all he said about the terrifying beasts. Erin didn’t take her eyes away from the brightly lit tunnel entrance. When she looked deep enough i
nto the darkened places the light didn’t reach, she thought she saw the flash of their white, eerie eyes. She shuddered and forced herself to look away.
“Where are we?” she asked next, keeping her voice at a whisper. As if, were she to speak too loudly, those beasts would burst from the tunnel and consume them both.
Jaxor’an was studying her. Those blue eyes glowed.
“My home.”
Erin inhaled sharply. “You live here? So close to those things?”
“Kekevir are a good resource to have, if you are not overrun with them.” Resource? she thought, incredulous. He turned his head away and began walking. “Come.”
What choice did she have?
She followed, clumsily navigating the rocky floor with her hands still bound. Jaxor’an walked ahead of her and the back of her neck prickled, thinking about those creatures in the tunnel behind her. She almost would have preferred to be in front, if only to have Jaxor’an at her back as protection.
There was a wide cave mouth in front of them, not another tunnel. It wasn’t far from where he’d landed the hovercraft and there was a dull light spilling in from whatever lay beyond it. His ‘home,’ she assumed.
But when they stepped from the cave mouth, she couldn’t see much of anything, given the darkness. She heard rushing water somewhere to her left and saw shadows of structures.
What she did notice, however, was that they were in some sort of wide crater. The walls of the mountain encircled them and Erin could make out the very tops of them if she craned her neck back far enough. Above, the night sky reflected back, cast in clouds and shadows, but Erin felt a gentle breeze brush her cheeks and she heard it whistle through the crater. They were protected on all sides, except for the cave mouth and the darkened tunnel with the kekevir that lay just beyond it.
But Erin didn’t feel safe. She didn’t feel protected.
She felt trapped. She felt tired and emotionally drained. All she wanted to do was sleep. All she wanted was to see Jake and Ellora. All she wanted was to feel normal again.
Staring at the broad back of Jaxor’an and thinking over everything that had happened in the last couple days…Erin wondered if she would ever feel ‘normal’ again.
Chapter Five
“I…I think we need to come to some sort of understanding.”
Her voice was quiet yet unyielding.
Jaxor stilled, his gaze flickering over his home base, looking for stray kekevir. He had a shield in place over their tunnel entrance, invisible to the eye, one repurposed from an old, unusable hovercraft he’d come across a couple rotations ago. Sometimes, however, the power on it failed and a brave kekevir slipped past. He’d been meaning to install a metal gate as a failsafe, but had yet to get around to it.
Seeing none, sensing none, his shoulders relaxed ever so slightly, relief coiling in his belly. He was safe. She was here. The Mevirax hadn’t caught onto his trail. The kekevir were assuredly held back for the night with the help of the fire if the shield malfunctioned, as it often did.
In the walls of his home, he finally felt stable. As stable as he could possibly feel.
“I need sleep, rixella,” he growled. He hadn’t slept in…three—nix, four spans.
“And I want these off,” she said. When he turned to her, she held her bound hands for his inspection. Something tightened in his gut when he saw red marks around her wrists. He’d tied the scraps of her tunic tight and they were chaffing her delicate skin.
He ignored whatever displeasure he felt. He needed to sleep so he could think clearly—about her, about the Mevirax, about what he would do next. He needed to eat. He needed to plan. He needed…
He growled, turning from her.
“Nix, it stays.”
Jaxor had only taken two steps from her when her voice stopped him cold.
“I know what I am to you.”
His fists tightened at his sides, his claws pinching his skin. He’d wondered how much she knew of Luxirians, about the beasts inside them, about their mating customs. She was a species from a planet called Earth—in the Fourth Quadrant, an almost unfathomable distance to him. But with the help of Luxirian crystals, not an impossible distance. The Mevirax had seen to that.
He wouldn’t have believed it was possible to be bound to a different species had he not seen his own blood brother bound to his human mate. Then the other Ambassadors found their human mates. Jaxor hadn’t seen those humans for himself, but he’d heard the gossip when he’d last traveled to an outpost.
The Fates always had a plan. The Fates had chosen human females to help carry on the Luxirian line. In choosing the Prime Leader and the Ambassadors beneath him, the Fates had crafted a certain future. They had made it not only certain, but powerful. Luxirian history would forever be changed.
Circumstance had changed. That much was clear. But why had the Fates given Jaxor a human mate?
