by Mary Auclair
“What’s wrong with you?” Large hands gripped her shoulders, talons digging into her skin but not breaking it. “Will you stop!”
“Let go of me!” Rose flapped at his arms, trying to free herself from Karian’s grip, but it was useless. “You bastard!”
“Are you insane?”
“You’re hurting me!”
Her shoulders were freed and Rose stumbled back a few steps. Her first instinct was to pat the dust from her eyes. As she blinked, a looming shape appeared through her tears. Karian’s shoulders were heaving up and down, and his eyes were blazing with a light from within. His hands were scythes, tipped with wicked talons. He was a creature of nightmares.
“You wonder why I ran?” Her voice shook with unshed tears. “Look at yourself. You’re a monster.”
Karian straightened, and a long, deep shiver ran across his body. His eyes stopped glowering and he retracted his talons to small stabbing knives. He wasn’t reassuring in any way, but he wasn’t a monster straight from her most feverish nightmares anymore.
“I told you to stay in the pod.” His voice was controlled and even, but there was no mistaking the heat underneath.
“And I told you I was going out on a hunt.”
“How am I to protect you if you disobey me? You were almost killed. You were lucky I was close enough to come to your rescue.”
“Well, I wasn’t.” Her voice was sharp, sharper than she intended. Sharper than what was wise. Anger flared inside her. This was his fault. “It wouldn’t have happened if you’d let me come with you.”
“It wouldn’t have happened if you’d stayed put, like I told you.”
Rose slapped her thigh in anger, and her hand met the cold, limp body of her kill. Following her impulse, she grabbed the beast by its two hind legs.
“I caught us lunch.” She flung the creature at Karian and it landed on the sand at his feet. It had been battered by the run and fall, but was still more or less intact, if less appetizing.
“You hunted this creature?” He picked up the dead animal and studied it a while. His brows drew closer together, and he pursed his mouth. Food, real food, that was what those eyes were saying. “This won’t last long.”
“You’re welcome.” Rose put as much scorn as she could in her answer.
“It wasn’t worth risking yourself.” He stared at her, his eyes hard and his face closed. “You should have obeyed my orders.”
“Your orders? You’re delusional if you think I’m going to come to heel like a dog. I’m not one of your soldiers, or your—”
“Don’t disobey me again.” Karian cut her off and started to walk, going past her with the creature Rose had killed in his hand, not sparing her a single glance. “I won’t repeat this.”
Acid boiled cold and hot through her blood at the same time. Rage at the injustice of his reaction flared through her, sending her caution to the wind.
“You don’t own me.”
Karian spun on his heels, turning to her with a frown on his fearsome features. He was getting mad, but so was she. Anger made her reckless, and she didn’t care if he was pissed.
You’ll see just how much I’m going to listen to your stupid orders.
“Do not test me, Pretty Thing. I am the one in charge.”
“Fat chance. If you want a pet, I suggest you buy one.” She folded her arms and held her ground. He wanted her to follow like a dog? Well, he was in for a surprise.
“I found something else we need.” She flipped her head to one side and pursed her lips. “I found water.”
“You did?” He blinked a few times, apparently surprised at the sudden change in conversation. Good, this was exactly where she wanted him. The frown disappeared from his face and he glanced around at the dry, barren landscape. When he paused, she knew she had bested him.
“Where? I have scoured the land for fifteen miles around.”
“Two points for the adorable huntress, then.” She made a face and walked up to him. Too bad she had dropped the root when she’d run from him. Rose pointed to a clump of vegetation to their right. “It’s those plants. The long, spiked ones. The animal was digging up the roots when I hunted it. There’s sweet sap in them. You have to suck pretty hard to get it, but there’s enough for both of us, for as long as we need.”
Karian glared at her but kept silent. She couldn’t tell if he was confused, embarrassed—or both—that she had found something he’d missed. By the way his shoulders were stiff and his eyes skimmed the landscape, glancing at the large, heavy clumps of vegetation surrounding them, it was obvious. He didn’t like being outwitted by a female.
