Page 5 of Claimed By the Drakarn Warrior Lord

Hawk’s sharp whistle drew his attention just long enough for me to swivel behind him, a desperate swing of my improvised weapon enough to knockhis blade off course. The ground beneath us groaned, steam rising in violent hisses as nearby geysers threatened another eruption.

“Terra!” Kira shouted, her panic-tinged voice cutting through the haze. “We’re outnumbered! Selene and Lexa have the civilians covered, but if we don’t?—”

I cut her off with a harsh gesture because I already knew her point deep inside, the same way I recognized no number of clever maneuvers were going to help us now.

We’d drawn our line in the sand, but this hell planet’s blistering winds had long since erased it.

“Stand down!” I ordered, my voice firm, clearer than I felt inside. My gaze swung to Vega next, who was already cornered closer to where Hawk tried to angle yet another hurl of debris. “Stand. Down.”

The reluctance in Vega’s eyes mirrored my own internal struggle, but she nodded stiffly before stepping closer. As the others abandoned their positions one by one, scrambling for what little cover the terrain allowed, the shame of surrender twisted through me like jagged glass.

Ihatedthis. Hated every fiber of my body foreven considering it. And yet …

Some part of me was oddly at peace with the decision, if only to prevent more harm.

I dropped my weapon and raised my hands, slow and deliberate, forcing myself not to meet the infernal heat of his gaze as he approached. Before I could speak—or gesture more clearly—he rumbled something low in his impossibly deep voice.

The sound carved its way through every level of my being, sinking into places I didn’t know existed.

A wild flush rose to my throat before spreading upward, the betrayal of my own reaction coloring my complexion as my knees hit the ground.

The scorch-pain that had radiated dully in my chest spiked.

Then, he touched me.

It was a grip—not gentle but restrained power, claws not bared, hand unyielding but careful. His warmth enveloped me even through those reinforced tactical fibers of my cryo gear.

Except warmth was wrong. Wrong and far from describing the molten flush centered just below my ribcage.

The growl he gave then—alien threats or promises—I didn’t know nor care which. Everything about those tonal complexities was vivid and sent heat straight to my core.

I had to be going crazy.

His voice was a brand, searing itself onto me. I couldn’t understand the word he spoke, but its intention carried through the air like heat off the lava banks. It resonated with something primordial in me, silencing even the rippling hiss of geysers and shouts of my people.

I swallowed hard, my mouth watering in a way that was distinctly unnatural given the situation. His scent—the fiery, predatory warmth of it—fanned the flames of my confusion, nudging my focus away from my team’s safety toward something far more personal, far more dangerous.

The alien squatted lower, his physicality looming over me like something I could feel. Those golden eyes, their slitted vertical irises narrowing slightly as though in calculation, locked onto my face.

“Stop,” I bit out, my voice cracking but firm. Around us, the sounds of Vega growling her defiance and Hawk and Kira shifting to regroup were a distant murmur, as if the two suns above had dipped closer and drawn the alien and me into our own private storm.

He tilted his head at my outburst, his wings shifting behind him in a cascade of webbed black and faint sparks of glowing orange veins, like magmarunning beneath the surface. It should have been the stuff of nightmares, a predator crouched above me without the barest hint of human softness.

Instead, the burn within my chest pulsed, an undeniable urge to lean closer to him—which was precisely why I grit my teeth and tightened every muscle in defiance.

“I saidstop!” I barked again, emphasizing the words with a shove against his hand where it gripped my arm. It didn’t move; his strength was absolute. He could have crushed the bone beneath his hold, but I could feel the control.

Instead of retreating, I met his gaze with every ounce of fury and confusion swirling inside of me, forcing the trembling of my fingers to still.

He murmured something again, softer this time, as though coaxing a wild animal out of hiding. There were no harsh consonants in his alien tongue, just a series of low, rolling syllables that wrapped around my senses like a smoldering caress.

And then—oh god,then—his claws brushed along the bare skin of my wrist, light enough to skirt the surface but heavy enough to light up every nerve beneath it.

Heat rippled down my spine, a supernova of sensation erupting unseen between us.My lips parted in a quick inhale, the air thick with heat, sweat, andhim. My body betrayed me again, shifting forward as though drawn, even as my brain screamed at me topull away, now, before it's too late.

"Get your hands off her!" Vega's voice shattered the narrowing fog, sharp as shattered glass and laced with rage. My head snapped toward her in time to see her jerking a metal shard upward, but she was too close to one of the other warriors—a scarlet-scaled beast whose fangs bared at the threat.

“No! No, wait—standdown! I’ve got this!” My voice tore out of me again, this time larger than just the alien and me. It broke Vega's motion with a half-second pause, long enough that when the blade-armored tip of my assailant’stailflicked toward her, the alien didn’t run her through.

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