Page 6 of Claimed By the Drakarn Warrior Lord

The alien never took his eyes off me. His golden stare narrowed slightly, the predator in him assessingme—not for my fragile position on my knees, not as prey, but as something else.

Something I was scared to examine too deeply.

I didn't know what I expected—some grand gesture of violence, a moment where he would crush me beneath his power and leave no doubt about where his people and mine stood in this bizarre standoff.

Instead, his grip softened even more, claws grazing my skin in a way that felt uncomfortably … intimate. It was as though he had heard the unspoken plea for control in my voice and answered with a show of restraint so deliberate it made my breath hitch.

His mouth moved again, the alien syllables wrapping around each other like molten metal. I couldn’t make sense of the words, but something burned through the language barrier, something deeper than intent. It wasn’t justwhathe said—it washow. The way it traveled through the humid air between us and curled itself into my subconscious.

I tried to yank my arm back, but his fingers tightened just enough to hold me still. His scent hit me again, wild and fiery, dragging my attention back to him.

"You don’t understand what surrender means, do you?" I hissed, my voice low enough for only him to hear. Anger laced my words, but it wasn’t the pure fury I’d leaned on for survival before. This was too tangled—too infused with something else to be simple rage.

His slitted gaze flicked over my face, calculating. He tilted his head to the side, lips pulling into something that wasn’t quite a snarl but wasn’tentirely neutral either. The motion distracted me for one dangerous second, enough for Vega's voice to cut through the heated haze between us.

“Terra, let me fucking fight!” she snapped, her ragged breath giving away how close to the edge her own reserves were. I could feel her tension radiating even as Hawk moved in beside her, both of them too battered and too smart not to know the inevitable conclusion if this dragged out.

But I couldn’t let their lives end here.

“Stop it,” I said again, louder this time, feeling the weight of every word grind against the raw edges of my pride. My jaw clenched as I spoke, as though physically forcing the surrender from my throat. “All of you. Now.”

Hawk, Kira, and Vega hesitated, unsure, searching my expression for answers. And why wouldn’t they? I hadn’t exactly briefed them on “kneeling in front of fiery alien dragon men” as part of our survival strategy. But theyhadbeen in enough impossible situations with me to recognize that this wasn’t a bluff—they just didn’t have to like it.

The alien male made a deep sound in the back of his throat, almost a purr, as his gaze lingered on my face. It wasn’t a kind sound—not quite mocking, but close. As though he saw that moment—my humility,my defiance, and my desperation—and enjoyed how it tasted.

“What?” I snapped at him, my own patience wearing thin under the weight of his attention. “You think this is funny?”

His response was to move even closer. I barely registered the shift before I felt the heat of his breath on my cheek. His other hand, the one not firmly locked around my arm, hovered near my face for the briefest of moments before withdrawing again.

The sharp tang of his scent—the alien fire and molten embers—deepened, igniting that physical insanity that had taken root inside me. The pulse beneath my ribs burned hotter. My teeth and tongue ached again, and for one horrifying second, I jerked my lips shut as though that would keep whatever was happening to me at bay.

His rumble deepened, the vibration crawling into my chest and settling there like an inferno. He wasn’t laughing. There was no mockery there, not really. What I heard in that sound—what Ifeltin it—was darker.

Hungrier.

And I hated that some part of me was hungry too.

“Terra,” Hawk called again, the concern inher voice sharpening. She wasn’t used to seeing me like this—none of them were. And why would they be? Leadership, decisiveness, composure—that was what they knew of me. That was who Iwas. I didn’t lose myself. Not in combat, not in isolation, not even kneeling on a battlefield under dual alien suns while some hulking predator branded my soul with his gaze.

Except right now, I wasn’t sure that was entirely true.

The alien tilted his head, considering me—or maybe simply savoring whatever curse-bound connection had glued me to him. His wings fanned wide with a slow, deliberate stretch that made their sheer size unavoidable. In any other context, I might have called them magnificent, the veins glowing faintly in the hell planet's heat. But all I could focus on was the fact that his body had shifted to block me further from the others.

Possession.

The thought made me shiver in a way I hated. Not just because it felt accurate, but because it didn’t feel entirely unwelcome—and that terrified me.

As though sensing the shift in my thoughts, his claws flexed lightly around my arm, a silent acknowledgment that sentanother unwelcome flush of heat coursing through my body. I yanked harder this time, pulling back with everything I had, but his grip didn’t waver. It didn’t tighten, either.

He rumbled something else, those alien words rumbling in his chest more than his throat, and leaned just a fraction closer. This time, his scent overwhelmed me completely, leaving no room for coherent thoughts beyond my own confused, traitorous reactions.

“I don’t know what you want,” I hissed, my voice sharp but uneven thanks to the inexplicable sensation building inside me. “But I’ll make this real simple: The others? They’re not part of this. You deal with me andonlyme.”

Behind me, I could hear my team shifting uneasily. I didn’t dare try to meet their gazes, not when I couldn’t guarantee the calm façade I always wore would hold. Letting them see would be worse than whatever these creatures decided to do with us.

The alien didn’t move at first. His eyes burned into me, searching, weighing something I couldn’t see. Words slipped through his lips again—low, deliberate, foreign—and his claws eased, if only just.

Then, without warning, he pulled me closer. Not roughly, but with the kind of demand that left no room for negotiation. His presence dwarfed mine,even without the physical reality of his size towering over me.

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