It wasn’t anger that was radiating off him.It was rage.Whether it was at herself…it was yet to be determined.
“Cara,” he growled.A warning.The first time he’d used her name.
She didn’t care.
Instead, she pushed up from the floor, wavering on trembling, spent legs.
“Fine,” she whispered.“I don’t care what you do or what you think about me.What I do care about is taking advantage of the time I have to learn from you.And you’ll teach me everything you think you can in the next six days.”
The alien was silent but his blue eyes turned so black that Cara wondered if she should have the common sense to be frightened.More blood dripped from his palms.It was so quiet that she heard each dropplinkon the floor.
She didn’t fear him anymore though.She had a new enemy.ThisAzatianwho he worked for.
He didn’t say anything about what she’d just thrown in his face.
The only thing he growled was, “Again.”
Once more, his arms gripped her from behind.
Once more, she felt that surge of panic, but it was quickly replaced by her own anger and determination.
And once more, she fought.
And then they did it again, and again, and again, until she could do no more.
EIGHT
Devix stared out at the vast view of space from his chair in the command center.Except for a gentle hum of the engines, it was completely silent.Dark.Almost peaceful, but he knew better.
It was anything but peace he felt swirling inside him.
He couldn’t get Cara out of his mind.He couldn’t get the image of her, exhausted from their grappling, looking at him like he was the lowest of Quadrant scum when he’d told her the truth.He hadn’t been planning on telling her, not right then anyways.It had slipped out, liketevvaxsmoke, from his treacherous lips when he’d seen the defeat in her eyes.
He’d wanted the words to motivate her into action.He’d wanted to give her a clear visual ofwhyshe’d asked him to help her.
It had worked, he thought grimly.She’d tried to break free from his hold over and over again.Yet, she hadn’t been able to.When Devix finally called an end to the session, he’d made a move to carry her to her quarters, thinking she wouldn’t be able to walk, but she’d pushed him away with the last remnants of her strength and pulled herself to a standing position.
Pride and loss and disgust at himself warred inside him as he watched her walk down the hallway to her quarters.The limp he’d first noticed when he’d retrieved her from the Baquarian was more pronounced and he frowned, wondering if he’d pushed too hard.
He took a strong pull from the goblet of Brew perched on the console.It burned down his throat, but did nothing to calm his mind.
Remembering the rage, followed by the calm acceptance in her gaze when he’d told her her fate, Devix wanted to vomit.It was the acceptance that he’d hated the most.Her choices had been taken from her ever since the Krevorags had captured her from Earth, her home planet.Devix had only reminded her that yet again, her choice was not hers, her life not hers.
His Instinct raged inside, but it was Devix that snuffed the raw emotion that climbed in his throat.
That washisfemale,hisfated mate.And he’d told her those ugly truths, to frighten her, to taunt her, to make her fight him.
What kind of sick fuck did that?He was wrong in the head.Exile had morphed him into an unrecognizable being, a darker being.
He squeezed his eyes shut, a growl in his chest.His fated mate…the one female he was meant to protect, to cherish above all else…
Devix knew that no Luxirian in his species’ history had ever turned their backs on theirluxivas.
Yet, he was doing that very thing.
And he was doing it in exchange for his own freedom, his own peace, his own name cleared of wrongdoing so that his blood brother, the only true family he had left, would know he was not the monster Pidixa claimed.
She didn’t even know his name.To her, he was just anameless mercenary, no better than Sarkon, who had bought her future with a sack of coins.
