“A little,” she replied, still staring at him from across the camp they’d made. Her back was pressed into the cool stone of a boulder and his dagger was sitting in her lap. “We didn’t eat much though.”
His lips pressed together and he stared at his own dagger for longer than he should. The sight made shame churn in his belly, made his nostrils flare with impatience, and his neck heat with anger.
His female believed that he would harm her. She’d taken it upon herself to be her sole protector. While Cruxan admired her for that, his Instinct couldn’t stand the thought. His Instinctcravedto be her protector, to provide for her, to make her feel safe. He could offer her none of those things. Not right then. That cut most of all. Even her blatant dismissal after he’d told her she was his mate didn’t cut as much as this.
He’d left his travel bag in his hovercraft, a long distance away from where they were. He’d had travel rations in there.
“I can hunt for you,” he told her, “if you are hungry.”
“No,” she said, her eyes glowing in the light. “I’m fine.”
Cruxan had lit a small fire. It hadn’t taken him long to gather supplies and he had all of his senses on alert for any signs of theMevirax,if they somehow spotted the light emanating behind the wall of stone they’d found. They wouldn’t get anywhere close before Cruxan sensed them and it would be a cold night. He needed to keep his female warm. And while he wished to keep her warm in other ways—other, more pleasurable ways—even he could sense that that was the last thing she wanted.
A part of him even questioned whether she was affected by him at all. He’d heard from the other awakened males that their females, though human, had sensedsomething. They’d sensed a familiarity, a longing, a knowing. While not as intense as a Luxirian male’s awakening, their human females had, at least, beenaffected.
This female gazed at him warily. Her scent and body language screamed her discomfort, her need to flee. But even she knew she couldn’t.
“What is your name, female?”
“Why do you want to know it?” she asked, her voice sharp.
“Why?” he repeated slowly, bewildered. She was eyeing him with mistrust and he blew out a breath. She seemed insulted that he would ask. Was that a human thing? Disappointed, he shook his head, frustrated, letting it go, and said instead, “You should rest. We have a long journey ahead of us in the morning.”
He got up from where he was sitting in the moss and edged his way from the small clearing he’d made, intending to retrieve more fuel for the fire. He kept an eye on his female. A part of him still wasn’t convinced that she wouldn’t run, but when he returned, he saw she hadn’t moved an inch.
He was just adding more moss onto the fire when she said, “I’m sorry.”
Cruxan’s gaze jerked up to her.
The golden-haired female inhaled a deep breath through her nostrils, hesitantly meeting his eyes. “I—I’ve been rude. I know I have. I’m not usually like this. It’s just been a long day.”
Cruxan’s body was still, so still like she was a skittishprivixihe needed to tame. So, he simply waited, watching as the words formed on her features before they emerged from her mouth.
“My name is Crystal,” she said softly, her words floating to him from across the heat of the fire, sliding into him, warming his body.
Crystal.
She shared a name with the one thing that had the ability to take her from him, back to Earth.
His fists clenched. Vaxa’an had tasked him to find the Luxirian crystal to send the remaining females back to their home planet. Only, he’d found another Crystal, a much more precious one.
For the first time, he felt gratitude towards the treacherous bastard who had stolen the Luxirian crystal from the command center in the first place. If he hadn’t…he never would have found his fated mate. She would have already been long gone by then.
The knowledge squeezed his chest and all he did was jerk his head in a nod. He added more moss onto the fire, watching the flames grow higher, all too aware that she was watching him, studying him. He let her look her fill.
“Aren’t you going to tell me yours?” she asked after another quiet moment, her voice perplexed.
His eyes locked onto her again and he heard the way her heartbeat picked up in her throat. He heard the rustle of her fingers when they curled slightly against her thighs and watched as her throat bobbed with her swallow.
Perhaps shewasn’tunaffected by him, after all.
“Cruxan,” he said, feeling that possibility bloom in his chest.
“Cruxan,” she repeated softly.
There was nothing like the exquisite torture he felt, hearing his female murmur his name for the first time, knowing that it would be the first time of many.
Or at least he hoped.
