Page 109 of Claimed by an Alien Warrior

Overriding the computer again, he forced his pod open and pulled himself out. His legs buckled under his weight. He caught himself against the wall before he fell and staggered to her side. His head spun, his stomach threatened upheaval, and every part of him was in agony, but it was nothing compared to what she was enduring.

Zoey’s form, reduced to little more than a shadow in the intense glow, writhed as the nyros entered her body and bound themselves to her. He remembered that pain well from his own binding.

Ren braced his hands on the surface of the pod, curling his fingers against it helplessly. He dropped his face onto it and forced air through his constricted throat.

This is the only way,he told himself.The only chance.

But his nyros were not made for her kind. His nyros were for the aekhora, and many aligarii perished during the pairing process. How would her fragile human body handle it? How could he have possibly thought it would work?

“Stay with me,kun’ia,” he rasped.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Zoey woke to blinding light. She turned her face away, squinting against the glare. As her eyes adjusted, the light dimmed to something more tolerable. Confusion furrowed her brow.

She recalled the accident, the roar of twisting metal and shattering glass, and then explosions, gunfire, and screams. She remembered consuming pain and brutal cold.

Am I in a hospital?

She lifted an arm to touch her face, but it bumped into something above her. Frowning, she looked up to find herself beneath smooth, curved glass. Her breath quickened as she pressed her palms to the smooth surface.

Where the hell was she? Had…had the government caught them?

Ren! Oh, God, please don’t let them have taken Ren!

Zoey smacked her hands against the glass. “Let me out!”

A strange, warm tingling blossomed inside her.

The glass slid up into a hidden recess with a hiss of air.

She hurriedly climbed out of the machine. Her knees buckled as her feet touched the floor, and she crumpled. Absently, she covered her bare chest with an arm as she sat there panting; her nudity was the least of her problems. With wide eyes, she looked around her. There were two more of the bed-like things next to the one she’d been in, and those were the easiest part of her surroundings to wrap her mind around.

Zoey crawled backward until she bumped the wall.

The large room was sleek and polished, something right out of a sci-fi show, with strange controls, honest-to-God holograms, and pieces of equipment she couldn’t identify along the walls. A circular platform stood at the front of the room, raised slightly off the floor, with several large chairs atop it. The chairs were surrounded by more controls. The lights overhead were soft and pure, neither too bright nor too dim.

This wasn’t like any hospital room she’d ever seen.

“Zoey?”

One of the chairs on the platform turned, and Rendash rose out of it, all four of his eyes wide and staring at her in disbelief.

“Ren,” she rasped.

He was here! He was safe!

By the time she pulled herself to her feet, he’d already crossed the distance between them. He gathered her into his arms for the most desperate, relieved hug she’d ever received, lifting her off the floor.

“You’re awake,” he said breathlessly. “You’realive. I was afraid you wouldn’t…”

Zoey wrapped her arms around him, clutching at his back. “How? I thought I was…I was dying.”

He gently lowered her, settling one pair of hands on her hips and the other on her shoulders. It was only then that she realized what he was wearing — a wide belt with intricate, alien patterns etched across it and a loose, layered cloth wrap around his waist, hanging to just above his knee. It wasalmostlike a kilt, but the fabric and its bright colors didn’t quite match that gruff Scottish look.

“You were,” he said, calling her attention back to his face. He frowned deeply, a crease appearing between his center eyes. “A little longer, and you would’ve been gone. I transferred most of mynyrosinto you, hoping it would save your life. I had no other choice.”

Zoey’s eyes widened. “Your...nyros?” She focused on her body, searching for anything out of place, anything different, but she only feltwonderful. Whole. She felt…

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