Page 48 of Akur

She felt his heat even before she saw him move. Even before she was whisked off her feet and her back was pressed into the wall on the other side of the room. Akur moved like something unreal. Just a blur of heat and muscle, and suddenly he was pressing her into the wall.Her breath stopped in her lungs. She was suspended off her feet, just his fist around her neck and another hot, so very hot, hand supporting her up underneath her rump.

Every breath brought in the scent of him, like spices filling her airway.

“Akur.” She swallowed hard. It wasn’t a plea. Even in this position of his complete dominance over her, she wasn’t afraid. She was…shit…fear was definitely not present here.

“Akur,” she repeated his name, searching his golden pits as they bored into hers.

His heat was all-encompassing. Chasing away the frigidity of the room like a blast furnace, leaving her flushed and breathless.

“You cannot help,” he snarled, lips mere centimeters away from hers. “This isn’t something you can fix.”

“I know you’re in heat.”

The air seemed to still.

“I know it’s why you’re acting like this.” She searched his gaze. “Is it dangerous?”

He laughed, harsh and hollow, his breath brushing against her lips. “Yes. But not to me.”

Dangerous to her. She wasn’t a fool. The unsaid was obvious.

“It doesn’t matter,” he breathed, and for a moment, as his body pressed against hers, he closed his eyes.

“Itdoesmatter.” Her words made his eyes snap back open. “If something’s wrong with you—”

“Nothing is wrong with me.” The words came out as a snarl. “I am what I am. What I’ve always been. A weapon. A warrior. Nothing more.”

“Liar.” She didn’t know him. Hadn’t been around him long enough to. They were strangers, thrown together by circumstance. But logic had long since abandoned ship. Something in his touch, in the intensity of his gaze, resonated deep within her, sparking a recognition that defied reason. It was as if some part of her, some hidden, instinctual part, already knew him, knew the heart of the warrior beneath the alien exterior.

He pushed her harder against the stone, his teeth bared as he tilted her head back to reveal her neck. He dipped his lips there, a breath easing from his mouth as it whispered across her skin.

“You cannot help me…because you are something I must protect. Not something I should harm.” He inhaled deeply before he lifted his head, molten gaze meeting hers. “Because…Constance…you are different.”

She searched his gaze, every breath still pulling him in. “What makes you think you will harm me?”

He stiffened. Didn’t answer for the longest while. The only movement was the sensation of his hand kneading the flesh at her ass. She didn’t even think he was aware he was doing it. And she could focus on nothing else.

“You have no idea what I am capable of.”

As suddenly as he’d come upon her, the hand at her neck disappeared. Akur set her down.

Reaching back, he grabbed the vials, popped the lid off one, and downed the contents in one swoop.

As his chest heaved, those intense eyes meeting hers again, the door mechanism clicked.

They were no longer alone.

14

Constance

The doorswung open with a metallic groan that sent ice through Constance’s veins. She stepped back instinctively as the Tasqal emerged, its massive frame filling the entire doorway like a nightmarish sentinel. The flowing white robes it wore seemed to absorb the dim light, creating an otherworldly silhouette that made her heart slam against her ribs.

Those black holes it had for eyes found her immediately, and time seemed to slow down. She’d seen images of the Tasqals before, heard whispered descriptions from other humans who’d survived encounters, but nothing had prepared her for the reality. The creature before her was both more and less than she’d imagined—more terrifying in its alien intelligence, less like the mindless monster of her fears.

Before she could draw another breath, Akur moved. The transformation was breathtaking—one moment he was beside her, radiating that impossible heat, the next he had the Tasqal pinned against the door with fluid grace that belied his injuries. The door slammed shut with aresounding bang as Akur’s blade pressed into the creature’s throat, drawing a thin line of dark fluid.

“At ease, Shum’ai.” The Tasqal’s voice was surprisingly calm, but those eyes never left hers. Something about that unwavering gaze made her skin crawl. “Have you not yet concluded that I am not here to harm you?”

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