He took another step out of the trees, and now he was almost standing with his massive, bare feet in the snow-white sand on the edge of the lake. Too close. I had to lean back to even see his face, and the cannon no longer aimed directly at him. That was no coincidence, I knew it wasn’t. This giant was far too clever for that. What did he want? How scared should I be? I discovered I was too tired to muster the energy for proper terror at his slow approach. I told myself that perhaps a vestige of ability was telling me I did not need to worry, but the bigger part of me was certain I was about to be smashed.
Numb fingers shoved my tablet back into my satchel, and then my hand struggled against the cannon, but it was impossible to move it. I tried to get my legs under me to rise, but they were cramped from the cold, wet sand—just as numb as my hands had gone. The giant loomed over me, bending down, hand reaching, and black tail slowly unwinding from his sturdy middle. Its barbed end rose over his shoulder, slow, sinuous, definitely threatening.
I stared into his face, mouth open, fingers at the last moment trying to find the trigger to squeeze off a shot. He wasn’t looking at me; his huge eyes were focused on the satchel in my lap, on my tablet. He wasn’t reaching for me, but for my research. My fingers finally found the trigger and pulled. The cannon hummed and roared. I flew back, tumbling head over heels over the sand until my face struck water.
Gasping, I came up for air, but my hands sank into the soft sand of the lake’s shore. Slipping, I went under again,and this time I inhaled. It was a fight against the exhaustion that weighed down my limbs and the flare of pain in my arms and chest. Somehow, I managed to rise again, all elbows and clumsy flailing. When I twisted to face the danger, I was still blinking droplets from my eyes, shrouded by soaked hair and coughing water from my lungs.
Jaxin stood between me and the giant, legs wide in a stance that, from my prone position, made him seem huge. It was a matter of perspective, but my angle even made him seem a match for the Radin giant. They were two massive, testosterone-fueled opponents facing off. A stare-down thick with tension that sliced through the air so sharply that even my dulled senses screamed warnings: Run. Escape. Before these behemoths remembered I was there—and turned on me.
Jaxin’s black armor glistened with a million drops of water, reflecting like tiny stars off of him. His fin rose sharply from his back, and his gills were sharp lines against his thick gray skin. Seeing him like this reminded me of how powerful a predator a Rummicaron was in his own right, and Jaxin was more than most. He was trained, deadly, and his lack of emotions made him fearless.
The giant seemed to sense just how dangerous his new opponent was, even with the cannon lying in the sand behind Jaxin’s heels. It didn’t matter when confronted with the many sharp teeth my Rummicaron displayed. The giant lowered his head, though he did not raise his hands in surrender, and began to back away. Very slowly but with feet moving confidently from sand to uneven jungle ground, even while backing up blindly. We had not seen the last of him; ofthat, I was sure.
Jaxin did not lose the ready tension in his body until long after the giant had vanished silently and completely into the trees. It rubbed against my wet, sand-coated skin and clothing like fine needles, prickling through the air until it felt like my hair stood on end. That would be quite the feat, considering the long, tangled, and now-soaked mess that clung to the back of my shirt. I needed a hairbrush, a hot shower, food, and sleep.
My body sagged when Jaxin lowered his arms to his sides. Exhaustion swept through me so hard now that the danger had passed that I knew I wouldn’t be able to even rise. The humid jungle air and the eternal summer warmth of Radin meant I wasn’t going to die of exposure like this, but it wasn’t comfortable—not by a long shot. I shook; my nipples ached from the cold and pressed harshly against my snug, supportive top. I was miserable, but I refused to say anything.
“This way,” Jaxin said at last, and he turned, his chest heaving in a way that made it seem like he’d just run forty miles. His voice was even, subdued, but my senses—nearly non-existent—tingled. He seemed angry, furious, and at the same time… he looked calm, and his voice did not betray so much as a hint of the fury that seemed to tingle through the air. Then it was gone, like it had never been there to begin with, and I wondered if I had imagined it. A figment of my exhausted, delusional brain.
He ducked, slung his laser cannon by the strap over his shoulder, and approached me. His gruff “this way” hadn’t been followed by an indication of direction, but I was too exhausted to follow such a command anyway. The sand dipped by my legs when he halted at my side, and my eyesdropped to his feet. For the first time, I noticed that something strange had happened to his boots. The front had retracted, folded back in some advanced bit of technological magic. His toes projected over the lip of the sole, and they’d spread so the webbing between them could be used to its fullest effect. It was very clever.
I was still staring at his weird, gray, webbed toes when he grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. It did not escape my notice that he’d chosen to grab me by my good arm, the one whose shoulder had not been dislocated. “Into the water,” he said, and as my panic struggled to grasp his meaning, he pushed. We were knee-deep before I could manage to utter a protest, my tired limbs moving slowly and sluggishly.
“Trust me,” he said over my objections, and he pulled me deeper. Cold water soaked my bones, its pervasive fingers sapping my remaining strength. My knees gave out when the water hit mid-chest, and I sank with a splutter beneath the surface. Jaxin was merciless, hauling my body against his and then dragging me under. My satchel, with my precious research, got trapped between our bodies, then slid to my hip when he turned.
Air ran out far too quickly, and the water was so dark and so cold. I was numb to fear or panic, but some vaguely bubbled through my bloodstream, trying to warn me that I was about to drown. Jaxin held me; I knew I wasn’t swimming, and yet I was aware that we were moving fast through the water. My fading mind pictured the way he swam, his webbed feet and muscular thighs propelling him forward, that intriguing fin on his back cuttingthrough the water.
