Relief that, maybe, it was her turn to have a true partner in life, one that would love her and protect her, as all of her friends’ mates did.
Her relief was short-lived, however. She’d soon realized that Jaxor’an was not her knight in shining armor. Instead, he was a half-crazed, angry brute in a loincloth.
So yeah, for a moment, Erin was disappointed.
Then she pushed that feeling aside with a decided shove and, with as much dignity as she could muster with her hands tied together, she shuffled back onto the hovercraft, trying to keep the hem of her dirty, ripped tunic down.
Whatever Jaxor’an had thrown over the edge, she assumed it was a tracker of some sort. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of asking and having him ignore her question. Nothing else made sense as to why he would want to dispose of it so quickly.
Which meant no one would know where she was. Not anymore.
The grim severity of her situation made her shoulders sag. She truly was at the mercy of her would-be mate and he didn’t seem to know whether he wanted to stare at her all day or throttle her because she’d apparently ‘ruined everything’ for him, whatever that meant.
For once in her life, Erin didn’t know what to do.
Jaxor watched the subtle emotions play out on the female’s delicate features.
His chest ached, his mind in turmoil again.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, the wild beast inside warned him. Yet, that wild beast seemed more sane than he was.
Vrax, she was lovely and Jaxor didn’t think that word had ever tumbled its way into his mind before now.
Through his glare, he studied her wide eyes. They were deep brown in color, expressive and dizzying, but only if he looked too long. She was small, too small next to him. His eyes flickered to her smooth skin, which didn’t shift in the light like his. Her lips were reddened and looked impossibly soft.
Then he spied the bite mark he’d given her the previous night. It had begun to bruise and the sight tore him in two. All at once, he felt a rush of arousal further thickening his cock, a primal satisfaction at knowing she wore his mark coursing through his body.
The sight also filled him with fury and disgust. Not at her. No respectable Luxirian male would ever willingly mark a female in that way, much less their own female. Not like he had.
When the female shifted back, Jaxor realized he’d taken a step towards her.
He heard rather than saw her thick swallow.
She’s frightened of me, he thought, his claws digging into his palm.
He didn’t want that…and yet he did. He needed her to be afraid.
Why?
Because I still might betray her.
With a growl, he turned to the dismantled console of the hovercraft. It would still run and he would reassemble the wiring panel once he returned to his home. They were landed too near the Kroratax outpost for Jaxor to feel comfortable.
They were a full day’s travel from his base and Jaxor was eager to reach it quickly.
Chapter Four
Except to give her a handful of dried meats and a skin of water, Jaxor’an hadn’t so much as acknowledged her presence for the rest of the day and evening. He stood at the console, his shoulders stiff, legs spread shoulder-width apart, braced.
Erin studied him at her leisure that day from the safety of her spot at the back of the hovercraft, the fur blanket he’d draped over her in her sleep curled protectively around her shoulders. The blanket puzzled her most of all. It was a kindness she wouldn’t have expected from someone like him.
Night had fallen. There were thick black clouds obscuring her view of the darkened sky, but every now and then, she caught a glimmer of starlight piercing through the covering. It was difficult to process that they were hurtling at high speeds on nothing more than a hunk of metal, suspended miles and miles above the ground. If Erin didn’t think about it too much, she could handle it. She was afraid of heights, after all. She just refused to look down, keeping her eyes on the dark sky above, or on the back of the Luxirian that had threatened her, kept her captive, and was now taking her to God only knew where.
Erin lurched when the hovercraft suddenly came to a halt. Except for the gentle humming and pulsing of what she assumed was the engine, the world was momentarily silent. With a steady gaze, she eyed Jaxor’an’s turned back and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear as she questioned, “Why did we stop?”
As predicted, he didn’t answer her, didn’t look at her. Like she didn’t exist.
My new superpower? Invisibility, she thought wryly, wondering why she’d even bothered to ask.
Pushing up to her knees, she braced herself as she dared to peek over the edge of the hovercraft. Below was a wide mountain range. At least that was what it looked like at first. Thick fog rolled between softened peaks, unlike the jagged edges of the mountains she’d spied in the Golden City. Without the light of the moon, however, she could discern nothing else. It was just a darkened landscape below her, like a wide, gaping mouth, intent on swallowing them both.
With an audible gulp, she pushed away from the edge…
And just then, Jaxor’an shifted something on the console—and they went hurtling down towards the blackness. It was so fast and so unexpected that Erin had an intense panicked feeling that she would fly right off the hovercraft. Scrambling to grab onto something, she felt a scream lodge itself in her throat. Her hand gripped onto Jaxor’an’s travel sack, the only thing she found in her panic—
Then it was over.
Just as quickly as it had begun, Jaxor’an pulled the hovercraft to a halt, lowering it down onto something solid before powering it down. Erin still had the travel sack in a death grip. She was frozen, eyes squeezed shut. The air had changed. It was cooler. Once she was certain they were landed on solid ground, she warily opened her eyes.
Walls, she thought, not processing what she was seeing. Not yet. Her hands were still shaking.
She heard him approach her. It was then that her anger snapped and she pushed his shoulders when he crouched down in front of her. He seemed surprised by her sudden movements, but he didn’t so much as rock back on his heels.
She pushed again and hissed, “Don’t ever do that again!”
Erin was surprised by the severity of the emotions pulsing inside her. She’d dealt with a lot of shit in her life—her mother, the twins, the courts—and never had she felt this thing building inside her, growing with every passing moment.
But one thing was clear. She was fucking tired of being a second thought, of having others control her life, take away her choices until she had no choice but to fight back.
To her mortification, tears sprang into her eyes and she closed them immediately. Even the twins had never seen her cry and she didn’t want to give Jaxor’an the satisfaction of knowing that he’d gotten to her.
She felt his clawed hand on her face, tilting it back, and she shook him off, dislodging his strangely gentle grip.
“Stop,” she whispered when his hand returned.
Both hands now, cupping her face. She refused to look at him.
Suddenly, an echoing cry bounced off the walls, reverberating all around them. Erin stilled, her wet eyes flying open, chills running down her arms.
“What...what was that?” she whispered, her voice ragged and scratchy.