He stared at her. “It is merely clothing. You said it yourself, it is too dangerous for a human to be out in this.”
“I have to get it. I have to.” Her voice cracked. “My grandma made them for me, and she—” She shook her head and reached for the door.
Maelic caught her arm. Firm, but not rough. Something in his gaze shifted though. “Absolutely not.”
“You can’t tell me what to do.”
“I will go.”
She stopped.
His wings shifted. “It is cold, but my species would not die in that storm. And the fence is not far. I will be able to follow your scent to find it.”
She wanted to argue, but the stubborn set of his jaw told her she wouldn’t win this one. “Fine.” She turned and dug through the coats by the door until she found Grandpa’s old one. He’d been a big man. Barrel-chested. It might actually fit.
Maelic eyed the jacket like it had personally offended him, but Delaney didn’t budge. He shrugged it on. It didn’t button, and the sleeves hit mid-forearm. His wings bunched awkwardly beneath the fabric.
“I will be fine without it.” He pulled it off and handed it back. Before she could protest, he opened the door. Cold air rushed in, biting at her skin, snow swirling into the entryway.
“Stay here.” His red eyes met hers. “I will be right back.”
And then he was gone, swallowed by the storm.
Chapter Four
Maelic
Thesnowwasendless.Truly endless.
Maelic growled as he trudged through it, wings tucked tight against the wind. He should have taken that coat his little human had offered—
His little human?
He shoved the thought aside, following Delaney’s scent. Except there was no trace of her warmth in this whiteout. Only the acrid copper of blood she’d left behind. The scent hit the back of his throat, wrong on every biological level. This was a female he never wanted to see hurt.
He should be freezing. Instead, his body burned, fever-hot beneath his skin despite the storm clawing at him. His wings shifted as he knelt, digging through the snow until his fingers closed around fabric.
The glove had been crafted with care—worn soft from use but still sturdy. It was important enough for her to risk her life out here… Why was she out here alone with no one to help her?
He glanced up. The storm swallowed everything. His transponder band could locate the pod. He could leave right now, reach out to his oldest compatriot, request extraction, and disappear before this got more complicated—
No.
He’d freeze before he made it halfway. Even with whatever was happening to his temperature regulation. He’d handled cold before, but never a storm like this.
Was this normal? Did Artaisan bodies react to snow this way?
Maelic stood, and his body locked up.
Something was very wrong.
Unfamiliar wildness surged up his throat. His lumin glands throbbed, pheromones building at a rate that made his neck and chest ache. Sweat froze against his skin in crystalline tracks despite the fire raging under his skin.
No.
Heat cycles came every few years back home. Females’ wings lighting up, bioluminescence triggering rut in any male close enough to catch their scent. There was a whole season for it. Young adults pairing off and locking themselves away to work it out of their systems. He’d refused to participate, of course. Had chosen to be off-world, training with Katan instead, learning to be an Axiom. No time for attachments. No room for the kind of loss that came with caring.
But temporary; few actually formed the bond of luminance from those encounters.
