His cold fingers dig into my skin. While his eyes are blue, like Eskar’s, they are a cool and distant color, like a far-off star. Eskar’s are deep and warm. His lips curve in a smile and draw attention. This man’s mouth is tight from issuing orders all day.
“You added your barb to mine, increasing her desire. But it’s her choice who she accepts as her mate, Noil. Surely you wouldn’t break that protocol.” Noil’s glare is as brutal as a blade driven through a body, but Eskar doesn’t flinch. “Leah gets to choose, to force her hand is to risk banishment.”
“We’re already banished,” Noil snaps.
“We are survivors. But we are still Paohl. We have honor.”
Noil’s tail whips across Eskar’s face, but there’s no blood. They can change from flesh to ice on a whim.
“How do I know you are really next in line? Maybe I could do better?” The lust-poison has raised my temperature and my core is clenching with the need for dick. I’m glad no one else knows how wet my panties are. Not that I really want to fuck an alien…it’s the drug. If I stay calm, it will fade. I just have to wait it out.
That might work with one dose, but two? Three will honestly kill me. I’d jump on the first guy to whip his pants off—which would only make things worse.
Noil stares down at me, there’s no compassion or care in his gaze. He seeks only to take what he thinks is his. “I am next.” He inhales. “And you won’t be able to resist me.”
I shrug. “Sex is a biological function. It doesn’t mean anything.”
I wish I was one of those people, where it was a bit of fun or stress relief, but I’ve always needed something more. Wanted something more. I’ve been the piece of fun for too many. Noil doesn’t care about me. He only cares about what he wants. Eskar did it to help me. Now I’m stuck with twice the lust, and a little of their DNA twirling through my blood stream.
Noil’s eyes widen like I slapped him in the face. He squats in front of me. “Without the mating barb, sex is nothing.” He leans closer and sniffs my skin. “Would you prefer to be passed around the camp? There’s over twenty single men who’d like a female.”
I slam my head into his cheek, my hair tears and pain blooms in my forehead.
Noil rocks back onto his ass, hand to his face. He didn’t change in to water quick enough, and a purple bruise is forming.
I’m yanked back, but my hands are momentarily free. I pluck what is left of Noil’s barb out of my chest and toss it on the ground. It’s still complete. How long does it take to be metabolized? Does this mean I only received the lust drug, not Noil’s DNA? “You disgust me. I will never choose you.”
“You will.”
“Then it’s not a choice is it,” Eskar says. He stands over Noil. “You are the embarrassment. Not me. I am last to claim a mate because of my age and rank. Nothing more. You were next because of yours. Do you never stop to wonder why Frin has remained single? The man she loves, and who loves her, cannot act because he knows you will block it and demand that she become yours.” Eskar smiles. “Though now you’ve used your barb…”
So, Noil has a reputation, and everyone knows it. The two who hang around with him are clearly of the same mind set. Though I suspect that they are much lower down the chain. Noil probably doesn’t have many friends, he likes loyal yes men who’ll do his bidding. Every ship, every organization, has them.
With his barb gone, he won’t be coercing anyone. Ava will be safe from his attentions when she returns. If she is out there, she wouldn’t be sitting and watching this attack. She’s either lost or wounded. Both options are awful. Though mine aren’t great either.
My forehead throbs where it connected with Noil’s face. I’m going to have a bruise.
“Why don’t you let us go? You can head back to your camp, and we’ll go back to where our ship is and we’ll never see each other again,” Harding says.
“She doesn’t want you, human.” Noil says, getting up off the ground. He faces off with Eskar, preparing to fight again. Their tails flick the air, and their pointed ears move. Then the spines along their back extend into deadly sails.
My heart skips a beat. This is much more serious.
Eskar hisses, short and sharp.
Noil nods and answers with his own hiss. They don’t shift to water this time, nor do they draw weapons. I know they are fighting over me. Oh…is this some kind of display for my benefit? To help me choose the best mate?
Does Eskar actually want me, or is he just doing this because Noil showed up?
Why do I even care when I wanted none of this?
I can’t look away as they fight. The way Eskar moves is mesmerizing. I blink. No, that’s the lust drug doing my thinking and making me hunger for a man.
The two Paohl holding me and Harding say something in their language. Are they placing bets on the fight? Or having doubts about helping Noil? Did he promise them spoils? I swallow. Where is Ava? I’m torn between wishing she’ll run in, guns popping, and hoping that she’s far away from this madness. That’s what this is…a fever dream.
My brain is grasping for anything, hoping to make some kind of sense. Planets that hold anyone who crashes hostage. Aliens who have been turned into water. Rules about not going near new arrivals. Mating barbs and fights.
I realize I have indeed drowned.
