Page 10 of Captured
Chapter Six
Juliet
I want to stop running, but I don’t. My feet hit the soft, mushy ground of the forest, digging in the moist, cold texture as I run. I hate every bit of it, but it’s still better than the rocks.
I know my strength is depleting fast and that I’m not nearly far enough. The Drakian could be coming after me if he survives the explosion. Hopefully he won’t. I feel bad about the stranger. I can only hope he made it out okay, but I know that even if I didn’t find him in the ship, it doesn’t mean he was out.
I can’t waste time thinking about that now. I have to find my pod, but it’s like looking for one particular star in a mapless sky. It might take me weeks or even months. Still, I won’t give up.
I finally stop running as the ground begins to rise. I’ve come to the base of the mountain I saw in the distance. I brace my hands on my knees as I take a short break. The sound of my own breathing drowns the noise of the forest and I cast a fast, suspicious glance around. I haven’t seen any animals yet, but I can feel their curious eyes on me. A shiver runs up my spine at the idea.
I’m defenseless, barely clothed and barefoot. If anything big attacks, I’ll have only my bare hands to defend myself.
“Fuck, fuck, fuckety fuck.” I recite the curse, shaking my head against the intrusive despair. This is not a time to be overwhelmed. This is a time for fighting. And fighting is what I do best.
I start to jog up the low incline, using my hands to help me, bracing against tree trunks and pushing up. My legs burn and my lungs join them, but I don’t slow down. Slowing down is one step too close to stopping and I can’t afford to stop. If I can just get up there, above this godforsaken vegetation, then I’ll have a chance to find my pod. The impact I made when landing is sure to have scarred the land somehow.
As I climb the mountainside, the incline sharpens and I’m unable to move as fast as I’d like. Still, I push on.
Finally, I’m on some rocky outcrop, about halfway up the mountainside. I crumple on the rocks, my legs burning and my lungs on fire. Judging by the relentless cramps in my muscles, I won’t be able to go on for much longer. This was already pushing my limits, so soon after my injuries.
I’m stuck here.
I scan the view and a heavy stone settles in my stomach. The wilderness is endless, with thick, green vegetation spreading as far as the eye can see.
“I’ll never find the pod. I’ll never go home.”
My voice breaks in the emptiness and somewhere far away, the cry of an animal answers. Somehow, this wild, indifferent cry makes me feel more lonely than I ever felt in the void of space. My head pulls down between my shoulders and I bite the inside of my cheek to prevent myself from crying. I can’t cry right now. If I cry, I’ll break and I’ll never be able to pick up the pieces of myself again.
“It’s okay, Juliet.” I talk to myself, knowing full well that it’s only pushing me closer to breaking. “Everything is going to be okay.”
But it won’t. I’m going to die here, alone, on a strange planet.
I sit down on the rocks, the cold seeping instantly through the thin sheet of fabric covering my body. My arms wrap around my knees and I brace my forehead there, hiding my face as my curls fall down on each side of my face. I know I shouldn’t let my guard down, but I need this tiny moment of weakness so much I can’t resist.
My exhaustion washes over me like some tidal wave made of self-pity and I find out I can’t move. I stay like that, hunched over and defeated, all my thoughts going back to the stranger with the yellow eyes. How I wish he was here with me. How I wish he was real.
I have no idea how long I stayed like that, prostrated and defeated, but the air becomes cold and humid and the light from the twin suns begins to change, fading to a deep, saturated orange glow.
The sound of a growl comes, vivid and full of some primeval anger. The trembling spreads from my head to my fingertips in the next heartbeat as the instinctive part of my brain wakes up. I can feel the predator before I even see it.
I lift my head and stare at my death. It stares back at me with blazing, hatred-filled eyes. The creature is tall, a hair under seven feet, and his entire body is clad in small, shiny scales the color of onyx. I’ve never seen a creature so muscular before, its thighs wide and thick, long and strong. Its arms are massive yet somehow agile and the tips of his fingers stretch in long, pointed claws. Claws that don’t look like claws but like an extension of his body, as sharp as a needle point.
I have never seen one before, but I know what he is.
This is a Drakian.
It growls again, its glare on me, not moving an inch. Its lips lift, exposing two long, sharp fangs dripping with poison. Its reptilian face twists with wrath.
Its entire demeanor is so hostile, so openly threatening that I don’t know how my heart still finds the sass to keep beating. I should be dead by now. Double dead if I count the crash, which I very much do. Almost dying is a habit I need to quit.
“Stay the fuck away!” I shout, finally able to react. I jump to my feet, facing the Drakian full on. I’m so scared, so utterly terrified, it’s like everything is happening in slow motion.
I know I’m defenseless and nearly naked, but I can’t just accept my death. I scan my surroundings and quickly pick up a sizable rock between slippery, cold-sweat covered hands.
The Drakian growls, his eyes latching on to the rock in my hands. His yellow, blazing eyes.
I know those eyes. Those are the eyes that haunted my dreams, the eyes of the beautiful stranger who fucked me like no one had ever fucked me before.
