It was a training room, that much was clear.A combat training room.The room was dimly lit, casting shadows over the multitude of weapons lining three of the four walls.Swords, blades, spiked hammers, throwing spears, vials filled with a green liquid, silver arrows, and much, much more.Her lips parted as she stared.
The room was mostly empty, spacious like a dance studio, but with unyielding metal floors.And in the very center was her alien.Striking out with all his power at ahologram.
Her very shirtless, very ripped alien.
Oh my God.
SIX
“Female,” Devix started, ending the targeted training program with the Com on his forearm.The flickering image of an Azatian—Sarkon’s idea of a jest—faded into nothingness, but the stinging slice on his arm from the hologram’s blade didn’t disappear, reminding him of the danger had she walked in a moment earlier.Something tightened in his chest, but it was anger in his voice when he said, “You should not be in here.”
Cara—her name floated through his mind like a warm Luxirian wind—was staring at him.Her eyes raked down his bared, heaving chest before saying, “This room wasn’t off limits.I was curious.”
“I am making it ‘off limits,’” he snarled, frustrated with himself.Weapons lined the walls, his own little arsenal he’d collected over the rotations he’d been under Sarkon’s employment.“It is dangerous.”
“Afraid I’ll steal one of those?” she tested, gesturing to a long blade he doubted she could even lift, given her small frame.“Afraid I’ll hurt you?”
Devix approached her with a growl, his footsteps eating up the space between them rapidly.She had the good sense to recoil a bit, her eyes flickering with wariness.Good, he told himself, even though his Instinct rebelled inside him, hating him for frightening their mate.It was better that she fear him.
Then her eyes caught on his nipples, on the bold gold bars that pierced through, evidence that he’d completed Luxirian warrior training, joining one of the elite.Her lips parted, her feet halted…and then that tantalizing scent, the one he’d scented on her before, herarousal, met his nostrils.It floated up from her body like steam, filling the room, making it hard to think, fogging his vision.
His female was aroused.
Her scent called to his Instinct, to the beast rumbling within him.His cock pulsed in response, growing impossibly thick and hard.The horns on his skull stiffened, rising from his crown.
Cara had been aroused in the hallway earlier, when he’d been frighteningly close to pushing her up against the steel wall and rutting between her thighs like a crazed animal.The mating call was at work, already had a strong hold over his mind and actions.Devix worried that the longer he denied his Instinct, the stronger it would become.He worried that there would come a time when he wouldn’t be able to control it.
“Female,” he rasped, close enough where he could make out every little hair that lined her eyelids.“If you manage to steal one of my bladesanddraw my blood, then I deserve it.”
Cara sucked in a breath, her black pupils roving over his features.The whites of her eyes, something Luxirians did not have, made her eyes more expressive, he realized.
He could not have predicted her next words, however.
“Teach me.”
His lips turned down.“Rebax?”
As if she understood his language, she repeated, “Teach me.I want to learn how to fight, to defend myself.”
His Instinct recoiled in his chest, insulted and appalled.Did his female not thinkhecould protect her?
Nix, he thought, shutting his eyes against the painful remembrance.Not his female.She belonged to Sarkon now.
“Nix,” he told her, his expression grave.“It is dangerous.”
She expelled a sharp breath, her expression morphing into something he didn’t recognize.She pushed at his chest.The contact of her skin made him want to groan out loud.He felt it sizzle and settle into every part of himself, reaching places he thought long had been cold and blackened.
Her eyes flashed, but not in lust this time.“Don’t tell me you’re one of those overbearing men who think women can’t do anything but cook and push out babies.”
“Rebax?” he asked, confused at her words.On his planet, femalesdidbear many young—or at least they used to before the Plague—but they were also skilled in many other tasks.Fighting, however, was unheard of.Females were precious and highly respected on Luxiria.Any harm that fell on them was a wound worn by all males.The thought that they could become injured during battle was unfathomable.“Females do not fight.”
“Oh my God,” she breathed, eyes widening.“Youareone of those overbearing men.”
No, he was a Luxirian warrior, he thought with irritation.Or at least, he had been.
“It is not because I do not think females capable,” he explained.“No male would allow their female to be put in danger.”
“Good thing I’m notyourfemale then,” she hissed.
