The Alien’s Claim by Zoey Draven

Chapter Eighteen

The next morning, Erin found Jaxor gone again.

When she stepped from the cave, the base was quiet, almost eerily so. Even the kekevir were silent and Erin found she’d grown used to their noises.

The morning sky was still grey, heavy with a dense fog that shielded the sky from her sight.

“Jaxor?” she called out, hesitantly, her voice echoing around the crater, bouncing off the stone walls.

There was no reply. He’d come back last night—from wherever he’d gone—in a strange mood. Well, in a quiet, broody mood, which wasn’t all that different from how he usually was. He’d had blood on his chest from a fresh wound, but he hadn’t answered her when she asked how he’d received it. She wondered who he met with because she wasn’t foolish enough to believe he’d left to scare off ‘intruders.’

She didn’t know how long she had, but she had another rare opportunity to be alone. Navigating her way off the stones that led up to the cave, she got down to the base floor and wound her way through the tunnel, making sure to avoid any sharp rocks in the floor. On her way, she noticed that the pulley system was down, meaning Jaxor had lowered himself again, probably gone off to forage or check his traps.

The hovercraft was still in its place. Last night, she’d followed Jaxor down the tunnel and watched him start up the engine, though his fingers had been a rapid blur over the silver pad screen as he did. Still, Erin remembered. She just had to be certain she did, needed to practice so she wouldn’t forget. She’d traced the motion he’d made on the rock walls of the cave, trying to imprint it on her mind the night before as she waited for him to return, shivering as she tried not to think of what they’d done in that cave or the strange conversation they’d had over the fire.

She jumped onto the hovercraft after checking the kekevir gate and walked over to the controls.

A part of her still thought this was foolish—trying to learn to pilot an alien hovercraft in an attempt to blindly navigate her way back to the Golden City.

Actually, all parts of her thought this was foolish. But she suspected that Jaxor had met with the Mevirax last night—that him trading her to them was still a possibility.

The thought…stung. She didn’t think it would, but it did. She tried to imagine her friends’ mates exchanging them for something—willingly giving them up—and couldn’t. Lihvan, Beks’ mate, had almost given his life to fight off a dangerous beast to keep her safe. Rixavox had knowingly performed a blood bond with Cecelia when she’d been poisoned, even though losing her would have killed him. Vikan had stolen Taylor from the Golden City, risking his power and position, when he believed she would leave. And Kirov had fought tooth and nail to win Lainey’s heart.

Yet, Jaxor was still in a negotiation with the Mevirax that Erin suspected concerned her.

He hadn’t told them to go fuck themselves. He hadn’t claimed her as his. He’d done everything in his power to keep her at a distance…because he knew he would give her up?

Erin would have to save herself. She wasn’t relying on Jaxor. If Erin ever wanted to see the Golden City again, her home, her family, her friends…then she would have to act.

Sidling up to the control console, her fingertips hovered over the silver pad. Then she traced the pattern she remembered in her mind—a looping swirl that ended with a sharp slash to the right.

It was almost too easy when she heard the gentle whirring of the engine starting up. Her heartbeat sped with adrenaline and she looked over her shoulder, half expecting Jaxor to come barreling down the tunnel at any moment, to drag her from the hovercraft, and lock her away in the cave.

But there was still no sign of him.

She tapped the pad and simultaneously pressed the clear button directly to the left.

The hovercraft rose. She knew it would. She’d seen Jaxor do it the night before. She kept her finger on the button, kept her other finger on the silver pad. And she continued to rise, so unlike the sharp hurtle that Jaxor had performed.

Erin’s heartbeat was in her throat as panic began to rise. She was afraid of heights and the floor of the cave was growing smaller and smaller, the hole in the mountain above her widening and widening.

Then again, a little voice in her head was telling her to go. Fly away. It would be so easy, wouldn’t it? Then she would never see Jaxor again. He would never be able to trade her, her future would be in her own hands.

Just as she reached the mountain’s entrance, just as a chilling wind whipped at her face, stinging her eyes, just as she saw the endless fog that looked like pillows stretched out before her, she remembered last night. Jaxor’s face flashed in her mind, firelight reflecting in his darkened eyes, staring at her like…like he was seeing her for the first time.

She lost her nerve.

Her finger slipped off the button as fright replaced her sudden recklessness. She dropped fast, back inside the mountain, and she barely held back her shriek, diving for the clear block of a button, before the hovercraft’s descent froze in mid-air, only a few feet from the cave floor.

With her blood roaring in her ears, she gently slid her finger down the pad and the hovercraft came to a gentle landing. When she repeated the pattern on the silver pad…the engine died.

Silence deafened her. Almost in a state of disbelief—she’d actually done it—she jumped down from the hovercraft and walked back down the tunnel on trembling knees.

