The Alien’s Claim by Zoey Draven

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Strange dreams plagued her that night but when Erin woke the next morning, she felt surprisingly…all right. Refreshed. And the dreams she had were erased from her mind, leaving her to wonder if whatever she had dreamt had given her a sense of peace…and if so, what had they been of?

Jaxor was gone again that morning. Erin noticed it was raining. Not like the torrential downpour that had occurred a few days prior, but a soft trickle. The air felt sticky but cold with it. When she rose and peeked out into the base, he wasn’t there and the pulley was once again lowered. He’d probably be gone for some time. He’d stayed out yesterday until early afternoon.

Her gaze went to the tunnel where the hovercraft was landed. Erin bit her lip, feeling strangely guilty for even considering taking advantage of her time alone.

Yet, she had to consider all the possibilities and weigh them carefully. For example, what if Jaxor decided that he wouldn’t let her go, after all? She’d been planning to broach the subject of them returning to the Golden City together, but now she wasn’t so sure he would take her back since he’d told her he would be punished if he was caught there. She still didn’t know their future. He’d continued to keep quiet about what he planned for her, though she no longer believed the Mevirax were as big a threat as she assumed, given what he’d told her about them.

It was the responsible thing to have a way out, right? Just in the case? The logical part of Erin knew that. Yet, it still felt like a huge betrayal. A heavy pit was in her stomach.

But if life had taught her one thing, it was this: never rely on anyone but yourself.

Erin had been independent nearly her entire life.

She wouldn’t give that independence up for anyone. Not even her alleged fated mate.

Which was why she made up her mind and headed towards the tunnel.

* * *

Her adrenaline was racing,churning her stomach, making her feel like her skin was buzzing as she slowly lowered the hovercraft from the opening at the top of the mountain down to the floor of the tunnel. She was shivering. Not because of her wet hair and damp skin from the rain, but with accomplishment.

She’d done it. She’d actually done it. She’d piloted the hovercraft, making a small loop around the entrance of the tunnel in the thick fog bank. Not once did she take her eyes off the entrance she’d come from, in fear that she’d lose sight of it forever. When she’d made her loop, she slowly navigated back down, descending into her landing. Then she did it again, her fingers becoming more comfortable with the controls, with the looping movements she had to make with her fingers, movements she’d memorized when Jaxor had taken her to the Lopitax Sea.

Erin grinned, blowing out a long breath that seemed to push from her lungs. She laughed, her head falling back, staring up at the entrance that seemed miles above her.

She was trembling with excitement, with victory. But when she powered down the engine and turned, all that excitement left her, turning to cold dread when she saw Jaxor standing at the tunnel mouth.

Furious.

“Shit,” she breathed, too shocked to filter the curse that fell from her lips.

Jaxor straightened and then he stalked over to the hovercraft, stepping up until he was inches from her.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing?”

Erin flinched at his tone, staring up at him. His body was trembling too, but most likely from rage, not adrenaline, like hers was. This was the Jaxor she’d first met, the angry one, the crazed one, the cold one. His eyes were like flint, or like sharp shards of ice that could pierce her clean through.

When she didn’t answer, he turned to the wall of the cave—as if he couldn’t bear to look at her—raking both hands through his shorn, inky hair. He let out a short bellow of anger, the sound echoing through the mountain, stirring the kekevir, who gave responding hisses.

Erin tried to stop her hands from shaking, squeezing them into fists at her sides.

“Tell me now!” he roared, his eyes pinning her back in place.

Her temper pricked, but she forced it back. “Only when you calm down.”

Which only seemed to enrage him more. Erin actually saw the way his eyes unfocused with that wild beast that was always lurking inside him. Her heart thudded in her chest. This was what he’d become. Her lonely, slightly mad, devastatingly handsome male. He made her hurt when she looked at him. He made her heart stutter and her toes curl too.

She liked him more than she should, Erin realized. She remembered the night they’d talked about love and he’d asked her if she’d ever loved anyone in singular moments…and she realized that she had. Him. She’d joked about it at the time, but a part of her had fallen a little in love with him in small moments.

And all she wanted to do right then was wrap her arms around him, even though he looked like he wanted to tie her up again.

“Jaxor—”

“How long?”

She swallowed but didn’t say anything.

When he realized she wouldn’t answer, he clutched one of his horns, his claw curling into it, leaving a small mark, making her wonder if it hurt.

She went to him, taking his hand away. “Jaxor, stop,” she said gently, trying to keep calm. Trying to keep her temper in check, especially given the state he was in. He needed her to be the calm one here.

He didn’t hear her.

“Do you know how dangerous that is?” he bellowed, barely looking at her, his gaze going to the tunnel entrance. “What would have happened had you…vrax!”

