Erin inhaled sharply. “You live here? So close to thosethings?”
“Kekevirare a good resource to have, if you are not overrun with them.”Resource?she thought, incredulous. He turned his head away and began walking. “Come.”
What choice did she have?
She followed, clumsily navigating the rocky floor with her hands still bound. Jaxor’an walked ahead of her and the back of her neck prickled, thinking about those creatures in the tunnel behind her. She almost would have preferred to be in front, if only to have Jaxor’an at her back as protection.
There was a wide cave mouth in front of them, not another tunnel. It wasn’t far from where he’d landed the hovercraft and there was a dull light spilling in from whatever lay beyond it. His ‘home,’ she assumed.
But when they stepped from the cave mouth, she couldn’t see much of anything, given the darkness. She heard rushing water somewhere to her left and saw shadows of structures.
What she did notice, however, was that they were in some sort of wide crater. The walls of the mountain encircled them and Erin could make out the very tops of them if she craned her neck back far enough. Above, the night sky reflected back, cast in clouds and shadows, but Erin felt a gentle breeze brush her cheeks and she heard it whistle through the crater. They were protected on all sides, except for the cave mouth and the darkened tunnel with thekekevirthat lay just beyond it.
But Erin didn’t feel safe. She didn’t feel protected.
She felt trapped. She felt tired and emotionally drained. All she wanted to do was sleep. All she wanted was to see Jake and Ellora. All she wanted was to feel normal again.
Staring at the broad back of Jaxor’an and thinking over everything that had happened in the last couple days…Erin wondered if she would ever feel ‘normal’ again.
Chapter Five
“I…I think we need to come to some sort of understanding.”
Her voice was quiet yet unyielding.
Jaxor stilled, his gaze flickering over his home base, looking for straykekevir. He had a shield in place over their tunnel entrance, invisible to the eye, one repurposed from an old, unusable hovercraft he’d come across a couple rotations ago. Sometimes, however, the power on it failed and a bravekekevirslipped past. He’d been meaning to install a metal gate as a failsafe, but had yet to get around to it.
Seeing none, sensing none, his shoulders relaxed ever so slightly, relief coiling in his belly. He was safe. She was here. TheMeviraxhadn’t caught onto his trail. Thekekevirwere assuredly held back for the night with the help of the fire if the shield malfunctioned, as it often did.
In the walls of his home, he finally feltstable. As stable as he could possibly feel.
“I need sleep,rixella,” he growled. He hadn’t slept in…three—nix, four spans.
“And I want these off,” she said. When he turned to her, she held her bound hands for his inspection. Something tightened in his gut when he saw red marks around her wrists. He’d tied the scraps of her tunic tight and they were chaffing her delicate skin.
He ignored whatever displeasure he felt. He needed to sleep so he could think clearly—about her, about theMevirax, about what he woulddonext. He needed to eat. He needed to plan. He needed…
He growled, turning from her.
“Nix,it stays.”
Jaxor had only taken two steps from her when her voice stopped him cold.
“I know what I am to you.”
His fists tightened at his sides, his claws pinching his skin. He’d wondered how much she knew of Luxirians, about the beasts inside them, about their mating customs. She was a species from a planet called Earth—in the Fourth Quadrant, an almost unfathomable distance to him. But with the help of Luxirian crystals, not an impossible distance. TheMeviraxhad seen to that.
He wouldn’t have believed it was possible to be bound to a different species had he not seen his own blood brother bound to his human mate. Then the other Ambassadors found their human mates. Jaxor hadn’t seen those humans for himself, but he’d heard the gossip when he’d last traveled to an outpost.
The Fates always had a plan. The Fates had chosen human females to help carry on the Luxirian line. In choosing the Prime Leader and the Ambassadors beneath him, the Fates had crafted a certain future. They had made it not only certain, butpowerful. Luxirian history would forever be changed.
Circumstancehad changed. That much was clear. But why had the Fates givenJaxora human mate?
Jaxor turned to the female. The golden-haired female—Crystal, he guessed—had called herErin. He’d heard it numerous times after he’d taken them both from the Golden City yesterday morning, but until now, he hadn’t acknowledged her name.
Erin.
He thoughtrixellabetter suited her, especially since she was staring at him with a relaxed expression, though searing fire burned in her gaze. When she saw him watching, her chin rose, ever so slightly. Her lips parted. The small hollow at the base of her throat bobbed when she swallowed.
