I expected to die. I accepted the risk.
I’d gone to war. She was supposed to be at home, safe.
Why wasn’t she there, in mother’s garden, giggling with her friends and gossiping about warriors?
Why the fuck did I leave her unprotected?
“Oberon. Focus. You lost one female you love. If we don’t track down that Nexus, we’re going to lose another.” Helion’s gaze locked onto mine and held. “Get me there, Arcas. Fucking get me there.”
I’d been mistaken. It wasn’t calm I saw behind his eyes; it was death.
20
Willow
I expectedto wake up and be right back where I started; naked, cold, lying on the floor with an energy barrier trapping me inside a cell not much bigger than a large bathtub.
Instead, I was on a bed. The blanket under my cheek was soft and warm.
I wiggled my toes. No boots, but my uniform was still in place. I wasn’t naked.
Headache reduced to a dull roar.
Had it all been a nightmare? Was seeing Nexus 5 just a bad dream? I’d dreamed of Nexus 5 so often, especially in the months immediately following my rescue, that for a time I’d had to fight to determine what was real and what was not.
I rolled over and blinked a few times to clear my vision. The bed I was on was big enough for several people. I was like a single pea in the center of a large pod. Everything was blue, shades of blue. The bedding, the walls, the soft rugs spread along the floor.
The alien leaning forward, elbows on his knees, watching me.
Oh, shit.
I told you to stop saying that.
Nexus 5 actually smiled, or what passed for a smile with him. “I had forgotten what a pleasure you are to listen to, arguing with yourself.”
Something I could only describe as a shadow moved through my mind, touching here and there, like a slight, cool breeze.
It washim.Inside my head. Just like before.
“Yes, my Willow, I am with you. Inside you. I ached when you left me, mate. Why would you do such a thing?”
Mate?Did he just call me his fucking mate? No. Never. I’d die first.
“I believed you might feel that way. But I spent the time without you answering a very important question. Why did you leave me? You were strong, my Willow, stronger than all the others. Worthy. Able to carry the seeds of our people.”
“You are not my people.”
“Am I not?” He stood slowly and I sat up in turn, keeping pace as he rose to his full height and held out his arms for inspection. He moved his fingers, five of them, on a hand that, other than being three different shades of blue and tough as old cow leather, looked remarkably human.
But he had claws, like Ruk did. I’d seen them…
He walked on two legs, not tentacles or insect-like appendages that could twist this way and that.
His chest was wide. Shoulders strong. His face—if one could get past the dead, black eyes—no, not dead, deep. His face was not unpleasant to look upon…
He’s playing you. Pay attention.
“Stop. I can feel you in my head, influencing my thoughts. I don’t want you. I don’t want to be with you. I don’t want to touch you.”