“Show me,” he said grudgingly.
Rose stalked past him, her head high. She kept her face as slack as she could keep it, knowing it would do no good to gloat over her success now. She had won, and that was it. As soon as Karian was safely behind her, she let a triumphant smirk spread on her face. Sweet, sweet justice.
It wasn’t long before Karian knelt beside her and dug for the fat, tubular roots. In a matter of seconds, he was holding a large clump between his taloned hands, staring at the clear fluid with a relieved smile. Without pausing, he brought it to his mouth and sucked hard enough that his cheeks were hollowed. After a while, the root shrunk to a dried-up shell and he threw it away, smacking his lips together in apparent delight.
“Why didn’t you take more water at the pod if you needed it so much?” Rose asked. “I took more than I needed.”
“You are more fragile than I am.” Karian glanced her way, then proceeded to dig up another big clump of roots. “You needed it more. I can go a long time without it if necessary, but that doesn’t mean I like it.” He paused, his talons deep in the dirt. His gaze settled on her, steady and direct. “It was smart, finding water the way you did.”
She smiled, a true one this time, then helped him dig until they had a healthy supply of fat roots, dripping their sweet sap into the moisture-starved ground. Without words, Karian and Rose got to their feet and walked back toward the pod, sucking on the roots side by side until their stomachs were full of fluids. The silence between them was a comfortable one, the kind Rose was used to when she walked back from a hunt with her father. It was a good silence, a silence of trust and satisfaction.
They weren’t out of trouble, not by a long shot, but for now, they were safe. Together and safe.
Suddenly, Karian stopped walking and she bumped into his large back, then landed straight on her ass. Karian hissed silently, exposing his fangs. She opened her mouth to spill a good piece of her mind at him but stopped short. His body was tense, and his talons were fully extended, curving in lethal weapons at the end of his fingers. One hand was extended her way, the palm open flat. He wanted her to wait, or to hush, or both.
Rose obliged him, scrambling to her hands and knees, ready to pounce or run as soon as he gave the signal.
Karian ignored her completely, his eyes fixed on the distance ahead. He crouched, the roots forgotten in the dust. Rose’s gaze followed Karian’s. Her veins coiled in tangles and fear cramped her stomach, threatening to make her throw up the precious fluid.
The Cattelans had found them.
KARIAN
“What will we do?” Rose whispered. He heard the edge in her voice, the raspy choking just beneath the surface, ready to break.
“Keep silent!”
He snapped his head her way, ready to bully her into silence. When he saw her terrified wide eyes, his anger melted and he shook his head in a silent plea. Still shaking, she nodded and kept quiet, but inched to his side, so close, her cheeks brushed his jaw. He was painfully aware of how close she was, and it infuriated him that he wasn’t able to focus one hundred percent on his task.
Up in the distance, a good two miles ahead, the Cattelans were moving and speaking, inspecting the pod and its contents. Anger and frustration flared inside him at the speed with which the Cattelans had found them.
It’s my fault. My obsession with Rose made me w
eak.
He should have disabled the distress signal sooner. They had lost precious time while he was in the cage. Still, he couldn’t blame her. He blamed himself for not pushing her harder to release him. He had been so hell bent on making her see him in a favorable light that he’d forgotten that danger was looming ever closer.
He needed to think, plan with his usual cold logic if they were to remain free.
“We’re going to crawl back behind those rocks.” He spoke in a whisper, jerking his chin in the direction of a cluster of boulders. “Follow me, and don’t make a sound.”
He waited until she was safely on her way before moving as well. As soon as he was away from the Cattelans’ line of sight, he turned to lock gazes with Rose. Her face was serious and closed, and she was biting her lower lip.
“It’s me they’re after.” She talked with a toneless, dead voice. “There’s no sense in you dying for me. Go, save yourself.” Striking gray eyes locked with his. “But keep your promise. Save my family.”
