Page 13 of Claimed by an Alien Warrior

He’d never been so intrigued by a female’s scent, but he couldn’t allow curiosity to dictate his actions.

There was only one question regarding Zoey that needed to be answered.

Can she be trusted?

He glanced up at her seat. Her body was blocked from his view, but tendrils of her brown hair — most of which was gathered in a messy knot atop her head — hung over the headrest, and her pale neck was visible between the thin metal supports. Her skin had felt strange against his arm; smooth and soft, so delicate he thought it might tear if he ran his scales over it too harshly.

Rendash’s fingers twitched; he longed to brush his fingertips over her bare flesh again, to learn its feel properly.

What was he thinking? She was a human female, a member of the species that had held him captive for four of their years, the species that was hunting him like an animal. She was his enemy. It didn’t matter if there might’ve been sympathy in her voice when she’d offered her condolences for his lost Umen’rak. It didn’t matter that she said she’d help him.

What obligation did she have to him? What did these creatures know of honor?

Honor…

Those questions were irrelevant; he would keep his word. If she did not betray him, he would keep her safe, even from her own kind.

“Rendash?”

Her voice broke through his thoughts, serving as a reminder of just how tired he was — normally, he’d never drift so deep into thought that he lost awareness of his surroundings. That was an easy way to get killed.

“What is it?” he asked.

“There’s something up ahead.”

Grasping her seat, he pulled himself up to look between the front chairs. There were more ground vehicles stopped ahead, their rear lights lit bright red. Zoey slowed her vehicle as they approached the congestion. Just beyond the line of transports, flashing lights bathed the surrounding wasteland in blue and red.

“What is this?” Rendash asked.

Zoey leaned forward. “Looks like a police checkpoint. I…I think they are searching the cars.” She turned her face toward him. “What are we going to do? They’ll see you.”

Thanks to the light from the vehicle behind them, he was finally offered a true glimpse of her features. Long, dark lashes framed her blue-gray eyes; those eyes were her most striking feature, wide and clear, snaring him within their depths. She had gently curved lines of hair on her brow over her eyes and full, pink lips that were currently downturned.

She was as bizarre looking as any human he’d seen, and somehow infinitely more appealing. There was a softness to her appearance to which he was wholly unaccustomed, a softness that made him want to touch, a softness that did nothing to diminish her underlying vitality.

“I will remain low,” he said. “Tell me when we near the view of the humans searching.”

At that moment, his life was entirely in her hands. Her small, soft, human hands. He held no illusions as to his ability to fight or flee on his own without significant recovery time. His strength was spent. His connection to his nyros was still disrupted by the human concoctions lingering in his system.

If she chose to betray him now, Rendash would be doomed.

“Oh God, I’m such a terrible liar,” she said in a rush. “They’re going to catch us. It’s not like I have tinted windows, Rendash. They’re going to see you and then they’re going to—”

“Quiet, human,” he snapped.

She obeyed. He felt a moment’s guilt for the wide-eyed, vulnerable, nervous expression that overcame her face.

Control. Detachment.

“They will not see me, and you do not need to worry over it,” he said, taking a gentler tone. “Be…honestwithout revealing anything. Do you understand what I mean?”

She breathed slowly in and out several times. “I’ll try.”

“Remember, Zoey, my life depends upon your honor.”

“More like it depends on my acting. No pressure either way, right?” She groaned. “We’re so screwed.”

Based on his understanding ofscrewed, her statement was nonsensical, but he didn’t waste time asking for clarification. Humans were often imprecise in their use of words. He couldn’t be sure if it was a result of their language’s complexity or part of that complexity.

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