Chapter One
Black night encased her, pushing against her legs, her chest, her arms, making it difficult to run. It tangled in her hair, gripping it tight, pulling her this way and that way, as fear and worry shivered down her spine.
Erin couldn’t see anything. And if it weren’t for the ferocious pumping of her heart, the sickly-sweet smell of the forest around her, and the dizzying knowledge that he was coming for her, she would think she was dropped straight into a nightmare.
Which is exactly what this day has become, she thought, her breath escaping her in little gasps as she tugged at the bindings on her wrists. They wouldn’t budge.
Earlier that morning, she’d woken to bright Luxirian sunlight in the Golden City. She’d bathed, half-thinking about breakfast and whether it would include the tart purple fruit she enjoyed, and chatted with Crystal as they washed…and then everything had changed. Once again. She’d been stolen away for the third time in her life.
Stumbling over a root arched from the earth, Erin barely managed to right herself. She brought her bound hands to her mouth, trying to tear at the cloth with her teeth.
The back of her neck tingled.
It was her only warning before she slammed into a warm body, the air in her lungs whooshing out from the impact.
Her only stunned thought was, how did he manage to get in front of me?
“Mine now, female,” the male growled, his voice hard and unyielding.
No.
Desperately trying to drag in breath, Erin struggled against him as his arms wrapped tight, easily subduing her with his strength. In the next moment, she was in the air, hauled over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, his arms wrapping around the backs of her thighs so she couldn’t thrash.
The moment Erin could breathe, she pushed at his back and yelled, “Crystal!”
Her blood froze when, in the distance, she heard Crystal scream, “Let go of me!”
Someone had her. The other Luxirian that had appeared in the forest that night?
“Crystal!”
“Cease,” the male growled and Erin felt the tips of his claws against the bare flesh of her thighs. He began to run from the clearing, farther away from Crystal.
“I need to go to her,” Erin said. “Please, you don’t underst—”
“Cease!”
Erin fought harder, struggling, frustrated cries escaping her as it became more and more apparent that her strength meant nothing when it came to him.
A roar echoed through the forest.
“Jaxor’an, stop!” came a familiar male voice.
It was the other Luxirian male, the one who had Crystal.
Had he come to rescue them? Was that why he was here?
The day had been one long blur of confusing events, but a couple things were absolutely certain.
The first was that the Luxirian who Erin assumed was named Jaxor’an, the Luxirian whose shoulder she was ungracefully thrown over at that very moment, had come to kidnap her and Crystal that morning from the Golden City, racing them over a black sand desert all afternoon until they settled deep inside a strange, eerie forest in the dead of night.
Why?
She didn’t know. But she’d had the distinct impression that they’d been waiting for someone, crouched in the forest, in shrouded darkness. Had Jaxor’an been about to trade them both for something? To who? To the other Luxirian male that had suddenly appeared, seemingly out of nowhere?
Erin didn’t think so, but she and Crystal had used the welcome distraction to make a run for it.
Another thing that was a certainty?
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, a feeling, with another when these pairings were brought together. She’d felt something when she’d first seen the male who was currently carrying her on his shoulder.
No, she definitely needed to push all of 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 tree with 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 is them you will fear, female.”
Erin’s heart pounded faster in her chest and her eyes flickered down to the dark forest floor, not that she could see anything.
But a moment later, she froze when she heard them. 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.