Realization went through her. “You’re mad because I could’ve gotten hurt?” she asked dumbly.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” he hissed, turning those wild eyes on her. He came forward, gripping the back of her neck, his thumb coming to the pulse that was pounding hard in her throat. As if he needed to ensure it still beat.

He was worried for her. Insane with it, even though she stood in front of him, safe, unharmed. Erin swallowed, her hand coming to his wrist. He shook his head, growling like he was trying to keep something back, like he was trying to maintain his own sanity.

“Leaving me too,” he murmured, his pupils dilating, his eyes seeing her but also not. “Leaving me. Of course, she is.”

Her heart throbbed. “Jaxor,” she whispered softly, reaching out to touch his cheek, feeling his claws prick her slightly. It wasn’t hard enough to hurt, but given the state he was in, he might cut her accidentally and he might not realize it. “Your claws.”

He laughed, the sound bitter and sad. It left her aching. Even still, he heard her. His grip loosened even as he leaned down and bit the side of her neck.

Erin gasped, stiffening, her body pulsing.

Not fair, she thought, feeling arousal flow from that claiming bite. And that was what it was. He was deliberately marking her as his in one of the most animalistic and primal ways she could think of, short of sex.

He rasped against her skin, “Leave me then. Fucking go.”

She called his bluff. “You don’t want that. And I wasn’t leaving.”

Not yet at least,she silently added, feeling insanely guilty for it since his body seemed to relax slightly at her words. The fact was that she’d been caught red-handed.

Only…

Why feel bad about it?

He wasn’t giving her a lot of options here.

Pulling away, she felt her temper prick again. “If you tell me nothing, what else am I supposed to do? Wait until you decide my future? Wait and see if I’ll have any choices left after you’ve taken them away?”

“If you left right now, I would tear this planet apart searching for you,” he threatened, descending into his anger once more, his eyes burning with it.

“You just told me to leave,” she challenged, knowing she was pushing him and equally wanting to. This was the madness in both of them, that sometimes they liked fighting, that sometimes they needed to do this.

“So I could find you and punish you, rixella! Which is no less than what you deserve!”

“You’re insane,” she said, even as she felt hot excitement light in her belly. This was wrong, wasn’t it? To feel this way with someone, much less someone who was a potential life partner?

“And you fucking like it,” he roared.

She was breathing hard. He was too. Her body was pulsing with awareness. With guilt and lust and feelings she didn’t want to unpack.

Her instinct was to deny his words. That was what her old self would’ve done. But now she knew better. She’d always worked so hard to be the woman people believed she was—the stable friend, the responsible sister, the teacher dressed in pencil skirts and cardigans, who never did anything to be embarrassed about—that she hid parts of herself that she thought would bring her shame.

Now, she didn’t fucking care anymore.

Jaxor saw her for who she was, not who she thought she should be.

And the truth was…she was the daughter of a recovering addict, one she used to stitch up after her husband beat her, someone who sometimes envied her siblings so much it was difficult to breathe, who had harbored so much anger year after year, who had formed herself into someone she’d always wanted to be, even while feeling like she was living a lie. She was someone who had been captured by aliens, who had lived her life one day at a time since then, and now she was standing in front of an enraged alien male that made her physically ache.

The truth was…all she wanted was to be weak for once. She wanted someone else to take care of her for once. She was tired of thinking all the time, of planning. She wanted to be selfish and do what felt good, not what was right or even smart. In fact, she wanted to do something entirely stupid.

Do it then.

That was what Jaxor had told her in the cave the night she’d gotten drunk.

“What would you have done?” she asked, eyeing him.

A steady rumbling growl was emerging from his chest, as if he couldn’t stop.

“What would you have done if I had left?” she asked, trembling.

“Come after you. Always.”

“Why?” she challenged.

“Because you are mine,” he hissed, as if it were obvious.

Erin swallowed, her lips parting. “And when you found me?”

“Tev?”

“What would you have done then?”

His jaw hardened, his voice unyielding as he rasped, “Mated you on the earth like a beast. So you never forget what this is.” He thumped his chest, his eyes still wild. “So you never forget me!Us.”

As if she could ever forget him. She knew that if she closed her eyes, she would see him there. She would hear his voice, smell his scent. He would never be gone from her. She didn’t know how she knew that. But she did.

Do something bad to me. I know you want to, he’d challenged her that night in the cave.

“Jaxor.”

That rumbling, purring growl was all she heard.

Bite me again. Mark me. Make me yours. Those thoughts made her burn, made her want him so fiercely she shook with it.

But she didn’t voice them.

Instead, she whispered, almost frightened, “Let’s do something bad together.”

And then she took a chance, knowing the reaction it would elicit, knowing what she wanted at that moment.

Without a second thought, she jumped from the hovercraft…

And then she ran from him.