Erin wasn’t so foolish as to not prepare for a long journey. She had nothing but the tunic she’d stolen from Jaxor. She would need rations, clothes, fuel, maybe even weapons.

She went to the fire, one that Jaxor must’ve made before he left that morning. She stoked it, watching the embers glow. Adrenaline was making her giddy and excited, but also focused.

Her crazy plan might work. She just had a few kinks to work out—well, more than a few. And she needed to practice piloting the hovercraft more, even though she dreaded the thought. It made a shiver run down her spine.

Jaxor returned a short while later and her greedy eyes drank him in as if parched. She ignored the relief she felt when she saw him—that was a part of her that she couldn’t turn off even if she tried.

Instead, she cleared her throat—and hopefully the longing with it—and asked, “Where did you go?”

Inwardly, she cringed. She didn’t mean to sound like she was keeping tabs on him, but it certainly came out that way.

His appearance gave her pause. She saw—with that same annoying relief—that the kekevir wound looked like it was healing nicely. He’d taken out her stitches himself sometime yesterday. And the mysterious cut on his pectoral muscle had faded considerably. However, he looked tired. Drawn around the eyes. She wondered if he’d slept at all last night.

“Is something wrong?” she asked softly.

He shook his head, dropping a sack next to the fire, though what it contained remained a mystery. She assumed it was fuel or food or water gourds.

“Nix,” he grunted. “I want to take you somewhere.”

Dread seeped into her. Did this have something to do with whoever he met with last night?

“Where?” she asked slowly.

“There are hot springs,” he informed her. “Not that far, so we can go on foot.”

Whatever she’d expected him to say, it hadn’t been that. Her excitement at the prospect of a hot bath? Undeniable. But she didn’t trust him, despite feeling comfortable with him last night. And his sudden suggestion made her wary.

“I don’t believe you,” she put it simply.

His brow rose.

“I’m not stupid, Jaxor,” Erin said quietly.

“What are you speaking of?” he rasped, frowning. “I never said you were ‘stupid.’”

“I know you met with the Mevirax last night,” she said, watching him carefully. She wasn’t certain, but when his lips pressed together…something in her sunk. “And for some reason they want me. And you’re still talking with them, which leads me to assume that you’re willing to give me to them. For something you want, or something they have over you.”

Erin swallowed, looking down at her lap, unable to look him in the eye quite at that moment. Because a part of her was frightened of what she might see if she did.

“If you’re going to give me to them, I can’t stop you. I know that. You’re stronger, faster, and bigger than me. All I ask is that you don’t lie to my face about it. If you’re planning to take me to them right now, then just say it. Don’t give me a lie about some hot springs to try to make me more docile.”

Erin’s mind was racing and her chest was hurting. She was kicking herself. Not that long ago, she was hovering over the mountaintop, staring into the endless sea of fog. She’d had opportunity then. Now, she was at his mercy. Again.

She should’ve been reckless and just gone. Jaxor would’ve come back to an empty base.

“I am not lying to you, Erin,” he murmured, his voice almost…soft. Gentle. It surprised her so much that she looked up at him. He seemed embarrassed at her shock, a muscle around his jaw twitching. As if he wasn’t used to being…kind, as if it was a vulnerability he’d rather not have. “There are hot springs nearby. I wish to take you to them.”

“Why?” she whispered.

Jaxor blew out a breath, running a hand over his horn. He looked so tired. So drained. Erin almost felt bad questioning him so much.

“Because I think you would enjoy them. Because I am tired of this, rixella,” he told her, those blue eyes burning into her.

“Of fighting?” she asked, frowning. “With me?”

“Tev,” he rasped. “Against you. It is not natural, in the position we are in. I am wondering what would happen if we just...give up.”

Her belly fluttered and she pressed her hand to it in surprise, as if it would stop the uncomfortable sensation.

In the position we are in.

That position, of course, being fated mates. They were bound to one another by magic or fate or dreams, or all three.

“Give up,” she repeated softly, wondering what he meant by that, or what it would mean. Her mind raced with possibility. A part of her cautioned that this was a trap.

The other part was intrigued at the prospect, breathless with butterflies.

Erin recalled with dizzying detail—though she’d been half-drunk on Luxirian liquor—the way his mouth felt against hers. Clumsy at first, as if he’d never been kissed before, then taking control with need and efficiency and making her fingers curl into his shoulders. She remembered feeling sympathy and understanding as he talked of his first love, of feeling her heart speed when he asked her if she’d ever been in love.

“I am asking you to trust me,” Jaxor said. “Will you come?”

Jaxor had everything to gain. Erin had everything to lose.

So why was she tempted to do as he asked? To give in? When, just a moment before, she wondered if he was betraying her by leading her into a trap?

Madness.

And maybe Erin was stupid because she found herself saying, “Yes.”