Page 7 of The Highseer's Mate

I’m the only one he’s taken. Maybe he thinks I was the only one on board. If the girls stay put and protect themselves on the ship, maybe they will be safe.

It’s a long shot, but I have to cling to something.

I want to call out to her, to demand that she stays inside the ship. That she’s strong for the other girls and that I’ll return as soon as I can, but I can’t risk this alien knowing that I’m trying to communicate with anyone else.

I shake my head again, mouthing the word no as clearly as I can.

I lift my hand and show her my palm as if to say stay.

Ryan slowly nods and heads back inside, disappearing behind the view of the battered, smoking ship.

They’ll be safe.

I tell myself the lie over and over again as I try to calm my breathing. I squeeze my eyes to fight back the tears as we move further and further away from my only tie to my old life. My only tie to humanity.

The alien is sprinting. My body shakes on his shoulder and the nausea is back, rolling through me and reminding me just how violent our entry onto this planet was. Everything hurts as he readjusts me across his shoulder, hoisting me on a grunt.

I hiss as pain shoots through my midsection and he slows.

Another grunt and he’s pulling me forward, sliding me down his chest and nudging my arms around his neck. He smacks the back of my thighs and then grabs them, forcing my legs to spread around his midsection to hold on.

I freak out a little and try to jump down but he uses one arm to pin me to his chest. His hold on me is firm but no longer painful. We lock eyes and for the first time since I woke up from the crash, I take in a deep breath.

The air is cool. Misty. Raindrops flutter around us and fall from the sky, clinging to my wild brown hair. His gray skin is slightly damp, but the pattern across his chest is as bright as ever.

So bright it nearly burns to look at.

As if satisfied that I wasn’t going anywhere, he resumes his punishing pace away from the ship.

I cling to him because there’s nothing else to do. He stole me. Kidnapped me from the ship and I can’t imagine he plans totake me back. I have no idea where we’re going but the further we go, the heavier my chest feels.

The more reality is setting in.

I’m on an alien planet and I’ve been kidnapped.

By a massive, gray, shining male that doesn’t seem to want to let me go.

Chapter 4

Paige

He keeps running. I can’t tell if it’s only been twenty minutes or an hour. He doesn’t seem to get tired and his arms around me haven’t loosened.

But I stopped thinking about him a while ago.

All I can do is take in the gorgeous landscape around us.

The further we run, the stranger this place is.

Once we got out of the marshes, the stagnant puddles of water dissipated and the horizon changed. Trees—or rather, trunks—thicker than anything I have ever seen on Earth stretch high into the air. On each side, the trunk grows out with a flat top where smaller trees grow. Little nodules of bright light nestle in the branches that twist and braid into the massive trunk all the way up to where it touches the clouds. Moss covers almost everything and even under the soft gray light of the sky, everything is vibrant.

It almost hurts to look.

I arch to see where he’s taking me and realize he’s running straight to the side of a tall cliff that stretches on both sides nearly as far as the eye can see. A mountain.

Is that where we’re going?

Where is he taking me?

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