“Sensitive?”
“Very.”
She smiled and did it again, deliberately this time, and his eyes darkened with desire. “Then I’ll remember that.”
His thrusts became harder, more demanding, each one hitting a spot inside her that made her whole body sing. When his tail slid between them to circle her clit, she fell apart again, her innermuscles clenching around him as her release crashed through her. With a roar that shook the habitat, he followed her, his heat filling her as his body pulsed with the force of his climax.
“We should sleep,” she said eventually, but without much conviction.
“Yes.” He didn’t move. “Soon.”
But neither of them closed their eyes, and when his hand began to explore her body again, she welcomed it with a soft sigh. They had hours until dawn—hours to pretend the outside world didn’t exist, and that there were no corporations hunting them, and that their biggest problem was finding the energy to stop touching each other.
They took advantage of every one.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Ihave to keep Jaz safe.
The thought drove Adjar from the warmth of the bunk before daybreak, despite every instinct screaming to stay wrapped around her. She had finally fallen asleep, worn out and smiling, but he had no intention of sleeping while danger was so close. He moved silently through the habitat as the environmental systems hummed their mechanical song. Outside, the wind had settled into an eerie stillness—the kind of quiet that preceded change.
He didn’t like it.
He finished the preparations they’d begun the day before, working by the habitat’s dim night lights. There were supply caches to organize, equipment to secure, contingencies to consider. His hands moved automatically while his mind churned through possibilities.
Her intention to seek assistance from the cyborg rangers sat uneasily in his chest. Asking for help went against every instincthe possessed. Worse, asking other males for help protecting his mate felt like an admission of inadequacy.
You are inadequate,a cold voice whispered in his mind.You do not know this world. Its rules. Its weapons. Its dangers. Your strength means nothing against enemies you cannot see.
He forced the thought aside, concentrating on the task at hand. Pride was a luxury he could not afford. If these rangers could provide sanctuary for her—protection he could not guarantee on his own—then he would swallow his pride and accept their assistance.
Anything for her.
The communication screen caught his attention as he moved through the habitat. The screen remained dark and silent, but he found himself staring at it nonetheless. Somewhere beyond the ice, enemies were moving. Planning. The message they had received made their intentions clear enough—GenCon would come whether Jaz agreed or not. The only question was when.
He pressed his palm against the habitat wall, reaching out with senses that had no human equivalent. The ice spoke to him in whispers and groans, telling stories of pressure and temperature, of ancient movements and recent disturbances. Through those vibrations, he could feel the land spreading out in all directions—a vast frozen expanse that had once been something else entirely.
He pushed deeper, searching, and?—
There.
Movement. Distant but approaching. Multiple sources, heavier than anything natural, traveling in formation.
His blood ran cold.
“Jaz.”
He was at the bunk in three strides, his hand gentle but insistent on her shoulder. “Jaz, wake up.”
She stirred, amber eyes blinking open with confusion that rapidly sharpened into alertness. Years of living alone in a hostile environment had trained her well—she went from sleep to full consciousness in the space of a heartbeat.
“What is it?”
“They are coming. Now.”
No need to specify who. Understanding flooded her features, followed immediately by fear—not for herself, he noted, but the same fear she had expressed last night. Fear for him.
“How long?”
