Page 15 of Sheltered in the Storm

His dark gaze met mine. “Until I have replaced what I shared. I gave you all I safely could, and then some.”

How the hells much blood had he given me?

I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to scream at him for what he’d done, because he’d done something invasive and I couldn’t stand anyone doing anything to me without my permission. But if he hadn’t shared his blood with me, I would be dead. If he hadn’t killed the raiders and taken me home, I’d be dead. If he hadn’t been swimming in the ocean when I crashed, I’d be dead.

No matter which way I looked at it, I owed him my life, and yet I hated that fact because ofhowhe’d saved me. I made a little sound and closed my eyes so he couldn’t see my unshed tears.

“Calla,” he said quietly. “I am truly sorry. I have done you a great wrong. I swear I did not intend to do you harm.”

I barely knew him, but I did believe that. I took a shaky breath. “I get it. You wanted to save me.”

“Yes, but I am also selfish. I could not watch you die.”

I opened my eyes so I could see his face. His expression was earnest.

“Why not?” I asked. “You killed a bunch of raiders to get me away from them and then drained half your blood to keep me alive. I don’t get it. Who the hells am I to you? I’m nobody.”

“You arenotnobody.” Vos’s eyes blazed with anger. “Please do not say that.”

“Is it because I’m a woman, then? Or at least a living being who isn’t a raider? You can’t bethathard up for companionship.”

“I have never sought companionship, until now.” His tentacles tightened around my blankets but didn’t try to draw me closer to his body. “If I tell you the whole truth, it will not make the situation any better.”

His expression went from guarded to a hard mask—the kind I’d only seen on mercenaries and soldiers. His body language also changed, becoming tense, as if ready to attack.

The cold efficiency with which he’d killed the raiders, who were vicious, well-trained fighters themselves, should have clued me in that Vos wasn’t an ordinary man who’d chosen to live on a lonely moon on the edge of Alliance space. I blamed my injuries for not thinking about the implications of his slaughter of the raiders beyond the fact he’d simply wanted to save me from their clutches.

Fear chilled my heart. Whowasthis man?

Maybe his nudity had far less to do with sex than making himself appear less threatening, or even vulnerable.

Which might have worked if not for the fact those tentacles could kill me without much trouble. He might have no weapons on him, but he himselfwasa weapon. And no one would mistake his cold eyes for anything but those of a killer.

Still, I wanted the truth, whatever it was. I deserved that much.

“We’re both naked in your bed,” I pointed out. “Whatever your real reasons were for everything you’ve done, lying to me will make the situation worse. I respect truth more than lies any day.”

Vos’s expression didn’t change, but his tentacles caressed me again through the blankets. “Calla…”

Why did his voice sound so much like a coo when he said my name? And why did those two simple syllables melt something in my heart?

“You smell like my mate,” he said.

If he’d told me I was the long-lost queen of his homeworld, I would have been less shocked.

“I do not know how this is possible,” he continued as I gaped. “Because I was created to serve the Silent Guard, I was made to not need a mate, or so I was told by those who created me.”

TheSilent Guard?

If he’d served in the Guard, he’d been one of the deadliest assassins in the galaxy—and probably still was, if he’d survived to serve out his enlistment. Now the killings of the raiders made all the sense in the world.

I was naked in bed next to a cold-blooded, highly trained killer who just happened to be one of the most beautiful men I’d ever laid eyes on, and who happened to think I was hismate.

“I never imagined such a situation for myself,” Vos continued. “It is not unknown for a human to be the true mate of a Fortusian, but it is rare.” His dark eyes searched my face. “I have horrified you.”

“No.” I swallowed hard. “I’m not horrified. I don’t…I don’t knowhowto feel. We don’t even know each other. And I’m a pilot in the Alliance Defense. I planned to reenlist for two more years. I want the bonus.”

If Vos had been alone a long time, maybe his body hadsimply reacted to me as the first biologically compatible being he’d encountered. Even as I thought that, though, I didn’t believe he couldn’t tell the difference between sexual attraction and the call of a true mate.

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