Page 17 of Tamed By the Alien Warlord
He leans in, presses his forehead to mine. “This is going to work. Because I’m not letting anything else happen.”
The heat in my chest goes nova.
I touch his cheek. “Thank you. For saving me. And for… not stopping me.”
“You’ll owe me,” he mutters.
“Add it to my tab.”
I climb aboard. The hatch begins to close.
We watch each other through the cockpit glass.
Neither of us waves.
Neither of us smiles.
But we don’t look away—not until the lock seals between us and the stars stretch wide around me.
And for the first time, I wonder…
Am I falling in love with a Reaper?
CHAPTER 7
LANZ
Her scent clings to the cockpit.
It doesn’t make sense. There’s no reason for it to be here. She never stepped foot in this part of the ship. But it’s in the air, ghosting along the metal, seeping into my lungs.
I pace like a caged beast, every step echoing across the deck.
The descent has started. Her shuttle glides toward the Earth First moon station like a docile prey creature approaching the den of its predator.
She’s playing the bait.
My jaw clenches. Every instinct I have screams at me to rip the planet apart and drag her out by her hair. But I can’t. Not yet.
Instead, I busy myself with violence.
The raid team awaits in the armory bay—hulking figures sharpening blades and arguing over kill counts. Blood-paint stains their armor. Their snarls echo. These are not the sort of warriors who crack jokes mid-battle or compare conquests like drunk mercs.
These are the ones wholikehurting things.
Rix is first to speak. “We go on your signal, Captain?”
“When I call, you burn the sky,” I reply. “Nakamura’s facility gets reduced to smoke and scrap. No survivors.”
“Any exceptions?”
“One.”
The others go still.
“She wears a collar,” I say coldly. “You see her—you protect her. Anyone who so much astouchesher without my command—dies screaming.”
Grunts of approval. Blade clinks. Bone-sharp smiles.