“Mark my words, Pretty Thing,” Karian said, rage flaring in his mind like fire on the grasslands. “I’m never going to leave you behind. For better or worse, we’re together.”
When she didn’t answer, he crouched in front of her, his face inches from hers. His eyes met hers, the link he felt already running bone deep, even without a mating bond. How he wanted to convince her, soothe her fears into submission. He reached for her, cupping her cheek in his hand, retracting the talons so as not to hurt her fragile skin. Rose closed her eyes at the contact, exhaling a shaky breath. He ran his hand against the silk of her cheek, sliding his thumb down her jaw, running it across her lips. So soft, so inviting.
It was as if he was drowning in her touch. Without realizing he was doing so, his lips closed on hers. This wasn’t the all-consuming, hungry kiss of before. This was a kiss filled with tenderness, with the taste of home. It filled him with a savage need to protect her from all harm. When he finally withdrew, she was staring at him, her gray eyes shining with an emotion he feared to contemplate.
“Okay.” Rose took a deep breath. “Okay. I’m with you.”
Karian gazed into her eyes once more, making sure her soul was tethered to reality before breaking the bond. He crawled to her side and sat, his back against the stone.
“They’ve disabled the signal.” Karian clenched his jaw. “I can see the transmission panel on the ground. They caught up with us too fast.”
“How many are there? They’re too far for me to see.”
“I counted three but there could be more.”
“It’s not too many.” Rose’s voice was more alert, calmer. Deadlier. “We can take them.”
“This is a recon team.” He glanced up to the cloudless sky. “Now that they’ve found the pod, more will be on their way. Fighting won’t be an option.”
He waited while Rose kept silent. He could almost feel her thirst for the Cattelans’ blood. He shared her hatred and anger, but this wasn’t the way to go. He would give her revenge if he could, but the priority was to get as far away from the pod as possible. There were enough caves and hideouts on this planet.
“I finished the rewiring this morning. The signal should reach Eokim within two days at the most. All we have to do is wait until then.”
Rose’s head snapped his way. Her sharp eyes glimmered.
“How do you know?”
“I know where we are,” he said with reluctance. It wasn’t good news. “We’re on Saarmak. It’s a small moon close to one of the worlds controlled by the Eoks.”
“Why do I get the feeling you’re not happy about it?”
“It’s a dangerous planet,” Karian explained, trying his best not to frighten her. She had enough to worry about as it was. “I recognized the animal that attacked you. It’s an aakvan. The one I killed was just a juvenile. There will be more if we walk farther into the mountains, where there’s plenty of prey for them.”
A long silence stretched as Rose assessed the measure of their predicament.
“Nothing is as scary as you,” she joked, poking his shoulder playfully. “I was only kidding when I said I’ve hunted scarier beasts than you.”
“Well, these might just be. They are not only huge, but poisonous. A single bite is all it takes.”
Rose fell silent again, and Karian turned to study her. She had a stubborn expression on her face that he was starting to recognize. As long as she had a glimmer of hope, she was going to keep fighting. He nodded his approval and she lifted her gaze to him. A tacit alliance was being sealed. She was there for him, too, said that face.
Emotions came to him, and he looked away. Eoks didn’t need protection, least of all from a female. Still, there was something there, something he recognized as a true partnership. She was ready to give where nothing was expected from her.
“We can stay here until dark. We move out when they sleep, kill them, take their transport, and get as far away from the pod as we can.”
Rose nodded, then seemed uncertain. “How will your people find us then?”
Karian smiled. “They will. We are good trackers, the best. For now, you have to sleep.”
A FEW HOURS LATER, Rose held her knees up to her chest with her arms to ward off the frigid desert night, but from the sharpness of her breaths, he knew the cold still slithered from the sand and slipped into her body, depleting it of much needed warmth. Her biosynthetic cotton clothes were sorely inadequate and offered no protection. He knew she couldn’t stand much more of this cold, but he didn’t trust himself to touch her.
