Devix clutched at his horns, feeling that knowledge rip him apart from the inside.It hurt more than any blade could.
The transport tube whirred and Devix looked behind him only to see his female stepping out into the command center.
She looked freshly bathed, but not rested.She’d limped into her quarters over fourtelexago and had not emerged once.She should be sleeping.After that training session, she should’ve fallen into an exhausted stupor.
Yet, there she was.Freshly washed golden hair curling around her shoulders, a fresh tunic she must’ve found in her quarters, bare feet, wide brown eyes that flickered from him, to the view of space, to his goblet of Brew.She had one of the furs from her sleeping platform draped around her shoulders and he wondered if she thought the temperature of the vessel too cold.
He didn’t deserve to be in her presence.He didn’t deserve to look at her, to want her.But his eyes ran over her like a being starved, like atevvaxaddict getting his next fix.
She shouldn’t be looking at him like that.She should be looking at him like she had in the training quarters.Like he wasn’t worth anything.Because he wasn’t.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she murmured quietly, as if afraid to break the silence of the command center.Her voice was soft and it floated over his flesh, soothing the beast inside him like a gentle touch.
“Neither could I,” he admitted, wondering if it was the Brew or his guilt that made his tongue loosen.
Devix gaze wandered to her small, bare feet.Her toes curled into the metal floor where she stood and he noticed automatically that she favored her left leg, releasing pressure on the right.
Without breaking his gaze away from her, he fumbled at the console and another chair rose from the ground to his left, the mechanisms whirring quietly.She took his unspoken invitation and settled into it, right next to him, pulling the furs tighter around her shoulders.
He ached to touch her.Luxirians were an affectionate race with their mates or Breeding partners, with their family and offspring.To be so close to hisluxivaand not feel her against him…it wrecked him.But he had no right, no claim.
Cara was looking out the viewing window, to the stars that gleamed in the distance and the planet they were currently passing, when she said, “I’m sorry about what I said earlier.I was angry and tired and frustrated with myself.”
“You said nothing that was not true.”
“Perhaps,” she said, looking over at him with a small, hesitant smile.She shouldn’t be smiling at him.He didn’t deserve an apology.Not from her.“But I’m still sorry.I appreciate that you’re trying to help me learn.It’s the most anyone has done for me in a long time.”
Devix’s mood sobered.Her words made him feel worse, that a single training session, where he’d spewed an ugly truth, where he’d made her fight to exhaustion, was something sheappreciated.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.Devix took another sip of Brew.It was all wrong.Warped, dark, tainted, just like him.His mate should be perched in his lap, being stroked and loved.She shouldn’t have to learn how to fight to protect herself because it was his sole purpose in life to protecther.She shouldn’t have to fear for her future because he would provide everything she’d ever want.
“Is that strong?” she asked, looking at his goblet.
“Very,” he replied.
“Perfect,” she said, taking it from his hands before bringing the rim to her soft, pink lips.
The image made his chest tighten.Sharing food and drink was an intimacy only mates and Breeding partners shared together.It only served to remind him of what he could have.
Cara choked as the Brew sizzled down her throat and handed the goblet back to him, their fingers brushing over the metal.
Devix watched her cheeks bloom in color as the drink began its work in her blood.He suspected that she’d only need that small sip to relax her, to fog her mind just a bit.
He took another lengthy swig, draining the contents, before setting it aside.
“My name is Devix, female,” he told her, his voice nothing more than a rasp in the quiet.
She turned slightly, bringing her knees up to her chest.In doing so, the tunic shifted slightly and there, on her outer right thigh, was a deep, long scar.An old scar, not new, from the looks of it.
“Devix,” she repeated, testing his name on her tongue, where he wanted it to stay.
“Tev,” he said, inclining his head, eyes shifting from her scar.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” she asked, an odd, light tone floating between them.
It took Devix a moment to realize she was teasing him and suddenly, he wished for more Brew, to numb the warmth that spread through him.
There was a lot that needed to be said but Devix found himself saying, “I have done many tasks for my employer, but I have never delivered a female to him.His harem had long existed before he ever found me.”