Jaxor turned to the female. The golden-haired female—Crystal, he guessed—had called her Erin. He’d heard it numerous times after he’d taken them both from the Golden City yesterday morning, but until now, he hadn’t acknowledged her name.
Erin.
He thought rixella better suited her, especially since she was staring at him with a relaxed expression, though searing fire burned in her gaze. When she saw him watching, her chin rose, ever so slightly. Her lips parted. The small hollow at the base of her throat bobbed when she swallowed.
Realization hit him. She was affected by this too. By him.
He ignored the way his pulse sped. He ignored the way his cock further thickened with that knowledge. He ignored the dark, wicked need that flowed beneath his skin, hot like his roaring blood.
Jaxor stepped towards her until he could touch her. He hoped she understood it for what it was: a warning.
“What is it that you think you are to me?” he questioned. “Other than my captive?”
She didn’t even blink. She simply said, “I’m your mate.”
“You seem certain,” he murmured, reaching out to thread his hand around the back of her neck. Her breath hitched at the contact. He pulled her closer, scenting her. If he listened closely enough, he swore he could hear her heartbeat, thundering in her chest, in time with the pulse that flickered in her neck.
“Aren’t you?” she asked, her voice quiet.
Jaxor stilled. He caught her eyes and though her voice was steady and strong, it was there that he saw the uncertainty. The fatigue. The fear. She put up a strong front, but inside, she was vulnerable. Soft. How easily he could fix this. How easily he could get inside that mind and make her think something different.
His hand flexed around the back of her neck.
“You are,” he confirmed, seeing no reason to deny the truth. It was obvious.
She didn’t blink. “Even still, you were planning to give us to those males, weren’t you? Why?”
Jaxor almost laughed. And he hadn’t laughed since…he couldn’t remember.
Why?
It was strange to hear another voice in his home base. He’d lived there for so long, alone. It was a foreign sensation—the nearness of another—one he craved and one he hated.
“I need sleep,” he repeated, leading her to his main shelter. His base was large and sprawling, but he slept in one of the caves that tunneled into the crater. It wasn’t large, but he’d lined it with furs to help with the cold and he’d blocked off the opening with a door that bolted shut.
He opened that door now, snagging one of the lanterns he kept just outside and lighting it. He ventured in, holding the lantern with one hand and holding the back of Erin’s neck with the other. The cave was tall enough that Jaxor could stand without crouching and wide enough that it doubled as his sleeping space and his emergency storage—water gourds, dried meats, cold season clothing—complete with a handful of weapons.
He set the lantern down within, illuminating the room, and bolted the door behind them, ensuring it was secure. Paranoia from his time living with the Mev
irax still hadn’t left him in the last five rotations. It was probably for the best.
Erin stiffened under his touch when she saw the furs rolled out on the cave floor. He knew what she thought, but he didn’t bother to assuage her fears. Any other male would’ve soothed her, especially if it concerned a fated mate. He felt that impulse even now, deep within, to calm his female’s fears.
He released her, pushing her towards the furs. He felt the loss almost immediately, the loss of contact with her. Pushing it from his mind, he dropped down by the door, leaving the lantern lit. He made sure it had enough fuel to burn through the night. There was nothing he hated more than waking to darkness. Because then he would remember that place.
Erin was still standing, watching him as he unhooked his travel sack from his shoulders and tossed it into an empty corner. The furs he’d lined the floor with tickled his bare flesh as he stretched out on his back. The dim light cast deep shadows on the cave walls. Her shadow did not move once.
“Sleep, female,” he murmured, deep, drugging drowsiness already tugging on his eyelids.
A moment later, he slept.
Jaxor woke to a serrated blade at his throat.
Enemy near my mate, he thought immediately.
Acting on instinct, he grabbed the wrist attached to the blade handle, his mind still in a deep fog. He heard a startled gasp. When he touched smooth skin and registered delicate bones, he growled, his heart stopping, his grip easing. His jerky motions caused the knife to press into his neck, a thin line of blood no doubt appearing in its wake despite the thickness of Luxirian skin.
His gaze flashed up to Erin, who was kneeling over him. Her bonds were cut. Her eyes were wide, but her lips were set in a stern line.
“Are you out of your mind?” he rasped. “I could have killed you!”
Anger and frightened realization made his hands shake. His heart thundered when he realized he could’ve broken her bones with a simple twist of his fingers. He’d been about to! Vrax!