The chase starts now.
Adrenaline flows through my veins, allowing me additional strength. I race after my female, following her trajectory out of the cavern and I’m running down the tunnel. The stone floor is cold beneath my bare feet, but I barely notice. Every nerve in my body is focused on one objective.
I inhale and listen for the sound of her breaths or for the scent trail of her pheromones. It’s still pitch black, the Dark Moon still in full force. I have my night vision, but humans cannot see in the dark. She has only the small crystal I gave her, which means I should be able to spot the glow.
But I see nothing.
Clever female. She must be hiding it against her body, muffling the light.
I go right and search a few rooms and find nothing. Empty chairs. Abandoned equipment. The lingering scent of Illibrium dust. But no Naomi.
I pause at a junction where two tunnels meet, my chest heaving. Not from exertion, I could run for hours without tiring, but from the sheer overwhelming need pounding through mybody. My cock aches. My fangs throb. Every instinct screams at me to find her, claim her, fill her with my seed.
I close my eyes and inhale deeply, filtering through the layers of scent. Illibrium. Industrial metal. The tang of the retreating mist. And underneath it all... there. The faintest trace of her arousal, sweet and intoxicating.
She went left.
I exit and run back the way I came, passing the entrance to the cavern and going in the opposite direction. The tunnel here is wider, lined with doorways leading to various offices and workrooms. Emergency lighting flickers dimly along the baseboards, not enough for a human to see by, but enough to cast strange shadows that dance across the walls.
Is she in the lift?
The med labs?
The admin offices?
She could be anywhere and I’m impressed at her resourcefulness. I truly am having trouble finding her. She’s never been here before and she’s running in utter darkness, but my female manages to make this hard for me. And I’m delighted.
A sound. Faint, barely perceptible. The soft scrape of fabric against stone.
I freeze, every muscle tensing. It came from ahead, around the next corner. Is she there? Or is my desperate mind playing tricks on me? I move forward slowly now, stalking rather than running. My claws extend, clicking softly against the stone floor. A predator on the hunt. My ancestors did this in the great forests of Chronos, chasing their mates through ancient trees and over moss-covered ground. I do it here, in the tunnels of Timbur, surrounded by Illibrium crystal and mining equipment.
The tradition endures.
I sniff the air, reverting to more animal than Xylan. And that’s when I catch her trail. A growl rumbles in my chest. She’s hiding in a storage room.
The scent is stronger here, concentrated. She’s been in this spot for at least a minute, maybe two. Enough time for her pheromones to saturate the air. I can almost taste her on my tongue.
I approach the door slowly, savoring the moment. She must be able to hear my footsteps, my heavy breathing. Is she pressed against the wall, heart pounding? Is she looking for another way out?
I toss open the door.
“No,” she screams.
Naomi crouches behind a stack of supply crates, the crystal clutched to her chest. Her eyes are wild, her chest heaving. She looks beautiful and fierce.
And then she slips under my arm and she’s running again.
I let out a roar of approval. Yes. Fight me. Make me earn this.
I follow around a corner, so close, almost touching her. The tunnel narrows here, leading to one of the auxiliary med labs. My arm is out in front of me, claws reaching for the flutter of her dark hair, and that’s when she does something I don’t expect.
She slams her hand on the shutting mechanism for the heavy lab door.
The door crashes down directly onto my outstretched arm.
And we both hear the snap of my broken bone.
I pull my arm back and the door shuts between us.
