But Eh-ree-kah’s scent is different.
I keep seeing her delicate chin tilt up at Sorn. The stubborn set of her jaw. The way she shoved that gourd against the chest of a warrior twice her size and demanded he comply, acting as if she had the right to command him. Acting as if she were not standing in front of a male who could instantly crush her fragile skull between two digits.
She is so small. So small, and she does not care, and mydra-kiris going to crack my actual ribs open from the inside.
I push my sharp claws harder against the solid stone, using the physical pain to ground my volatile thoughts.
Focus.
I force my mind out of the cavern and into the howling dust. We must hunt today. Sorn is a walking shadow, a living reminder of what a Drakav becomes when the planet takes what is hers. Our food stores are tightening.
The red poison nearly killed us because the clan was not prepared. I will not allow this clan to be caught unprepared again. Hard decisions are coming. The females will not like them.
Eh-ree-kah will tilt her delicate chin up, glare at me, and fiercely resist every single one.
And Zan is right to be afraid.
Lucek is encroaching.
The thought of that rival clan discovering the females—the thought of another male’s vile hands on Eh-ree-kah or smelling her clean storm-wind scent—makes mydra-kirseize violently. Because Lucek will rapidly realize what my warriors have come to know since we found these females in the dust.
That a Drakav without a mate is nothing but a hollow, feral shell desperately looking for a reason to bleed.
My lips peel fully back from my fangs in a soundless, terrifying snarl in the pitch black of the tunnel.
I will bathe in the hot blood of anyone who tries to take her. I will tear the throat out of anyone who stands in my way, strip the meat from their bones, and stack them outside the cavern as a warning to the dust before I ever let them within a length of her.
I let my claw drop from my chest. Mydra-kiris still beating wildly against my ribs, but the erratic, chaotic rhythm has finally settled into a cold, murderous, territorial purpose. My glow dims back down and my claws fully retract with a satisfyingschlick.
Eliminating every threat to her survival is the only thing my body will allow me to do until the exact moment I officially claim her.
I drag one more steadying breath of the freezing air deep into my lungs. Then I push off the rough stone wall, turn around, and walk back out into the light.
Chapter 4
LOCAL ALIEN LEADER: SURPRISINGLY GOOD AT LISTENING
ERIKA
Icannot sleep.
I have been staring at the rough cavern ceiling for what feels like hours, my body exhausted but my brain refusing to shut down. Every time I close my eyes, I see Sorn’s hand opening. The faded fabric. The little yellow flowers. I see twenty women crying, and I see myself standing in the middle of it all, offering useless words while an alien warrior folded himself into the shadows in grief.
So instead of sleeping, I lie in the pitch dark and mentally organize our survival tasks. It is the only coping mechanism I have left to keep the panic from swallowing me whole. Tomorrow: finish the filter weaves. Calculate the remaining dried firebloom stores.
“Erika.”
The whisper in the dark is sharp, urgent, and immediately sets my teeth on edge.
I do not open my eyes. Instead, I pull my hide blanket tighter over my shoulders. “Unless the cave is actively collapsing, Jacqui, please go to sleep.”
“I am not asleep,” Jacqui whispers, hovering right beside my mat in the near-total darkness.
I sigh, dragging my hands roughly over my face. The hide strips Kol wrapped around my knuckles catch painfully against my cheekbone, the leather stiff with dried firebloom paste. I push myself up onto my elbows.
The only light in the cavern comes from the dying embers of the central fire pit and the faint, natural glow emitting from the warriors resting on the outer ledges. Jacqui looks completely wide awake. Her blonde hair is pulled back, and her eyes have that distinct, slightly glassy, unfocused look that means she is currently submerged in the alien mindspace.
“Okay,” I say, swinging my legs over the side of my mat and dragging my boots quietly toward me. “What.”
