Erin’s gut churned just thinking about it, so she pushed it from her mind. She’d heard a lot about Luxirian Instincts since arriving on the alien planet. She’d heard a lot about fated mates, about an undeniable connection, afeeling, with another when these pairings were brought together. She’d feltsomethingwhen she’d first seen the male who was currently carrying her on his shoulder.
No, she definitely needed to pushallof that from her mind and into a padlocked chest. Another time, she might be brave enough to open it.
“Please, she’s scared,” Erin told him, her voice strangely calm, given her rapidly beating heart.I’m scared too, she thought. “I need to go back. I need to make sure she’s safe. Then I’ll go with you, I swear it!”
Her plea was met with silence and Erin felt that deep, burning acid of anger resurface, anger she’d felt for almost her entire life.
She let it sizzle and ache and claw at her as she listened to Crystal’s echoing cries begin to drift farther and farther away.
“I will never forgive you for this,” she breathed softly.
Erin didn’t know if her words were meant for Jaxor’an or for herself.
His body tensed beneath her but then a growl tore from him, animalistic and roughened. When unfamiliar voices reached them—male voices, speaking in Luxirian—she froze again, her fingers curling unexpectedly into the hardened expanse of muscle underneath her. There were more Luxirians in the forest with them? Searching for them?
Or were they the original party Jaxor’an had set out to meet?
“Vrax,” Jaxor’an rasped and changed directions, heading south. Back towards where they’d been waiting initially.
Another thought occurred to her. What if Jaxor’an was still planning to trade her off? He no longer had possession of Crystal, but he still had Erin.
I can handle whatever comes, she thought, steeling herself.I’ve made it this far.
The voices were closer and Erin struggled in Jaxor’an’s grip again. His claws pricked the back of her thigh in warning and before she knew it, he leapt high, reaching up to grip a sturdy branch from the nearest tree.
Somehow, someway, he managed to haul the both of them up the treewith a single arm. His strength palpable, Jaxor’an made a small grunt as he climbed up yet another set of branches, bringing them at least twenty feet off the forest floor.
Once he was stabilized against the trunk, Jaxor’an slid Erin off his shoulder, her tunic riding up in the process. But her bared ass was the least of her worries as the Luxirian male positioned her so that her back was against his front. His hand, impossibly large and covered in scars, closed over her mouth, another warning.
In her ear, he rasped, his hot breath brushing the sensitive flesh, “If you scream, it isthemyou will fear, female.”
Erin’s heart pounded faster in her chest and her eyes flickered down to the dark forest floor, not that she couldseeanything.
But a moment later, she froze when sheheardthem. Males. Speaking in Luxirian, though…it sounded different. She’d heard a lot of the Luxirian language since arriving on the alien planet.
A different dialect?she wondered. Were they from one of the outposts she’d heard so much about? But then why were they roaming around that forest in the middle of the night?
Jaxor’an’s grip tightened on her mouth and she realized his other hand was clasped around her hip, as if reminding her to keep quiet.
What if he’s lying? What if they are a search party?What if Jaxor’an is the one I need to fear the most?
She reached her bound hands up to push his palm away from her mouth and whispered, “Where’s Crystal?”
She turned her head to look at him. He was close enough that she could smell him and feel the warmth radiating off his skin like a furnace. His eyes were a bright blue, eerie in the low light.
Her stomach tightened, her breath quickening, but she ignored her body’s response to him, just like she had since the first moment she saw him.
“Tell me where she is and I won’t scream,” Erin whispered through a tight jaw. “I promise.”
The other Luxirian males were closing in on the clearing. Their voices were clear now. The closest one was only a couple yards away from the base of the tree.
Jaxor’an’s eyes flashed. The fur from his loincloth tickled the backs of Erin’s legs as he moved ever so slightly.
“I do not take kindly to threats, female,” he growled in her ear.
With a quick inhale, she filled her lungs, about to scream.
His eyes widened ever so slightly as his jaw ticked. Was that panic in his gaze?