The darkness in my mind threatened to swallow me any minute now, the way the dark water had already swallowed my body. Then, suddenly and confusingly, air. My face was so cold that, for a moment, I could not discern the change in atmosphere, from water to beautiful, breathable air. We’d surfaced.
Chapter 9
Jaxin
The worry that filled me was so powerful that my emotion-dampening exercises couldn’t make a dent in it. I wanted to howl in frustration, but that would just make the situation worse. The last thing I needed was for my empath to sense how close to the brink I was, and how un-Rummicaron-like my thoughts were turning. If she knew, she’d be running in the other direction as fast as she could.
Right now, though, running was the last thing on her mind. I hated how hard I’d pushed her today and how tough this swim had been on her. I knew she could make it. Even if she passed out, it would not be long enough to harm her. That did not make it any less terrifying, and I hadn’t taken the time to explain a single thing. My territorial rage hadclouded my judgment well past the midway point of the swim. By then, it was too late.
I hauled her limp body out of the water and ignored the way it made my chest ache fiercely. It didn’t matter. I needed to get her onto dry ground and warmed up, and she needed sleep. Lots of it. The cave was small and circular, with the entrance at the center like a deep swimming hole. As a home, this would have been ideal on nearly any Rummicaron world. As a camp for the night, it was even better, because I knew the giant could not get in. Even if he could hold his breath that long and swim, he wouldn’t fit through the hole.
She gave me a bleary look that made it clear she was barely aware of her surroundings, her feet dangling limply over my arm, her head lolling back against my chest. Pushed her limits? She was so far over them she was going to be crawling her way back for days. I needed to remember that she’d been a hostage for nearly a week, forced to work under gunpoint and threat of death. Not only that, but I recalled all too well how she’d casually remarked that she never slept much.
It was a tidbit of information that had not seemed important at the time, but now it abruptly leapt out at me. Why? Why did she never sleep much? Was something wrong with her? I considered my own sleeping habits and those of some of the other males on the Varakartoom. Thatcher roamed the hallways at all hours, and I knew it was because his dreams were filled with nightmares. I recognized that haunted look in his eyes when I ran into him in the dead of night. It was the same look I wore when I was up at night and caught my reflection in the water tank, before I managed to assert my Rummicaron training.
She did not respond when I carefully laid her down on a flat bit of rock by the wall, not even when I freed her feet from her boots. She roused, though, when I tried to slip her satchel with research over her head. “No, that’s mine,” she moaned, fingers weakly clutching at the dripping fabric. I did not need to pull hard to free the bag from her, anyway, but I made sure to place it right beside her and press her fingers to it.
“It’s here. I’m not taking anything. I just want to get you dry, little one.” Oops. I hoped she was too out of it to register what I’d just called her. I held my breath and waited, but she subsided against the rock, eyes sliding closed. She was out like a light, completely. That was a close call, but I’d gotten away with it.
Rising, I slipped the not-Bex cannon from my body and set it down on the floor next to her. I gave it an appraising stare as I noticed the familiar scratch on Bex’s barrel once again. Was it growing on me? I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t want to consider it right now, anyway. Stretching, I loosened up the aching muscles in my chest and back, rubbing my fingers over the flesh to stimulate blood flow.
Carrying her and the cannon through the water hadn’t been hard. Underwater, everything felt light and easy. The strain of speeding through the deep—because I felt the clock was running out on my little Aderian empath—had done a number on me, however. I was not healed, not fully, and this prolonged stay on the planet was not allowing me the rest I needed to recover. Dravion was going to be so mad at me if the metal parts ended up being rejected or themuscles damaged.
My armor had kept me dry, and the waterproof pouches had kept my supplies the same way. I set about sorting them quickly and pulling out what I needed for now: a thermal blanket, a small heating unit, a few ration bars, and the tissue regenerator. Then I eyed Dani and wondered if I could manage this next step in caring for her. I decided I definitely needed a moment to attempt to reassert my emotional dampening. This would require a great deal of self-control, and it was currently in tatters after that confrontation with the giant about to harm my Dani.
Only when I was certain I was back in control did I reach out to begin stripping the wet clothing from her body. She was out cold, completely unaware, but that didn’t help. The moment I freed one small, soft breast from her shirt, my control vanished. I stared, a growl rising in my throat and rattling through the air. It felt like my fin grew larger, taller—just as my cock responded. Damn it, she was so pretty, and all that silky anthracite skin tempted me to touch. Emotional dampening? It didn’t exist; I couldn’t even remember what it was.
Wrapping her in the blanket and hiding all that sweet skin and those tempting curves was the hardest thing I’d ever done. My cock was so flushed, I ached, precum dripping from the head and sticking, salty and thick, to my skin. I’d seen the little slit between her thighs—so small, so perfect—and I knew it was all over. She was going to be mine, no matter what. Come morning, when she woke, she was going to find out what a Rummicaron in mating rut was like. She was going to discover what it was to be claimed by a beast like me.
Once she was covered and warm, I double-checked to make sure she was still sleeping before I freed my cock from my pants and took myself in hand. It was quick and rough as I stroked my length, but I came so hard I saw stars. My seed jetted across the cave floor, smearing into the dirt. As I stared at it, I was tempted to wipe my finger through it and then wipe it onto her skin—claim her with my mark, cover her in my scent so every male within miles would know exactly who she belonged to. It was with great effort that I kicked dirt over my seed instead.
