“I secured the water rations,” I say, pulling my arm out of her grip. I keep my arms wrapped tightly over my chest, hiding the tight, hard peaks of my nipples still pushing against my blouse. “That is what I did. I made sure Pam does not die of kidney failure by Thursday.”
Mikaela slowly lowers her hands, her thick braids swinging rapidly as she shakes her head. “The mindspace went completely insane. Kol never submits. He never bows. And you just made him fold his body andsitonto the floor. Zan nearly choked in pure terror.”
“I told him to sit down to force him to listen,” I say, my voice totally exhausted. “He took it literally.”
“He did not just sit down,” Justine murmurs, stepping completely out of the shadows directly behind Mikaela. Her voice is incredibly quiet. “He listened. He didn’t yield the water because you yelled at him, Erika. He yielded because you were right.”
I turn blindly toward my sleeping mat. A sharp, violent pulse of pain is actively spiking directly behind my right eye.
“I do not carewhyhe yielded,” I say, dragging my bandaged hand against my temple. “I care that the women have water.”
“He saidyou think,” Justine pushes quietly, refusing to drop it. “He said yousee. And then he agreed with you. He wasn’t just giving in to shut a loud human up, Erika. He treated you with absolute respect.”
“Great. He respects me. I am going back to bed.” I squint, trying to block out the piercing light of dawn coming in through the cavern entrance. A migraine is fully settling in behind my right eye.
I turn away from them before they can argue further, and drop face-first onto my rough hide blanket. My entire body aches. The exhaustion is so complete it feels like my bones are turning to dust.
But as I lie there in the pitch black, my heart refuses to slow down.
I cannot go to sleep.
I keep seeing the moment Kol forcefully folded himself to sit directly in front of me. I keep feeling the wall of heat coming off his chest. The gentle brush of his sharp claw under my eye. The way his musky, spiced scent filled my lungs andstayedthere. The truth hits me hard: I have never wanted to submit to a man the way my body wants to submit to him.
I am failing.
I cannot afford to be drawn to the terrifying alien warlord currently keeping us alive. I am desperately trying to keep the only humans on this planet from dying. I do not have the bandwidth or the sanity to fight the overwhelming urge to submit to a towering predator with a glowing chest.
But the deep throb between my thighs refuses to fade.
This is a problem.
Chapter 5
I SAT DOWN. THIS CHANGES NOTHING.
KOL
Mydra-kirhas not stopped hammering since last sol.
Forty orbits of Ain. Not once has it lost its rhythm. Not in a brutal dust storm. Not in the fiercest battle. Not when the southern dunes collapsed and buried half my warriors alive.
I am burning up from the inside out.
The golden heat radiating off my chest is completely out of control. I stand alone in the high western alcove, forcing my body directly into the freezing drafts of the upper vents just to strip the terrifying temperature from my skin.
The thin air up here smells of ancient, settled dust, but I ignore it. My senses are helplessly locked onto the sharp, sweet scent of Eh-ree-kah’s exhaustion drifting straight up from the cavern floor.
I crush my spine hard against the unyielding stone wall. I force my overheated muscles to stay pressed tightly against the severe, biting cold.
She stood in front of my inner circle. She pointed a fragile digit directly at my chest. Her beautiful, watery eyes leaked, and she fiercely commanded me to lower my body to the stone.
So I sat.
I yielded to her. Her human will bent my knees the exact moment the mindspace registered her desperate command.
I am the dra-dam. I lead this clan. I take orders from no one. But when this fierce, tiny female yelled at me, my only screaming instinct was to drop instantly to my knees and demand to know how I could serve her.
The mindspace has not been silent since.
