He was still standing there, trying to control himself, when the thought hit him like a ramming battle cruiser.
Mine!
The errant thought speared into his head. Heat surged through him, a rush he hadn’t felt in years. Every fiber in his being told him that this gorgeous female was his mate. But that couldn’t be right.
His mate was dead.
Chapter 3
Maya
Maya could not tear her eyes away from the sexy Tallean who just fished her out of the swamp.
He was lean, maybe almost too lean, and every muscle showed plenty of definition. Sharp fangs poked out under curved lips with a gleam. His cheek creases, a feature that let Talleans extend their jaws when they went into an altered state called bloodlust, echoed the line of his chiseled jaw. Several old scars marred the soft leather texture of his tanned skin.
But it was the way he looked at her with his dark green, almost black eyes—like he wanted to eat her up alive—that had her pulse quickening. It was hot and hungry, and she swore it could strip her clothes right off where she stood. Her skin prickled, and heat rushed through her.
For a moment, it felt like she was the only woman in the entire universe.
That wouldn’t be so bad, would it? As long as this sexy beast was the only man?
She shook herself out of it. What the hell was she even thinking? She didn’t even know this guy. He could be a slaver for all she knew. She wasn’t on Reka 5 anymore, where it was relatively safe for a lone human female.
Maya swallowed, her eyes drifting over the scars on his face and down to his broad shoulders and chest. He looked dangerous. This wasn’t some pampered son of a merchant, but someone who’d lived a life of violence. And what was he doing out here in the middle of a bog anyway?
Her sexy savior could be a pirate for all she knew, ready to sell her right back to the Dominion.
It was Commander Chaos’s snarl that finally broke the spell, making her realize that she was still plastered to the stranger’s chest and covered from chest to toes in muck. In fact, she and her four-legged friend had managed to get stinky mud all over their rescuer.
She shoved herself away from the stranger, and they separated with a wet plop of mud.
Eww.
But there was no time to worry about that now, because Commander Chaos was making that huffing sound he made right before he—
Too late! The muddy fluffball lunged at their rescuer, his teeth bared. He might still be just a baby, but dragus teeth were sharp as fuck. Then he bit down on their rescuer’s boots.
Tallean footwear always had an opening in the front for their curved claws, and Maya was sure Commander Chaos’s teeth had made contact with one of her sexy savior’s toes. The alien moved, lifting his arms, and for a split second, Maya was sure he was going to hit the dragus pup off himself.
“Noooo!” Maya reached to protect the pup.
But all their rescuer did was pick him up by the scruff and lift him up to face height.
Commander Chaos hissed and snarled, swiping at him ineffectively with his little claws.
“You’re a vicious little thing, aren’t you?” His voice was deep and resonant, but it didn’t hide his amusement at the creature struggling in front of him. “You’d be cute if you weren’t covered in mud.”
Maya nearly collapsed in relief. She didn’t know what she’d do if the stranger had yeeted Chaos back into the swamp, or worse.
“I’m sorry,” she said, taking the struggling dragus pup from him. “He was trying to protect me.”
The Tallean glanced at her inquisitively. “I am Ranek. Who are you?”
Ranek. Well, at least she had a name now, and didn’t need to mentally refer to him as her “sexy savior” the whole time.
“Maya.” She stuck out her hand.
Handshaking was a human thing, but many of the Talleans on Reka 5 where she lived had picked up the habit. Ranek just stared at her hand like he didn’t know what to do. Okay… so he wasn’t from Reka 5. There went that hope.