If he did, there was no telling where he’d stop. And when the Mating was sealed, he wouldn’t be able to think straight. He would be nothing but a lust-crazed fool for a few days, and those were days he couldn’t afford to spend.
Her teeth began to chatter and long, bone-deep shivers ran through her body. Guilt riddled each cell in his own body, and Karian turned to her. By fearing to lose his control, he’d let her get dangerously cold.
What a poor protector I’ve been. Look at her, she’s freezing.
“You’re losing too much heat.” He got up and walked over to Rose, then sat at her side. “Let me warm you.”
“It’s okay.” Her voice shook, and guilt lashed at him in blazing strokes of shame. “I’ll be fine. Keep watch.”
“You’re not fine.” His arm circled a shoulder of ice. “Midnight God, Pretty Thing! Your body is about to shut down.”
Karian grabbed Rose’s shoulder and pulled her into the cradle of his body. She made a face at his possessive gesture, but didn’t protest. She needed the heat too much. She was so small against him, her body made of subtle curves and secret places.
Lust came, unyielding and imperious. He had known it would, and ignored the tingling of the Mating Venom on his tongue. There was no way around it, the venom slipped through, entering his bloodstream.
I would warm her faster if we were both naked.
No. This was the Mating Venom talking again.
His hand reached up a goosebumps-covered arm, kneading the soft flesh, massaging his own heat into it. Rose moaned and hid her head in the crook of his neck, nestling her body closer to him. Heat flared from deep inside his body and he squeezed her closer, breathing in her intoxicating scent. His hands were animated by a will of their own as they explored her small, female body, running across her legs to grasp her firm, shapely thighs.
Rose’s breath on his neck turned raspy as she molded her breasts to his chest, leeching every sparkle of fire from his contact, sending his desire into overdrive. Karian’s blood turned to a flow of lava and he was remotely aware of his fangs, trickling with the Mating Venom, pushing the boundaries of his control just beyond his reach. Each second that passed made him more intoxicated, more lost in the lust for this female.
Her cold, full lips closed on the skin of his neck and a deep shudder traveled through his body, ending at his crotch. His seed stem was so hard it hurt, and when she pressed her firm ass on it, he c
ould barely contain his impulse.
“You’re playing a dangerous game, Pretty Thing.” Karian nipped at the taut skin of her neck, then licked where his fangs had pinched her. His grasp on the Mating Venom was becoming thinner by the moment, and what was worse, he wasn’t sure he cared anymore. “Are you sure of what you’re asking?”
“No,” Rose said truthfully. “But we might die in a few hours. It seems to me like there’s no point in overthinking it. If I’m about to die, then I’d rather die with your taste in my mouth.”
He held her chin between his fingers and turned her head to him. Their gazes met and melded together. They were trapped inside each other’s souls.
Gazing into the gray depths of her eyes, Karian wasn’t sure where the female ended and where he began. His life before her, his impressive rise to the highest rank of Eok military and his years of relentless dedication, seemed empty and void of meaning in the face of what he felt now that he had her in his arms. Maybe she had always been there, somewhere in a corner of his mind, waiting.
“You have no idea what you’re asking of me,” Karian said. “You have no idea—”
He didn’t finish what he wanted to say. Rose closed her now warm mouth on his in a hungry kiss that lay waste to his sanity. Grasping her, he turned her around so she faced him and she wrapped her firm thighs around his waist, pushing her hips against his crotch. Karian tore his lips from hers, then covered the supple, soft flesh of her neck with his mouth, kissing every inch of skin deeply.
He stopped at the curve of her neck, his jaws opening and his tongue flicking over her quivering skin. A trickle of Mating Venom dripped from his fangs, the slick drug covering her tender flesh. Over his ear, Rose moaned and pushed her sex harder against his. The smell of her arousal invaded his nostrils and his burning erection throbbed, imperious with need.
