Page 33 of Rok's Captive
I do not look. I do not falter.
I drink one swift mouthful—taking only what I need to return to my tribe safely—and secure the rest in the folded leaf. Then I am running once more, water sloshing inside the leaf. I steady my hand, not daring to lose a single drop to the dust.
I do not think I was gone for long. But when I return, the male is not where I left him.
I still, nostrils flaring. At first, I believe myself tricked. That the male feigned illness so he could slip away. But then my senses pick up one thing.
There is a scent, and it iseverywhere. Saliva swells underneath my tongue as if I have just scented the most delicious meal.
Then I see it.
The male. He has moved to the far corner of the cave, thrashing weakly against the stone. But this is not what freezes my blood.
The coverings—those strange hides—they’ve been torn away, lying in scattered heaps on the cave floor. And the body revealed beneath them…
My breath turns to dust in my lungs. The leaf vessel nearly slips from my claws as my body locks in place. The male writhes on the ground, limbs twisting against the cool stone, seeking relief from the fire within. But all I can see are the curves. The softness. The undeniable shape of something that isnotmale.
Even the circular lumps I believed were gourds are instead fleshy mounds rising from his chest.
Every muscle in my being tenses. Every instinct roars to life. My skin flashes bright, probably alerting every shadowmaw in our vicinity, then dims, then flashes bright again—responding to a surge of…something I have no name for.
Slow steps carry me forward, the leaf clutched tight in my claw, water forgotten for one breathless moment as I struggle to comprehend what my eyes tell me.
My nostrils flare as I inhale, and?—
Something inside me cracks.
The scent hits me like a strike to the chest. Something rich, something designed to beconsumed, to betaken. My vision darkens at the edges, my fangs lengthening, an unfamiliar snarl twisting in my throat.
My body moves before my mind can stop it.
I pin the creature down.
His skin is hot beneath my claws, moisture-slicked and trembling. A weak protest dies on his lips.
My breath ghosts over his throat, then lower, drinking in his scent like it’s precious water in the dry season. I don’t understand it. Don’t know why my body reacts this way, why my gut clenches with a need so sudden, so absolute, it makes my muscles seize.
But then I reach his lower gut.
And the scent there—gods, the scent there.
A deep, primal growl tears from my chest, the sound surprising even me.
Something wakes inside me. Something old. Something lethals.
This is no male.
This is something else.
Something meant forme.
Chapter9
FIRST AID ACROSS GALAXIES: RESULTS MAY VARY
JUSTINE
Everything hurts. Out of seemingly nowhere, my skin goes on fire, and the heat has somehow seeped into my bones. Every movement sends fresh waves of agony rolling through me, and my limbs feel like they’ve been replaced with lead.
